A pub that's been here since 1717.

The Unicorns Head has stood on Main Street in Langar since 1717 — a Grade II listed building that has seen rather more than a few landlords come and go over three centuries. James took it on with a clear idea of what a village pub in the Vale of Belvoir should be: somewhere locals drop in on a Tuesday and somewhere worth making the drive from Nottingham on a Sunday.

The building itself does a lot of the talking. Low ceilings, thick walls, a few rooms that have clearly been divided and reunited over the years — it has the feel of somewhere that earned its character rather than had it fitted. Langar sits a few miles south-east of Bingham, deep in the Nottinghamshire countryside, and the pub has always served the villages around it: Cropwell Bishop, Colston Bassett, Kinoulton. You'll spot local names all over the menu — Welbeck bakery bread, Colston Bassett Stilton on the cheeseboard, Harker's dry-aged beef on the grill. That's deliberate.

The kitchen runs a proper à la carte alongside the things that make a pub worth returning to: a chippy tea on Fridays, a Sunday roast that goes until six, breakfast on Saturday and Sunday mornings from half nine. Dogs are welcome in the bar — there's a beer garden and outside terrace when the Nottinghamshire weather plays along. The pub is cashless and has wheelchair access, a disabled toilet, and baby-changing facilities. The bar runs cask ales and craft beers alongside the lot. Rated 4.3 stars from 751 Google reviews, which, for a village pub on a quiet road in Langar, says something.