The first sound we heard as we got out of the car was the haunting mewing of a buzzard soaring overhead. We opened the studded oak door of the 18th century manor house and stepped inside to a spacious hall. Two elderly ladies were having cream tea in front of a log fire. A nice touch that – even though it was August, it was rainy outside.

We checked in and were taken up a creaky main staircase to the Orchard Suite, one of 11 rooms on the first floor. A sitting area with TV led to a large main room dominated by a double bed with what seemed like a huge vertically stripped red, white and black blazer as a head board.

Either bedside there were two gilt standard lamps. In the window alcove, were two faux French-style wicker chairs with plump cushions but they were arranged with their backs to the window. Northcote Manor is at the head of a stunningly beautiful steep and wooded narrow valley, so I turned them around to take in the view.

The Research Assistant dutifully clucked her pleasure at discovering Molton Brown smellies in the bathroom along with fluffy bathrobes. There was both a bath and a shower. The room itself was a little cramped compared with the size of the main room.

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BACKGROUND

• Northcote Country Manor House Hotel, Burrington, North Devon

• Soar Mill, Salcombe, Devon

• Hotel Endsleigh, Tavistock, Devon

• Gidleigh Park, Chagford, Devon

• Bovey Castle, Dartmoor, Devon

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As for décor, unlike some country house hotels I’ve stayed in, there were no personal touches of the owners (who live at their other hotel in mid-Wales). Three weird hydra-like candelabra, panels of pink palm flowers about to be probed for nectar by an exotic fantailed bird and an ornately carved mirror above a dressing table completed the décor. Plus a second plasma TV for His and Her programmes, presumably. Oh, and the carpet was pink. None of this was to my personal taste, but everything was spotlessly clean and the bed was slumberingly comfortable.

If the owners are not hands-on then the general manager, Cheryl King, most definitely is – she is in charge of a 16-strong band of most charming, yet discreet staff, including Kelly, Matt and Prieur (a South African young man, if you’re about to ask, who wants to be a civil engineer). It’s a cliché – but nothing was too much trouble.

We took nibbles and two Kir Royale (£21) in the drawing room to study the dinner menu – three courses at £38 per person inclusive of VAT. The room was dominated by a mural painted in oils straight onto the wall. It is one of three in the hotel (the others are in the dining room) done by London art teacher Barrington Barber. It was commissioned by the previous owners and depicts three periods in the life of the manor.

The monks from Tavistock Abbey were thought to have lived and worked in the valley a thousand years ago and the first mural shows them going about their daily business of bee keeping, growing vegetables, and spending time in prayer and contemplative spiritual thought. The artist used as the faces of his monks, the people who lived and worked in the hotel at the time. The previous owner, in the bottom right hand corner, looked remarkably like Freddy Mercury …

We had excellent bread sticks of sun-dried tomatoes and Parmesan sprinkled with sea salt dipped in a home-made chutney. They had been made by Richie, one of three young chefs, who are striving to get their third Red Rossette for the restaurant.

For starter the RA had king scallops with summer truffle salad and chervil dressing (“succulent, very good”) and I had red mullet with tian of white natural Cornish crab with crisp leaves and red pepper dressing, a very enjoyable combination.

We shared a main course which, as a reviewer, usually I never do as that is the point of having an RA, so you can nick some of her’s. But we’d admired the beautiful bulky beasts in the rich pastures as we meandered the narrow Devon lanes. Red Ruby beef cattle not only look stunning but taste it too – certainly how Richie prepared the fillet from one of them with fresh Scottish Girolles and Vintage Balsamic Salsa served with a side of garlic and thyme scented baby potatoes.

Cheryl recommended a Gotim Bru, Castell Del Remei 2003 Spanish red to accompany the beef at £25 – a good choice.

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