The White Hart Royal Hotel

Built in the 1400s as a coaching inn where the Fosse Way met the old London-to-Worcester road, the White Hart Royal sheltered King Charles I twice during the English Civil War, in 1644 and 1645. A 17th-century diary later found in the Huntington Library confirmed both stays. The building grew with the town's fortunes: a Georgian front was added in 1782, and when the railway reached Moreton-in-Marsh in 1853, owner Robert King secured the royal coat of arms and renamed the inn in the monarch's honour. Wattle-and-daub sections from its earliest years remain, along with a Tudor fireplace in the Snug Bar. It is now part of the Coaching Inn Group, restored under a programme that keeps oak beams and sash windows alongside smart TVs and fast wifi. Rooms range from compact Classic Doubles to Deluxe Doubles with four-poster beds, some opening onto private gardens. The Courtyard Restaurant serves modern British food from local suppliers, and Sunday lunch draws on the same seasonal sourcing. Set on the High Street, the hotel stands among 17th- and 18th-century Cotswold stone buildings, with an open-air market filling the street every Tuesday. Check-in runs from 3pm. There is no on-site parking, but a municipal car park sits two minutes' walk away.