Morston Hall

Thirty years after they first welcomed guests to their knapped-flint former farmhouse on the edge of the marshes, Tracy and Galton Blackiston preside over a thriving hotel with Michelin-starred kitchen. From his first catering venture, a stall in Rye market, Galton moved on to work at Miller Howe in Windermere for the late John Tovey, whose ‘Tonight at 8.30’ extravaganzas set a new style for fine dining. At Morston guests enjoy canapés in a lounge or alfresco, before a seven-course dinner of local and home-grown produce. A menu might run from butternut squash velouté to Bungay raw-milk cream and blackcurrant, via Stiffkey sea bass with whey butter sauce, and slow-braised belly pork. ‘The food was out of this world,’ a happy reader writes. House bedrooms – a contemporary take on the country house look – are named after local stately homes, such as dog-friendly, dual-aspect Sandringham. In a garden pavilion, suites have a separate seating area and a terrace. Breakfast on freshly squeezed pink grapefruit juice, local apple juice, smoked kipper or a full English with kidneys and boudin noir. ‘A fantastic place.’