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Givers of bacon, sniffers of truffles, boilers of wolves, Pooh’s best friend and the only creature in which children habitually store two pence pieces. Our porcine brothers occupy a magnificently multifaceted place in the British cultural consciousness. For instance did you know that, in a law dating back to the Doomsday Book every commoner has the right to let their pigs forage in the New Forest?

And by commoner they don’t just mean bus passengers and the primary customer base for Monster energy drinks; they mean you and I. Unless ‘you’ happens to be a Duke. If so you and your livestock can clear off back to your manor house, these are our acorns.

Acorns, of course are not the only fruit of the forest, something that James Golding, Head Chef at The Pig is more than ready to testify. Previously chef at The Ivy and Caprice, James is one of the country’s fiercest advocates of sourcing ingredients locally. So locally in fact most of them are foraged from the hotel’s surrounding countryside. Unsurprisingly the food is fantastic and given how easy it would to fall into gimmicky kitchen frills, remarkably unpretentious. But what would you expect from a hotel that describes itself as ‘a restaurant with rooms attached’? Though it is clear from their press, that The Pig’s focus is on their substance it would be unfair to ignore the style of the converted country manor.

With 26 rooms, a summer season of musical events and a menu that changes like (or rather with) the weather, though we only stayed for the night, if we were to say we wouldn’t of rather it have been a week we would be telling porky pies.

The Pig Hotel, Beaulieu Road, Brockenhurst, The New Forest, Hampshire SO42 7QL

T: 01590 622354

Room rates start from £125 - www.thepighotel.co.uk