AN INSPECTOR CALLS

THERE’S an impressive back story to the Royal Oak. When the pub was forced by its brewery company owners to close in 2007, there were plans to convert it into two houses, which no doubt would have fetched a pretty sum in this unspoilt part of rural Wiltshire. But the village of Swallowcliffe had other ideas.

Three families clubbed together to buy the partly thatched building (one of the chimney stacks bears the date 1705) and then set about transforming it into what it is today — a local pub with a good restaurant and seven comfortable rooms upstairs.

A group of farmers is in on a Monday night, drinking pints in their Wellies, one of them with a dog spread out on the stone floor. My room is big and unprepossessing — a little spartan even. There’s a pine sleigh bed and Ikea-style furniture. It’s functional. Somehow it doesn’t feel dressed and lacks a woman’s touch — albeit I could do without the three sanitary towels left in the top drawer of one of the bedside tables.

Downstairs, young local staff give it a homely feel, and whoever is in the kitchen knows his or her stuff. My pork belly is superb and generous, the crackling perfectly crisp.

There’s a warming fire in the old part of the building, and meals can also be taken in an oak-framed extension at the back. Breakfast is served there, where the buffet is derisory, but the coffee keeps coming and my poached eggs on avocado and toasted sourdough are excellent. The Royal Oak aims to be ‘a pub where people leave happier than when they arrive’. On balance, it’s job done — and to save a pub as old as this is something to celebrate. The Royal Oak Inn Swallowcliffe Wiltshire SP3 5PA 01747 870211 royaloakswallowcliffe.com Doubles from £100 B&B