Located at Gatwick’s South Terminal, Bloc offers budget accommodation right by departures so is perfect for grabbing a decent portion of sleep before an early start. In my case, I was due to meet a group to fly at 7am which would have meant a 6 hour drive or a very early start. Bloc seemed like a good alternative.

The reception desk is located just a few yards from departures so really couldn’t do more to help you grab an extra ten minutes in bed. With little in the way of opportunity to rack up extra charges from mini-bars or food from the stripped back offering, check-in is a brief affair that exchanges an entry card for a brief glimpse of ID. That entry card can be used to get the airport lifts to the appropriate floor, the eighth in my case, where you’re met by an expansive corridor and a notable lack of natural light.

There are a variety of room and suite options that can offer the opportunity to have a runway view or more space but I was going for the most pure representation of the Bloc experience, foregoing luxuries such as windows and natural light. The basic room was certainly small and didn’t have much in the way of amenity but was clean and comfortable, a touch screen by the bed giving you control over lights and temperature. To maximise space, the bathroom was configured as a wetroom, some frosted glass allowing some light in from the main space. Everything functioned as it should, but I’ve yet to see a wet room that hasn’t resulted in wet socks at some point.

This isn’t designed to be a room for socialising, eating or spending a lot of time in, so I retired to the terminal’s Wetherspoons for some calories to see me through to the flight. That said, post food it was an entirely acceptable place to relax for an hour or two. The bed was large and luxurious, though pressed against a wall that would have been inconvenient for one party had Mrs Fork been with me. There had clearly been some significant effort put into tuning the artificial ambient light, so the sense of being stuck in a box was minimised and I woke suitably refreshed to fight through an EasyJet flight.

Obviously this isn’t somewhere you’d want to spend more than one night, but it’s explicitly not designed for that. As a modern take on utilitarian airport accommodation, Bloc really hit the spot, delivering a snug cocoon I could retreat to safe in the knowledge I wouldn’t be in danger of missing my flight in the morning. It might be basic but that’s all part of the appeal and it does everything it sets out to do, giving you a comfortable space in which to anticipate your travels.

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Nemo
After our food tour, we made our way back past Centraal Station toward the Nemo Science Museum. This is set across several floors of a striking building that slants dramatically toward back toward the ground at just a gentle enough angle to allow for a fabulous roof terrace. That terrace offers a bunch of water features to play in along with food, coffee and cold beer. The day we attended was 34c, offering the perfect chance for a suncream swathed Baby Fork to run around while parents indulged in that cold beer. She may have been a little young to take in the physics of a keystone in a bridge, but she loved running across it.

A’dam
The A’dam Tower is situated across the water from Centraal Station, a brief and frequent ferry trip that doesn’t cost anything, dropping you right by its front door. The tower is topped by an observation deck rotated 45 degrees from the axis of the main building, all the better for situating Europe’s highest swing. Entrance to A’dam includes a green screen background against which to grab a couple of photos for later comedy value before a lift fires you to the observation deck through a barrage of lights and sound. The observation deck gives fantastic views of Amsterdam and also gives access to a restaurant and bar.

Foodhallen
Food halls have become somewhat ubiquitous in decent sized cities over the last few years and we’ve taken in a good few in on our travels. Foodhallen is based in a former tram shed that’s had some of the tram tracks left in place to reference its former use and features more food vendors than it’s possible to sample in one visit. We checked out Viet View for a delightful platter of Vietnamese food before being tempted by some elevated bitterballen from De Ballenbar. These deep fried balls of roux are up for grabs all over Amsterdam, but throwing more flavours into the mix, they became more than booze soaking treats. The Bouillabaise and white asparagus ones particularly hit the spot.

Little Collins
On our final morning, we had time to schedule a decent brunch so I followed up on a suggestion from a friend who’d visited relatively recently. Little Collins has two branches, with one being situated in the De Pijp convenient for our final appointment. The menu was uncommonly varied and adventurous for brunch, letting us settle on a kimchi toastie and Turkish eggs. Bonito flakes helped bring the best out of the toastie, while I could have done with a touch less Korean bbq sauce, and the Turkish eggs came with perfectly judged labne, flatbread and spiced sausages. If you’re visiting Amsterdam this place needs to be on your list.

Hanky Panky
In 1996, I picked up a book on tattooing that fascinated me. It was a collaborative enterprise with help from renowned tattooist Henk Schiffmacher, who at the time operated a tattoo museum in Amsterdam. By odd serendipity in 2016, when I added a fork to the few tattoos I got 20 years ago, it turned out that the tattooist I engaged on the spur of a moment at a tattoo expo was Henk’s daughter Morrison, herself a highly regarded tattooist. After getting that tattoo, I left with the offer of having it touched up for free should I find myself in Amsterdam. The offer stuck in my head and before leaving, I took the opportunity to get http://www.illustratedbyabi.co.uk to draw a knife to match the fork she designed all those years ago. Morrison was good enough to fit me in at the legendary Hanky Panky tattoo parlour on the Sunday morning to add the knife and touch up the fork. I’m overjoyed with the results but it must be said, flying with two freshly tattooed biceps and a baby to control was quite uncomfortable.

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As I’ve posted about previously, we chose Amsterdam as the destination for Baby Fork’s first trip abroad. It seemed to offer a decent combination of a short flight time, good public transport and all the convenience a major European city can offer to cope with any unforeseen situations.

I can’t really imagine doing a hotel with a baby this age (16 months). Surely a successful bed time routine with a baby in a hotel room just results in a few silent hours trapped in said room trying not to disturb the baby? With that in mind, we booked an Airbnb a short train ride from the city centre that looked to offer the right balance of amenity and price.

We began our trip by driving to Leeds-Bradford airport where we’d stumped up for parking a short walk from the terminal to ensure maximum convenience, particularly on the return leg when we were unsure how well Baby Fork would have coped with the flight. This was more costly than the shuttle bus service we would normally plump for, but was worthwhile for the removal of a potential point of failure.

Security was relatively painless and the staff were perfectly helpful. This was when we started to appreciate the convenience of the Pockit stroller that we’d picked up from some friends, fresh returned from a trip to Sri Lanka. Being able to fold this into an improbably small package before reconstituting airside was a great advantage and much more preferable to having to check the pushchair into baggage.

Once airside, Baby Fork started to do laps of the area, an occupation complicated by the typically stag- and hen-heavy atmosphere. This isn’t something that’s particularly bothered me before, but seems to have taken an even stronger foothold since I last flew. While it never felt threatening, I was surprised to see people merrily strolling (stumbling in some cases) around the terminal with glasses in their hands outside of the bar areas that one assumes are licensed.

The flight itself was relatively uneventful, Baby Fork taking it in her stride as long as we occupied her, though becoming a touch agitated at the landing. It was a few hours later that we encountered the most significant issue of our trip when we missed a connecting train and therefore missed the local supermarket, thus condemning us to 12 hours subsisting on crisps while attempting to sooth Baby Fork to sleep with the random small bottle of formula we’d stuck in a bag as a contingency. We managed to get her to sleep just before midnight and in time to grab a few hours before setting about Amsterdam the following morning. More of that to follow in subsequent posts!

Regarding our luggage, we managed to follow our instincts for minimalism. You can see below the sum total of our packing, all of which went happily as hand luggage. Within this, we managed to cram enough nappies and wipes for the duration along with a good selection of baby food sachets to compensate for any shortfall upon arrival. Once situated, the range of food on offer in the supermarket was of course the equal of that on this island.

The next couple of days were spent buzzing back and forwards between Amsterdam Centraal and our apartment taking in as much as we could, though it must be said less than we would have fitted in as a couple due to fitting in the bedtime routine and pushchair logistics. After getting stocked up with appropriate groceries, our Airbnb turned out to be a very good base, further enhanced by the presence of a friendly house pest by the name of Furball who took every opportunity to dispense head bops and purrs.

The rest of our trip passed without incident and gave us plenty of things to think on when planning subsequent holidays. It was certainly challenging being in the centre of an unfamiliar city with a baby intent on running headlong into the path of every tram, bike, car and train, but we still managed to explore somewhere new to us and largely navigate the pitfalls of international travel with a small child.

While there was certainly a touch of heightened anxiety about the whole enterprise that might give us pause for thought about another similarly hectic few days in the near future, we can’t wait to show Baby Fork more of the world in due course…though we may take reins next time. Oh, one more lesson: flying with a baby after having both your arms tattooed four hours previously is both a literal and figurative pain. To be avoided if possible. Again, more of that later.

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We fancied a few days away with Baby Fork for our wedding anniversary and wanted to check out somewhere new, so booked an AirBnB in Chester. Like York, this is a city with a walled centre, Roman heritage, a racecourse and a river. Similarity can help to highlight differences though, so I was very much looking forward to checking out a new city.

As with any city break, we started by getting our bearings after depositing our car at a handy multistory (Market Place car park was perfectly reasonable). One feature that my, meagre, research had failed to alert me to was The Chester Rows. These distinctive shopping streets maximise the return on their footprint by sinking a lower level by a few steps before topping that row of shops with a covered walkway and a second row. These are wonderfully attractive and add a unique character to the city but don’t lend themselves to accessibility. If you’re bringing a baby to visit Chester, make sure you pack a sling!

Dinner on our first night came from The Architect, in which we were lucky to get a table given its popularity. This is a beautifully situated pub with a fantastic beer garden overlooking Chester Racecourse. We’d been lucky with the weather, so after Baby Fork had her fill of fun exploring the garden, we took a seat for dinner. We weren’t in the market for a large meal so settled on main courses of steak & ale pudding and ox cheek rigatoni. These were decent pub dishes; the pudding made with proper suet and the ox cheek braised long enough to do the ingredient justice. The promised mustard mash accompaniment lacked any bite of mustard, but the root veg made up for it. We finished up with a shared sticky toffee pudding, Mrs Fork’s favoured dessert, which was as rich as it was satisfying. We loved the Architect and popped back a couple more times to enjoy the sun in that garden.

We started the following day at a conveniently nearby spot that came heavily recommended. Hanky Panky Pancakes offer sweet or savoury pancakes with a wide variety of toppings and a good deal of encouragement to get creative with how they’re deployed. Mrs Fork went for American style pancakes with bacon & maple syrup that were beautifully fluffy and put a much pricier example served to us in York recently to shame. My savoury pancake was folded around blue cheese and bacon to make a supremely satisfying start to the day. Baby Fork even had her own pancake that she attacked with gusto!

Suitably set up, we made tracks for Chester Zoo. Without having made any effort to look for cut price entry this was an expensive day out, the entry fee alone for two of us and a 14 month old topping fifty pounds, but the return was good. The site is enormous and features an astonishing array of creatures, most of whom Baby Fork reviewed from behind closed eyes as she snoozed around the place. With the hefty entry fee justified by the variety on offer, it still felt a little mean spirited to have to open my wallet again for the monorail, though the food offering was pleasantly fair priced and decent.

To recover from the day’s sightseeing we repaired to The Chester Tap when we had deposited the car to its resting place again. This is situated in Gamul House, parts of which date from the early 16th century, providing a suitable sense of occasion in which to enjoy a pint. We’d settled on here to eat, having added to our appetite carrying the pram up the inevitable steps and started with lobster bisque and crab rarebit on homemade crumpet, not standard beer hall dishes! The bisque was delicately balanced and pleasing and the crumpet really was superb, rich and satisfying with accents of tarragon but never losing sight of the crab meat. Mains were less successful, an overcooked pork chop losing its way against a background of roasted new potatoes and sauerkraut while confit lamb breast seemed to engender little of the advantage of that cooking technique, remaining dry and tough. I’d certainly come back for a decent pint and crumpet in this stunning building though.

The next day we decided to look around the walls and Roman remains, exploring individually in stages where necessary. We found the walls were more complete than York’s example, but more difficult to appreciate by virtue of being abutted more frequently by modern buildings. One complaint frequently heard in York is of a lack of parking, but I wonder how much less frequently you’d hear that after seeing an entrance to a multi storey car park attached to the city walls. Still, there are many striking and spectacular sights to justify the walk, which we completed before coming to the remains of the Roman Ampitheatre, a place of remarkable scale and the largest thus far to be found in Britain. Wouldn’t it be remarkable to unearth the equivalent in York!

Chester might not be brilliant for accessibility but it’s packed with character and places to visit. When I asked on social media for eating and drinking suggestions, I was inundated with more than enough to justify a repeat visit. I loved the Chester Rows and general feel of the place, and while similar to York, it’s certainly got its own character. It feels larger and more populous than York, but has kept the elements that make it unique woven into its current geography. Family Fork will be back to visit Chester again and explore further!

Oh, and if you’re concerned I visited Chester without visiting the renowned Sticky Walnut, fear not. It justifies its own post that’s coming soon!

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The presence of a Booths supermarket is a great asset to any town, so we were more than happy to be staying a stone’s throw from the Keswick branch. We hit the reduced item aisle to grab a picnic dinner on the first evening of our flying visit, tucking into bread, cheese, crab terrine, quiche and sausage rolls. We didn’t linger long outside on our predinner stroll before retreating to the warmth of our cottage and its remarkably comfortable electrically reclining chairs that threatened to kidnap us each time they were engaged.

We spent the following morning mooching around Keswick and ignoring the “seasonal” weather to make the obligatory pilgrimage to Friar’s Crag and gaze out across Derwent Water at St Herbert’s Island, that was previously an inspiration for none other than Beatrix Potter. To refresh ourselves we went for lunch at one of my favourite spots in Keswick, The Square Orange, for tapas. While the patatas bravas could have done with both a broader, more subtle flavour, Morbier tartiflette was exactly as good as it sounds and baked Camembert is always a wonderful thing. We lightened the meal with artichokes wrapped in Parma ham, roasted padron peppers and a decent glass of wine before making our way to the Keswick Museum.

The museum offering in Keswick is undoubtedly lessened since the departures of the Cars of the Stars and James Bond Museums but with the Puzzling Place, Pencil Museum and Keswick museums still flying the flag there’re plenty of places to check out. The Keswick museum had a refurbishment a few years ago that’s made it much more contemporary in its design and layout but just as pleasingly eccentric in its exhibits, which include a dead cat in a box (really). I wish we’d had time to make it to the Pencil Museum, but Baby Fork will have to hold on a little longer for that pleasure next time we visit Keswick.

The following day arrived with a beautiful dusting of snow across Keswick in which a visitor to our front door had left some cute footprints. We set off with the intention of a low level stroll around Buttermere and a lack of realisation about how much more snow had settled out of town. The route to Buttermere would have taken us across the Honister Pass. This wasn’t the weather to be tackling one of the steepest roads in the country though, so we switched plan and headed back in the direction of Castlerigg stone circle, which is easily accessible by car if not necessarily pushchair.

We were looking forward to finishing the day with some pub grub so needed to work up an appetite and chose the old railway line as the most likely buggy friendly walk from town to do so. Having seen in the Keswick Museum pictures of the former railway station in use leant the beginning of our walk a nostalgic air and we were thankfully right in our assumption that it would be baby friendly. It only takes a mile or so on this route to find a boardwalk which gives great views over the river, an imposing concrete bridge, the remains of railway workings and some interesting information about a bobbin mill.

Dinner came from the Dog and Gun which while it maybe isn’t the picture of perfection – it is a few years since its refurbishment – is still a marvellous place to kill time and make friends with plenty of the town’s four legged residents. The goulash here is legendary so we plumped for one of those alongside a beef & ale pie, whose accompanying chips let the standard down a little. It’s easy to see why so many people choose this place to retire to after a day’s walking and let grateful strangers fuss their pets.

Our cottage had an early kick out time of 10am so we chose to begin our journey home with a brunch at The Rheged Centre. I’ve called here a bunch of times for a quick comfort break but I’ve never explored the site, which turns out to have been my loss. The grass roofed building is run by the same people as the fantastic Gloucester and Tebay services and is on the site of a former limestone quarry. A mini brunch for five pounds was great value and the ham hock under poached eggs and Hollandaise really brought life to the dish. There’s plenty here to enjoy on a day out including the cinema, soft play and shops.

We’ll be back to visit Keswick in due course to show Baby Fork more of the area when she’s old enough, but we’ll find an excuse to go back before she’s old enough to really appreciate it.

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We started the day meeting some lovely family bloggers from the region for a picnic on a lawn in front of the beautiful Banqueting House. We were very lucky to have plenty of sun as we ate given the catastrophic forecast, so made the most of it. Our hosts had laid on croquet, bubble wands and a host of ways to have fun that will serve to prompt us for entertainment when we return with Baby Fork as she grows older. The Banqueting House was a lovely backdrop and also housed the opportunity to get dressed up in period clothes before we started our tour of “Folly!”.​

Our first port of call was the Gazing Ball, a polished sphere that reflected the tranquil, still ponds in the near distance. The ball was perched on what looked like a stylised climbing frame with windows of varying shapes framing the horizon in different ways. While the smaller members of the group busied themselves scaling the structure, we enjoyed the views and noted the small sculpture of a human heart proudly presented at the top.

Next up was the product of a young mind, a cloud designed by 11 year old Foster Carter​ which was​suspended from a frame. His was the winning entry amongst over 1800 that were submitted, so I’m sure he’s enormously proud to see his design come to life. It’s fair to say that the recent weather has been rather extreme so we pondered the irony of sheltering under a an artificial cloud on a blazing hot day while playing chicken with a weather forecast that suggested impending doom.

The next part of our journey took in some spectacular views across the gardens, placid lakes and trickling waterfalls as we approached the Listening Tower. This houses a mechanism to maintain a constant, gentle dripping of water, audible when you put your ear close to one of the listening holes punched into the tower. I loved the symmetry of the distant, gentle drip of water in my ear while looking over another stunning view, this time of the serene lakes beneath us.

The last folly was reached by a bit of a steep climb that the more ambulatory kids tackled with more enthusiasm than I could make apparent while pushing a buggy. The climb was rewarded not just with a much needed ice cream, but also with the sight of an enormous stylised parrot with a rotating head housing the lens for a camera obscura. The children (and adults) loved the bright colours and striking design of this one that contrasted neatly with the more traditional layout of the garden. The folly’s innards hid the opportunity to take in the parrot’s eye view, projected onto a plate in the middle of the space that had to be in otherwise pitch blackness. It’s rare to get the opportunity to mess around with a camera obscura, especially with views such as these to take in. I think the last time I got my hands on one was in Dumfries, lovely in itself but perhaps less picturesque than Studley Royal Gardens.

Having taken in the follies, we carried on pushing our luck with the weather to take a stroll around the Abbey ruins. These were just as imposing and evocative as my childhood memories suggested and something I’d more recently spotted in the recent BBC drama Gunpowder. Having been to a recent evening event in which the Abbey was illuminated, my partner was able to pick out some carvings revealed then that wouldn’t otherwise have been obvious. As we made it back to the car, raindrops had started falling, which quickly turned into sheets of water that tested our windscreen wipers to the limit, but did nothing to dampen the enjoyment of our visit.

At five months, Baby Fork isn’t doing too much in the way of listening for water, climbing sculptures or marvelling at the camera obscura, but it was a delightful to see in attendance the other kids of varying ages all enjoying their visit, as were the adults. Between the gardens, abbey and sculptures, there’re plenty of attractions here to fill a day out. I’ll be keeping a close eye on the schedule to make sure Baby Fork gets to appreciate it in the future.

​Disclaimer: No charge was made for our attendance. Opinions are impartial.

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The Rose theatre York is constructed of scaffolding but the exterior has been clad to make it more sympathetic to its surroundings, which now include a small village of traders to offer food, drink and merchandise. There are longer term plans in York to reclaim the area around Clifford’s Tower so this is a tantalising glimpse of the potential the area has. In particular, the view across the Elizabethan garden draws one’s eye to aspects of Clifford’s Tower that have previously been all to easy to miss.

The food offering has been curated by Yorkshire born celebrity chef Brian Turner who has plumped for The Mussel Pot and The Yorkshire Pudding Pie Company to take up catering duties. The Mussel Pot is offering its namesake Moules Marinière alongside a burger, a wrap and a couple of other things. I enjoyed the bavette steak sandwich, served on ciabatta, and the mussels that were served with plenty of bread to mop up the sauce. My tip for these is to grab a seat in reach of a bin for easy shell disposal. The Yorkshire Pudding Pie Company have a unique offering that ditches pastry for surprisingly light batter to surround pie fillings. I tried the Wagyu Cheeseburger and Mediterranean veg versions that were great value at four pounds a go. The veg version hit the spot beautifully while the beef was a heftier dish that would have benefitted from a touch more aggressive seasoning though the cheese kicked it forwards nicely.

I wasn’t able to check out all the plays being performed so sent along some willing accomplices to a various performances. With regards food, they reported back that the smoked garlic mushroom dish from the Mussel Pot was tasty but could have been more generous.

The bars have everything you might fancy to help you through the culture, with pleasingly local beers featuring along the usual wines, bubbles and Pimms. Pricing is a little higher than an average city centre bar, but this probably won’t host many extended drinking sessions, so that’s not likely to be an issue for most. The village has a few plastic accoutrements that are fun but aren’t entirely necessary, the plastic pigeons are inoffensive but it was pointed out to me that the fake severed heads over the entrance could be considered in poor taste given the morbid history of Clifford’s Tower.

With regard to the Rose theatre York itself, once inside there’s no masking the temporary nature of the building and its scaffold structure but your eyes are drawn to the stage, which belies the impermanence of the wider construction. The roof of the stage is strikingly decorated and hides a space for the musicians with a sun motif that hides a trapdoor.

Mrs Fork and I were able to attend a matinee performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream that took place at the beginning of the heat wave we’re still enjoying (or enduring, depending on your preference), giving us the perfect excuse to grab a cold drink from the Village. If memory serves this is the first Shakespeare I’ve seen performed that wasn’t as a precursor to an exam, and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. While occasionally it felt like the actors were rushing their lines in an attempt to make the Elizabethan language feel more naturally delivered, the pacing felt appropriate and the physical comedy toward the end was well executed, eliciting plenty of laughter from the audience. The trap door in the roof above the stage was put to good use to enable lots of acrobatics throughout the performance that were truly spectacular. It struck me that the experience as a spectator in the groundling area would be rather different to the one we had in the seated area, with the performers roaming through the crowd. I’ll be taking the opportunity to check out this area for a performance of another play.

The feedback I received on the other plays was largely positive,

Claire Davies (The Greedy Wordsmith) said: Approaching through the cramped rows of cars in Clifford’s Tower Car Park, it is difficult to appreciate the hard work involved in erecting the Shakespeare’s Rose theatre. Built in just three months, this twenty first century take on a 17^th century structure quickly sets the scene for a night of Machiavellian plotting, murder and, of course, witches.

The walled village surrounding the theatre invites you to forget about the rather ungainly environment just outside. Street performers, food stands and a well-stocked bar make our early arrival all the more enjoyable, and seem to have attracted curious travellers who have just stopped by for a taste of Elizabethan themed tourism.

This performance of Macbeth doesn’t hold back on the gore and violence of civil war and tyranny. The murder of Lady Macduff and her children is dealt with carefully but is, nevertheless, unsettling, and the drawn out assassination of Banquo is equally disturbing.

If you like a traditional take on Macbeth though, this production might not be for you. The weird sisters’ role has been heavily altered, with Cruden attempting to reflect the political culture in which we now live. Equally, I’m not sure that the interpretation goes far enough to appeal to a new, younger audience who might normally be turned off by the weighty language of Shakespeare.

All in all, the experience was positive, with some good performances from the cast. The theatre is impressive and comfortable; the staff genuinely excited to be working in an Elizabethan theatre.

Of Richard III, my delegate summed up as follows: An enjoyable evening and a novel experience. I enjoyed the feel of temporality of the venue and the sense of focus of this dedicated space. I liked the variety and choice of plays (four different ones), plus anything that makes the most of fresh air and the outdoors in summer is a winner for me. If something like this was to return to York, say, every 3-5 years, bringing a different selection of Shakespeare plays each time, it would be a very good thing!

The reporters I sent along to Romeo and Juliet commented that they loved the 1930’s setting and the unique, intimate theatre though expected a little more from the surrounding village. They made the, valid and pragmatic, point that for the evening performances it can get rather chilly. It’s also worth noting that timings for the nearby multi story car park can be tight for the evening performances.

It’s really exciting to see York opening itself up to new developments such as this. We thoroughly enjoyed both the performance we attended and the village that supports it, that we’ve popped back a few times to visit and meet friends speaks volumes. I’m looking forward to getting back and checking out more performances.

Disclaimer: No charge was made for review tickets, opinions are impartial.

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CSONS at the Green Cafe is a family friendly cafe on the banks of the River Teme that almost adjoins The Millennium Green, a popular place to congregate and enjoy good weather, such as the heatwave we were enjoying at the time. The cafe itself is a busy spot that’s open for breakfast, coffees, teas and lunch with Friday and Saturday night dinners to follow soon. The “CSONS” in question are the four Crouch brothers who are intent on offering as much locally sourced, high quality produce as possible from suppliers with whom they’ve focussed on building strong links.

We were visiting for lunch, the menu for which offers the option of a variety of small plates or some more conventional main courses such as burgers, pulled pork sandwiches and jerk chicken. While these all sounded like a fulfilling way to go, the opportunity to get a broader range of dishes on the table was too tempting and we ordered a range of the smaller plates.

Everything on the frequently changing menu sounded superb, but we managed to restrict ourselves to plates of rare skirt steak with salsa verde, pakora with mint yoghurt & chillies, Little Hereford with paprika & olive oil, Perl Las with piccalilli, Worcester tomatoes with basil & olive oil and roast potatoes with saffron aioli. All of that added up to a hearty, though not over facing, lunch for two with the dishes arriving all at the same time. Whether that was policy or incidental, I’m not sure. The steak was one of only two meat dishes amongst the small plates and did justice to the ingredients with a healthy sear on the steak matching up to the salsa verde perfectly. The pakora were well seasoned and textured, delightfully crisp at the extremities and still soft toward the centre. The rest of the plates relied more on good judgement than undue demonstrations of chef’s skills, letting good produce speak for itself while accented with flavours to help it along. The roast potatoes would have made a great snack by themselves and, as accompaniment to the lighter plates, bulked things out beautifully. Tomatoes simply presented with basil were refreshing and Little Hereford cheese benefited from olive oil and a light dusting of paprika but my favourite dish was a creamy blue cheese (“Perl Las”) with delightfully judged piccalilli, each bite bringing balance and pleasure. My only criticism of the dishes we had was the overabundance of pickled red onion strands that, while delicious, were rather too populous.

With a glass of wine each the bad news was less than forty pounds. If you find yourself in Ludlow, I wholeheartedly recommend taking a table here. The passion for good quality local produce is obvious and borne out in each dish. Throw in beautiful surroundings (not to mention plenty of family friendliness and baby changing for Baby Fork) and CSONS at the Green really is a winner.

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A trip to this area isn’t really complete without a stop at the Cod and Lobster for crab sandwiches so we broke our journey there, parking at the top of the hill and realising on the way down how much effort would be involved in getting a pram back to the elevated car park. Thankfully the calories from those crab sandwiches and superb chips did their thing and propelled us back toward the car to carry on North to Raithwaite.

Raithwaite Estate is located just inland from Sandsend and is made up of a collection of buildings both modern and traditional that house two restaurants, plenty of accommodation and a spa to relax in. It’d been on the periphery of my consciousness for a few years now, so it was with some intrigue we approached down the driveway that separates it from the bustle of the public highway. We were due to stay in ‘The Keep’, which is the first building one arrives at on entering the estate. Featuring dog friendly rooms alongside a variety of other options including larger rooms and suites, it’s a distinctive building styled with crennalations across its top and a central atrium that feels welcoming and airy. Our room was on the first floor and a generous size, complete with travel cot already set up for us and a balcony to enjoy along with all the tea and coffee making facilities one would expect, though I was a little surprised not to find a mini-bar. A personalised welcome card and some chocolates were a nice touch and after getting all the equipment Baby Fork requires unpacked, we didn’t linger long, instead setting out to explore and check out the spa.

The main building that houses the spa was only a couple of minutes’ walk through the attractive grounds from The Keep. Also in this building is Poachers Bar, which provided a useful space to retreat to with Baby Fork when tag-teaming baby care for spa access.

The spa itself was immaculately clean, being kept efficiently clear of the puddles and damp patches that one might expect at less attentive venues. The swimming pool features a cascade of water in one corner under which to relax and there’re also a sauna, a jacuzzi and a steam room in which to shut out the stresses of the outside world. All of this is surrounded by the landscaped gardens which are visible though, thankfully tinted, large glass areas. There are, of course, luxuriantly soft robes and towels for use and a pleasingly gadgety machine to shake water from your swimming costume before heading back to your room.

For dinner, I’d booked us into The Hunters Lounge rather than The Brasserie, which features a menu combining elements of French and Yorkshire cooking. The Hunters Lounge, also based in The Keep, looked like a slightly less formal option likely to suit our continuing acclimatisation to parenthood. After a relaxing drink in the bar to blunt the memories of the afternoon nappy changes, we made our way to our table as the restaurant started to fill, and we began our dissection of the menu.

Our starter decision landed on Scotch egg with coronation mayo and ciabatta soldiers and cauliflower and courgette pakoras with yoghurt dressing. The Scotch egg was served in an over sized egg cup and easier to handle directly on its slate. I’m not sure that bashing in its head as per the presentation’s suggestion would have been an elegant way to proceed, but the yolk remained soft and the meat was well seasoned with a crunchy crumb exterior to account for all the right textures. The pakora could have had a bit more spice run through them to cut across the minted yoghurt, but were well judged in quantity as we looked forward to main courses.

Mains featured chicken breast stuffed with brie and basil and feather blade ale braised beef. Both came with a variety of vegetables, variously roasted, steamed and creamed to complement the main elements of the plate, which were helped along by white wine cream sauce for the chicken and an ale jus for the beef.

We took guilty pleasure through the meal at the presence of another baby that was more disruptive than ours, so were happy to hang on for dessert and share a rich sticky toffee pudding with ice cream before retiring to the room to get Baby Fork to sleep.

Suitably refreshed the following morning after a relatively uninterrupted night’s sleep in the comfortable bed, we made our way back downstairs for breakfast. There’s a particular joy to a hotel breakfast, a situation that somehow empowers one to order as much fried food as you could want, so that’s exactly what I did while. My Yorkshire Breakfast was reflected across the table by a slightly more modest Eggs Benedict, both plates being a good stepping off point for the rest of the day. As well as the main plates, there was an impressive selection of fruit and cold self service offerings. Breakfast here offers a strong possibility of needing to skip lunch!

I have family in the area, so before we left, we took advantage of the Poachers Bar being open to the public to catch up for a coffee and have a stroll around the grounds, which are a pleasing compromise between spectacular and restful. All three of us enjoyed our visit to Raithwaite. It was a relaxing place to escape to with a good range of food and drink options and a flawless spa to visit. We even bumped into some friends from York who were arriving to take advantage of the spa as we left!

Disclaimer: Our stay was complimentary, opinions are impartial. Check the Raithwaite website to confirm prices for particular dates.

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Since striking out from his Harome-based mothership, Mr P has grown his “Pernshire” collection to include the urban Star Inn the City and Mr P’s Curious Tavern in York, but this most recent effort finds him moving back toward the countryside and his home town. The Star Inn the Harbour feels like a landmark development in Whitby which throws in an ice cream parlour along with the restaurant for added popular appeal.

The menu offers the obvious dishes to please those who descend on Whitby for the ubiquitous fish n’ chips, but when I arrived for a Saturday lunch I’d determined to run through the more intriguing notes on the menu. It goes without saying that Whitby in January is freezing cold so the welcome as we arrived was always going to be an open goal. Thankfully that goal was taken with enthusiasm as we made our way through the ice cream parlour to the restaurant. The interior of the building is kitted out by typical Pern zealousness with lobster pots, ropes and plenty of appropriately themed art and sculptures dotted about to break up the large, airy space that benefits from plenty of glass meeting the outside world. The glass expanse by which we sat let through appreciably more light than we’d guessed from scouting the exterior of the building when we’d noticed how tinted it seemed. The tinted glass afforded great people-watching opportunities as we dissected the menu and noticed how many people outside were surreptitiously sneaking chips to their dogs behind their partner’s backs.

As with much of the Star empire, there’s a lot going on with the menu. The Harbour offers plenty of meat dishes to complement the prominent seafood theme, though it must be said there could be more in the way of vegetarian options. To start with we went for calamari with squid ink aioli, also grabbing the chance to enjoy a lobster bisque from the specials menu. The preceding 24 hours had involved a sizeable amount of eating so the bread stayed pretty much unmolested, save for enough sampling to confirm it was up to standard. As we waited for starters we noted how spacious and accessible the building was, offering plenty of opportunity to stow pushchairs and step free access. When the starters were delivered after a suitable pause, we found the calamari thankfully not overcooked as is so often the case. The tower of calamari rings found a great home when dredged through the squid ink aioli, given just a hint of the ocean by the squid ink, which also lends its dramatic colour. The lobster bisque was absolutely outstanding, one of the best starters I can recall for some time. Inhabited by a generous amount of poached lobster meat, the flavour and seasoning of the bisque was utterly beyond criticism and only further enhanced by the saffron-infused cracker balanced across the plate. The punchy pickled fennel elevated the experience even more, making this a really memorable start to the meal.

To make sure we really got into the menu, we were then treated to a second starter of smoked and cured halibut that was served with samphire and egg mayonnaise along with capers and finely sliced shallot for assembly on squares of buttered bread. Each of the accompaniments gave an opportunity to vary the softness of the halibut, the sharpness of the shallot and luxuriant egg allowing us to tease out the flavours we fancied at each mouthful.

We’d made sure that the mains we ordered continued the seafood theme, with a tandoori fish curry and a sea bass fillet variously gracing the table. Both dishes were superbly realised and vied for our attention while neither emerged a clear winner. The curry was packed with a generous selection of cuts of fish, while the fillets were perfectly cooked with a suitably luxurious sauce that studded chestnuts through its variety. As I mentioned earlier, it’d been a testing 24 hours for my appetite so we opted for a light dessert option, just going for a few scoops of ice cream to round things off to make sure we also had a handle on the standard of the ice cream parlour too.

I’d been looking forward to checking out the Star Inn the Harbour for some time and unsure how high I should set my expectations. I’d expected good things but the standard exceeded those expectations at every turn. Each dish was well balanced and with complimentary elements while indulging Mr Pern’s desire to offer “Yorkshire Portions”. With pricing not too far off that which you’d expect from Loch Fyne, it’s hard to see many arguments against visiting next time you’re in Whitby. The next task I’ll lay at them is to convince me of how good fish and chips can be…

Disclaimer: While this meal was complimentary, opinions are impartial.

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