“Your favourite colour is, if I remember correctly, green,” said the waitress to our two-year-old son, handing over a straw in what was, correctly as it happens, his favourite colour. It is service like this that makes the Crown so appealing, particularly if you have a young family.

The north Norfolk coast is something of a magnet for young families, attracted by the safe and sandy beaches of Brancaster and Wells and the feeling that this is what the rest of Britain used to be like before it went to hell in a handcart.

When reviewing hotels, coming to a town you know intimately is a tough gig. Yes, really.

The problem is that you have very fixed ideas about what is good for such a town, you instantly pick up on things that have changed for the worse and you risk falling out with family and friends who remain in the area if you give it a poor review.

Titchwell Manor, Brancaster, Norfolk

Thoroughly recommended if you have dogs, like the outdoors, birds and good food

• Field House, Hindringham, Norfolk

Fritton House, Fritton, Norfolk

The hotel is set in a country park, which has lots of attractions for children, and therein lies a warning

• Local knowledge: North Norfolk

• Norfolk: the English seaside as it should be

• North Norfolk pubs with rooms

The Hoste Arms, Burnham Market, Norfolk

A perfect English pub with top class food and service, says Ginny McGrath

• Deepdale Stables Backpacker Hostel, Norfolk

BACKGROUND

• The Rose and Crown, Snettisham, Norfolk

• The Crown, Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk

• The Globe Inn, Wells, Norfolk

• Triumphal Arch, Holkham, Norfolk

• Byfords, Holt, Norfolk

I was born 22 miles down the road in Dereham (the East having been dropped many years ago, much to my late grandmother’s disgust). The quaintly but accurately named Wells-next-the-Sea was the place I visited more often than anywhere else in my childhood.

Wells has changed in the interim, of course. It would be easy to complain about all the Londoners clogging up the narrow roads with their urban 4x4s although that would ignore the fact that I pissed off to London too. I didn’t buy a 4x4 though.

But if those Londoners weren’t in Norfolk, there would probably be no market for somewhere like The Crown.

The Crown is on the Buttlands, a very appealing Georgian square set around a rectangle of lush, green grass that is perfect for walking the dog or playing ‘it’ with kids.

The Crown is Georgian too and has one of those muddle layouts that is at once endearing.

My family and I stayed in room 8, which has exposed oak beams and long-distance views over that famously flat Norfolk countryside. On a sunny Sunday, little seems more appealing. The room (really a suite of two rooms) is perfect for families. The second room includes a single bed and a bunk bed, along with a portable television and a range of child-friendly videos for early mornings and rainy afternoons.

There is a marine whiff to the décor. There are lots of photos of local scenes on the walls – people walking on the beach, patterns in the sand at Brancaster, all taken by local snapper Bob Fisher. The colour scheme – in room 8 at least - was sea blue and driftwood brown.

The hotel’s classic rooms are a little on the small side and if you can, it’s well worth paying the £20 or so extra to upgrade to a deluxe room.

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