‘The place abounds with creative uses of old, mainly farm, paraphernalia.’ Guide inspectors enjoyed Nick Dent’s diverting Georgian farmhouse turned dog-friendly hotel with most rooms in converted outbuildings. After an ‘enthusiastic’ welcome from the manager, they were shown to a ‘spacious’ stables room with ‘nice old agricultural bits and pieces ranged outside’. It had an emperor-size bed, leather wing armchairs and ‘an old suitcase that worked well as the receptacle for hospitality drinks’; a bath with a good shower over, Bramley toiletries. Main-house rooms are smarter, perhaps with in-room bath. Intriguing upcycling is a constant feature: mirrors in old windows, lights in milk pails, shelves from wooden crates. In a ‘light, modern’ dining room with a display of garden tools, guests sit down at ‘tables of mixed shapes and sizes’, to Sandor Szucs’s ‘unusual combinations and flavours’. For instance, marinated duck breast, Calabrese rice, roasted golden beetroot, carrot mash, green tea-cured parsnips, apple gin glaze. There are vegan, gluten-free and children’s menus. Breakfast brings kippers, egg and soldiers. Sister pub The Boathouse, opposite, overlooks the canal. (N and CH)