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.

‘We cannot praise it too highly,’ says a report this year on brothers Charles and Edmund Inkin’s dining pub with rooms.

At an ancient crossroads on the edge of the Fonthill Estate, Dan Brod and Charlie Luxton’s Georgian pub-with-rooms is a ‘popular, good-value’ spot.

‘A rustic gem in an unspoilt village’, this ancient coaching inn, built around a cobbled yard, is a sister to The Beckford Arms, Tisbury (see entry).

Readers this year ‘ran out of superlatives’ after a ‘rather splendid visit’ to this thatched gastropub in ‘a delightful village’.

In a ‘quiet, wooded valley’, this thatched village pub had stood empty and decaying for more than seven years, when three villagers stepped in to rescue it.

In an ‘absolutely beautiful position’ overlooking Start Bay, Rachael and Nigel Heath’s 19th-century village fisherman’s inn is ‘a relaxing place to stay’, writes a trusted reader this year.

'Simple, almost basic but what great value' writes a delighted regular reader this year, about this pleasingly updated 18th-century beer house.

A foodie destination skirting the Somerset Levels, this rustic-chic pub-with-rooms gathers praise for its ‘superb meals’ and quirky, well-appointed bedrooms.

The hub of the village, within trotting distance of the iconic white horse, this ‘impressive’ pub-with-rooms has much going on.

On a working organic farm on the edge of the Wiltshire Downs, this quirky, affable pub-with-rooms reflects the vision of food ethics pioneer Helen Browning.

‘Little has changed over the centuries’ at this Tudor coaching inn in a National Trust village. Familiar to Harry Potter fans as the Babberton Arms, it was once home to Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

It was all go at this whitewashed, 14th-century former cider house in Britain’s longest village, when a trusted reader arrived at 1 pm.

‘Thomas Hardy’s historic Acorn Inn,’ reads the sign outside this 16th-century former coaching inn (it appears as The Sow and Acorn in Tess, and in two of Hardy’s short stories).

With its rough-cut stone exterior and thatch, the Red Lion is outwardly the archetypal olde worlde pub – ‘but’, say trusted readers, ‘in our granddaughter’s terminology, the place rocks.’

An air of a country gentleman’s private study filters through this rural 19th-century hunting lodge, with appealing nods to the rural pursuits that might occupy him.

‘A handsome Georgian house’ and former coaching inn, overlooking the River Stour meadows in a market town, is today ‘a very pleasant hotel’ with ‘lovely staff'.

Possibly the oldest inn in England, with a medieval wooden window pre-dating glass, this thatched village pub in the Teign valley is ‘a gem’.

‘Tucked away at the end of the main street of this idyllic town, seconds from the water’s edge’, Charles Deuchar’s pub-with-rooms is a medieval merchant’s house in a 17th-century shell.

Surrounded by gardens thick with enormous ferns and tiny orchids, Will and Lisa Lea’s family-friendly pub-with-rooms is a lively destination in a secluded wooded valley.

Sophisticated yet unpretentious, this ivy-wrapped pub-with-rooms in the depths of Thomas Hardy country ‘entices’ with classic British grub and rustic chic bedrooms.

Hands-on chef/patron Sarah Lethbridge and her husband, Anthony, have entertained guests at their restored stone-walled country pub for ten years.

Handsome and historic, this buzzy pub-with-rooms (owned by Butcombe Brewery) has character to spare.