‘A lovely little hotel,’ writes a reader on a return visit to Hari and Colin Fell’s ingeniously converted farm buildings in the Forest of Dean. Another reader, on arrival, was impressed by the ‘pleasant garden’, and a ‘warm welcome’. The bedrooms are all comfortable and contemporary, with espresso machine, and fresh milk in a minibar. A mid-price room, ‘up a steep, twisty staircase’, was ‘lovely, with superbly comfortable bed’, armchairs, a desk. ‘Decor was the currently fashionable grey, with a sisal carpet, which sounds clinical, but it wasn’t.’ The bathroom was ‘magnificent, as big as the bedroom, with roll-top bath taking centre stage, and a splendid shower’. In the ‘atmospheric dining room’, chef Rob Cox works with locally produced and home-grown ingredients, rare breed meats, eggs from the hens in the paddock, to create his ‘outstanding’ 20-mile menus. Typical mains: longhorn beef rump, ox cheek, celeriac, horseradish and shallot confit with red wine sauce; poached halibut, leeks, thyme gnocchi, wild mushrooms, chive and cream sauce. Service is ‘leisurely and friendly’, breakfast ‘equally good, with an ample selection’. (Peter Anderson, Andrew and Moira Kleissner)