THERE is a lovely quiet bottom left hand corner of Cheshire that I have enjoyed ever since I used to cover funerals at remote churches a long newspaper time ago.

All that piece from Farndon down to Threapwood (wonderful name) and across to Malpas and Tarporley retains its original style, with farms actually keeping animals, and lanes that thread their winding way to nowhere.

And right in the depths of this network, lies the string of houses and farms with the unusual name of Shocklach, with the Bull Inn doing the traditional pub performance right in the middle, at the only road junction.

A unique feature of scattered Shocklach can be found in the village church, off the main road, where a picture on the wall denotes an armed man riding an eight legged horse, taken to be Odin whose mount Sleipnir must have cost double for a visit to the smithy run by Weland in Valhalla. How he slipped into a Christian church provides a pleasant mystery.

The Bull manages the unusual feat of offering plenty of light from large windows with a framework of splendid oak beams, so with a fine red winter fire, you get the best of both worlds; you can see the food, but you can find a private corner among the massive brown leather settees, varied by barrel chairs at barrel tables, with a bistro restaurant extending from the same large sunny room.

Three of us dropped in on a bright Saturday lunchtime, with the February chill dispersed by a flourishing fire, and a pleasant welcome to go with it. One other couple were lunching, and a gathering of serious cyclists were taking a quick one during some energetic tour of the line of the River Dee, which starts Wales a mile or two to the west.

Although a keen wine fancier, I chanced to be in beer mode for once, and found the Mansfield pints of the house just as British beer should be; cool but not cold, ripe, rich, and hoppish, while my wife enjoyed a fair French vin du pays.

Nice to see our neighbours getting the work, rather than the over tanninned Australians, if there is such a word as tanninned, which my spell check seems to doubt.

The Bull makes a point of promising actual cooking, with the firm warning that it may take half an hour to work with real ingredients, adding the bold porstscript that if you don't like that, you should go somewhere else.

A fair challenge, and justified when I sampled my starter choice of a very fair pate with sound toast, at the general £4.95 set for openers, with our friend commending the whitebait, although my wife was not impressed by the garlic mushrooms, which were absent on garlic, but overdone with cream.

Her mood changed dramatically on sampling the beef in ale pie, featuring superb beef and a proper pastry; none of your pre hashed suspiciously exact circles taken out of some evil pack.

This was served with classic chips, shared by our friend who chose that old fashioned British concoction of fish with mushy peas. He liked it, so that was the main thing.

The chips were fine, but we were less impressed by a side dish of mixed vegetables, which included a touch of red cabbage, which either come in bulk or not at all.

For my main course, I decided to get clever, with a venture into a very confident range of curries, which I don't usually try in pubs, although a keen fancier in Indian restaurants.

Curry has become so large a field, and so much a national dish that we don't have to be purists, so it's perfectly fair to ring the changes by mixing pork with beef, neither of which find a place in Madras itself, but who needs to worry?

My hot mixture came with a pile of genuine fried rice and a couple of small rounds of naan, accompanied by an extra sideline in lime pickle, that fearsome condiment that must be the most difficult taste to acquire.

Not at all bad was my final verdict, although not quite as rounded and reddy brown as they make it in Madras, but very correctly served in a metal Balti dish.

The rest of the party seemed to be seriously full up by this time, but what's the point of going out if you don't sample the desserts, so I opted for a crème brule, which duly arrived with just the right crisp surface to hit the bullseye.

I didn't see the point of adding three shortbreads and a bowl of whipped cream to the dish, but these were an extra, and you can't complain about getting more than you expected.

Coffee to follow with mints, and a total price for three starters, three main courses, one dessert, four pints of bitter and a glass of wine, rounded up to £56.80, which is competitive and very fair.

Location: The Bull Inn, Worthenbury Road, Shocklach, Cheshire, SY14 7BL.

Tel: 01829 250239

Price: From the a la carte menu, starters around £4.95, with main courses mainly from £6.95 to £8.95.

Best thing: Very pleasant quiet country pub setting, with plenty of light in an oak beamed room. Excellent beer and competitive pricing all round.

Worst thing: Indifferent side vegetables, and one shaky starter.

Would suit: Anyone who likes a country pub off the beaten track.

Opening hours: Lunches on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and plenty of evening business through the week.

Plenty of parking on the spot.