“Great English country hospitality with unpretentious country pub food and drink. It is only natural for us to work with the very best local producers, we have never done anything else. We take a common-sense approach to sustainability, preferring a long-term approach rather than short-term impact, and of course we recognize that a country pub fits within its community, which is equally valid for our suppliers as well as our customers.”

Local venison with kohlrabi and celeriac dauphinoise; suckling pig slow-roasted on the pub’s open fireplace with garden-grown Bramley apple sauce; and local Chalk Stream trout smoked in-house with English heritage salad leaves.

The Beckford Arms was one of the first of the new wave of country hotels (partly inspired by Babington House and the Soho House vibe generally) that were youthful, fun, modern, hip, and up-to-date while at the same time very much more in tune with the timeless values of English countryside hospitality than the net-curtained, thickly-carpeted, fishy-smelling midlate twentieth-century hostelries they replaced. This is a bar, restaurant, and small hotel that is just fun, fun, fun. When we visited, we got plastered on delicious cocktails and ended up arm wrestling some sailor all night. So we barely remember the utterly historic dinner and terrific wine list. Only kidding, we do. (No, we don’t.)