Whitelock’s is the oldest public house in Leeds. It has preserved it's rich history and charm, while infusing it with new life and and passion. It serves a wide selection of real ale and craft beers – many from Yorkshire breweries – alongside a menu of fresh, home-cooked and locally sourced food.

The Spanish City is a dining-and-leisure centre in Whitley Bay, a seaside town in North Tyneside. It opened in 1910 as a concert hall, restaurant, roof garden and tearoom. Located near the seafront, the Grade II listed building with Renaissance-style frontage is a must next time you visit Tyneside.

Once a best-kept secret, Dinings now has a reputation larger than its compact, converted-townhouse setting. Getting a table in the basement needs booking; but there may be a spare stool at the street-level sushi counter. Whatever your thoughts on the venue itself, the food is indisputably excellent.

This is one of the most influential Arts and Crafts gardens in Britain, with its linked ‘rooms' of hedges, rare trees, shrubs and herbaceous borders. Created by Lawrence Johnston, it is owned by the National Trust and open to the public.

Kayagum, or gayageum, is the Korean version of the East Asian horizontal harp zither. Traditional ones have 12 strings; they are tuned to a pentatonic scale. Modern ones have 23 or 25 strings; they are generally tuned to a diatonic scale, suitable for playing Western songs and modern compositions.

This annual show combines quintessential examples of English farming life with wacky spin-offs from the rural environment: witness the judging of the traditional ‘largest vegetable’ as well as the more unusual ‘sheep racing’. With a friendly ambience and lots to do, its perfect for a family day out.

This National Trust property, overlooking the Menai Straits, has spectacular views across to Snowdonia. Home to the Marquess of Anglesey, it offers much history and contains a Rex Whistler mural. Its delightful woodland walks and gardens provide a perfect destination for a family day out.

Behind the forest and dunes of the beautiful Newborough Sands, the Marram Grass endeavours to create flavoursome combinations using locally sourced produce. Enjoy its ‘taste of Anglesey’ menu, including the eight-course taster menu or the wild sea bass after a walk on the foreshore.

Ludlow, well known for its food, boasts this stylish café with an idyllic setting by the River Teme, only a five-minute stroll into the town centre. The mixture of European-styled tapas and traditional English food – all locally sourced – served by friendly staff, makes it a lovely place to stop at.

Set in the heart of the beautiful Shropshire landscape, this garden-centre-cum-café offers a delightful range of plants suitable for all aspects of your home. Eat delicious home-made food, including freshly baked frittata, and take in the glorious views across to Clee Hill. A great place for a lunch

Kate Lycett is an artist who paints lovely townscapes and slightly surrealist landscapes. She makes lights by printing her paintings onto card and fashioning ‘crown’-style lanterns, which arrive in the post flat-packed, and then morph into glowing streetscapes when you put a tealight in the middle.

A strong, beautiful composite material, similar to fibreglass but made from wiry, black-blue Herdwick wool and bioresin… It aims to make the most of wool – now considered little more than a by-product of sheep farming. Items made with the new material include chairs, tables, side mats and coasters.

An excellent, portable, loaf-making terracotta oven pot steam-bakes bread, so that you can make an excellent artisan-esque loaf in a normal oven. The resulting bread has ‘a good rise and a crunchy bite’ so I’m told.

A Pickleback is a shot of whisky followed by a chaser of pickle juice. Vile or delicious, it’s tricky to say – but surely worth a try. Florence Cherrault went to New York city and very much enjoyed these, so she started her own company making pickle juices to go with cocktails.

Forty chapters with illustrations cover unusual and thoughtful ways to travel the country. Stevenson focuses on the mode of transport or an experience: a beautiful pub in Belfast, taking the steam train into Snowdonia, or following Orkney’s drystone walls. It’s a fun read.

Award-winning smoked hummus – this really is like hummus never tasted before. Traditional artisan methods are used to conjure a special smoked twist. Flavours include garlic and Sicilian lemon aioli; smoked hummus with chilli harissa; and smoked hummus with lemon and dill.

Part of the trust’s work involves supporting farmers who rear rare breeds for meat. It is argued that supporting these farmers ensures that the breeds are looked after, maintained and protected. Many rare breeds are at risk, including some of the UK’s much-loved pigs.

Henrietta Adams is a thirtysomething pattern-cutter who grew up near the Devon coast. She has started a company designing and selling ethically made cotton shirts for women. They are 100 per cent organic cotton and handwoven in India. She now has a shop in Hackney and it is well worth a look.

Hot-off-the-loom handkerchiefs designed and made by young Belgian sculptor Elisabeth Lamarche under her new label, Sissila. Designed in Luxembourg and made in Italy, her illustrations are charming and the categories on her website are quite sassy – you can choose ‘dapper’ or ‘classy’. 

This small business pioneers the ‘Plant Post Club’. Subscribers receive a monthly package of an unusual plant in a handmade pot. It hopes to start a ‘grow your own rare plant kit’ and extend its workshop offering to include classes on ‘how to grow a mini living wall with air-purifying plants’

Domestic vessels destined for the pearly gates of homeware heaven are being saved by Londoner Rob Laurie and turned into lamps. Rob can turn your own important vessel into a lamp. He's done a 27-litre wine bottle and is about to start on an old fire extinguisher. Have a look at his excellent website

This podcast won silver for Most Original Podcast at the 2018 British Podcast Awards. Described as a poetry-themed ‘Desert Island Discs’, guests – who have included Maxine Peake– are asked which poem has been a friend to them. Thoughtful, digestible, and you learn about the speakers in the process.

Elizabeth Day interviews authors, playwrights and journalists on the subject of failure. The idea being that what you fail in, teaches you many valuable lessons. So far, she’s had conversations with Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the youthful writer of ‘Fleabag’, Sathnam Sanghera and David Nicholls.

Hosted by John Mitchinson of Unbound and Andy Miller, the author of ‘The Year of Reading Dangerously’, this podcast aims to ‘give new life to old books’. Released once a fortnight, it’s a good hour-long discussion about a book by a dead author, an example being Tolkien’s ‘The Return of the King’.

A Georgian country house, hotel and members’ club in the heart of Somerset. The interiors are true to the Soho House collective aesthetic with the ‘city in the country’ feel – total luxury and incredibly tasteful. Take the kids for early tea while you attend a pool party. It’s jolly luxurious.