General Tarleton

The General Tarleton is a 250 year old coaching inn with fourteen bedrooms, owned and run by John and Claire Topham. For some eighteen years John was head chef at The Angel Inn at Hetton near Skipton, where he played a major part in winning its national fame and many awards.

Now he and Claire have brought their expertise and experience to bear on the General Tarleton, applying the same high standards there and achieving considerable recognition, especially from the major food guides.

One of their principal achievements has been to bring up to a high standard the guest rooms. All are individually decorated and well equipped with the little extras that make a stay comfortable and memorable, including tea, coffee and hot chocolate making facilities, with home-made biscuits, flat screen TVs and wireless internet connection. Beds are dressed with crisp white linen, either duvets or sheets and blankets, and big bottle Molton Brown toiletries await your pleasure.

However good the rooms may be the feature of the General Tarleton that has been at the root of most of their Awards has been the food. People can and do come to enjoy the surrounding countryside, but they want to return to a good meal, with friendly company and no pretension. The kitchen team led by John offer food that wherever possible has been sourced locally, and is in tune with the seasons.

One brasserie-tinted menu serves the bar and dining room alike, the only difference being in the location and, let it be said, the frills. This is a menu with charm and variety on the grand scale, the sort of menu you look at and wonder if you dare order a bit of everything.

General Tarleton, whose habits when waging warfare earned him the title of 'The Butcher', apparently liked his soup, so we start with the homemade soup of the day. Had he been around today he might have been tempted by the little moneybags, a treasure of seafood in a crispy pastry bag with lobster sauce. Whitby is not far away so some pretty fine seafood finds its way to headquarters, including prawns and scallops.

The Little Angels menu, by which description some people might just recognise their children, includes whole hog sausages from Olleys of Ripon, fish and chips and sticky toffee pudding so that's them kept happy. On the big chaps menu there is roast sirloin of local Yorkshire Dales Angus beef with Yorkshire pudding and onion gravy, and General Tarleton's homemade fish pie with salmon, cod and prawns in a creamy cheese sauce topped with mashed potato.

History does not record the General's attitude to wine - presumably as long as it was red it was okay - but there is no doubting John Topham's affinity to the subject. Using careful buying and a modest mark-up they are able to offer striking bargains on a list that has character and breadth.

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