Crown & Anchor Inn
Ham, Wiltshire
Good Hotel Guide Review
When you’ve browsed the antique shops of Hungerford, it is a short drive to this pub-with-rooms in a photogenic village. Once an ale house for farm workers, it lived again as the Indigo Palace curry house, and had been closed for three years when two local families took it on. Our inspector found it ‘very newly decorated and comfortable without being excitingly original’. There are five in-house bedrooms, named after local farms; three in a rustic cottage a stroll away. Painted lime green, ‘Doves’ (the organics brand) has pink-striped blinds, a flamingo print from Audubon’s Birds of America, a bath and shower. ‘Prosperous’, overlooking the village green, recalls the farm where Jethro Tull invented the seed drill. Each room is supplied with local botanical bath products – no wardrobe, just hangers. You can eat in the flagstone-floored bar, in either of two dining rooms or on the terrace, pub classics and more exciting dishes. The ‘melt-in-the-mouth’ home-baked focaccia, ‘fried sea bass with crayfish, wild garlic and Jersey royals; lemon curd with burnt meringue and raspberry’ are praised. An excellent breakfast and terrific value sealed the deal.
Hotel details
Address
Ham
Hungerford
Wiltshire
SN8 3RB
England
Telephone
01488 503040
Bedrooms
8. 5 bedrooms in the pub, 2 doubles and 1 twin in cottage 200 yards away.
Open
all year, Wed–Sat, Sun lunch (Tues opening is in prospect).
Facilities
bar, lower dining room, upper dining room, private dining room (22 covers), function facilities, beer garden, dining terrace, in-room TV, EV charging, parking; upper restaurant wheelchair accessible, adapted toilet.
Background music
‘very soft background, mainly pop/blues/country’.
Children
all ages welcomed, extra bed £10 per stay.
Dogs
allowed (£10 per stay, beds, towels, treats provided).
Credit cards
MC, Visa.
Prices
B&B doubles from £100, singles from £80. À la carte £40.