I was passing Grantham and, with next month marking the 30th anniversary of Margaret Thatcher being elected Prime Minister, decided to take a look at the Lincolnshire market town where she was brought up.

The Angel & Royal is a five-minute walk from the grocery shop owned by her father (now a chiropractice called Living Healthy) and has a remarkable history.

It has been a hostelry for 800 years, with royalty stopping by: King John (in 1213), Edward III and Richard III (who dispatched a letter proclaiming the treachery of his cousin, the Duke of Buckingham, in a room that is now the restaurant). Documents related to their visits are framed in the lobby.

My room was neatly decorated in creams and caramels but had a boring view of the back of an office. I strolled to Thatcher's old grocery shop, where the family also lived. A black and gold plaque says that the first woman prime minister was born here (in 1925). Apart from that, nothing. Grantham does not overdo its Thatcher connection; there is only a small display about her in the town museum.

Back at the hotel I dined on decent soup and average monkfish in a section of the building with exposed beams and a fireplace. Then I settled into John Campbell's The Iron Lady, an illuminating biography of Thatcher, in the lounge. I had, I suddenly realised, become a “Thatcher tourist”. Not many of them.

Need to know

Angel & Royal Hotel (01476 565816, www.angelandroyal.com), 4-5 High Street, Grantham NG31 6PN. Mystery Guest paid £44 for a B&B double and £15 for a two-course meal.

Best thing History

Worst thing Dull room, 4.5 out of 10

Food 5.5 out of 10

Service 6 out of 10

Value 8.5 out of 10

Score 6.13

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