Wiltshire pub voted Good Pub Guide Dining Pub of the Year
The 2013 winner has been unveiled.
The Beckford Arms in the village of Fonthill Gifford, Wiltshire has been voted Dining Pub of the Year in the new 2013 edition of the Good Pub Guide.
The pub, on the edge of the 10,000-acre Fonthill estate, is an old coaching inn and has its own beer created by nearby craft brewery Keystone.
The Good Pub Guide says of the food: "Using first-class ingredients and making their own jams and chutneys, the unfailingly excellent food might include pigeon with bacon, roasted quince, black pudding and hazelnut vinaigrette, [and] seared mackerel fillet with pickled cucumber, dill mayonnaise, capers and shallots".
Regional winners
The regional dining winners were:
Bedfordshire – The Black Horse, Ireland
Berkshire – The Royal Oak, Yattendon
Buckinghamshire – The Royal Oak, Bovingdon Green
Cambridgeshire – The Cock, Hemingford Grey
Cheshire – The Dysart Arms, Bunbury
Cornwall – The Old Coastguard, Mousehole
Cumbria – The Gate Inn, Yanwath
Derbyshire – The Plough, Hathersage
Devon – The Church House, Marldon
Dorset – The Langton Arms, Tarrant Monkton
Essex – The Bell Inn, Horndon-on-the-Hill
Gloucestershire – The Horse & Groom, Bourton-on-the-Hill
Hampshire – The Purefoy Arms, Preston Candover
Herefordshire – The Stagg Inn, Titley
Hertfordshire – The Alford Arms, Frithsden
Isle of Wight – The New Inn, Shalfleet
Kent – The Three Chimneys, Biddenden
Lancashire – The Eagle & Child, Bispham Green
Leicestershire – The Olive Branch, Clipsham
Lincolnshire – The George of Stamford, Stamford
London – The Gun, Docklands
Norfolk – The Orange Tree, Thornham
Northamptonshire – The Falcon, Fotheringhay
Northumbria – The Feathers, Hedley on the Hill
Nottinghamshire – The Martins Arms, Colston Bassett
Oxfordshire – The Trout Inn, Tadpole Bridge
Scotland – Burts Hotel, Melrose
Shropshire – The Fox, Chetwynd Aston
Somerset – The Wheatsheaf, Combe Hay
Staffordshire – The Hand & Trumpet, Wrinehill
Suffolk – The Crown, Southwold
Surrey – The Running Horses, Mickleham
Sussex – The Horse Guards Inn, Tillington
Wales – The Griffin, Felinfach
Warwickshire – The Malt Shovel, Barston
Wiltshire – The Beckford Arms, Fonthill Gifford
Worcestershire – The Bell & Cross, Holy Cross
Yorkshire – The Crown, Roecliffe
The Cock in Hemingford Grey, Cambridgeshire won the overall Pub of the Year award.
Paying for inclusion
While the Good Pub Guide is still seen by many as a good benchmark of a pub's quality, its authority has been diluted by its decision, as of last year, to charge pubs to appear in the main sections of the book, website, and app.
This incensed many regular readers (see the comments on the 2012 edition on Amazon) and definitely means it isn't the resource it was. However, having visited several of the pubs above, personally I think this 'best of' list still has its merits.
Which pubs near you provide top notch nosh? Let us know in the Comments section below.
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