With their background in TV and film, Sara Curran and Peter Sussman are experts in presentation. Since taking over in April 2022, they have hung artworks collected on their travels, refreshed the beautiful interiors, and added a Michelin-recommended brasserie to their 'exceptional hotel'.

In rose-filled gardens approached by a bridge across a stream, the Wild family's hotel, converted from three 17th-century cottages a stroll from its own quayside, has well-equipped, country-classic bedrooms, and both formal and informal dining in restaurant and brasserie.

You can almost imagine you're in rural France when you stay in one of the luxury self-catering lodges among the vines on this family-run wine estate, with farm-to-table menus in the restaurant, and tours and tastings for visitors.

Babe of the litter, this little piggy occupies a crenellated Georgian house and former pub built into the medieval city wall, with an artful granny's attic aesthetic, just a dozen bedrooms, and a deli using produce from the kitchen garden at the mother Pig at Brockenhurst in the New Forest.

Dog friendly, child friendly, cosy and characterful, this historic village inn near the South Downs Way has bedrooms that blend quirky rusticity with modern comforts, along with a menu of pub classics and more modern dishes.

The actor Colin Firth is a fan of 'the hospitality, the food, the comfort of the rooms', not to mention the location at this sprawling, cliff-top Edwardian house.

Surrounded by Rylestone Gardens, with its tearooms and bandstand, Carole and Mike Hailston's cottage-orné-style Victorian residence with Tudor and Gothic elements is presented in traditional style, with period furnishings, and a breakfast cooked by the enthusiastic host.

Like all Butcombe gastropubs with rooms, this whitewashed Georgian village local retains its personality while offering smart bedrooms and creative cooking along with pub classics.