In March 2018, the then owners sold what was then Bridge House to Silvana Bandini and Chris Staines, she a former general manager at The Pig near Bath, he one-time executive chef at the Abbey Hotel, Bath.

'In its glory, in the very beautiful Otter valley', this Elizabethan manor house is the fifth member of Robin Hutson’s Pig family.

Perfect peace reigns at this friendly hotel in at the end of a quarter-mile drive, in a densely wooded river valley at the western edge of Exmoor national park.

You might find Cornish lamb on the menu at Rick and Jill Stein’s flagship venture in a harbour town on the Camel estuary, but it is for fish and shellfish that fans have come here since Stein transformed a dodgy nightclub into a basic hotel in 1975.

‘Wow! This was good.’ A regular Guide reader offered high praise after visiting Paul and Fiona Robinson’s ‘delightful’ hotel that gazes across Gerrans Bay on the Roseland peninsula.

‘One for traditionalists,’ write trusted Guide readers, of this child-friendly, dog-friendly Jacobean ancestral home in Thomas Hardy country, run by owners Richard and Brian Prideaux-Brune, with Richard’s wife, Alison.

A row of former miners’ pantiled cottages combines into a rambling, ‘appealing’ country inn in a picturesque setting where, regulars report, ‘generous portions’ and ‘generous hospitality’ come as standard.

A ‘time capsule of ancient England’, Sue Burdge’s venerable former dwelling house has been the village pub and hub since 1837.

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.

Thatched cottages and sheep-dotted fields swaddle the single-track roads to this 17th-century mellow-stone Nadder valley house in an ‘unspoilt’ village.

‘It’s clear why so many guests return again and again.’ Huw Rees and Sam Prosser’s converted Georgian rectory, in large, well-maintained grounds, ‘is a haven of rural peace within easy reach of Exmoor and the sea’.

Tim and Anne Riley’s small hotel stands serenely on a steep hillside on the edge of a village where the Exmoor National Park meets the sea.

Surrounded by woodland and fields in the heart of Hardy’s Wessex, Jamie and Ariane Jones’s ‘olde-worlde’ thatched hotel, once home to the local shepherd, offers ‘a charming and very comfortable stay’.

Breakfast is served at a carved oak refectory table by the Great Hall’s massive log fire at Ann and Ian Dyer’s B&B in a manor house with private chapel.

A trug of sparkling wine, organic home-made fudge, fresh fruit and flowers awaits guests at the ‘lovely’ Maureen Rowlatt’s rather special B&B by a stream, in a private valley on the edge of Dartmoor.

Once used to billet D-Day troops, this revamped early 17th-century mansion now hosts ‘young children, exhausted parents’ and grandparents.

A Victorian baroque showstopper, this manor house stands on a steep hill in gardens above the Fowey estuary. It is part of the Luxury Family Hotels group.

‘As superb and lovely as ever,’ Martyn Scarterfield and Petra Lampe’s Edwardian holiday cottage turned guest house is ‘a home-away-from-home’ for many devoted returning visitors.

‘What a super place to stay for tackling some of the Coastal Path; it ticks all possible boxes,’ writes a Guide inspector in 2018 of Sally and Chris Searle’s historic B&B.

On the cliff-top with ‘fabulous views of Mounts Bay and down to Mullion Cove itself’, the Grose family’s dog-friendly hotel is a ‘really comfortable, welcoming place to stay’.

Widescreen coastal views, ‘calm, muted, clotted-cream colours’ and ‘delightful suntrap gardens’ are a successful formula for Malcolm Herring’s ‘unashamedly luxurious’ small hotel.

A Regency cottage-orné, built by Jeffry Wyatville as a fishing lodge for Georgiana, Duchess of Bedford, is run today in characteristic relaxed-chic style by Olga Polizzi (see also Tresanton, St Mawes).

In the rolling South Hams countryside, Richard Hendey’s Georgian rectory turned small hotel is ‘a delightful place to stay, peaceful and friendly’. Interiors are smart and contemporary.

This ‘youthful, buzzy’ spot, say returning guests this year, is liked for its ‘good rooms, helpful, friendly staff, excellent food – and no flashy bits’.