This cocoon of Cotswolds loveliness on the Southrop Manor estate feels like a village within a village and has evolved from a field-to-fork cookery school into a fully fledged spa hotel.

Looking at its creeper-clad exterior, complete with gables and mullioned windows, you’d never dream this Miss Marple-style manor house was home to such a sexy spa.

You’ll know flamboyance is the name of the game from your first sight of this Italianate 1850s mansion. Its magical gardens are fairy-dusted with modern art, Victorian water cascades and a glass-fronted C-Side spa.

Cheltenham gets the tourists, which is fine by the locals who love Cirencester and, in particular, this stylishly revamped medieval inn, which occupies pride of place in its market square.

Steeped in seven centuries of history, the Lygon Arms has the gravitas of time-worn flagstones and oodles of oak supplemented by the glamour of modern additions such as its swanky new spa.

Chipping Campden is one of the Cotswolds’ cutest towns and this hotel, draped across four grade II listed Regency townhouses, occupies a peachy spot on its arty high street. Squirrelled away at the bottom of its lovely gardens is a secret spa in the old coach house.

You’ll wish you were in a Jane Austen bonnet and travelling by carriage as you approach this Georgian Palladian manor. It may be a fantasy of days gone by, but its spa brings it bang up to date.

The precision-clipped maze and croquet on the lawn set the scene at this quintessentially English country-house hotel, which is delightfully traditional everywhere except its £7 million spa complex.

This 16th-century manor set in 90 acres of parkland knows how to put on the ritz; you can even get a chauffeur-driven Bentley to Cheltenham Races.

The odd rumble of traffic reminds you that you’re not far from busy Cheltenham at this 16th-century Elizabethan manor house, but the views are 100 per cent bucolic and brilliant.