Plumber Manor

An ancestral home under the care of the Prideaux-Brune family, this ‘wonderfully quiet’ 17th-century country house in ‘lovely, well-cared-for’ gardens has been a hotel since 1972. Its many devotees love its eccentricities and the unfailing warmth and bonhomie of Richard Prideaux-Brune as front-of-house. ‘Richard welcomed us and looked after us beautifully.’ There is ‘a timeless feel’ about the faded, old-fashioned setting, all log fires, antique sofas, and portraits in gilded frames: ‘It is indeed a true escape.’ Less liked is a sense, shared by some guests, that the house has escaped the modern world. ‘One of the charms of Plumber is its lack of “smart” or “chic”. However, “genteel dilapidation” can be taken too far.’ ‘Comfortable’, staunchly traditional bedrooms are floral and homely, with shortbread biscuits. The formal dining rooms remain ‘exquisite’. Here, Brian Prideaux-Brune’s daily-changing menu, which might include roast guineafowl, black cherries, cinnamon, is ‘fantastic’ – like the house over its many years, ‘the chef hasn’t changed, either’. (Humphrey and Frances Norrington, and others)