The Good Pub Guide "Pub of the Year" 2012 Nominations

South West

Blue Peter - Polperro (Cornwall)

Friendly pub overlooking pretty harbour with fishing paraphernalia and paintings by local artists

The cosy low-beamed bar in this bustling and friendly little pub is popular with both locals and visitors; families must use the upstairs room (try to get a window seat overlooking the harbour if you can). There are traditional furnishings including a small winged settle and a polished pew on the wooden floor, fishing regalia, photographs and pictures by local artists, lots of candles, a solid wood bar counter and a simple old-fashioned atmosphere. One window seat looks down on the harbour, another looks out past rocks to the sea. St Austell Tribute and Sharps Doom Bar and guests like Bays Gold and Otter Ale on handpump and local cider; board games and TV. There are a few seats outside on the terrace and more in an upstairs amphitheatre-style area. The pub is quite small, so it does get crowded at peak times. They have a cash machine as there is no bank in the village.

Yew Tree, Lower Wield (Hampshire)

Smashing landlord, relaxed atmosphere, super choice of wines and good food in bustling country pub; sizeable garden and nearby walks

Mr Gray is an excellent landlord who really cares about his customers and his pub - our readers enjoy their visits very much. There's a small flagstoned bar area on the left with pictures above its stripped brick dado, a steadily ticking clock and a log fire. Around to the right of the serving counter - which has a couple of stylish wrought-iron bar chairs - it's carpeted, with a few flower pictures; throughout there is a mix of tables, including some quite small ones for two, and miscellaneous chairs. 12 wines by the glass from a well chosen list which may include summer rosé and Louis Jadot burgundies from a shipper based just along the lane. Bowman Eldorado and a beer from Triple fff named after the pub on handpump. There are solid tables and chunky seats out on the front terrace, picnic-sets in a sizeable side garden, pleasant views and a cricket field across the quiet lane; nearby walks.

Potting Shed, Crudwell (Wiltshire)

Appealing variation on the traditional country tavern theme, good beers, wines and country cooking

Since this especially enjoyable pub became a new entry in last year's Guide we've had nothing but warm praise from our readers. It is very much a proper country pub rather than just another pub/restaurant, with cheerful and interested young staff and a fine range of drinks such as Bath Ales Gem Bitter, Butcombe Bitter and Timothy Taylors Landlord on handpump as well as an excellent range of over two dozen wines by the glass, home-made seasonal cocktails using local or home-grown fruit, good coffees and winter mulled wine; also, log fires, one in a big worn stone fireplace, and very mixed plain tables and chairs on pale flagstones in the low-beamed rooms that ramble around the bar; visiting dogs may meet Barney and Rubbles (the owners') and be offered biscuits. There are well worn easy chairs in one corner, and a couple of blacktop daily papers. Four steps take you up into a high-raftered further area, with coir carpeting, and there's one separate smaller room ideal for a lunch or dinner party. The rustic decorations are not overdone, and quite fun: a garden-fork door handle, garden-tool beer pumps, rather witty big black and white photographs. Well chosen piped music and board games. They have summer barbecues on fine Saturdays; there are sturdy teak seats around cask tables as well as picnic-sets out on the side grass among weeping willows.

Fossebridge Inn, Fossebridge (Gloucestershire)

Handsome old inn with proper bar, good mix of customers, real ales, enjoyable food and seats in four acres of grounds; lovely bedrooms

At the heart of this handsome refurbished Georgian inn is the bustling, friendly bar which always has plenty of locals dropping in for a pint and a chat. This keeps the atmosphere relaxed and informal and the two rooms have beams and arches, stripped stone walls and fine old flagstones, a happy mix of dining chairs, stools and wooden tables and open log fires; also, copper implements, candles and fresh flowers. Up some stairs on the left is the dining room. Festival Amber and St Austell Proper Job and Tribute on handpump and several wines by the glass. Two other dining rooms are rather grand. Outside, there are picnic-sets under parasols and four acres of lovely lawned, streamside gardens with a lake. Comfortable smart bedrooms and a self-catering cottage. The Roman villa at Chedworth is nearby.

White Horse Sibton (Suffolk)

Friendly, nicely old-fashioned bar, good mix of customers, real ales and enjoyable food; bedrooms

In a tiny hamlet this charmingly traditional 16th-c inn run by an enthusiastic and friendly husband and wife team has become a dining venue, but it's very much the sort of place to drop into just for a drink too. The comfortable bar has horsebrasses and tack on the walls, old settles and pews and a large inglenook fireplace with a roaring log fire. Adnams Bitter, Greene King Abbot and a guest such as Brandon Rusty Bucket on handpump, several wines by the glass and Aspell's cider are served from the old oak-panelled counter, and there's a viewing panel showing the working cellar and its Roman floor. Steps take you up past an ancient partly knocked-through timbered wall into a carpeted gallery, and there's a smart dining room too. The big garden has plenty of seats, and the comfortable bedrooms are in a converted outbuilding; excellent breakfasts.

Red Lion, Hunningham (Warwickshire)

Informal, airy and civilised, with good individual food; fine riverside spot

Born near in the village, and the son of a local vicar, the landlord at this spacious pub previously worked for Brunning and Price, and has brought many of that group's virtues here, from the general atmosphere and staff attitudes (cheerful and helpful) to the open cleverly sectioned layout, the mix of seating from varnished chapel chairs to a variety of dining chairs, various mainly stripped tables, the rugs on bare boards or even the chunkily old-fashioned radiators and pleasing lighting. He's an avid collector of vintage comic books and perhaps the most striking thing here is the dazzling collection of 320 brightly coloured comics framed and crammed on the white walls; good coal fires, and the day's [I]Times[I], piped music and board games. Drinks include an enterprising changing choice of about thirty wines by the glass, a good range of spirits including 40 single malts, Greene King IPA and a couple of guests such as Holdens Golden Glow and Hook Norton Old Hooky on handpump and home-made elderflower cordial. One reader was rather delighted to see shire horses crossing the charming 14th-c bridge over the gurgling River Leam as he sat at one of the teak tables outside on the terrace by the lawn in the company of cheery families and energetic cyclists. Tables inside have views of the garden and bridge. The landlord tells us he recently purchased a 1948 Massey Ferguson tractor which he plans to install at the bottom of the garden and convert into a safe children's climbing frame – do let us know what you think if you see it; no prams or pushchairs inside.

Bell & Cross, Holy Cross (Worcestershire)

Super food, staff with a can-do attitude, delightful old interior and pretty garden

Successful as a dining pub yet still extremely welcoming if you're just popping in for a drink, this charming place is arranged in a classic unspoilt early 19th-c layout with five quaint little rooms and a kitchen opening off a central corridor with a black and white tiled floor. Rooms offer a choice of carpet, bare boards, lino or nice old quarry tiles, a variety of moods from snug and chatty to bright and airy, and an individual décor in each - theatrical engravings on red walls here, nice sporting prints on pale green walls there, racing and gundog pictures above the black panelled dado in another room. Two of the rooms have small serving bars, with Kinver Edge, Enville, Wye Valley HPA and a guest such as Timothy Taylors Landlord on hand or electric pump, around 50 wines (with about a dozen by the glass) and a variety of coffees; daily papers, coal fires in most rooms with regulars sometimes playing cards in one of the front two. Service is friendly and attentive, with everything geared to ensure that you have a most enjoyable visit; piped music. A spacious lawn has modern picnic sets, and you get pleasant views from the garden terrace.

Eagle & Child, Bispham Green (Lancashire)

Well liked pub with antiques in stylishly simple interior, interesting range of beers, appealing rustic garden

Getting terrific reports this year for food, beer and atmosphere, this country pub has a spacious slightly rustic garden a well tended but unconventional bowling green, and beyond, a wild area that is home to crested newts and moorhens. Inside it is largely open-plan and discerningly furnished with a lovely mix of small old oak chairs, an attractive oak coffer, several handsomely carved antique oak settles (the finest apparently made partly from a 16th-c wedding bed-head), old hunting prints and engravings and low hop-draped beams. There are red walls and coir matting up a step and oriental rugs on ancient flagstones in front of the fine old stone fireplace and counter. Friendly young staff serve an interesting range of beers with Thwaites Original alongside four guests such as Coniston Bluebird, Phoenix Arizona, Prospect Silver Tally, Slaters Top Totty and Southport Golden Sands. They also keep Saxon farm cider, decent wines and around 25 malt whiskies. They hold a popular beer festival over the first May bank holiday weekend. A handsome side barn houses a deli; the pub's dogs are called Betty and Doris

Masons Arms, Cartmel Fell (Cumbria)

Plenty of character in beamed bar, good food, real ales plus many foreign bottled beers and fine views from terrace

Not easy to find but well worth the effort when you do, this well run pub is a friendly place with good food and drink. It's in a lovely spot with stunning views down over the Winster Valley to the woods below Whitbarrow Scar - rustic benches and tables on the terrace make the most of this. Inside, the main bar has plenty of character, with low black beams in the bowed ceiling and country chairs and plain wooden tables on polished flagstones. A small lounge has oak tables and settles to match its fine Jacobean panelling, there's a plain little room beyond the serving counter with pictures and a fire in an open range, a family room with an old-parlourish atmosphere and an upstairs dining room; piped music and board games. Black Sheep Bitter, Cumbrian Dickie Doodle, Hawkshead Bitter and Lakeland Gold and Thwaites Wainwright on handpump, quite a few foreign bottled beers, several wines by the glass and locally made damson beer and gin. There are comfortable self-catering cottages and apartments behind.