HOW TO VOTE FOR YOUR ‘PEOPLE’S CHOICE’ PUB… AND WIN A £250 SAWDAY’S VOUCHER

Nominate your favourite pub in England, Wales or Scotland, describing in no more than 100 words why you think it should be The Telegraph People’s Choice Pub of the Year. Submit your nomination, along with your name, address and contact telephone number, with the name of the pub and its postcode in the subject line of the email, to pubs@ telegraph.co.uk. All entries must be received by 11.59pm, on Feb 2 2019.

Four winning entrants will be selected at random and will each win a voucher to the value of £250, redeemable against a stay at a Sawday’s Inn.

For full terms and conditions, email pubs@ telegraph.co.uk

THE HOLLY BUSH, MAKENEY, DERBYSHIRE

Of all the beer joints in all the towns in all the UK, I’d have to walk into the Holly Bush Inn in Makeney, Derbyshire (albeit after three trains and a bus ride). Marston’s Pedigree is served straight from a cask in the cellar; Timothy Taylor’s Landlord from one of several hand-pumps in a low-beamed bar with padded settles and a log fire. It’s even warmer in the snug, where regulars chew the fat and sometimes chestnuts roasted on a black-leaded range. Robust pork pies are supplied by the local butcher and game pies are available, in season, when one of the regulars leaves pheasants outside the door. once worked for Soho House & Co – this is half pub, half country-house hotel. Locals praise the inviting bar with fireplace, local ales and negroni on tap, clever wine list (the Beckford Bottle Shops in Tisbury and Bath are part of the same group), and the fact you can still order a classic pork pie, ploughman’s or fish and chips.

CHRISTOPHER HIRST THE JOLLY WOODMAN, BECKENHAM, KENT

A platonically perfect rural pub magically transported to an ancient thoroughfare in the outer suburbs of London, the Jolly Woodman gains from what it lacks: no music, no television (except rugby), no games machines, no carpet. Just beer – especially Timothy Taylor’s Landlord, as exemplary as the pub’s actual landlord, Joe Duffy. Having recently moved to North Yorkshire, I find that the Woodman is the single thing that I miss most.

THE BRIDGE INN, TOPSHAM, DEVON

Saturday lunchtime: a hefty pint glass of a mahogany-hued old ale sits on the table in front of me, in a room brushed with the warmth of a coal fire. Voices flutter from the corridor alongside the clink of glass as beer is served. There’s a tranquillity about this moment, even as the traffic buzzes by outside.

The Bridge has been here for a long time, run by the same family since the late 19th century. It’s a cosy, snug and soothing time machine of a pub, sitting alongside the slow swell of the river Clyst as it flows into the nearby Exe.

DIANA HENRY THE SPORTSMAN, SEASALTER, KENT

My choice of pub hasn’t changed since I visited in 1999, when it first opened. The Sportsman was one of the first dining pubs, and one of a small handful that has gone from strength to strength but still feels like a pub. Despite its Michelin star (and countless other awards) you can come here for a pint and a plate of roast chicken and stuffing, though most come for a full meal.

The kitchen makes its own butter, bread, cured ham, even salt (they drag buckets of seawater into the kitchen for the salt). The whitewashed building, in a melancholic location outside Whitstable, was buffed up when chef Stephen Harris took it over, but it still feels like a proper boozer (no Farrow & Ball here). Honesty is the watchword.

PERFECT PUB What do you think is most important in a boozer? Live music, a roaring fire or good food? Below left, the Bridge Inn at Topsham is one contender