The Olde Bell

A 14th-century coaching inn, The Olde Bell mixes respectfully restored original features with modern comforts; its tiled floors, stripped wooden tables and bare-beamed ceilings are ramshackle by design rather than neglect. Expect French–influenced cooking in the taupe-panelled dining room, but with strong hints of unreformed British minimalism – hence grey mullet with violet artichokes, tagliatelle with St George’s mushrooms or a gooey treacle tart with clotted cream. Home-grown vegetables and herbs crop up regularly in dishes such as whole lemon sole with spring carrots, peas and leeks or marinated octopus with butter beans and radish. In warmer months, grilling aromas waft from an alfresco kitchen on the terrace, perhaps offering blackened squid with orzo or slow-roast gammon and coleslaw; in chillier times, huddle round the bar’s ancient fireplaces with a pint of local ale before retiring to one of the snug bedrooms.