A tiny lane just off the High Street in a bustling market town leads to a striking Palladian villa set by a circular courtyard of hornbeam trees. Les and Vanessa Scott have created a ‘playful, welcoming’ retreat that’s eco-aware to boot. Hannah and Dominic Hughes, the owners’ daughter and husband, manage day to day. Filled with eclectic pieces, the villa blends ‘imaginative’ decor with practical amenities. The ‘comfortable’ bedrooms, in the main building and converted outbuildings, may have a deep antique bath before a cinema screen; a mural of angels and nymphs flitting above your baroque bedhead; a bed with a gilt mirror at one end, a copper stand-alone tub at the other, a red velvet chesterfield sofa. Opium, which perhaps inspired the design, has an elaborately carved oriental bedhead. The Scotts’ eco credentials are particularly evident in the award-winning restaurant with rustic white stone walls and gold-hued furniture, where Dan Freear’s modern British locally sourced dishes include produce from the hosts’ kitchen garden. Breakfast is served in the popular CoCoes deli, before its acclaimed fishcakes (‘crisp outside, light inside’) appear at lunch.