The Three Blackbirds

A 17th-century thatched pub on a residential village street has risen Phoenix-like from the ashes after a fire in 2018. ‘It has been beautifully spruced up,’ writes a Guide insider, ‘maintaining a certain olde-worlde charm, with wooden benches, rustic furniture, old farm implements on the walls, yet with a thoroughly modern twist.’ Bedrooms are in a newbuilt barn. ‘Ours felt like it was straight out of a posh boutique hotel, with its oversized fabric headboard and battleship-grey tongue-and-groove wall panels.’ It had pale wood furniture, a plush blue armchair with matching throws and cushions, cowhide stools, fresh milk – no fridge and no bathrobes. ‘Wood-burners glow in both the bar and restaurant, and no one bats an eyelid if muddy boots or paws pad over the flagstones or parquet.’ There are pub standards such as fish and chips, but the food is ‘a cut above your normal pub grub – partridge, with celeriac mash and kale that was cooked so beautifully, I had to ask how they did it’. We await reports from discerning canine diners as to the quality of the pooch’s venison jerky and Bottom-Sniffer beer. (JK)