"THIS may sound like a stupid question," I said to the barman of a pub as I geared up to ask a stupid question, "but are we still in Cumbria?" He laughed. "Depends who you ask," was his reply.

The pub was the Sun Inn in Dent which, I gleaned, is definitely in Cumbria to some people, sort of in Cumbria to others and most absolutely not - how dare you suggest such a thing! - to many more. Technically this pretty village at the western tip of Westmorland is in Cumbria (since 1974, at least), although it is part of the Yorkshire Dales and as far as I can gather was once in Yorkshire.

To add to the confusion is has an LA - i.e. Lancaster, Lancashire - postcode. Some Dentonians, the friendly barman (possibly landlord) informed me, see red at the thought of having to be part of the created county of Cumbria, while younger ones who are less concerned about their cultural heritage don't really care about living in a county that didn't exist before the dark ages of the 1970s. Given that my food review remit is strictly to stick to Cumbria, I came down firmly on the side of the younger generation and can confirm that Dent is indeed very much part of this county.

Perched at the top of a narrow cobbled street, the Sun is a traditional villagers' pub, which looks as though it was last updated circa 1935. You could almost expect to see James Herriot popping in for a pint after a hard day's graft at the rear end of some cows - if Dent was in Yorkshire, which it's definitely not. The Sun is a belt and braces, beer and skittles (and dartboards - I counted two) type of pub - and all the better for it, in many ways. No Farrow and Ball paint, no carefully chosen artwork, no inspirational/homely quotations stencilled on the walls and most definitely no gastro pub menu. This is basic, classic pub grub. Sausage, gammon, steak and ale pie, fish and chips and scampi.

With the prospect of a threatened scampi shortage very much in mind, I opted for the latter, while my husband went for fish and chips. "It's not freshly battered," said the barman with cheerful honesty, "we buy them in, frozen." We weren't bothered. After a prowl round the pub, we settled with our drinks in a snug area, with cream-painted woodchip walls and faded bar furniture. Another group of customers - cagoule-clad walkers who thought they were in Yorkshire, the fools - were sitting by the fire in the main bar; and the pub had a friendly feel, for a quiet midweek afternoon in Dent.

Our food was plentiful and perfectly acceptable. Nice chips - and lots of them - with a generous serving of well-cooked scampi for me. News of the impending shortage clearly hasn't reached these parts yet, which is perhaps unsurprising, as Dent is a Wi-Fi-less wilderness for phones. My scampi was accompanied by an undressed salad and a paper pot of tartare sauce. You can't really mess about with scampi - and no attempt had been made to in the Sun kitchen, thank goodness. Gordon's fish was on the overdone side of deep-fried, the batter being dark brown, rather than golden. However, the fish was fine, considering it was frozen, and his dish also came with plenty of chips - and a mound of garden peas. At £8.50, you couldn't really complain. My scampi was £9.50 and also good value - main meals under a tenner are increasingly hard to find in pubs these days.

The bewildered walkers were leaving just as we were finishing up our meals - clearly confused as to how their expedition to the Yorkshire Dales was taking place in a different county. I was tempted to start a discussion with my husband about how lovely this part of Lancashire is, just to add to their discombobulation - but I nobly resisted.

While the village of Dent may be suffering from something of an identity crisis - indeed, an i-Dent-ity crisis, the Sun Inn clearly is not. It knows exactly where it is and what it is: it's a village centre traditional pub, with no-nonsense decor, serving no-nonsense beer and good value grub. It's so down to earth, in fact, that if it wasn't so definitely in Cumbria, you'd swear it was in Yorkshire.

Food 3 Service 4 Atmosphere 3 Value 4

Pros Cheap and cheerful village pub Friendly landlord Pretty setting

Cons Limited parking in village centre Some may find it too basic