Oak Tree, Hutton Magna

Hutton Magna is a modest little village just north of the A66, a mile or two short of Barnard Castle. In line with the small scale of its surroundings, The Oak Tree Inn is a pocket-sized hostelry, a single-storey stone building — scarcely more than a cottage — with a neat whitewashed frontage.

The bar-cum-dining space is long and narrow, not spacious but undeniably charming. There’s plenty of wood panelling, including a panelled ceiling, and some quirky wooden settles. Two sofas either side of a real fire offer a comfortable spot to pore over the menu. The huge numbers of cookery books stacked around the place add to the general cosiness — and suggest that the proprietors take their culinary research very seriously