AN INSPECTOR CALLS

His mission: To test hotel hospitality to the limit

AT LAST it feels like a summer’s evening. Still light past 8pm, sweaters merely draped over shoulders, the sun is casting long, inviting shadows.

And The George, a coaching inn set in the quiet High Street of Buckden, 20 minutes’ drive from Cambridge, is cranking up for business.

It stands amid lovely Georgian architecture and there’s a snappy dress shop next door. Turns out that the hotel and the shop (plus a lingerie outlet further along the High Street) are all under the same ownership.

The receptionist says women come from far away and often buy their entire season’s clothes i n one afternoon in the shop — and then pop in for refreshments to celebrate. Huntingdon Racecourse is nearby.

Couples are sipping rosé under umbrellas. It has the air of a Friday night. Our room is a little old-fashioned and nothing like as lovely as those shown on the website, but it’s a good size and once we have flung open the windows and removed the green shiny quilt from the bed, we are settled. Dinner is served in a room with a large, light lead window.

Although not full, there is laughter, candles in sleek aluminium holders, an infectious buzz.

The young staff are good-humoured and keen to please. The asparagus soup is light and fresh, and crab salad is filled with almost everything a garden can produce at this time of year. The table next to ours is debating the merits of Harry Potter versus The Hobbit. They are suited gentlemen in their late 30s.

My wife is minded that their conversation might be more interesting than ours.

Afterwards, we head back up to Stephenson Room where a paperback on the life of the founder of the railways, George Stephenson, awaits.

The George has won the Green Tourism Silver Award. It gets a further gong from me for doing the simple things well.

The George Hotel & Brasserie, High Street, Buckden, Cambridgeshire PE19 5XA Tel: 01480 812300 thegeorgebuckden.com Doubles from £95 B&B