Jeake’s House

Creeper-clad and atmospheric, Jenny Hadfield’s B&B stands on the steep, cobbled main street of this medieval hilltop town. It occupies a glorious agglomeration of 17th-century merchant’s house and adjacent listed buildings, including a former wool store and a chapel. Each bedroom has its own charms; the best are named after notable people associated with the house. Steep stairs lead up to Conrad Aiken (who owned the house from 1924), with an antique four-poster. Malcolm Lowry (who visited Aiken here) has a toile-draped antique four-poster, a roll-top bath and walk-in shower. You can relax by a log-burner in the parlour, and help yourself to drinks in the theatrically styled bar. Breakfast, cooked by Richard Martin, and served in the galleried former chapel, brings award-winning sausages, free-range eggs, oak-smoked haddock and smashed avocado on toast. ‘We loved the deep 
red walls of the dining room, with old prints and two great portraits. Breakfast was one of the best ever, with devilled kidneys,’ writes a trusted reader. Private parking is a ‘boon’. (Richard Bright, MA, and others)