Beech House & Olive Branch

Just a couple of miles from the A1, down a tree-lined road, is a great combination of gastropub and luxury B&B. ‘Such a good place to stay when we’re travelling north.’ The mellow stone village pub was rescued from closure by Ben Jones and Sean Hope (ex-Hambleton Hall, see entry) in 1999. Contemporary-rustic in style with stripped-wood floors and mismatched chairs, it serves modern British cooking which focuses on local produce, although one regular writes that dinners are ‘veering a bit towards the pretentious’. Dishes might include lamb with burnt shallot and crispy potatoes, or roast pollack with curried pearl barley. Smitten? Take a class in the cookery school, or buy produce from the pub shop. Bedrooms, across the road in the buttermilk-coloured Georgian Beech House, don’t stint on luxuries: hand-made mattresses, antiques, proper coffee, fresh milk. Aubergine, with ‘Art Deco fittings’, has the appearance of ‘a mini-Claridge’s’. Biscuit has a double-ended bath and garden views. ‘Excellent’ breakfasts include ‘superb kedgeree’. Staff are ‘consistently cheerful’, ‘even recommending a cheaper wine’. (Mary Milne-Day, and others)