I'm sure Shakespeare would love the beach at Holkham

Tom and his wife Polly, Viscountess Coke, have taken the Victoria, once a rather humble pub, back into the management of the Holkham Estate.

They undertook a six month programme of renovation and restoration with an Indian feel to the design.

The furniture and furnishings were bought on a shopping trip to India for the princely sum of £10,000 and brought back in a container.

The Victoria reopened this month as a very smart, small hotel. 'We wanted to be careful that it would retain its place as the village local,' says Viscount Coke.

'Before it reopened, locals were saying that it would be too posh for them but when they came to the opening party, people took up their old places at the bar and were perfectly happy.'

No doubt they also appreciated the fact that Tom has insisted that beer should be kept below £2 a pint.

The Vic, as it is known, is just a five-minute walk from the famous beach whose charms ought to keep most short-break visitors perfectly happy for the duration of their stay.

But five minutes in the other direction stands the extraordinary pile of Holkham Hall. Described by famously hard - to - please architectural writer Nikolaus Pevsner as the most classically correct home in Britain, Holkham Hall was originally the country seat of Lord Chief Justice Sir Edward Coke, whose criminal court duties included prosecuting Guy Fawkes and Sir Walter Raleigh.

The exquisite rooms of the house contain an extraordinary wealth of art, including paintings by Claude Lorrain, Rubens, Poussin and Van Dyck.

But it is the new hotel which is grabbing local attention. Especially when the furnishings arrived last month.

'The Indian theme convinced many people that we were actually opening a curry house,' says Polly.

Her husband says that the new hotel project symbolises the Holkham Estate's growing shift towards tourism as a source of income and he was determined that they got things right.

He says: 'We undertook considerable research, visited hotels and restaurants and combined this with our own needs of being able to go somewhere with a young family.'

The Cokes have children aged two and eight months.

'We wanted to provide a quality setting, good food using fresh, local ingredients wherever possible and beautiful rooms where people can relax and feel refreshed.'

Major emphasis has been placed on the hotel's restaurant which is under the supervision of Harrow-educated chef Henry Cumming. Cromer crabs, Brancaster mussels and fresh and smoked eels from Holkham's own lake are among the ingredients that Cumming will be featuring on the restaurant's menu.

The accent in the hotel and the restaurant is on informality: 'One of the most important things is that visitors to the Victoria have fun; we want it to be a fun place for guests and for the team running it.'

Just three - and - a - half hours' drive from Central London, this part of Norfolk feels as if it might be on a different planet.

The roads are empty and the beaches deserted. A substantial attraction, Holkham Hall, for example, gets just 30,000 visitors a year.

For the official opening, why not invite Gwyneth Paltrow over to perform the ceremony?

Viscount Coke smiles. 'She wouldn't be interested, would she?'

It's the sort of ending even Shakespeare would love.

The Victoria (01328 710469/

711008) will have 11 rooms when the renovation work is completed next month with bed and breakfast rates from £90 to £130 per room per night depending on season (www.victoriaatholkham.co.uk). The hotel has vacancies during July and August.