The White Swan, Thornton-le-Clay

11:47am Saturday 5th July 2008

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They say an ill wind... And so it was that I found myself stuck (once again) in a mega-traffic jam on the A64 as I returned from the coast.

I decided to beat the jam by turning off and tootling along a little back road, which took me through the charming village of Thornton-le-Clay. And that took me past a pub called the White Swan Inn. With roses round the door, it looked like something out of the Darling Buds Of May.

Keen to check it out, I returned with my wife on a sunny evening a few days later. We visited the beer garden first – and agreed the term was an utterly inadequate way of describing the delightful acre of landscaped gardens at the back of the pub.

Inside the White Swan, there is a beamed bar, parts of which date back several hundred years. Old photographs on the wall show historic scenes of the local blacksmith and agricultural workers out in the fields, and one could imagine them coming in here once upon a time for ale and a real ploughman’s lunch.

Also framed by the bar were a couple of eating out reviews from the Press in the Eighties. The reviewers were having a fair rave about their “discovery”. So would my experience be as good?

We were shown to our table by a charming and friendly member of the Pilgrim family, which has been running the pub for a quarter century. I don’t know what progress the Pilgrims may have made during that time, but I do know that such continuity seems pretty unusual in the 21st century and that the service we received throughout the evening by all staff was of an exceptionally high standard.

The “specials” board was brought to our table, but we decided to go for items from the main menu, which featured fare suitably traditional for an old English pub. It boasted the pub was “renowned” for its traditional roasts, served with “real gravy and all the trimmings, using the finest meat from a local butcher”. This didn’t seem the sort of place to visit if you’re wanting little anorexic segments of nouveau cuisine placed artistically in the middle of an enormous plates.

I began with the homemade soup of the day – smoked ham and vegetable soup (£3.95) – while my wife chose Royal Greenland prawns with mixed leaves (£5.95). The soup was delicious, not too salty, and served with soft and warm slices of French stick. The prawns were, well, everything one could ask of a Royal prawn from Greenland. I had a pint of Landlord to accompany my meal, my wife a glass of house white and a sparkling mineral water.

We chatted to Ms Pilgrim and discovered that herbs and vegetables from the garden were used extensively by the chef, and that even the artificial grapes hanging on the wall behind us would be replaced by the real thing, grown in a greenhouse, when they had ripened later this year.

She told us we were not the first customers to find the White Swan while beating jams on the A64, and we clearly won’t be the last.

I am not usually a great fan of roasts, but decided it was only right to test drive the White Swan’s, and went for roast pork (£8.95). It came with a little pot of broccoli and carrots, another pot of stewed apple, and a third little pot of roast and boiled new potatoes – plus a boat with extra gravy. As roast dinners go, this seemed as good as they get, with the slices of meat tender and remarkably free of fat.

My wife chose gammon steak, with mustard butter, freshly sliced pineapple and onion rings, salad and mountains of crisp chips (£9.25). She said the gammon was lovely, not as salty as it can sometimes be. We both struggled to finish our meals, mindful there was pudding to come.

My wife said enough was enough, but I decided I could just about manage a vanilla ice-cream, served with a fruit coulis (£3.50). It was a good way to finish the meal. The puréed fruit, dominated by raspberry and strawberry, was delicious, tangy and a little sharp to offset the rich ice-cream.

The bill came to £38, pretty good value we thought for a meal that was very good in both quality and quantity.

We vowed to return.

*The White Swan, Thornton-le-Clay. Tel: 01653 618286 *Mike visited on Tuesday July 1, 2008.