An Inspector Calls: Swaffham

Strattons Hotel: A bit ornate, but you can't fault the scrambled eggs

Here at last! And not for any lack of effort on my part. I've been trying to stay at Strattons for at least two years, but there's never been a vacancy - especially at weekends when on several occasions my name has been added to a long waiting list. I'm beginning to understand why.

This is a charming, well-run hotel tucked away down a lane in Swaffham. This pretty Norfolk town was much-loved by Nelson and his wife, and Howard Carter, who discovered Tutankhamun's tomb, once lived here.

Everywhere you look there are stunning Victorian and Georgian facades, and the wild and mysterious Breckland landscapes are just to the north. Les and Vanessa Scott bought the Grade II-listed Palladian-style house in the Nineties and they have built up a formidable reputation, not least for their food, almost all of which is sourced nearby. The green issue looms large here. Several pages of the hotel's directory of services are given to the Scotts' recycling policy.

Mr Scott showed us to our room, named Boudoir, on the first floor. Although big, with an impressively stylish bathroom featuring lots of sexy black slate, we didn't quite get the point of the mural pretending to be the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. And why bother with deliberately kitsch chandeliers and other clutter designed to add an element of phoney decadence?

Looking through the brochure, I saw that all eight rooms were different - ours just happened to be the most annoying. 'Everything you need to know - and the controls to the TV and CD player - are in the box file,' said Mr Scott, who lives in the hotel with his wife and young family. 'Just call reception if you have any problems.'

Nothing serious, but I couldn't get the CD player to work. After dialling zero, there was a knock at the door and there was the chef, dressed in his white togs ready to become the handyman. It took him ages to fathom the wretched CD player and we just hoped he would be more reliable when it came to sorting out dinner.

'So, what do you suggest we order this evening?' I asked. 'I would go for the salmon starter and then the rabbit,' he said. Which was precisely what we did. First, though, we were joined for a drink in one of the downstairs sitting rooms by a friend who lives locally. Beers come mainly from a local brewer, Iceni, and a glass of champagne cost just £6.50. We were handed our menus, with two pages listing the dishes and eight more pages telling us where the food was from.

The chef's recommendations were spot-on. Less appetising was having a Good Food Guide voting form on the table which had more than a nudge and a wink about it. I'd also dim the lights for more atmosphere.

When staying somewhere that regards itself as in the vanguard of the eco movement, you have to expect one or two inconveniences. One came in the form of a cockerel shrieking at dawn, which prompted one of the other guests to shout out of his window: 'Would you mind being quiet?' Miraculously, the cockerel responded to such a polite rebuke and we managed another couple of hours' sleep.

Breakfast was sensational. Our scrambled eggs - from bantams wandering around outside - were of such a colour to make you never want to eat a supermarket egg again. And the sausages and bacon were the best I've had anywhere in the past 12 months. Again, the breakfast menu was heavy on conservation rhetoric, but you couldn't fault what arrived on the plate.

We left feeling refreshed - and even a little virtuous about the lightness of our carbon footprint while staying in saintly Strattons.

Travel Facts

Strattons Hotel

4 Ash Close

Swaffham

Norfolk

PE37 7NH

Tel: 01760 723 845

www.strattonshotel.com

Doubles, including breakfast, from £150

4/5