‘The epitome of a perfect British, family-run country hotel,’ writes a Guide reader this year, about Anne Young’s restored 16th-century vicarage. Alix Baldwin, the owner’s daughter, is the manager; ‘friendly staff are always on hand to help’. The attention to detail is praised: ‘We celebrated a wedding anniversary ten years after our last fête at the hotel, and were amazed at how Anne and her team dug up records of each guest’s accommodation, so they could be offered the same room again.’ These bedrooms, each ‘delightfully named after a local figure’, are ‘well equipped’ with bathrobes, mineral water, fresh fruit and home-made shortbread; some have garden views, too. In the conservatory restaurant, chef Adam Conduit’s ‘imaginative’ modern cooking is thought ‘outstanding’. His seasonal menus – perhaps accompanied by the ‘enjoyable’ Cuvée Alix from the vineyard – may include Creedy Carver duck, chilli-and-thyme potato rösti, griottine cherry, kale. Try the honey at breakfast, then stroll through the ‘extensive, well-kept’ grounds, past flower meadows and wetlands, in search of the hotel’s beehives. (Jeanette and David Leibling, AW, and others)