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

‘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’.

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’.

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.

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.

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.