The King’s Head Inn

Archie and Nicola Orr-Ewing have created a seamless blend of friendly village local and gastropub-with-rooms at their former 16th-century cider house overlooking the green. You can pop in for a pint of Hook Norton by the fire in the beamed bar with ‘relaxed atmosphere’, while the children feed the ducks on the brook or enjoy ice creams from the pub’s shepherd’s hut. In the dining room and courtyard, ‘very good food’ is served by ‘excellent, warm and friendly staff’. Menus use free-range and organic local produce, running from pub classics to dishes such as haunch of venison with red wine jus or tiger prawn linguine. Smallish bedrooms, above the pub and in the courtyard annexe, are supplied with ‘generous amounts’ of bespoke Bantam toiletries. They have been styled by Mrs Orr-Ewing (aka Nicola de Selincourt, milliner), with Cole & Son wallpaper and junk-shop bric-a-brac. The shabby-chic style isn’t to everyone’s liking: one reader thought their room ‘was in need of TLC’, another that ‘the furniture looked like something from a second-hand store’. That didn’t put them off the whole experience though: ‘Would certainly recommend.’