With ancient foundations, this black-and-white-timbered Tudor pile, on the high street of a medieval town, has been run as an inn since at least 1564.

An ‘easy informality’ fills this ‘fun’ hotel, in an ‘unspoilt’ Cotswold village in the green Slad valley. The newest in the Calcot Hotels group, it enters the Guide thanks to inspectors who found it ‘a happy place, with attentive staff’.

White-glove service may be the norm at any luxury hotel, but even the youngest guests receive white-mitten treatment at this exceptionally family-friendly spot.

Find peace, tranquillity and a finely cooked English beef fillet at Janine and Richard Burton’s ‘well-run’ hotel and restaurant on the High Street of this ‘lovely’ market town.

‘Very much a town hotel’ (‘at teatime it was full of people taking tea; in the morning, it was heaving with coffee drinkers’), this popular spot attracts many guests who return for the ‘friendly welcome’ and the ‘pleasant, unfussy’ service.

‘High standards are faultlessly maintained’ at Imogen Skirving’s much-loved, somewhat eccentric hotel in the Vale of Belvoir.

In ‘attractive’ gardens, ‘just as fetching in winter frost as in the spring’, this honey-stoned former rectory welcomes guests into plush luxury (with, some visitors point out, a price tag to match).

Walkers and countryside explorers find a warm welcome at Vivienne and Philip Taylor’s B&B, in a scenic spot within the Peak District national park.

By the remains of the medieval castle moat, this ‘excellent’, ‘welcoming’ hotel ‘would be difficult to better’, says a trusted Guide correspondent this year.

On the ramparts of Nottingham’s medieval castle, this modern, purpose-built hotel has a princely view over the whole city.

History is baked into the walls at Helen and Roger Wynn’s ‘good-value’ restaurant-with-rooms, in an Elizabethan magistrates’ court on the banks of the River Wye.

Soak in the ‘serenity’ and ‘romantic air’ of this ‘relaxed’ 17th-century gabled stone manor house, once home to the garden designer Rosemary Verey.

‘Intimate and informal, this characterful, family-run Georgian manor house fits the bill for quiet weekends away,’ say Guide inspectors in 2016.

Andrew and Gaynor Riley’s ‘excellent’ restaurant-with-rooms is ‘unhesitatingly recommended’ by regular Guide readers, who praise the ‘exceptional’ food, the ‘rather special’ rooms, and the staff who ‘take the trouble to please’.

The Stagg made history in 2001 as the first pub in Britain to earn a Michelin star – a coup for Nicola and Steve Reynolds, who’d taken on the abandoned inn just three years before, and have run it with grace and flair ever since.

‘A quiet oasis,’ writes a regular Guide reader this year, of Sean Hope and Ben Jones’s well-liked village pub/restaurant-with-rooms.

‘It was a total joy to return,’ write readers this year on their fourth visit to Tracey Baylis and Alex Read’s B&B in a rural hamlet.

‘Pleasing’ public rooms, ‘helpful’ staff, an ‘attractive’ garden and a ‘central position’ by the green make this Broadway character a show-stealer.

‘A fantastic surprise. More in the style of a micro country house than a rustic hang-out, this inn has been made over with impeccable taste. It oozes character.’

Mod cons in a milking parlour, designer chic in a cider mill – along with a working farm, well-regarded restaurant and cookery school, Judy Gardner’s ‘comfortably rural’ set-up has much to please.

Mark and Alison Booth spent a king’s ransom to transform this medieval inn on the market square from staid to ‘state of the art’.

‘A stunning place for a special stay’, Willem and Pippa Vlok’s ‘tranquil’ restaurant-with-rooms in rolling countryside is praised for its ‘exceptional staff’, ‘warm welcome’ and ‘fabulous food’.

‘A haven’ in the centre, Chris and Zoe Hipwell’s ‘very special’ Grade II listed town house hotel has ‘superb views’ of the valley, and ‘challenging walks’ from the door.

It’s been suggested that this 400-year-old Cotswold stone inn was one of Shakespeare’s haunts. Just a myth? Perhaps, but the bard would surely recognise the polished flagstones, hearth fire and easy-going atmosphere that attract visitors today.