There’s charm a-plenty at Jenny Hadfield’s B&B on cobbled Mermaid Street, its interior a characterful mix of low beams, blazing fires, dark panelling, labyrinthine passages and steep stairs.

‘The warmth of the welcome, the good food, the atmosphere and the unspoilt environs are hard to beat,’ writes a regular Guide correspondent in 2016, of the Wild family’s hotel in a ‘charming’ village near Chichester harbour.

With ‘excellent food and comfortable rooms’, Jeremy Mogford’s luxury hotel ‘never disappoints’, writes a trusted Guide correspondent, a regular guest, in 2016.

‘The sheer number of returnees bears witness’ to the ‘warm welcome’ at Clive James and David Stott’s ‘cheerful, meticulously informal’ restaurant-with-rooms at the foot of the South Downs national park.

‘Top of its class’, this ‘wonderful’, well-run country house hotel and spa beneath the South Downs wins praise from guests who appreciate the ‘beautiful’, ‘well-maintained’ grounds and the ‘intimate’, ‘relaxed’ atmosphere within.

In a pretty village in the South Downs national park, ‘thoughtful’ hosts Heather and Patrick Birchenough greet B&B guests with tea and ‘a firm handshake’.

‘Standards remain reassuringly high’ at Jeremy Mogford’s ‘well-run’, ‘very pleasant’ hotel, in a ‘perfect’ location steps from the Bodleian Library.

Make merry at this convivial, creeper-covered country house standing in gardens with abundant ‘space for gambolling’. Inside, expect a jolly mish-mash of oil portraits, boar’s heads, wellies to borrow.

Travellers who stop at this Georgian manor house on the way to Dover or the Channel Tunnel might be tempted to go no further.

Beloved for its ‘wonderfully old-fashioned’ aura, this ‘majestic’, ‘splendidly luxurious’ Victorian hotel exults on the seafront, basking in the praise of ardent fans who have long lobbied for a full entry in the Guide.

Train buffs make tracks for this ‘quirky’ B&B, occupying a handsomely restored timber-built late Victorian station and four refurbished Pullman carriages on the disused railway line.

‘A foodie destination’, Karen and Ramon Farthing’s restaurant-with-rooms occupies a 17th-century inn on Chichester Harbour, with shimmering views of the sea and tidal lagoon.

Country pub meets boutique guest house at this brick-built 17th-century coaching inn within the South Downs national park.

Yearning for Morocco’s charms? Keen on Manhattan’s city-slick style? Check into Max O’Rourke’s ‘splendidly quirky’ hotel on the Sussex seafront, where bedrooms are inspired by far-off travels.

‘Stuffiness is taboo’ at Lee and Katie Williams’s ‘superb’ restaurant-with-rooms.

The ‘lovely, warm atmosphere’ at Brendan McDonagh’s elegant B&B puts guests in ‘a good mood’, say Guide inspectors in 2016.

Come twilight, this chic riverside hotel/restaurant glows over the Thames. ‘Close enough to London to get all the benefits of the city, but far enough away to be tranquil’, it is owned by mother-and-daughter team Ruth and Samantha Trinder, who transformed two Grade II listed 18th-century houses into a refined, modern space with ‘sumptuous’ interiors.

‘We were seriously impressed,’ write trusted correspondents this year of Jake Saul Watkins’s ‘well-regarded’, Michelin-starred restaurant-with-rooms.

Sarah Burgoyne’s ‘beautiful’ Grade II listed Georgian manor house in a Wealden village is filled with antiques and oil paintings, and surrounded by flower-filled gardens, ‘glorious’ in all seasons.

‘Stunning’, super-hip yet utterly serene, this country house hotel and spa in the heart of the New Forest is a sophisticated, rustic playground for the stylish set.

‘Brilliantly placed’ for exploiting a wealth of Kentish history, this 18th-century house was restored by the Mathiases and transformed into a ‘comfortable home’ and ‘informal’ B&B, where ‘friendly, chatty’ Lynn Mathias welcomes visitors with tea and a baked treat fresh from her Aga.

On a ‘remote’ cliff-top at Beachy Head, surrounded by ‘dramatic landscape’, this decommissioned lighthouse hosts an ‘original’, ‘characterful’ B&B.

In a ‘delightful’ converted 300-year-old malthouse in a tiny Cotswolds village, Tony and Amanda Timmer continue to receive feathers in their cap.

Andrew Russell has elevated innkeeping to a real ‘craft’: his popular 16th-century free house is well stocked with fare from local microbreweries and English vineyards.