Developments are afoot at this hotel, centred on a Georgian coach house, ‘in a glorious setting on a huge estate with beautiful walled garden’. The owner, James Allison, grew up in Palladian Middleton Lodge; his architect partner, Rebecca Tappin, was responsible for the hotel’s design. Beside the restored kitchen garden, three Potting Shed bedrooms have been added, and 11 (mainly family) rooms are scheduled to open in the Dovecote (a swimming pool is also being built). The original bedrooms are in the coach house and farmhouse, with ground-floor garden rooms boasting a small private terrace. Trusted readers found one of these rooms ‘amazing’, with log-burning stove, underfloor heating, ‘a huge, very comfortable bed’, a bathroom ‘almost as big’, with a walk-in shower, a freestanding bath by the window. A mid-priced room, ‘up steep steps’, was less liked. The restaurant and bar occupy the lofty stables. Chef Gareth Rayner’s ‘excellent dinner’ might include grilled cod, brassica, seaweed butter; pork belly, cabbage, black pudding, apple. Breakfast brings smoothies, pancakes, eggs Benedict with York ham.