‘In a picture-perfect village of limestone cottages, this former coaching inn close to the River Wye and medieval Shipwash Bridge offers a modern take on a traditional country inn,’ writes a Guide inspector. A casualty of the pandemic, it closed in 2020, but reopened in 2024 after a £1.6m refurbishment, mixing ‘calm, restful colours and botanical-design wallpaper’ with ‘ancient beams and exposed stone, anthropomorphic animal portraits and old black-and-white photos’. Bedrooms, ranging from compact doubles with shower to suites with perhaps an in-room roll-top bath, have a Roberts radio and espresso machine. In ‘small but perfectly furnished’ Churchdale there was some noise from the kitchen below. In the dining room, a conservatory with retractable roof, and outside, the menu offers sharing plates, pub favourites, ‘the odd Asian-influenced dish’ (stir-fried Thai noodles; tandoori monkfish), ‘delicious sweet potato risotto with kale and broccoli’; for dessert Bakewell tart with crème anglaise and raspberry sorbet. ‘Excellent, elegantly presented’ breakfast dishes include the full English and veggie, smoked salmon muffin, American-style pancakes with Greek yoghurt and berry compote. Overall, it was ‘unstuffy, local and visitor friendly'.