Close to the northernmost of the Lakes, under Wythop Woods in the shadow of Skiddaw, this 300-year-old coaching inn, managed by Matthew Wylie, is ‘a very special place, say fans’.

Flower decked without, welcoming within, this 'excellent' village pub, contrived from three former miners’ cottages, is liked by readers flying out of nearby Bristol Airport.

Buried deep in the countryside, Sue Burdge’s inn is so much the model of an olde worlde Devon pub that it ‘could have been created by a set designer’.

You can drink champagne in the vaulted bar, as W H Auden did, dine among the ancient stone walls like Philip Larkin, or sleep in a tranquil room once used by Benjamin Britten, at this hotel in the monastic buildings of a dissolved abbey.

‘Our very special place, where we love to enjoy the peace and tranquillity of the countryside,’ writes a reader this year, signing off with a smiley emoji.

On a quiet side street in this photogenic town on the River Windrush, the Lamb has been receiving guests since the 1750s.

A ‘cosy, friendly restaurant-with-rooms’, this timber-frame, former 15th-century merchant’s house has been an inn for some 400 years.

Shakespeare was at work up the road in Stratford when this inn was built, overlooking the green in a ‘lovely' Cotswolds village.

In ‘a lovely village' on the edge of the North Yorkshire moors, Andrew Pern’s ‘stylish old inn’ is a mix-and-thatch of ancient cruck-framed pub, dining extension, and lodgings in a converted building opposite.

Brothers Charles and Edmund Inkin invite you to eat, drink, sleep. Pray and love, too, by all means: there is a free-and-easy vibe at this dining pub, ‘a truly wonderful place’.

‘A lovely hotel with efficient, friendly staff,’ declares a trusted Guide reader this year after a third visit to the Nye family’s inn, which gazes across tidal salt marshes to Scolt Head Island and the open sea.

'In a lovely location’, Richard Ireton and Sarah Hudson's restored coaching inn on the banks of the River Monnow continues to delight readers.

‘Well placed for visiting the historic market towns' of Midhurst and Petworth, Sam and Janet Bakose’s 18th-century inn proved more than halfway decent on a Guide inspection.

In ‘one of the prettiest villages in south Lakeland’, Richard Rose’s former 18th-century coaching inn is firmly on Cumbria’s culinary map.

After 20 years at the helm, Steve and Nicola Reynolds continue to offer a heady brew of cosy pub, ‘wonderful’ food and ‘professional, friendly service’.

‘It never fails to please,’ write Guide regulars in 2019 after a return visit to Charles and Edmund Inkin’s dining pub with rooms. ‘We highly recommend the accommodation and the food.’

‘We enjoyed the waterside location,’ write trusted readers this year, drawn back for a third stay at Sam and Janet Bakose’s 350-year-old inn overlooking Pagham Harbour with its reserve of mudflats and salt marsh.

Deep in rural Wiltshire, on the edge of the Fonthill Estate and Cranborne Chase, this 'lovely old Georgian inn' is Dan Brod and Charlie Luxton’s sophisticated take on a country pub.

Across from the pocket park of Orange Square, with its statue of a young Mozart, this ‘upmarket pub/café/restaurant’ is a sister to the Grazing Goat (see entry).

In ‘a great location’ in vibrant ‘Portman Village’, tucked away behind Oxford Street, this ‘all-day café/bar/restaurant-with-rooms’ has a relaxed vibe.

In landscaped gardens that gently melt into Constable country, with tables for alfresco drinking and dining, 'one of Suffolk’s oldest pubs has been renovated very smartly’.

Award-winning chef Kuba Winkowski marks his tenth year at Tony and Amanda Timmer’s ‘truly amazing’ restaurant-with-rooms, in a converted malthouse. Its garden overlooks the Evenlode valley.

‘One of the most unusual hotels we've ever visited.' Guide inspectors were left reeling by art dealer Ivor Braka's pub-with-rooms in the deer park of Gunton Hall.

On cold days a roaring log fire warms the beamed bar at this ‘winning combination of gastropub, local inn and restaurant-with-rooms’ in a ‘pretty but unremarkable old village’.