ORIGINALLY built in 1581, The Woolpack Inn at Beckington is a historic pub that I have passed by many times but only been to a handful of times.

The village is home to Beckington Castle and the area has royal connections through the Seymour family.

Nearby Seymours Court was once home to Thomas Seymour, the husband of Queen Catherine Parr, who married Thomas after Henry VIII’s death.

The Woolpack is now part of the Greene King estate and its menu suffers from a certain blandness that comes from being part of a large pub group.

My wife, Feona, and I called in without making a booking to celebrate her good fortune in securing new employment.

After ordering drinks at the bar - a pint of Butcombe ale (£4.09) and a pint of lime and soda (£1.90) - we were shown to a nearby table and browsed through the menu.

The bar area was obviously busy and decorated for Halloween and the staff seemed quite relaxed, professional and friendly.

Feona has recently been forced to change her diet, so suggested we try a sharing platter (£9.59) comprising crispy breaded prawns, breaded garlic mushrooms, chicken bites, onion rings, garlic ciabatta slices and rosemary slated skin on fries with a sweet and spicy chilli sauce and a barbecue sauce.

Our initial reaction was they were well cooked and presented, tasty. The onion rings were very hot and the juice literally dripped out of the breaded garlic mushrooms.

The sweet and spicy chilli sauce was delicious but for two people there wasn’t enough of it!

Feona followed up with a chicken, cheddar and bacon burger (£10.99) comprising grilled chicken breast with mayo, topped with mature cheddar and smoked streaky bacon, served with tomato, red onion and spicy Tabasco mayo.

I opted for the pub’s Signature gammon and eggs (£10.79), featuring an 80z gammon with a Scotch egg, fried free-range egg and grilled pineapple served with chips and peas.

The kitchen had run out of garden peas, so I was offered a choice of mushy peas or “something else.” I chose the mushy peas.

Again, the food was well-cooked and nicely presented. I couldn’t manage all of the chunky chips, while the smoked gammon and two eggs were very tasty. Feona enjoyed her burger, with the comment that it had been very filling.

Moving on to the desserts, Feona went straight for the white chocolate Eton mess sundae (£5.49), while I chose the traditional sticky toffee pudding served with a small pot of warm custard (£5.29).

Feona professed to be “strangely disappointed” with hers, which she said seemed to consist of a tasteless mush, while I was perfectly happy with the sticky toffee pudding, which has always been one of my favourite ‘go-to’ desserts.

The Woolpack offers a good atmosphere with good service, albeit the Greene King menu is somewhat bland, but at £48.14 for the two of us the meals were good value for money and we certainly received a warm welcome.