‘Excellent all round.’ It is more than 50 years since farmer’s wife Myrtle Allen launched the modest restaurant that would burgeon into hotel, shop, café, cookery school and event space. Still, traditional values endure. ‘It maintains the personal touch and intimacy of a country house,’ say Guide readers this year. The family enterprise is centred on a Georgian house grafted onto the remains of a Norman castle keep. ‘We enjoyed walking the grounds, visiting the chickens and piglets, and strolling in the well-maintained walled garden and cookery school potager.’ Bedrooms are pretty and traditional, and made cheery with garden blooms. ‘Our large room opened on to a small patio near the swimming pool. We had plenty of storage space; a beautifully appointed bathroom with fluffy towels, a bathtub and an excellent shower.’ Dinner, including multiple courses of chef Jason Fahey’s ‘very good food’, is ‘an elaborate affair that pleases the foodies’. Here, home-grown produce stars in country dishes such as poached monkfish, tomato and basil sauce, green beans. Sample more garden glories at breakfast, with dollops of home-made jams and compotes. (Patricia Higgins, and others)