Pepper Box Inn, The

The Pepper Box is one of those inns that confounds all the usual guff about proximity to conurbations and other so-called laws of success. In fact it is nowhere near anywhere and you'll have a struggle to find any mention of Fairbourne Heath in the customary places.

But this does not stand The Pepper Box resembling a house under siege for much of the time, which proves that people will take the time and trouble to seek out an inn with a good name, and remember it. Some 50 years ago the parents of the present landlady, Sarah Pemble, started doing hospitality, and it quickly became habitual without losing its genuine flavour.

Nowadays younger generations are introduced to the place by parents who want to ensure their offspring are brought up properly.

Food starts with handsomely filled baguettes, progressing via such comfortable dishes as fish and chips and calves liver to more sophisticated offerings like perfectly done sirloin steaks, and halibut. The Sunday lunches are legendary and there can be few more traditional occasions that sitting in an ancient Kentish house of a Sunday, looking out over miles of gloriously unspoiled English countryside as you enjoy a lunch that has absorbed and transformed the local produce for your pleasure.

And the beer . . . . if I just mention those two words, Shepherd Neame that should suffice. The wine list isn't bad either.