This is where it all began for Peter Creed and Tom Noest – friendly childhood chaps who now run a growing empire of brilliant pubs. And while they’ve since opened five more (including their most recent, The Hawthorn in London), The Bell still hits all the right notes. On New Year’s Day, the bacon sarnies and Bloody Marys are life-saving, but the menu delights year-round – fish and chips, duck confit, big burgers and pizza too. It’s consistent and full of cool countryside chatter.  

Affectionately known as The Vicky, this village pub in pretty Eastleach is a low-key favourite. It’s cosy and wood-fired in winter, buzzy and terrace-packed in the summer. The menu goes further than your average: Provençal fish soup, Turkish-style ratatouille, and affogato with an amaretti biscuit. It still feels like a local haunt – but one with surprisingly good global flavour.