‘There is much to like and laugh about’ at this utterly transformed Grade I listed Elizabethan manor house, in a ‘glorious setting’ in the Otter valley.

Richard and Brian Prideaux-Brune, with Richard’s wife, Alison, run their Jacobean ancestral home as a characterful – some say eccentric – hotel where guests are ‘cosseted and cared for’ by ‘charming staff’.

‘The setting, ambience and gardens are possibly the most attractive of any hotel we’ve stayed in, anywhere,’ writes a Guide reader this year of the Turner family’s country hotel, in a 16th-century priory on the River Frome.

The Pear Tree at Purton closed down on January 2nd, 2018. It has had an entry in the Guide for many years. Anne Young, the owner, who has retired after more than 30 years helping customers, says: 'making happy memories for guests has been a pleasure.'

Olga Polizzi’s countryside retreat, at its origin a Regency fishing lodge created for the Duchess of Bedford, is today an ‘unpretentious, wholly enjoyable’ hotel ‘decorated with charm and taste’.

‘The shabby-chic style suits the relaxed atmosphere’ at this ‘fresh, appealing’ candidate, one of Robin Hutson’s sty of Pig hotels.

Wake to birdsong at this mellow stone building in secluded gardens – Bertie and Bryony Hancock’s sophisticated B&B is surrounded by the National Trust’s Buckland Abbey estate, and the 700 acres of grounds that come with it.

‘Warm and familiar’, this country hotel, in ‘a chocolate-box-perfect part of Exmoor’, has been refurbished in a ‘luxurious, contemporary’ style by its owner, Claire Carter.