ONE of the region's leading hotels has been named one of the best in the UK.
The AA Hotels of the Year awards named Seaham Hall Hotel, near Sunderland, in its top three and said it was "superb".
Seaham Hall, owned by Tom and Jocelyn Maxfield, is famous as the place where Romantic poet Lord Byron was married.
The couple bought the run-down hall, once home to coal barons, the Londonderry family, in 1997 and spent more than £20m on the site.
It features a £10m spa offering 80 treatments.
It was one of two hotels to win accolades.
The Star Inn, Harome, North Yorkshire, was one of only 27 hotels in Great Britain and Ireland to be awarded full marks from an independent industry guide.
Harden's Hotel Guide 2004, based on reports from 2,500 hotel users, awarded the inn a "Three Smiley" citation, its highest mark.
The rating aims to show whether a hotel delivers a good experience, bearing in mind the prices it charges.
The Star Inn made the grade ahead of household names including The Ritz and The Dorchester, in London.
The most widely praised hotels in the book are Raymond Blanc's Manoir aux Quat' Saisons at Great Milton, in Oxfordshire, and Martin Skan's Chewton Glen, at New Milton, in Hampshire.
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