Take a traditional oak-beamed country freehouse pub with real ales and guest beers, a separate restaurant which serves home- cooked food and blend the two on a 10-acre wooded site with some of the best carp and tench fishing for miles around and you have the recipe for the Watersmeet Hotel and Angling Centre at Hartpury in the heart of Gloucestershire.

Situated on the main Gloucester to Ledbury road only 10 minutes from the M50, the Watersmeet looks like another pretty country pub at first sight. It's easy not to see the Front Pool set back from the main road and, unless you wanted a drink or a bite to eat you would probably never see the Main Pool at the rear, or Tench Pool set to one side amidst the trees and shrubs.

Inside the 'olde-worlde' charm is infectious. If you are looking for a picture postcard English country inn - this is it. Only the occasional angling print on the walls, the wooden carving of a 30lb Mirror Carp above the fireplace or the cased fish around the walls give the game away. This is an angler's hideaway through and through. Even the pools are the real thing - former claypits dug in the 1840s which had to be abandoned when they became flooded through seepage from nearby springs.

Watersmeet has been owned and run by the Ring family for over 30 years, with Tom and Gail Ring having taken it over from Tom's father 10 years ago.

Since then, Tom and Gail have carried out a steady programme of improvements to both the hotel and the angling facilities making it a great place to stay, so it is hardly surprising that many visitors have been returning several times a year for as long as Tom and Gail can remember.