TWO Sherborne pubs have been included in the Telegraph’s list of the best 500 pubs in England.

This comes after expert Will Hawkes, who has been reviewing pubs for decades, graded each pub on their charming character, welcoming staff, rich history and, of course, award-winning beer.

Sherborne boasts two pubs that have been included in the list: The Digby Tap on Cook Lane and The Mitre Inn, found just north of the town at Sandford Orcas.

Mr Hawkes praised the Digby Tap as a “sports-focused freehouse”.

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He said: “Pubs play a huge role in supporting local sport, as the Digby Tap shows.

“Not only does the pub have a pool team plus occasional cricket and boules sides, it sponsors several local clubs, from football to rugby. The result is a pub that feels a central part of the community.

“It’s a delightfully down-to-earth place – hearty food served lunchtimes Monday to Saturday, good ale, flagstone floors – even if it does have one lofty claim to fame: it featured in Thomas Hardy’s Woodlanders, when the Digby Hotel (of which it was once part, and which is now mostly a Sherborne School boarding house) was described as “a substantial inn with a yawning back yard … of wonderful commodiousness.”

“That tradition of comfort has not been lost.”

He described the Mitre Inn as an excellent country pub with a renovated garden.

He said: “Dorset has the best village names, and some of the best rural pubs too; amongst them, I think it’s safe to say, can be numbered The Mitre Inn.

“This is a traditionally decorated place, with good food, rooms and beer; the garden, which stretches up the hill beside the pub and features (most notably) a sculpture of a stag made from willow, has recently been done up.

“If, like me, you enjoy a walk before a pint, the Mitre Inn can be reached in an hour or so from Sherborne Station along the Macmillan Way path.”

To view the full list of 500 pubs in the Telegraph list, visit www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/best-pubs-england/