The WoolpackInn

A pub since 1670 on the wool road out of Bisley, and forever Laurie Lee's: the author of Cider with Rosie drank here all his Slad life and lies in the churchyard across the road, with a book nook and his beer-bottle collection still in the bar. The sculptor Daniel Chadwick bought the freehold in 1999 and has held it independent for more than a quarter of a century, with landlord Matthew Clarke front of house and Adam Glover's kitchen — organic and heritage vegetables grown up the hill at Lypiatt Park — earning a Top 50 Gastropubs place. The valley falls away from the windows exactly as Lee wrote it.