Recently refreshed, this ‘delightful, friendly’ 17th-century coaching inn retains its authentic country air.

Built in the 1600s for a chop-house owner and chef, this gabled stone building has long opened its oak door to paying guests.

The very model of an olde worlde inn, with its flagstones, beams, blazing fires and jumbled interiors, The Lamb sits on the edge of a picture-perfect Cotswolds wool town, in the aptly named Sheep Street.

Jeremy Mogford indulges his passion for art and literature at his luxury city-centre hotel, where the walls are hung with works from his collection, with a library for residents to browse.

‘The staff were friendly and helpful, the setting on the village green was delightful – what a wonderful place to stay,’ says a trusted reviewer of this Cotswolds inn-with-rooms.

A wisteria-festooned arch frames the entry to this prettily refurbished hotel, forged from a row of 17th-century honey-hued houses.

George Dailey’s honey-stone roadside inn, north of Oxford, is a popular village hub where locals come for the ‘excellent’ cooking – and where farther-flung guests settle in for ‘a very nice stay’.