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.

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.

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.

'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'.

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.

'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'.

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'.

A watermill in meadowland is run as a hotel with rustic-chic and contemporary bedrooms, by chef/patron Lee Bye, whose exciting dishes can be enjoyed in the oak-beamed restaurant among the mill's workings.