‘Whenever a special date crops up, we make a beeline for Gravetye and have never been disappointed.’

We have readers who have been returning for more than 20 years to the Wild family’s traditional hotel ‘in a picturesque village’ once known for oyster fishing.

On a quiet side street in this photogenic town on the River Windrush, the Lamb has been receiving guests since the 1750s.

David Stott and Clive James ‘nurture an atmosphere of repose and tranquillity, along with informality and laughter and the friendliest of warm welcomes’ at their restaurant-with-rooms beneath the South Downs.

There are treats in store for guests behind the chequerboard facade of this B&B, in a ‘pretty’ South Downs village close to Chichester.

Innovative hotelier Robin Hutson turned to pig husbandry in 2011, alchemising this New Forest hunting lodge into the mother of his still-growing family of Pig hotels (see index).

Some grown men play with train sets. Gudmund Olafsson went further in 2005, when he bought one of Britain’s most beautiful railway stations, renovating the property and the four Edwardian Pullman carriages on its disused line.

‘Well placed for visiting the historic market towns' of Midhurst and Petworth, Sam and Janet Bakose’s 18th-century inn proved more than halfway decent on a Guide inspection.

Visitors to Lee and Katie Williams’s town-centre restaurant-with-rooms this year raved about ‘everything: the food, the accommodation, the location – all was perfect'.

‘Possibly the friendliest place I have ever stayed in,’ writes a reader in 2019, of Brendan McDonagh’s ‘exquisitely beautiful’ Tudor black-and-white B&B in a quiet Old Town cul-de-sac.

A change of both name and feel for Bingham Riverhouse this year, its ‘more traditional, opulent style’ replaced by ‘something more informal and friendly’, say our inspectors.

‘We enjoyed the waterside location,’ write trusted readers this year, drawn back for a third stay at Sam and Janet Bakose’s 350-year-old inn overlooking Pagham Harbour with its reserve of mudflats and salt marsh.

‘You are essentially staying in someone’s beautiful farmhouse, with an exquisite garden and delicious breakfast.’ A reader reaffirms her support this year for Sarah Burgoyne’s ‘wonderful’ B&B.

At the end of a long drive past rustic cabins, a helipad and a forest-fringed meadow, this 21st-century rebuild of a Georgian lodge is a ‘highly professional, near faultless’ modern country house hotel.

To the lighthouse! And if you have a mind to visit this unique B&B, make it quite soon. In 1999 it had to be moved from the crumbling chalk cliff edge; in around a decade it will be in peril again.

Award-winning chef Kuba Winkowski marks his tenth year at Tony and Amanda Timmer’s ‘truly amazing’ restaurant-with-rooms, in a converted malthouse. Its garden overlooks the Evenlode valley.

A Georgian house ‘charmingly set into the ancient city wall’, this little Piggy is wee, wee, wee – at least, compared with its country cousins.

Pure Evil has been unleashed this past year at Charlotte and Justin Salisbury’s funky hotel. The graffiti artist was one of two brought in to work on bedroom murals at the original Artist Residence.

Trusted friends of the Guide rated this boutique B&B, on the fringe of the Old Town, ‘the nicest’ they had stayed in.

Nick Mash has taken a step back to the future in reinventing the 18th-century red brick Three Horseshoes pub as a restaurant-with-rooms.

The Cotswolds outpost of Justin and Charlotte Salisbury's small boutique hotel collection, this 16th-century hub-of-the-village pub-with-rooms is now a charming, bohemian bolt-hole.

In the Vale of the White Horse guests enjoy ‘delicious’ food, ‘exceptional’ accommodation, and a ‘fine welcome’ at this 18-century country pub with ‘a lovely beer garden’.

‘A hidden treasure.’ On the banks of the Cuckmere river, this handsome, extensively enlarged old farmhouse is run ‘with the highest standards of hospitality'.

On the edge of the New Forest, this comfortable Victorian villa in large grounds is a reviving spot.