One friendly hotel we’ve found in the pretty town of Midhurst, West Sussex, in the centre of the South Downs National Park, is the Angel Hotel and Bentley’s Grill, a traditional old coaching inn, with rooms dating from the 17th century

This offers charities free use of its £150 per day meeting room for up to 70, formerly the magistrates courtroom till 1880 and still bearing the inscription: “I will not change until I die”, although whether this applied to the magistrates, or the criminals they tried here, is unknown. Charities are also offered discounts on food and beverage consumed. One former consumer here was H.G.Wells, who lodged a few doors away and used the hotel as a setting in some of his books.

Today it’s the little touches that mark the hotel out – the choice of free newspaper delivered to the room, the free bottles of still and sparkling water, the homemade biscuits with the tea/coffee, the Gilchrist and Soames toiletries. And the breakfast we were given, which included homemade fruit compote, good French yoghurts in glass pots and scrambled egg cooked soft, ( and on toast spread with butter and Marmite) as we like it , all bear out the observation that the place is run by foodies.

There are 15 bedrooms, inclusive two suites, and nine rooms have baths.

Tel 01730 812421 www.theangelmidhurst.co.uk