The Stagg Inn

An ancient inn at the meeting of two drovers’ roads where farmers came to weigh wool has won awards aplenty as a dining pub-with-rooms since Steve and Nicola Reynolds took it over more than 20 years ago. Steve trained at Le Gavroche, and in 2001 was one of the first pub chefs in Britain to hold a Michelin star, but the food today is more in keeping with the ethos of a rustic village local, complete with beams and novelty jugs. There are four small bedrooms with exposed timbers in the pub itself, three larger, homier rooms in the Grade II listed, Georgian/Victorian Old Vicarage five minutes’ walk away. Pub rooms are dog-friendly, while the vicarage benefits from a garden. All are supplied with fresh milk, tea and ground coffee, and if you want a beer in the afternoon when the pub is closed, there will be someone to pull you a pint. Locally sourced seasonal menus include pub classics such as fish and chips and Herefordshire steak Béarnaise, as well as more inventive dishes – maybe chaat roasted cauliflower, cauliflower purée and couscous, spiced chickpeas, sultanas and coriander, or herb-crumbed, pan-fried sea bass.