We are going to spend a night in what TripAdvisor users have rated the world’s greatest B&B which, rather conveniently for Yorkshire-based me, is in Masham on the eastern edge of the Yorkshire Dales. I’m ready for the best, having done many nights in a selection of the worst. Like the one with bed bugs, or the one with the unfortunate owner who had Tourette’s syndrome and kept throwing things, including himself, at the walls. Then there was the ceiling with water pouring through. “What’s the problem?” asked the proprietor. “The bed isn’t wet.” No, but there was a single glistening pubic hair on the pillow.
We can forget all that now. We are in safe hands. Sue and Andrew Burrell of Millgate B&B, Masham, are very safe hands. Sue’s been a firefighter, chef, make-up artist, mental health worker, lawyer, child support officer and barkeeper. She also makes excellent scones. Once we are settled into the lounge, we tuck in immediately.
“We’ve only ever had one bad review,” says Sue. “And that was from someone who had never stayed here.”
Andrew kept a pub in the Dales for years, knows every corner of the area and can match people with what they want to do, one of the keys to being a good host. Both of them, with affable candour, let you into their world. Within minutes I know where the best salmon fishing in England can be had for a few quid, who serves the best food in the area and where the real characters of Masham drink.
Millgate is down a side street off Masham’s expansive market place. It’s a town that has gone a little chi-chi in recent years. The restaurants don’t look the place for muddy boots. Jamie Oliver, I’m told, comes here to shoot birds. Even the Black Sheep brewery looks a bit corporate. Theakston’s next door has a decent restaurant, The White Bear, where my partner Sophie and I eat. It is excellent. At night the market place looks like it has been swept. Is it so the Range Rovers don’t get dirty?
West of here, the countryside is magnificent. Masham is a damn good place to station yourself for walking or cycling. From Millgate you can stroll 200 metres and be on the banks of the river Ure. But when you’re staying at the world’s best, why go anywhere?
It’s the attention to detail that gets me. If you really want to test your accommodation, really sort the wheat from the chaff, open the wardrobe, stick your head in and sniff. In most places, what you get is a blast of old chewing gum, or worse. The Burrells’ wardrobe zings pleasantly of lavender with hints of lemon. This place is clean, utterly clean, CSI Wherever would hate it. Fresh flowers. Pale fabrics. Tasteful pictures. Decent books on the shelf. A shower that emits a proper quantity of hot water.
At night there is fresh milk in a flask (soya for Sophie), and a chocolate on the pillow. Actually, that’s a touch I could do without, having once returned to a room exhausted, thrown myself down to sleep, then woken up in the night screaming because my brains were leaking out of my ear. It was the chocolate, melted and pressed into my auditory canal.
The bed is faultless and breakfast superb: a trout hooked out of a local lake by Andrew the day before, fresh rolls baked by Sue. As with all great professionals, the Burrells make it look easy, effortless. There are, according to TripAdvisor statistics, around 890,000 places to stay in the world and Millgate has been named the best of the B&Bs in its Travellers’ Choice 2015 awards (it has 355 “excellent” ratings out of a total of 359). I cannot disagree.
But where do the Burrells stay when they get a rare night off? Sue ponders. “Miller Howe in Windermere.” But then she chuckles and I know she is going to be indiscreet. Millgate’s great unsung asset, its USP, is bluff Yorkshire honesty.
“Not really, she adds. “Travelodge.”
• Accommodation was provided by Millgate Bed and Breakfast, B&B from £76 a night with separate shower; from £86 a night en suite
Ask a local
Millgate owners Andrew and Sue Burrell
• Walk
From our front door, you can walk to Hackfall Woods, an ancient woodland landscaped by John Aislabie in the 18th century. He put in follies and a fountain that refills and blows every 20 minutes.
• Drink
We’ve two breweries in Masham, run by competing wings of one family. Both do tours. The Black Sheep one ends up in its own bistro, and Theakston’s has its own brewery tap – the Black Bull in Paradise. They are pretty generous with the beer!
• See
Ruined Jervaulx Abbey is privately owned and admission is just an honesty box. There are no signs or clutter; it’s just a very picturesque and peaceful place.
