‘Excellent standards are being maintained,’ confirms a Guide trusty this year, after staying at this village inn with rooms overlooking the Vale of Mowbray. One of two main-house bedrooms had ‘a very comfortable king-size bed and spacious shower room’. Housekeeping was ‘of the highest order’. Dog-friendly, ground-level rooms are ranged around a landscaped garden; each has a super-king-size bed, seating area, minibar, private terrace. Some rooms interconnect for family use. There are gun safes and drying wardrobes for country sports enthusiasts. The pub is part of Yorkshire-based Provenance Inns, which specialises in character village properties close to beautiful countryside. (See also Cleveland Tontine, Northallerton, in Shortlist.) In the dining room, with ‘wonderful distant views’, chef Lee Purcell’s locally menus include produce from the company’s Mount St John kitchen garden. For instance, roasted Dales lamb, charred leeks, creamed potato, rosemary jus. ‘Food first rate, especially fennel and clam soup and twice-baked Yorkshire cheese soufflé; tasty steak; nothing fancy but well presented.’ Breakfast includes rare-breed pork sausages, home-made black pudding. (Robert Gower)