As you travel along the A4 towards Beckhampton you will come across a 16th Century Public house called The Waggon and Horses.

It is one of those pubs that looks like it has always been there - and with its thatched roof and stone walls makes it a very pleasing looking place.

It has recently been taken over as a tenanted Waddies pub by husband and wife team Matt and Sharon Smith who also run The Bridge Inn at Horton.

And as it is tenanted rather than managed - which means they can run things how they choose - so they have invested several thousand pounds on a children's playground out back - and launched the increasingly popular Sunday Carvery.

The A4 was once the main road leading from Bristol to London.

The Waggon and Horses was seen as an important stop for many a weary traveller on horseback or stagecoach travelling between the two cities.

It is now recognised as a listed building with exquisite dormer windows which makes it a building of great importance.

Its popularity became so when Charles Dickens himself mentioned the building in his novel "Pickwick Papers".

The food is really good and reliable at the best of times, but the Sunday Carvery - while a little retro in appeal - is an absolute gut-busting treat of all things Sunday lunch.

There is so much food that even the hungriest of diners can be seen flagging - reminiscent of that famous Monty Python sketch with Mr Creosote - one more wafer thin ... roast potato.

One visiting family on tour in the region had stopped off for food, with their teenage son so visibly impressed that he announced quite excitedly that 'that is a mental amount of food.'

The generous portions aren't hiding anything either.

The meat - turkey, pork, gammon and beef (and yes you can have all three if you want to) is soft and succulent, and the vegetables are the right side of crisp.

It's always a slight concern with carveries that the veg turn all mushy, but they do a good job of keeping things fresh and hot.

Matt mans the meat carving at the start of the food run at one end of the food run, then that lot is further loaded up with those great little sausages normally reserved for Christmas dinner wrapped in bacon, some stuffing, a Yorkshire pudding.

You get to load up your own vegetables - which of course you do with significant aplomb, crafting ways to cram and balance peas, parsnips, leeks, carrots, cauliflower cheese and roast potatoes on the plate.

At the end of the row there are all the various gravies and condiments you can think of.

There is an epic amount of food for under £15, and the really friendly and down to earth staff have no issues with you asking for a doggy bag.

I did. The dogs were delighted of course. Even they were lying on the floor with their paws in the air afterwards.

Stretchy trousers are advisable here.

The carvery is so popular due to word of mouth around the local villages that booking is advisable.

NIKI HINMAN