£3.95! I haven’t seen such a price on a menu since petrol was under a £1-a-litre and all was harmonious between the Oasis brothers.

Yet there at the top of the menu at the Travellers Rest in Skeeby is a starter for £3.95 – Cajun-spiced potato skins and mustard mayo. Most restaurant menus now don’t bother with the pennies, they just slap the pounds down: £6 straight is the bottom end for a starter nowadays.

The Travellers has a nostalgic feel to it, with its brushed stone walls and super-bouncy carpet.

It has been a pub since time immemorial. There’s a picture on the wall from 1880 when the landlady was Grandma Young. She stands in the pub doorway, smart as a carrot in her layered skirts, white apron and white bonnet on her head. Her young son is playing with a toy horse on wheels in what is now the pub car park – there’s plenty of room for him, but today an unnecessarily large Discovery estate takes up all the space so there is no room to squeeze in a Qashqai.

Skeeby is a sign of the changing times: the pub is next door to the Old Post Office, now residential, and over the road from an old chapel, also now residential, as, bit-by-bit, the common spaces of the community have broken down and we’ve found ourselves living alongside our neighbours rather than with them.

The Travellers was destined to become the old pub, but the villagers fought a valiant 14-year battle to save the heart of their community, and it reopened in 2023.

The current tenants have been in since March, and the pub is working hard to be a village hub. A leaflet on the bar tells of its family days and leek shows, and the bar sells walking sticks, crocheted sheep and honey which are all made in Skeeby, and there’s a book-sale shelf raising money for a community library.

There’s a family of holidaymakers dining near us, the children abuzz at tomorrow’s visit to Forbidden Corner, but the other customers seem to be drawn from the village.

At prices such as these, I tell my wife Petra, we can treat ourselves, so we order the other two starters on the menu which are £4.95 each: cauliflower bites and whitebait. This is what it feels like to push out the boat.

The whitebait (above) were exactly how they should be: super-hot, crispy and hyperfishy, served with tartare sauce and a little rocket salad.

The cauliflower bites (above) were also deep fried in batter, soft and gentle, served with sweet chilli, and very pleasant.

The main courses have modern prices but a traditional pub feel: a trio of sausages on a bed of buttery mash and a Yorkshire pudding, bacon and cheese burger or a pie of the day (mince and onion, chicken in white wine) for £14.95.

Petra chose the scampi (£12.95) (above), which was nice and juicy, and served with excellent triple cooked chips. It came with garden peas to make a classic dish, and a pickled salad that didn’t really work.

My classic dish was a gammon steak (above) served with two fried eggs, garden peas and those excellent chips. A bonus point for a proper steak knife, and the gammon carved beautifully and tasted great.

I like to plan the consumption of my meal, not eat too much of some items so a lot of one is left at the end. However, it was only when I was halfway through that I realised that my gammon was actually a double decker – there was the same amount again hidden underneath. Not only did my quantity surveying fail and I was left with a lot of gammon, but it made this a very large serving.

In fact, several of the dishes looked remarkably large – the three sausages on the neighbouring table were immense with their mash and Yorkshire.

The family of visitors also tackled their desserts – sticky toffee pudding with custard, and a toasted waffle topped with cream and ice cream and sauce (both £5.95) – with a gusto and cleaned up, but, after my gammon overload, it was a gusto I could not match.

I chose the third dessert on the menu: a couple of scoops of a proper ice cream, one raspberry and the other plum and damson, with a sprinkle of popping candy (£3.50).

It was a time-honoured way to end a classic pub meal. Hearty and honest. Service was, to be honest, on the slow side, but the waitress kept us fully informed, and in the relaxed atmosphere, it wasn’t really an issue.

Our bill, three courses for two with soft drinks, came to £50.50 – not quite a throwback to another decade, but pretty good value in this day and age, plus there’s a bit of a warm glow for helping a brave community keep their local alive.

The Travellers Rest
22 Richmond Road, Skeeby, DL10 5DS
Tel: 01325-651011
Website: thetravellersrestskeeby.co.uk
Serving food: Weds to Sat 12-2.30pm, 5pm-8pm; Sun 12-5pm. Dogs welcome

The Ratings
Service: 7
Surroundings: 7
Food quality: 7
Value for money: 8

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