The Birch Hall Inn: Welcome to Yorkshire's most unusual pub

The Birch Hall Inn has served the few villagers of Beck Hole, near Goathland, since the 1600s - and is one of Yorkshire's most unique places to enjoy a pint.

The building, which began life as a cottage, is actually two bars separated by a sweet shop. The 'big bar' seats eight, and the 'little bar' can accommodate 10 drinkers - although the record, set in 2010, was 30 people.

Castle Howard expected to host singer Ellie Goulding's star-studded wedding partyAlthough it's been informally licensed for centuries, it was only in the 1860s that it became a full-time pub and shop. The village's population had increased during a mini-industrial boom when the railway and ironstone mines opened nearby, and many locals provided lodgings for the labourers. The floor is made from flagstones from the Aislaby quarry.

The furniture includes the tables from the waiting room of the village's old railway station, which closed in 1914. The sweet shop began life as a provisions store for the 19th-century labourers who built the line from Pickering to Whitby.

Landlady Glenys Charlton, who previously ran the pub with her now-retired brother Colin, has been serving customers since 1981 and is proud of how unspoiled the Birch Hall Inn is, with few concessions to modern life.

Yorkshire's hidden Swallows and Amazons garden to be restored to gloryIt's promoted as a place where time has stood still. Drinkers ring a bicycle bell for attention and place their order at a serving hatch, choosing from a limited but simple menu which includes a selection of three ales, pork pies, butties and beer cakes. The butties are made with bread from Botham's of Whitby and ham from Radford's butchers in Sleights.

Glenys and her family are just the second owners to have run the business since 1928 - their predecessor, a Mrs Schofield, had it for 53 years and was the first publican to buy the building outright. She had come to the hamlet as a 19-year-old newlywed and stayed behind the bar until 1981, when she sold it to Colin and Glenys after a strict vetting process.

Glenys, who took over the licence in 2004 when Colin retired, is a former teacher who met her husband Neil when he delivered ice cream to the inn. He was one of her old pupils, and now helps to run the pub. The couple's summer barman, John Hunt, lives in what was once Beck Hole's other pub, the Lord Nelson - which closed in 1940.

Nun Appleton Hall: The abandoned stately home that's shrouded in mysteryBeck Hole is so traditional that cows on their way to milking still pass the pub's front door twice a day. The hamlet didn't get electricity until 1948 or mains water until 1952, while the pub's quoits team is the centre of local life.