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Brown and Forrest is in a converted cider barn and a very good conversion it makes. The smokery part of the operation continues, and it would be a hard man who did not fall to the charms of the smoked eels, exposed over a smoking bed of beech and apple wood, with a rich, indulgent taste. More recently a simple restaurant has been included in the complex, so as often as not the eels come still slightly warm from the smokehouse.

The menu is simple, about three choices per course, and it changes daily. A typical day could include smoked eel on rye bread, smoked salmon pate, home made carrot and orange soup, or Parma ham with figs, followed by hot smoked salmon steak, smoked chicken mango, smoked loin of pork or smoked eel.

The golden syrup bread and butter pudding is renowned, or there's tropical pavlova, strawberry freeze, lemon and ginger tart, or cheese and biscuits, sadly none of it smoked - yet.

The local brew appears to be a concoction made from apple juice and cider brandy, called Kingston Black, which at 18% needs to be treated with discretion.

Yet another candidate for a PPO (Pub Preservation Order) is this fine establishment, awash with bonhomie, beer and wholesome food, overall winner by several lengths of the Perfect Pub Award 2006, run by The Daily Telegraph and Abbot Ale.

As the backlash against political correctness gathers strength it is in "pubs and places where they drink", to paraphrase the Book of Common Prayer, that much of the nonsense which has crept up on our country in recent decades is being comprehensively rubbished.

The Halfway House is an unashamed celebration of some of England's finest beers and ciders. The names roll off the tongue like a litany of good cheer - Heck's Kingston Black cider, Butcombe Bitter, Hop Back Crop Circle, and so it goes on.

But good fellowship and good cheer make a fellow pretty darned hungry, so think not for one moment that the victuals are neglected. At lunchtime look for sandwiches, jacket potatoes, sausage and mash, thick homemade soup and traditional ploughmen's' lunches abound. For more substantial fare try the pork in cider casserole, Greek salad or Scotch eggs.

But it's in the evening that a mind blowing range of curries comes to the fore, with beef Madras, pork Bhuna and good robust lamb rogan josh mingle atmospherically and bodily with the other elements on the loose in the pub, and life looks rosy.

Take heart from the fact that the pub's mission statement to its staff would seem to be summarised as follows, "serve not to others what you would not serve to yourself". Would that a local such as this could be within reasonable distance of us all.