We are super chuffed with the latest Telegraph reviewer who said our pub is “the best place for those in the know to base yourself for a perfectly balanced holiday’. And hailed us ‘one of the best foodie pubs in the country’ offering great value!
Read the full Telegraph review below
If you were to bottle the quintessence of Britain and sprinkle it from a helicopter, what would grow in the fertile land below is the Cotswolds. This is a verdant hillscape and sleepy villages and thatched honey-stone cottages, with country houses, Roman ruins, and old coaching inns showcasing the country at its very best. But the secret is very much out, and today the Cotswolds attracts millions of international tourists, particularly (in pre-pandemic times) from China and the Far East.
But if you head to the fringes you can find sleepy splendour, a cobblestone’s throw from the action.
On a recent bank-holiday weekend I landed upon the Goldilocks Zone of Wootton-by-Woodstock, a village on the cusp of the Cotswold Area of National Beauty. The village, which featured in the Domesday Book, has a population of just shy of 600 and local life centres around the community shop full of organic delights, an attractive Gothic parish church and a pub with a potted history. A perfect jumping-off point for visitors in the know.
Built in 1637, Killingworth Castle was once a popular pit-stop for travellers on the old Worcester to London Roman road. Later, it was the haunt of local lad Winston Churchill, who used to test his cars on drives to the pub from Blenheim Palace with his friend (and founder of Morris Motors) William Morris. Today, the coaching inn is one of the most decorated foodie pubs in the country, having accrued two AA Rosettes and a Michelin recommendation in its 10 years under new ownership, and these days the pub owners even brew their own beers under the label Yubberton.
In the stable block next to the pub you will find stylish ensuite accommodation, with handmade wooden beds and roll-top baths.