Join us for our next farm walks, always alternate Tuesdays, always 5 pm, start pub car park. Next date is July 14, then July 28, and so on. Best to ring and confirm, always. See events page
Camping with Pigs, August 2009—see our events page. Live with our pigs for a day or a week.
With much of the food provided by Helen Browning’s organic farm all round this village, and the food prepared by Liz Franklin (Ready Steady Cook, plus 13 of her own cook books), this is no ordinary pub. Sitting on a single track lane in Bishopstone, where Wiltshire and Oxfordshire and Berkshire meet, it’s part nice beer and good whiskies and wine, and part food showcase for the organic farm business that owns it.
There's a range of activities around the pub, quite apart from its recent food listing by Michelin and Alastair Sawday’s special places. The farm knew what it wanted to do. Hence there are regular farm walks, where people are allowed and encouraged to have their toes nibbled by the saddleback pigs; there's even been a wedding on the highest field on the farm, a bleak place, catered for by the pub; each month, fresh organic beef or pork or lamb boxes for pub customers to buy. Brick BBQs in the garden for people to cook on, or the pub does it for you. The menu is short but usually quite sweet - this week has slow roast pork bellies; almond and garlic soup; salads made from the pub’s own gardens and from neighbours in the village, or perhaps 45 day aged sirloins; triple cooked chips, no less; stunning hedgerow fruits, flowers and berries, sought out by Liz Franklin the head chef.
And there’s simple, clean bed and breakfast; great breakfasts, comfortable beds, hot showers; a green and shady garden with home built tables; scrabble nights, log fires, great books and magazines to read and to borrow; wifi, a Land Rover take you home service…great well kept beers, and a wholly organic wine list, short but well chosen. "Having just spent an evening at The Royal Oak tonight; I just wanted to pass on my thanks and feedback. The food, drink and staff are totally faultless. It is a pub which truly brings the gastronomy back into British food. The tastes were clean, unadulterated and wholesome. In my humble opinion it sets the standard for outstanding fayre and atmosphere. Simply excellent! I do hope that Bishoptone recognises it’s jewel in the crown – it won’t be the last time I visit! Cheers" DH For email enquiries royaloak@helenbrowningorganics.co.uk
To visit our organic farm and home delivery please click here. For reasons to be cheerful - Click here
