
Not far from Henley and Huntercombe Golf Club in South Oxfordshire, lies the delightful Cherry Tree Inn in Stoke Row.
Surrounded by huge beech woods criss-crossed by bridleways, the pub has its own series of recommended walks, featured on the inn’s comprehensive website.
This 19th-century hostelry is dog friendly. Let your hound dry its muddy coat by the most heartwarming of roaring log fires. The Cherry Tree is titled a ‘Pub & Restaurant with Rooms’ (four sumptuous rooms in fact!) and is run by Dan Redfern and his wife Natalie with gusto and meticulous attention to detail.
You open the low beamed front door, and an easy ambiance and pubby coziness hit you immediately. Enter into a quality establishment with fine homemade pub food and innovative special dishes, all at ‘Home Counties’ prices. The decor is original, undoctored, classy and what you’d expect from an inn so old. Dan’s extensive collection of Toby Jugs adorns the shelves and pride of place goes to a miniature Henry VIII model and a photo of the late Prince Philip drawing water from the nearby Maharajah’s Well*. Whilst sounding terrible kitsch, it actually works!


The Cherry Tree had been a failing Brakspear’s tenancy devoid of soul and village support, when the Redferns bravely took it over in 2018. The transformation since then has been remarkable. It recently won a hospitality industry award for “Most Friendly Country Pub – 2023 South Oxfordshire”.
Dan’s overriding philosophy has been to always offer the very best of provenance and freshness.
“We try to use the highest quality ingredients either sourced locally or grown on site. We seek to practice maximum sustainability. We compost, store seeds from our plants for continuity and we have two bee hives to produce our own honey. They are situated by our kitchen garden to promote cross-pollination.”


“The bread is something special too. It’s sourced two hundred yards away from ‘Imma The Bakery’, which was set up by Mexican and village resident Tona. He’s talented, creative and a very good friend. He uses no additives in his bread, and delivers daily to us himself.”
By pure chance, we chatted briefly to Tona across the pub tables. He’d swung by at lunchtime after his daily bake to unwind and enjoy a couple of Cruz Campo beers and a pickled egg in a bag of Salt & Vinegar crisps. “We make long-fermented artisan bread and pastries, with flour produced in Oxfordshire, and local and foraged goods that change with every season. I believe that every person in the world deserves to have access to affordable, high-quality, healthy bread”. Make no mistake – this is an impressive guy, fizzing with energy and intelligence. I doubt you’d meet a more passionate, committed and diligent baker, despite his curious love of traditional British pub snacks! As you’d expect, Dan’s other suppliers are of the highest quality too, with food miles at an absolute premium.
The seafood is from the much-loved Kingfisher of Brixham. Meat is mostly from Vicar’s of Ashampstead with a good supply of game birds from local shoots and the nearby Nettlebed Estate, the former home of James Bond creator Ian Fleming. English Farm supply excellent rare-breed Longhorn, which are used for burgers and Sunday roasts. Blue Tin Produce provide pork and pork mince from their organic Gloucester Old Spot piggies. The pub’s signature Scotch egg is made using this exceptional pork mince. Stokes Farm supplies organic, free-range eggs. Cheeses come from Nettlebed Creamery (Nettlebex Bix & Nettlebed Highmoor) and The Oxford Cheese Company (Oxford Blue & Oxford Isis).
Most of the fruit, vegetables and herbs come from the pub’s beautifully curated kitchen garden, zero food miles from the hostelry. Quite rightly Dan is immensely proud of his garden.


Among many different fruit & veg, the most impressive produce grown by Dan last year were multiple varieties of Heritage tomatoes, 30 varieties of chillies, 3 varieties of cucumbers, 3 varieties of beetroot, artichoke, asparagus and rainbow chard. Fruitwise his green-fingered skills know absolutely no bounds either – Cantaloupe and Galia melons, alpine & white strawberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants, whitecurrants, golden raspberries, loganberries and tayberries.
Your meals will not go unseasoned. The herb plot delivers up chives, fennel, dill, tarragon, parsley, basil, sage, lovage, oregano, feverfew, chervil, nasturtium, wood sorrel, thyme, rosemary, bay, coriander and some hearty horseradish.
The Cherry Tree Inn is surely the greenest pub supply chain I’ve found yet. The stats are impressive – English Farm 1.3 miles; Nettlebed Creamery 1.9 miles; Blue Tin Produce 2.0 miles and Imma the Bakery 0.1 miles!
Dan spends a lot of time in the kitchen himself too despite being an accomplished ‘front of house’ but Ferdie Salazar from the Philippines is the Head Chef and a trusted previous employee of Dan’s.


So to the “food glorious food” …
To start we tried the ‘Soup of the Day’ – a subtly spiced vegetable soup made with a blend of fresh ground dried chillies and herbs from the garden. Perfect after the chilly woodland walk and served with freshly baked ‘Imma the Bakery’ artisan bread and whipped butter.
The much-trumpeted Scotch egg did not disappoint. The Blue Tin pork & black pudding Scotch egg combined with the Stoke Row apple sauce produced the most moreish indulgent light bite. Every mouthful just oozed enjoyment with the runny velvety egg yolk encased in a crispy sausage shell, made of the moistest minced pork, all enhanced with mild spicy notes from a blend of fresh pub garden herbs.
We opted to enjoy the very innovative specials menu, offering Far Eastern influences and some different takes on the pub classic pies and burgers. My dining partner sampled the steak & red wine pie with a sumptuous buttered mash, fresh seasonal vegetables, and a thick rich beef gravy (£20). On a cold day, nothing beats a warm, flaky pie and this full-flavoured version hit the mark.
I’m tired of posh pub gourmet burgers – most are a disappointment. But Dan’s harissa-marinated turkey burger was surprisingly light, juicy and delicious, served in a fresh bun. Perfectly complemented with fresh leaf, tomato and jalapeños, the homemade smoked tomato chutney gave it a delightful fruity lift (£19).


To finish affogato made from local Perla espresso coffee and a scoop of the finest Purbeck of Dorset vanilla ice cream was a hit with my dining partner.
I opted for the newest dessert on the menu – dark chocolate pudding, with chantilly cream and salted caramel ladies fingers. The contrast of flavours and textures was something to behold. The luscious blend of heavy cream, sugar and vanilla whipped to perfection, the slightly bitter dark chocolate mousse and the salty crunch of the sweet sponge cake biscuit pieces could not have provided more interest in one mouthful. But remember I’ve a terribly sweet tooth and am a sucker for this kind of dessert!
Over coffee, I talked to Dan about how the pub has now become the village’s epicentre after dying on its feet under the previous tenant:
“We set up a library and village resource area in the pub, building a lovely oak bookcase onto the existing old limestone wall. The previous location of Stoke Row’s book club just wasn’t working, so villagers approached me about hosting it at The Cherry Tree, and through the scheme “Pub is the Pub”, we received some much-needed financial support.
My furloughed crew and I cooked over 2500 free two-course meals in the Covid lockdowns for vulnerable local folk who were really struggling.
We host family fun days, craft fair days, summer barbecues, quiz nights, bingo nights and themed food weeks such as a Thai Takeover. We offer takeaway of our core dishes.”


This pub gets so much right in the community.
I believe it’s in the sweet spot of where quality country dining needs to be in what is a very difficult gastropub market right now. The Cherry Tree is the heart of the village, as we’ve seen recently at The Plough at West Hanney.
You can’t help but wish Dan and Natalie the greatest of success in what is one of the most genuine, authentic and sustainable pub ventures I’ve witnessed. Combine their fresh food with a woodland walk, and you’ll return home to Oxford extremely well-fed and very content.
The Cherry Tree Inn
Stoke Row Rd, Stoke Row, Henley-on-Thames. RG9 5QA
Bitten were invited as guests of The Cherry Tree, all views are our own
*For history buffs, do visit The Maharajah’s Well, near to The Cherry Tree. At 365 feet deep, it was dug entirely by hand in the 19th century. It was gifted by the Maharajah of Benares to his friend and local landowner, Mr Edward Anderdon Reade, who was also the Governor of the Northwest Provinces of India. In 1831, during his time as Governor, Reade had the Azimgurgh well built for the Indian people. There was an absence of available clean water in the Stoke Row area, when Reade returned home to England so the Maharajah generously reciprocated the idea of a well in 1864! The structure includes a grand canopy based on that of a pavilion at the Maharajah’s Palace at Ramnagar and a golden elephant!
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