Illustration by Marta Signori The Blue Bell was built in 1794, and there are records of it feeding and watering – mostly watering – the agricultural workers of Stoke Ferry and environs until the turn of the 21st century. Unfortunately, by then it had been run down by a series of conglomerates who successively failed to invest enough to tempt custom over the threshold, and by 2019 it was on the brink of being converted into housing. But a campaign to save the village’s last remaining pub, backed by concrete action in the form of a Community Enterprise fund, gave it a new lease of life in 2021. Now a picture-box “village pub” fit to grace any Sunday night drama series, it acts as a proper community hub, both full of locals and welcoming to outsiders. Classics and croquettes There are real ales aplenty – enough to win the Campaign for Real Ale’s West Norfolk Branch Pub of the year for 2026 – alongside everything else you might expect.…