The Bell Inn, Peterborough

Claiming to be the birthplace of Stilton Cheese, The Bell is a 17th century coaching inn with attached twenty-two room hotel and conference facilities. There is a restaurant on the 1st floor and the seating in the “Village Bar” is essentially for dining as well. Out the back is a very well kempt courtyard with wooden patio furniture and an old stone well. At the very rear is a car park for hotel guests and diners. The Village Bar consists of a small serving counter that faces the front entrance and a longer counter up the left towards the rear. There is limited seating in actual bar area where an old cheese press takes centre stage. The dining seating found to the left and rear was very busy with the older generation during a recent Wednesday afternoon visit. The aforementioned front serving counter supports eight standard and premium keg products and the side bar six. There are four hand pumps on the front bar, two of which are repeated on the side bar. These hand pumps were drawing Stiltons Parish Brew and Oakham Bishops Farewell alongside Greene King IPA (x2) and Old Speckled Hen (x2). There is a television which was switched off, this isn’t the sort of place that shows live sport. There was a high-profile world cup rugby match in progress on ITV and this wasn’t shown. However, there was some low background music playing. I found the service to be polite, but I much preferred the pub over the road so doubt I will ever return here just for a beer.