In ‘lovely Cotswold stone buildings around a pretty courtyard’, this mostly 16th-century former coaching inn has had a stylish make-over.

Readers ‘had a really lovely, relaxing stay’ at Lila Arora’s apricot-washed Georgian mansion, approached by an avenue of lime trees amid sheep-grazed pastures.

‘Very enjoyable; a place for relaxing weekends and special occasions,’ say Guide inspectors of the ‘beautifully proportioned Queen Anne mansion in spacious grounds’.

On a former dairy farm, Amanda and Lee Jay invite guests to ‘rest, graze and roam’ in their strikingly transformed 150-year-old barn.

A drive through woodland brings visitors to ‘a romantic lake, a spectacular dovecote, a splendid fountain’, and what looks, for all the world, like a Loire château.

‘In a pretty south Cotswolds village’, this is a ‘fun, relaxing place’. A Palladian mansion with Arts and Crafts refinements and an Italianate logia, it was recently made over for the Calcot Collection.

‘A lovely, family-friendly hotel,’ was Guide inspectors’ verdict on this 16th-century stone manor house with spa in beautiful grounds, ‘looking out over rolling hills’.

Henry VIII gave the manor of Barnsley to each wife in turn – the old romantic! – before it passed to the Bourchier family, who built this Cotswold stone house in the 1690s.

‘Such excellent attention to detail.’ Approached through ‘well-maintained grounds’, entered under a balustraded minstrel’s gallery, the Wiser family’s ‘superb’ Georgian manor is a ‘very grand’ affair.

Zesty by design, laid-back by nature, this family-welcoming country house hotel and spa sprawls across a fine Italianate building.

With an eye on the Imperial Gardens across the road, this well-restored Georgian villa has a bijou, grown-up atmosphere.

On a winding road in cider country, tucked behind a rambling 17th-century farmhouse, a timber-clad stable is home to five voguish B&B suites.