There are country pubs around the country that are forever England. These crooked places are full of beer, pies and landladies who joke; of shaggy dogs, bent cauldrons hanging from Tudor beams, of men in waistcoats who will pretend to not be very good at pool.
These exist in their hundreds, thousands, each one a place to rest. Drive to any corner of any county and there will be a boozer ready and willing. For our weekly Country Pub of the Week segment in the paper, we tour the land in search of them, leaving London to drink at those we think justify an expedition.
Mostly we stay within parameters: two hours’ from the capital. But not always because there are those pubs farther away but which have rooms to make a weekend of it. Here are our favourites so far in 2025. Visit any one of them, bed in and be in England.
The Mason’s Arms, Devon
Press handout
Many of you will have heard of the Donkey Sanctuary. Big advertisers on the TV, traditionally. But never mind the donkeys, because there’s one of the best examples of a West Country pub nearby. The Mason’s Arms in Branscombe, East Devon, is a haven of a pub; a 14th century boozer with a roaring fire — two roaring fires — a solid list of cask ales and a food menu that deviates from proper homemade soup to locally caught fish.
The Gurnard’s Head, Cornwall
Paul Massey
The Gurnard’s Head could make a claim for being the best country pub in the land, certainly west of Bristol. Perched on a clifftop, the roaring Atlantic is nearby; lush farms and winding lanes surround it. Outside and the pub is cast in striking yellow; within, everywhere is charming wood and rickety things, the odd fisherman or local artist perched drinking ale as tourists sit in the art-filled dining room next door.
The Leicester Arms, Penhurst
Press handout
There is an England I sometimes dream of, of cricket on the green and sausages for breakfast, of gin and tonics come noon and organ music drifting in from far away. It is an England of Nelson and William Blakebut also of James Mason and Terry-Thomas, of drop-top Austin-Healeys and sunburn. And it still exists here.
The Fox and Duck, Therfield
Press handout
What makes Therfield a village? Choices are limited: it’s down to the church, or this place. The Fox & Duck must surely have it by a whisker — the church is grander, but attendance is far higher here. The pub sits on the village green, dotted with picnic benches.
The Lamb Inn, Little Milton
Lamb in
Sometimes refreshment begets refreshment. It followed Long Meal at Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir — where wine waiters are famous for their heavy hand —that the Lamb first came up. “But where do you go for a pint?” I prodded the by-now alarmed waiter, who’d attempted but failed to herd our rabble into the bar. Here is the answer.
The Crooked Billet, Stoke Croft
Crooked Billet
Paul Clerehugh is one of those chefs famous not just to the locals in the cheese shops, but in the restaurant world generally, partly as the Billet can stake a claim as the country’s first gastropubbesting the Eagle in Farringdon by two years. It is perhaps perfect.
The Olde Bell
Given it was built in 1390, it feels more fitting to refer to Rye’s oldest pub as Ye Olde Bell, despite the fact it’s known as The Olde Bell today. Hear ye, it is a sumptuous haven of a place, timber-framed and cloaked in Tudor beams; a crooked, dainty boozer with, oddly enough, a menu of Greek meze.
The Jolly Cricketers, Beaconsfield
Press handout
The Jolly Cricketers wasn’t always jolly; once it was just the Cricketers, and jolliness was kept to a minimum — at least when the landlord was behind the bar and suspiciously eyeing newcomers. But now, times have changed.
The Hare and Hounds, Aberthin
Hare & Hounds
Aberthin’s Hare & Hounds has been keeping locals fed and watered for the past 300 years. Head chef Tom Watts-Jones, formerly of Anchor & Hope and St John, returned to his teenage boozer in 2015 with a plan to well and truly prove Welsh cooking is so much more than a sorry-looking bowl of cawl. Consider it a job well done.
The Swan Inn, Fittleworth
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The Harcourt Arms, Oxfordshire
The Harcourt Arms
The first thing to know about the Harcourt Arms is that rooms start from about £100 a night. Remarkably cheap for the Home Counties, not least considering this is for a large double, comfortably done up and with breakfast included.
The Flowing Well, Sunningwell
The Flowing Well
The Flowing Well in Oxfordshire has a fun recent history. From the early 2000s until about five years ago, it was owned by a chef-musician couple. The chef, Jo, would cook excellent pub classics alongside a teenager who now writes about food and drink for this paper.
The Crown Hotel Mundford
The Crown in Mundford has taken many forms. It dates back to 1652, first as a place of refuge for weary travellers passing through Thetford Forest. Then it was a hunting inn and the local magistrates’ court for a time.
The Rising Sun, Oxfordshire
Press handout
Sometimes pubs are looked for, other times they come as mirages. The Rising Sun appears from nowhere for the weary traveller, with arms open for those collapsing at the top of Witheridge Hill. It is in a part of England so pretty it might make you weep, a world of winding lanes, lattice windows and church bells on the breeze.
The Royal Standard of England, Beaconsfield
Wiki
Who has the rightful claim to being Britain’s oldest pub is a contended title. One is the Royal Standard of England, which dates back to either 1100 or 1213, depending on who you ask.