One-Minute Hotel / The Alice Hawthorn, Yorkshire

In a village that is picture perfect, up to and including Central Casting-quality ducks on the pond, is the ultimate village pub with rooms.

So, where are we?
Halfway between York and Harrogate, both about half an hour away in a car, is the ‘cul-de-sac’ village of Nun Monkton with a priory, a church, a village green, one of the biggest maypoles in all of England (it was the biggest until the top fell off), cows that are allowed to wander around that village green and a pub. Which is where we’re headed.

And where we’re staying...?
The Alice Hawthorn, named after a horse that won big back in the 19th century, even though the original pub is from the 18th century, so Georgian. The snug is the oldest bit of the building, the newest are the brand-new rooms out the back, built barn-style in wood and corrugated iron. But it all hangs together beautifully, whether you’re in the new garden rooms or the older rooms above the pub.

What’s the style?
Fresh, simple, almost Shaker but in a beautifully rustic setting, which means you get the best of everything. In the old pub part, there’s a snug, a bar and a restaurant, called Fishermen, because anyone wanting to fish the river just over there back in the 19th century had to step inside to get their licence. An amazing balance has been struck between the history of the place and a cleverly fresh look with Farrow & Ball colours, pared back historic furniture (no dark varnishes, lots of light woods) and sea-grass carpeting.

And the rooms?
The garden rooms are almost entirely clad in wood for a Nordic sauna feel with simple takes on classic furniture and huge free-standing baths in the modern-classic bathrooms (teal glass tiles, huge rain showers), while the older above-the-pub rooms are just as fresh and crisp, some with views right onto that village green. And the odd cow and duck.

Is there a story?
The pub was about to close down but the local villagers weren’t having any of that and clubbed together to buy it then set about tracking down the very best people to run it, happening upon a couple behind the most successful pub around here. They have turned a simple - but lovely - village boozer into a thing of beauty and a joy for a whole weekend.

And to eat?
However lovely you think the rooms are, it’s all about the food here, with the restaurant and its off-shoot, The Barn, rocking pretty much all the time. The food is fresh and seasonal and cunningly simple: chicken and wild garlic soup, Yorkshire asparagus with ricotta and roasted hazelnut tortellini, seabass ceviche, popcorn prawns. As for the staff, they seriously couldn’t be friendlier. Bending over backwards, they were.

So, to sum up...
Who doesn’t love a beautiful country pub to stay in? But who does love the darkness and chintz and mustiness that often comes with it? This is the perfect solution: quaint, bucolic and with some lovely walks across fields and down to the river, it’s stylish, masculine and with not a scrap of chintz in the whole place.

thealicehawthorn.com