With beams, cottage-style bedrooms and beautiful gardens running down to the River Stour, this 16th-century Cotswold manor house in pretty South Warwickshire countryside not far from Stratford-upon-Avon makes a charming B&B.

It was nearly Howard's end in 2015 before two local families stepped in to restore the fortunes of this 'traditional village pub on the village green', which makes a great base for exploring the Cotswolds with its 'upmarket pub food, good service and excellent breakfasts'.

For bed and bard, you won’t find better than the Eden Collection’s child-friendly, dog-friendly, Georgian red-brick hotel, official partner of the RSC, right opposite the Royal Shakespeare and Swan theatres, with smart contemporary interiors, brasserie and alfresco dining.

Close to Stratford-upon-Avon, this gastropub has 16 attractive, generously equipped bedrooms in an annexe block, each with a Juliet balcony or patio. It serves sophisticated dishes alongside pub classics indoors and out.

Flower-bedecked and wonderfully wonky, Janet and Stuart Baldry's Tudor black-and-white cottage and former dairy by the entrance to Warwick Castle is a welcoming B&B with comfortable bedrooms, one with an antique, carved four-poster, one with access to a patio garden.

A short stroll from the Swan of Avon's birthplace, this 15th-century inn is now a Fuller's pub with some very characterful rooms, serving real ales, pub classics and more imaginative dishes.

In leafy Edgbaston, a whitewashed Victorian villa is home to this colourful boutique-style guest house, its modern bedrooms furnished with some antique and retro furniture, with a bright sitting room, and Art Deco sister gastropub next door.

Behind adjacent shopfronts on the marketplace, this vivaciously styled restaurant with rooms wins high praise for its generously equipped, affordable, beautifully presented bedrooms and short, exciting seasonal menus, with dishes from the charcoal grill.