Bull of Cottered

To give a pub the gastropub label these days can be open to misinterpretation; it is after all a bit of catch-all, but here is a charming country pub populated and run mainly by equally charming country people, and what they are really doing, perhaps without fully knowing it, is to offer quality pub grub of which they can be very proud. But I would hardly classify it as 'fine dining'.

Having jumped that hurdle, let's be positive. The menu travels across the spectrum of much-loved and familiar dishes, with a well cooked Dover sole and a classic burger of good pedigree (local butcher, God bless his striped apron) amiably rubbing plate space, or a fillet of pork stuffed with smoked bacon and cheddar, perhaps followed by a nifty bread and butter pudding.

Staff are friendly in that distinctive way that only country people shorn of pretension can be. Their Sunday lunches are a real gas, and you need to be there early, or book. Greene King supply their customary quality beers, and now that the heir to the throne has apparently declared their IPA as his preferred tipple who can argue with that?

If this was my local I would be Frequent Visitor; if I stumbled across it on an autumn day when I was on the loose I would be duly thankful that providence had, once again, come up trumps.