The Bull Inn, Sonning

The Bull is a 15th-century coaching inn on the tiny cobbled square by Sonning's Norman church, four miles east of Reading. It has been an inn since the reign of Henry VII, and its low beams, big fireplaces, and worn flagstones are the genuine article. It is owned by the Fuller's pub chain now but managed as a country inn — good real ales (London Pride, ESB), a serious wine list and a menu that leans reliable British: fish pie, lamb shank, roast beef and Yorkshire, ploughman's boards.

The setup: two low-beamed dining rooms on the ground floor, a smaller snug bar, a big flagged terrace at the back that fills up at the first sign of sun, and seven bedrooms upstairs for those who overcommit to the wine list. On Sundays the whole village slows down and everyone within ten miles seems to be here for lunch — book. On weekdays it is quieter and lovely as a stop after a Thames Path walk from Reading (four miles, easy). The neighbouring village has a genuine claim on Jerome K Jerome's Three Men in a Boat and a heron colony you can watch from Sonning Bridge.

Mains £18-28, Sunday lunch £24, decent pints £6. Cash or card. Book online for weekends at least a week ahead in summer. Bus 128 from Reading town centre runs half-hourly and drops you 100 metres from the door; it is arguably the nicest thing you can do with a Sunday afternoon in Reading. Combine with the Thames Path walk in one direction (you can walk here from Reading in two hours) and the bus back.

Inside, the geography is simple and worth knowing before you arrive. The door off the square opens straight onto flagstones and the snug bar, which is where the hand pulls are and where a single pint in front of the fire costs you nothing but the £6. The two dining rooms sit either side, both beamed low enough that anyone over six foot learns to duck within a minute, both with floors that have settled in several directions over five centuries. The inglenook in the main room is the photograph everyone takes. Through the back you reach the terrace, flagged and walled, looking onto the churchyard of St Andrew's. Decision: book a dining-room table if you want a guaranteed sit-down meal, and treat the terrace as a bonus — it is first-come, never reservable, and on a warm Sunday it is gone by 12:15.

Getting here is easier than the rural setting suggests. Bus 128 leaves Reading town centre roughly every half hour, takes about 25 minutes and costs around £3 single, stopping 100 metres from the door — check the timetable for the last evening return before you order a third glass, because frequency drops after teatime and taxis back are the fallback at £15-20. By car it is the A4155 Reading-Henley road, then down Sonning Lane or Thames Street; parking in the village is free and on-street, but the lanes near the church fill first and the 18th-century brick bridge is single-lane under traffic lights, so allow ten minutes of queueing at peak. From Twyford station it is about two and a half miles — taxi, or a 40-minute walk. Best of all: walk the Thames Path from Caversham Bridge, four flat miles, two hours, and bus back.

Costs are pub costs, not attraction costs. There is no entry fee and no minimum spend: you can stand in the snug with a £6 pint and inspect 500-year-old carpentry for free. Mains run £18-28, Sunday lunch is £24 for two courses, and a realistic budget is £30-40 a head for two courses and a drink, or nearer £50 if you take the wine list seriously — and the list is good enough to deserve it. A bar lunch and a pint comes in well under £20. Cards and cash both work; check the bill for a discretionary service charge if you are a larger table. The seven bedrooms upstairs are priced seasonally, so ring the pub directly rather than trusting a third-party listing, and remember there is no lift.

Timing decides how much you enjoy this place. The kitchen runs straight through from 12:00 with no mid-afternoon shutdown, so the golden window is 14:30-17:00 on any weekday, when the beams, the fire and a newspaper are all yours. Sunday between 12:30 and 14:30 is the opposite: full, loud, cheerful, and impossible without a booking. Seasonally, May to September is terrace weather and the busiest stretch, with the first week of July — Henley Royal Regatta, six miles upstream — the hardest week of all to walk into. December fills with Christmas bookings taken from October. January and February are the best-value months and the easiest for walk-ins, though the Thames Path between Reading and Sonning floods after heavy rain, so check before you plan to arrive on foot in winter.

It suits a certain kind of afternoon precisely. Couples, parents visiting, and anyone who has an out-of-town guest to impress will get exactly what they came for; a rainy Saturday in front of the inglenook is one of the better uses of a Reading weekend. Families are fine at lunch, though the rooms are tight for buggies and teenagers will be happier if you bolt the meal onto the riverside walk. Dogs are generally welcome in the bar rather than the dining rooms — ring first. Wheelchair users should also ring ahead: there are steps, uneven flagstones and no lift upstairs. Skip it entirely if you have a one-hour gap before a train, because the round trip on the 128 alone eats fifty minutes, and skip Sunday if you wanted somewhere quiet.

Fold in the village while you are here. St Andrew's church is 30 seconds across the square, free and worth ten minutes; the 17th-century almshouses are just beyond it. Sonning Bridge is 100 metres south, and the towpath from it reaches Sonning Lock in about 15 minutes — the lock keeper's flower displays are a genuine local set piece in summer. The Mill at Sonning, a working watermill converted into a dinner theatre, is five minutes over the bridge and pairs well with an early drink here. The Great House sits on the riverbank three minutes away if the Bull is full. Honest caveats: this is competent, comforting inn cooking rather than destination gastronomy, the terrace is smaller than the photographs imply, and no, you will not spot the village's famous residents.

Hours & entry

Free to enter; you pay for what you eat and drink

Mon-Sat 11:00-23:00 · Sun 12:00-22:30 · Food Mon-Sat 12:00-21:00, Sun 12:00-20:00

What to see

{'what': 'The 15th-century inglenook fireplace', 'where': 'Main dining room, ground floor'}

{'what': 'Rear terrace overlooking Sonning churchyard', 'where': 'Behind the pub, through the snug'}

{'what': 'Sonning Bridge and the swans over the Thames', 'where': '100m south down Thames Street'}

Tips from the ground

Book Sunday lunch two weeks ahead April-September — every regular in Berkshire knows this place.

The terrace tables are first-come; the two by the far wall are the best.

Walk one way along the Thames Path (2 hours) and bus 128 back.