‘Staying here was an experience,’ wrote Guide inspectors of Nick Dent’s Georgian farmhouse hotel, which is so dog-friendly it even hosts doggie birthday parties, and where creative reuse has been raised to an art form.

Tables are set for some seriously good dining at Andrew and Gaynor Riley’s restaurant-with-rooms, occupying the former showroom of Sir Gordon Russell, wartime pioneer of utility furniture, in a picture-postcard Cotswold village.

You can mess about in boats with a fishing rod, sip a pint of bitter in the sunshine or enjoy classic gastropub fare at this cheerful pub-with-rooms beside the Thames, with moorings that are free to guests.

Golden stone abuts Tudor black-and-white at this historic hotel, which has a large terrace for alfresco dining overlooking a picture-postcard village green.

With a free jukebox, Art Deco piano, loyalty cards and children’s menus, this dog-friendly 18th-century inn is truly a community hub.

On the outside, it looks like a chocolate box stone thatched pub, but that belies the funky interior of this Cotswold outpost of Justin and Charlotte Salisbury’s portfolio of Artist Residence properties in Brighton and London (see main entries) and Penzance (see Shortlist entry).

‘Everyone’s idea of a Cotswold pub’, this 600-year-old inn is one of the oldest buildings in a picturesque village of thatched houses on the River Windrush.

Recently refreshed, this ‘delightful, friendly’ 17th-century coaching inn retains its authentic country air.

In a historic wool town, the classic Cotswold-stone exterior of this ‘likeable’ 17th-century inn gives way to a cool, contemporary decor that mixes wooden beams and ancient floorboards with Scandi-chic furnishings, a fine cocktail list and a family-friendly feel.

Embracing its rural roots, this traditional inn cosies up deep in the Cotswold countryside.

‘At the heart of a quintessentially Cotswold village’, this Georgian rectory turned laid-back but stylish hotel proved ‘enough to make a pair of Londoners consider giving up city life’.

You may feel a sense of déjà vu at Tom and Jack Nicholas’s timber-frame coaching inn: it starred as the Babberton Arms in Harry Potter films, while the picturesque streetscape has stood in for Cranford in the BBC drama.

In one of the prettiest villages in the Cotswolds, this Palladian house overlooking the Slad valley in Laurie Lee country is a soothing escape for rattled city-dwellers.

‘We had a wonderful family holiday here.

Built in the 1600s for a chop-house owner and chef, this gabled stone building has long opened its oak door to paying guests.

The very model of an olde worlde inn, with its flagstones, beams, blazing fires and jumbled interiors, The Lamb sits on the edge of a picture-perfect Cotswolds wool town, in the aptly named Sheep Street.

Jeremy Mogford indulges his passion for art and literature at his luxury city-centre hotel, where the walls are hung with works from his collection, with a library for residents to browse.

‘The staff were friendly and helpful, the setting on the village green was delightful – what a wonderful place to stay,’ says a trusted reviewer of this Cotswolds inn-with-rooms.

A wisteria-festooned arch frames the entry to this prettily refurbished hotel, forged from a row of 17th-century honey-hued houses.

George Dailey’s honey-stone roadside inn, north of Oxford, is a popular village hub where locals come for the ‘excellent’ cooking – and where farther-flung guests settle in for ‘a very nice stay’.

The hub of a pretty Cotswolds village, this mellow-stone pub-with-rooms (Calcot Collection) is liked for its stylish accommodation and relaxed nature.

Across from Imperial Gardens, this trio of well-restored Georgian town houses forms an alluring whole: one modish, metropolitan hotel with a smart restaurant, two lively bars and a collection of very-voguish bedrooms.