Five miles from Canterbury, this quirky 15th-century pub is at the heart of a rural village on a narrow road that seemingly goes nowhere. The adjoining nature reserve brings in lots of binocular-toting twitchers, but folk come from miles around just to visit the Red Lion itself. There’s plenty of scuffed-around-the-edges nostalgia here: low ceilings, tiny rooms, stone and wood floors, hop garlands, fresh flowers, candles on plain wood tables, an open log fire. Real ales (locally brewed Shepherd Neame and star names from further afield) are tapped direct from the hopsack-covered barrels behind the bar. On the food front, local shoots and farms provide the ingredients for some good old-fashioned country cooking.