George Michael inn hits right note
Miller of Mansfield High Street, Goring, Oxfordshire £119 a night for 2 B&B FOR the past year or so – thanks to electrification – rail services on the line to Paddington from the West Country have been subject to extensive disruption.
Most of my train journeys have recently run so slowly that I’ve started to recognise people in small villages that lie next to the track between Swindon and Maidenhead. For some reason, I’ve never noticed Goring ( actually ‘ Goring and Streatley’ is the station), which sits three stations beyond Reading on the slow line to Didcot.
On the short walk from Goring station into the town (Streatley lies across the long bridge that spans the Thames), I felt as if I’d stepped into a Just William story.
It’s a town that seems frozen in the 1930s – lots of solidly built, large brick houses with gardens that once probably had Wolseleys and sit-up-and-beg Rovers outside them. Goring’s Miller of Mansfield is the pub where William’s dad would have been glad to escape to for a quiet pint.
It is named after a famous English ballad of that title and is an 18th Century coaching inn. Its owners, Nick and Mary Galer, most recently worked under Heston Blumenthal at the Fat Duck Group, while Nick was also the opening head chef at The Crown in Bray.
There are 13 bedrooms that are more than adequate in amenity and comfort. You won’t, however, be spending much spare time in your room. With the pub next to the Thames, there are lots of enticingly good walks along the river or up along the Ridgeway.
But your happiest moments will be at the restaurant, which was voted t he Good Food Guide’s Readers’ Restaurant of the Year for 2016. For dinner, I had Potato Wiltshire Truffle followed by a fabulous vegetable plate ( £ 27 per head).
We discovered that we had sat at the table always chosen by the late George Michael, Goring’s most famous resident, who regularly dined here. George died at his riverside house on Christmas Day 2016. The property remains a shrine: one wall is full of flickering candles and personal remembrances – a surprisingly sobering sight in a jolly little village.
The place:
Extraordinary to find an unspoilt village less than an hour’s train ride from Paddington. The Miller of Mansfield is a perfect weekend break place.
The accommodation:
We had a small suite up under the roof – I lived in fear of cracking my head on a beam but managed to survive without harm.
The food:
Hard to imagine you could have a better, more affordable good meal anywhere in the UK.