Perennial visitors reported ‘a warm welcome’ from Clive James and David Stott at their restaurant-with-rooms – ‘a cherished institution to many Glyndebourne regulars’ – at the foot of the South Downs.

‘We much enjoyed our stay,’ writes a reader this year, of this Edwardian country house hotel in ‘grounds of a sporty nature’.

Behind a ‘gorgeous, checkerboard red-brick-and-stone facade’, in a hamlet a mile from Goodwood and ‘an easy, breezy drive from Chichester’, the former village grocer’s shop is run as a friendly B&B.

A shooting lodge in the New Forest is home to the mother Pig, the first of Robin Hutson’s small but growing chain of family-friendly Pig hotels (see index).

Now a ‘gracious’ B&B, this restored Victorian train station and princely Pullman carriages on disused tracks ooze the romance of travel’s golden age.

A 17th-century house, ‘in a delightful position opposite the quay’, in an ‘attractive little town’, is today run as a smart restaurant-with-rooms.

‘A comfortable, cosy place with nice rooms to curl up in’, Sam and Janet Bakose’s 250-year-old inn stands on the A272 between Midhurst and Petworth, in the South Downs national park.

Brimming with an ‘interesting collection’ of curios from far-flung lands, Max O’Rourke’s characterful seafront hotel is both ‘splendidly quirky’ and ‘utterly relaxed’.

‘Opposite the walls of the castle in this ancient market town’, Lee and Katie Williams run their Grade II listed Regency town house as ‘a top-notch, great-value’ restaurant-with-rooms.

A metamorphosis is underway on the edge of the New Forest: formerly TerraVina, this comfortable Victorian villa has a new name and a revamped style.

Facing the ‘wide sweep of tidal mudflats’ surrounding Pagham Harbour, this whitewashed restaurant-with-rooms stands as a ‘tucked-away’ beacon of ‘delicious food’ and ‘exceptional hospitality’.

In a gem of a medieval Cinque Port town, this Queen Anne-style house designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens has a new lease of life as an upmarket hotel.

‘As wonderful as ever,’ writes a regular visitor to Sarah Burgoyne’s ‘charmingly run’ Grade II listed, red brick Georgian manor house adjoining a private estate, close to Lewes.

‘At night, surrounded by floodlit cedars and oaks, it felt like a movie set,’ writes one reader this year, after visiting the luxury New Forest retreat.

‘Great place. Wonderful breakfast.’ A thumbs-up this year from visitors to David and Barbara Shaw’s unusual B&B, at a decommissioned granite lighthouse in a ‘dramatic, empty landscape’, in the South Downs national park.

Far-reaching views across sheep-spotted countryside spool away from this ‘splendid’ 300-year-old malthouse-turned-restaurant-with-rooms above the Evenlode valley.

Popular with locals, ramblers and foodies, this comfortably modernised Victorian freehouse-with-rooms welcomes visitors with ‘big smiles’ and a ‘warm-hearted atmosphere’.

A ‘stunningly restored’ 17th-century threshing barn in the South Downs national park is the heart of Moya and Richard Connell’s rural B&B/restaurant and working organic farm.

A popular pub-with-rooms in a tiny, ‘beguiling’ village close to the Thames, The Plough’s warm welcome and foodie credentials are appreciated as much by locals (and their dogs) as by guests from farther afield.

Flanked by two golf courses, this 18th-century coaching inn, in a quiet New Forest hamlet, is ‘a great option for a relaxed weekend away’.

From on high, Wendy and Neil Burrows’s farmhouse enjoys stunning sunsets over the Alkham Valley.

Rebuilt and reinvented by Bassam Shlewet, this small hotel brings ‘great service’, chic style and impressive cuisine to a picturesque stretch of the Thames Path.

‘Food-focussed readers will be happy’ at this red brick Chilterns restaurant-with-rooms that offers a ‘distinctive cooking style’.

‘A truly wonderful place to stay,’ writes an approving guest, who savoured the 18th-century red brick pub as much as Greyhound regulars do their pints of Titanic Plum Porter.