In the town centre, a ‘beautifully furnished, traditional, very comfortable and cheerfully run’ hotel stands inside a wisteria-festooned medieval castle..

A scattering of jazz memorabilia sets the tone – and hits the right note – at this Georgian country house B&B on a ridge overlooking the Cary river valley.

Three art-filled Georgian town houses combine into this ‘quirky, modern hotel’, now part of the KE Hotels portfolio.

'A rustic gem in an unspoilt village’, this ancient coaching inn, built around a cobbled yard, is a sister to The Beckford Arms, Tisbury (see entry).

'Simple, almost basic but what great value' writes a delighted regular reader this year, about this pleasingly updated 18th-century beer house.

A foodie destination skirting the Somerset Levels, this rustic-chic pub-with-rooms gathers praise for its ‘superb meals’ and quirky, well-appointed bedrooms.

This ‘nearly faultless boutique hotel’, standing in ‘pretty gardens’, is in a leafy neighbourhood ‘within walking distance of everything’ – but guests might not want to leave.

‘Behind the dramatic facade lies a beautiful garden,’ writes a reader in praise of this hotel and spa with its green oasis at the centre of a divine Georgian crescent.

In a medieval village dominated by a hilltop castle, between Exmoor national park and the coast, Nigel and Anne Way‘s historic hotel is showing its age – in all the best ways.

Medieval meets modern at this ‘very well-adapted’ 15th-century farmhouse on a National Trust estate.