In leather and tweed, burnished wood and rustic plaid, Dominic Wood’s ‘lovely old pub’ is a ‘delightful, friendly place’. ‘It’s extraordinarily good value, too,’ adds a Guide reader this year. Popular with locals and visitors, who come for the buzzy Sunday lunches and week-round range of local ales and ciders, the 17th-century mellow stone coaching inn stands near a meandering stream off the River Windrush. Country-style bedrooms are in the main building and around the courtyard. ‘Our comfortable, beautifully converted courtyard room afforded us a peaceful night.’ Pub classics and more sophisticated plates (perhaps pan-fried hake, curly kale, truffle mash) populate the menu; breakfasts are ‘top notch and imaginative’. Asthall Manor, the Mitford sisters’ childhood home, is down the lane. 2 miles from Burford.