The Woodman Inn, Bedale

Village local with food, set in a long unexciting village parallel to the A1. The pub is an L shaped area with a quite grandly decorated lounge with antique looking furniture and a splendid fireplace at one end. There is a plainer, bare floored area round the bar with a few shorter tables, decent benches and some leather seats too low for comfortable eating but fine for drinking plus some posing tables and high stools. Beyond is another carpeted lounge furnished for eating and with a large TV plus a door to the small rear outside drinking space, there are also some outside tables at the front of the pub. Beers from Marstons with Pedigree and Jennings Cumberland Ale on the three pulls plus Strongbow, Fosters, Stella, Guinness and Marstons own smooth. The Cumberland Ale was particularly ordinary although this beer tastes less and less like the old Jennings every time I have it. Friendly staff and only a few older diners were in during my quiet lunchtime visit.