‘We stumbled across the hotel quite by accident – oh, serendipity! We plan to return.’ Newcomers this year to the Hine family’s ‘gracious’ pink brick Queen Anne coaching inn join a loyal following,

‘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’.

Surrounded by manicured lawns, wild meadow flowers and woodland, this Cotswold-stone manor house, a few miles outside Tetbury, has ‘exceptional staff, excellent service, delightful furnishings’.

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.

The hub of a pretty Cotswolds village, this mellow-stoned pub-with-rooms (Calcot Hotels) is liked for its stylish rooms and relaxed nature.

A discrete buttling theme permeates Paul Smyth and Shaun Bailey’s ‘enjoyable, quirky’ B&B in a former 19th-century gentleman’s residence.

In cluster of Cotswold stone buildings, Chris York and Kate Lewis run their all-round inviting pub-with-rooms with great community spirit.

Barbara and Simon Andersen ‘get almost everything right’ at their small hotel in a market town in the Wye valley, a friendly, affordable base for exploring the Forest of Dean.

Facing the market square, a stone-built 15th-century property that has variously hosted a monks’ chanting-house, a post office, and a coaching inn, has been overhauled by Sebastian and Lana Snow (see also The Plough at Kelmscott).

The community hub of an classic Cotswold village of tiny lanes and stone cottages.

Close to Batsford Park, once home to the Mitfords, and its arboretum, this Cotswold-stone Georgian inn remains friendly and affordable after a seamless transition from private ownership to the Cirrus Inns group in 2016.

Ducks glide on a brook that bisects a village green, overlooked by a Cotswold stone pub, owned by Nicola and Archie Orr-Ewing, who also manage The Swan Inn at Swinbrook (see entry).

In its deepest fabric 14th-century, this former coaching inn could, by the 1860s, boast of its hot and cold baths; a more recent revamp has gone much further.

Easy-going cool seeps through this rustically chic Georgian town house B&B (owned by Sam and Georgie Pearman, see previous entry), overlooking elegant Pittville Park.

Zesty by design, laid-back by nature, this family-welcoming country house hotel and spa sprawls across a fine Italianate building.

Around the corner from Pittville Park, this contemporary B&B stands on a tree-lined street, a stroll from the town centre.

Close to the centre of this Regency town, Fan and Alan Bishop’s white-painted Victorian villa B&B is a good base during festivals, races and all things in between.

Epicurean delights and country comforts add up to a top-notch B&B in a Cotwolds village.

Quirky and sophisticated: Lana and Sebastian Snow twist expectations at their 18th-century Cotswold dining pub-with-rooms.

With an eye on the Imperial Gardens across the road, this well-restored Georgian villa has a bijou, grown-up atmosphere.