The Three Horseshoes

Asthall, near Burford

A proper Windrush-valley local

There are plenty of pubs in the Cotswolds that have been styled to within an inch of their lives, all heritage paint and artfully mismatched chairs. The Three Horseshoes wears its history more lightly. It sits in the middle of Asthall, a tiny stone village on the River Windrush a couple of miles east of Burford, and it has been pouring pints since 1726, when the innkeepers were farriers who reshod the horses of travellers passing through. For a spell in the twentieth century it went by the name of The Maytime, and only in recent years has it returned to being the Three Horseshoes once more. These days it belongs to the Daylesford stable, which means a serious kitchen and a proper cellar behind a pleasingly unpretentious front door.

We first stopped in on the way back from a walk along the river and have been finding excuses to return ever since. It is the kind of place that reads the weather: a fire and a well-kept ale when the valley is grey, wood-fired pizzas out in the garden the moment the sun makes an appearance. The welcome is genuine whether you have booked a table or turned up muddy from the footpath, and the pace is unhurried in the way a good country pub should be. It is roughly half an hour from the cottage, an easy run down through Charlbury and past the Wychwood, and the last stretch along the Windrush is worth the drive on its own.

What to order

The kitchen keeps things seasonal and honest, cooking pub classics alongside a changing sheet of specials rather than chasing fashion. Sunday lunch is the one to plan a walk around, and in the warmer months the garden pizza oven has its own devoted following. Here is roughly how the offer breaks down.

• The pub menuComfort cooking made fresh by the kitchen from seasonal ingredients, served lunchtimes and evenings through the week and as a proper roast on Sundays.
• The garden pizzasWood-fired pizzas from the outdoor oven on selected days over the warmer months, best enjoyed at a garden table with a cold drink and the valley in front of you.
• Behind the barLocal beers and rotating ales, an eclectic wine list and hand-picked bottles from independent growers, plus cider and craft beer for those who want it.
• If you want to staySix guest rooms above the pub for anyone who fancies making a night of it rather than driving home after a long lunch.

Menus and serving times shift with the season, so it is worth a quick look at the pub's own site before you set off, and booking is sensible for weekends and Sunday lunch.

The garden and the walk

The garden is the reason to come on a fine day. The ground falls away toward the river and you are left looking out across open farmland to the rolling Cotswold hills, the kind of view that makes conversation trail off mid-sentence. Asthall itself is barely more than a cluster of honey-stone houses, a Saxon church and the manor once home to the Mitford sisters, so the whole place has an unhurried, out-of-time feel. Come on foot if you can: the pub sits right on the Windrush, and a gentle riverside path links it to The Swan Inn at neighbouring Swinbrook, which makes for a very civilised pub-to-pub amble.

Making an evening of it

This corner of the valley is thick with good pubs, so the Three Horseshoes is easy to build a plan around. The Swan at Swinbrook is its closest rival for the riverside crown; the farm shop and cafés at Daylesford, under the same ownership, are worth a morning; and The Lamb at Shipton-under-Wychwood is a short hop north for another honest village welcome. For the wider picture, our guide to eating and drinking in the area runs from village locals to farm-to-table restaurants and everything in between.

“The food is reliably good, the garden is spectacular, and nobody's trying to reinvent the wheel. Exactly what a country pub should be.”

Visit the official site →

Also nearby

• The Swan Inn · Riverside pub · Swinbrook
• Daylesford · Farm shop & café · Daylesford
• The Lamb · Village pub · Shipton-under-Wychwood