Stamford by Stephen Emms

And no, she doesn’t mean Stoke Newington’s venerable neighbour. In fact, this stone-built Georgian town in Lincolnshire – allegedly the finest in England – is oddly familiar, perhaps because it’s starred in period dramas like Middlemarch and Pride & Prejudice.

And parking up on a sub-zero night, it was indeed like stepping onto a film set, the fog as thick as dry ice, as we clawed our way to the reception of The Crown, a 17th-century boutique hotel near the picturesque Red Lion Square (don’t miss its market on Saturday mornings).

After a quick bite in the Regency boudoir-themed restaurant (a retro-tastic prawn cocktail followed by steak with onion rings), we sought a perfect post-prandial pub with roaring fire – and lucked out with the charismatic Tobie Norris (St Paul’s Street), which dates back to 1280, and boasts stone floors, wood burners, vaulted ceilings – and a crowd more than willing to extol the virtues of their municipality.

After a restless night (avoid the one room directly above The Crown’s rowdy late-night bar), the next morning we shivered down seductive Georgian streets, taking refuge from the chill in boutiques, antiques emporiums and second-hand bookshops.

Our highlight, however, was lunch at the medieval George Hotel, near the banks of the ivy-green River Welland, where, in the vast courtyard, in which a gnarled mulberry tree dates back to James 1, we stumbled upon our very own period drama: a glamorous wedding party between two young RAF pilots, complete with violin quartets, hundreds of men in uniform and overflowing champagne glasses.