Colston Bassett

Two cheeses and an old inn

The shop at Colston Bassett Dairy sells two things: Colston Bassett Stilton and Colston Bassett Shropshire Blue. That's the whole range.

The dairy was founded in 1913 after the local GP, Dr William Windley, persuaded around 40 farmers and patients to put in roughly £1,000 and buy half an acre from the village squire. Milk still comes from four farms, none more than a mile and a half away. It's one of only six dairies licensed to make PDO Blue Stilton, and the current cheesemaker, Billy Kevan, running production since 1999, has picked up a Gold Medal at the World Cheese Awards and Supreme Champion at Nantwich.

The Martin's Arms started life as a farmhouse and became an inn in the 1800s, owned by the village estate — the source of its name — until 1990. The carved fireplace and bar shelves are said to have come over from Colston Bassett Hall in the 1960s. Five ensuite bedrooms have their own entrance, for early departure or morning walks.

At the table and by the fire

The kitchen, run by chef Laurence Henry of MasterChef: The Professionals, does a lentil, bean and radish shoot salad with Stilton and apple, seared Scottish scallops with Jerusalem artichokes and truffle, and a rump of lamb with new season champ, finishing with a baked rice pudding with plum jam and gingerbread. Six cask ales are on, plus a rotating guest.

"The fire had died but the atmosphere was still roaring," wrote Rachel Cullis Dorsett of the Great Food Club. The beer garden overlooks parkland and is popular with dog walkers; dogs are welcome inside too.

Paths to a roofless church

A footpath leads past the ruins of St Mary's Church to Cropwell Bishop; a longer circular route, 8.4 miles, takes in Kinoulton too, following a stretch of the Grantham Canal.

St Mary's stands on a hilltop on the edge of the village, and it's a ruin on purpose. Once the grand new St John the Divine was finished in 1892, the Church Commissioners had St Mary's roof taken off. Restoration led to a re-dedication service in 2005. The oldest part still standing is a walled-up Norman arcade, its piers round and its arches pointed.

A new church and an older reckoning

St John the Divine replaced it, commissioned by Robert Millington Knowles of Colston Bassett Hall in memory of his wife. Five bells came over from the old church, and a war memorial inside records at least 14 village men lost in the First World War.

Colston Bassett was home to Colonel Francis Hacker, baptised in 1605, one of three officers named on Charles I's death warrant. He gave the order to the executioner, then kept the warrant hidden for eleven years; its discovery led to his execution on 19 October 1660. The Domesday Book, earlier still, records the village as Coletone, worth £2 a year to its lord. The market cross, given to the National Trust in 1922, stands on medieval octagonal steps, possibly from the original cross of 1257.

Village games and the way home

The cricket, croquet and bowls grounds sit in the lee of the ruined church, and the cricket club fields younger teams from neighbouring villages alongside its own.

Bingham station is the nearest, five miles off, with trains to Nottingham; the A46 passes two miles west. On a Sunday afternoon, most people here don't seem in any hurry to be anywhere else.