With just one guest bedroom – or Royal Chamber – at the top of a Norman castle keep, this is surely the most romantic B&B in the Guide, and a memorable wedding-night retreat.

Occupying three 15th-century buildings in this picture-postcard wool town, the Swan blends modern comforts with original features in a wide choice of bedrooms, simple and adventurous cooking in the brasserie and lofty Gallery.

'It's fearsomely expensive but for a treat you're in safe hands' at this Tudor inn, now a restaurant-with-rooms 'in the idyllic landscape of the Stour valley'.

In a lovely Suffolk village, this wonky, yellow-painted, timber-frame inn is an inviting place, with log fires, appealing, characterful bedrooms, and a mix of pub classics and more adventurous dishes served in the bar, restaurant and alfresco.

Perfect for a country weekend, this 17th-century thatched pub has contemporary-cum-rustic-chic bedrooms in a 'barn', beams, bar stools, banquettes and bare boards, superior pub grub, and a separate menu for your pooch.

The Milsom family's Victorian country house hotel in Dedham Vale, in the heart of Constable country, has been subtly rebranded with the addition of a spa by the pool house.

In deepest Constable country, Wendy and Jim Sarton's characterful timber-frame manor house specialises in residential art courses; there is a large studio in the ground for workshops from tutors in various mediums. But even if you're not interested in taking a course, it's a great place for an 'extremely relaxing weekend'.

'I would happily recommend it as a touring base for the Fenlands,' writes an inspector, of this Victorian village pub 'amid the stud farms and countryside east of Newmarket'.