'A really nice place to stay, in a lovely quiet village setting,' this beautifully renovated 17th-century thatched inn lives anew as a local pub with rooms. Manager Claire Lenkowiec and chef Valerio Grimaldi-Plant run the show for the owners and, by George, they get it right! Three chic bedrooms above the pub and six in converted stables have smart bathrooms with underfloor heating, a coffee machine, handmade truffles and botanical toiletries. Dog-friendly garden rooms, one fully accessible, open directly onto terrace and garden. In a beamed, flagstone-floored bar frequented by locals, horse brasses and Buddy Holly prints hang over the inglenook where a log-burner blazes. Fifties film posters and George V in ermine grace the walls. The menu mixes pub classics with dishes such as local venison and red wine casserole, or artichoke and black truffle ravioli. You can eat in the dining room or on the all-weather terrace. Breakfast, which can be enjoyed in bed, brings fresh pastries, butcher's sausages, sourdough toast, local jams, porridge with Transylvanian acacia honey. (Bill Wood, and others)