Butt & Oyster

I first heard of the Butt and Oyster when I read Arthur Ransome’s «We Didn’t Mean To Go To Sea» as a teenager.
In recent years, various members of my family have moved to the Stour valley area and so I was very excited to finally have the opportunity to go here, having just re-​read the book to my own sons.
The Butt and Oyster certainly lived up to my expectations. Although, like many country pubs have become over the past ten years, it’s really more like a restaurant with beer, the interior is still clearly old, with terrific character. Its situation in the village of Pinmill is everything you could wish for as a Ransome fan, with a host of boats new and old lining the ‘Hard’, a scattering of well-​preserved cottages and sailboats drifting by on the Orwell.
The food here was very tasty with some local themes — seafood in particular. I had a delicious Lowestoft skate with capers and roasted tomatoes. Plus, they sell Adnams ales which instantly gives it at least four stars on my scale. A couple of pints of Broadside washed the food down a treat.
After lunch we also had a great walk through meadows upstream along the river. A real English country experience that feels like it hasn’t changed much since Ransome’s day. Except that it takes credit cards.