Multi Award winning Goldstone Hall Hotel & Garden, Shropshire, are to feature in this week’s edition of BBC Gardeners’ World Winter Special 2024/2025 with Carol Klein to be broadcast on Friday 6th December at 8pm. The Gardeners’ World Winter Special episodes celebrate the past year, the changing seasons and the beauty of the gardening year in all its glory. The long running British gardening show has been broadcast since 1968 and stars celebrity gardening presenters such as Carol Klein, Joe Swift and Monty Don.
Owner of Goldstone Hall Hotel, John Cushing, commented: “We were absolutely delighted to welcome the BBC Gardeners’ World team to film at Goldstone, on what turned out to be a balmy summer’s day. After 40 years of developing the 5-acre garden here at Goldstone, we are thrilled that we are able to share it with the nation via the BBC for all to enjoy.”
BBC Gardeners’ World programme listings says: “Carol Klein takes a sensory stroll through the gardens of Goldstone Hall in Shropshire. Buzzing with insects, this is a planting scheme that doesn’t just draw you in with its beauty but also its scent, texture and taste.”
The show is 58 minutes long and is episode 3 (of 4) Winter Specials hosted by Frances Tophill, to be broadcast at 8pm on 6th December and then afterwards on BBC Iplayer shortly after. It will also air as a repeat at 9am on Saturday 7th December.
Goldstone Hall Hotel & Gardens offers 2for1 entry as part of the BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine card offer during their garden open season.
Goldstone Hall Hotel and Garden
The multi award winning, Goldstone Hall, is an independent, family run 12 bedroom country house hotel, restaurant and garden located in the picturesque rolling timbered pastures of North Shropshire. The hotel provides a warm, friendly, and welcoming atmosphere for all guests, whether visiting to stay, dine, celebrate, or unwind. Its charm reflects the surrounding countryside and the family’s personal touch. In winter 2024, the bedrooms are being thoughtfully upgraded, blending character and individuality with contemporary flair, in association with designer’s styling of Andrew Martin and Nina Campbell.
Restaurant
The hotel’s acclaimed restaurant features a diverse, seasonal menu, expertly crafted using produce from its abundant one-acre kitchen garden. This includes a variety of heritage and heirloom vegetables, herbs, fruits and spices all celebrated for their distinctive local flavours. Unique cultivars of edible plants such as oca, yacón and Szechuan pepper add an interesting and exciting twist to the menu and taste experience.
In 2024 the kitchen garden has yielded over 1,000 kilos of produce including rhubarb for 1,000 crumbles, 500 bottles of apple juice, 500 bulbs of garlic and even 3kgs of Szechuan pepper for a sweet chilli sauce.
This one acre productive kitchen garden sits inside a magnificent 5-acre site affiliated as an RHS Partner Garden. It has been owned and run for 40 years, currently by John and Sue Cushing with their daughters Victoria and Katie, who ensure that traditional hospitality meets contemporary sophistication.
Goldstone Gardens and Meadows
The Goldstone Hall multi award winning gardens are mature and intriguingly designed, including formal and informal planting, encapsulating the essence of a quintessential English garden. Overlooking the tree-strewn rolling countryside, the site includes a walled garden, rose terrace, double tiered herbaceous borders, cutting garden, wooded walk, wild flower garden, fragrant arches, unique herbal walkways and productive one a acre kitchen garden. The kitchen garden is currently being expanded and re-developed for 2025 along with a new sustainable composting area so that ‘best practice’ can be shared with garden visitors. Additionally a new plant sales area will commence in May 2025.
Goldstone’s nearby 10 acre meadows—an untouched expanse of pastureland with a tranquil brook—invites guests to stroll and savour the peace and quiet of the countryside. Foraging in hedgerows and meadows has yielded “Ladies Smock,” also known as Cardamine pratensis, wild hop, wild sorrel, wild garlic and ‘Jack in the hedge’ also known as garlic mustard plant or Alliaria petiolata. For winter 2024/2025 drainage works are taking place to enable the feasibility of a vineyard in part of it.
The garden has been designed for relaxation, celebration and enjoyment and is the perfect setting for admiring the well thought out landscaping and planting. The gardens at Goldstone Hall Hotel were initiated by John Cushing’s mother, Helen Ward, who channelled her passion for gardening into transforming the wilderness that was.
The garden is now expertly managed by Head Gardener, Ross Underwood, whose extensive horticultural experience includes roles at Bridgemere Gardens, David Austin Roses, and Hodnet Hall Gardens. A passionate plantsman with RHS Level III certification, Ross also serves as a Trustee for the Dorothy Clive Gardens and is a regular voice on local BBC Radio Shropshire Gardeners’ Show. Ross is supported by kitchen Gardener, Sarah Smith-Roe, who oversees the development of the one-acre productive kitchen garden. Sarah, who previously worked in pharmacy for 18 years, has recently qualified with an RHS Level 2 certification from Ryton College.
Goldstone is an RHS partner garden, a member of the BBC Gardeners’ World 2for1 Scheme, and a member of the Garden Organic Heritage Seed Library Scheme. The garden also opens for the National Garden Scheme annually.
Garden Opening
During 2025 the Goldstone garden is open to non-residents every Monday to Thursday from 24th March to 31st October 2025 with the exception of National Garden Scheme open days and any privately booked special event days (see website). Opening Times: 10am to 5pm on normal days. The garden is also open to guests of Goldstone whether they are staying overnight or simply in the restaurant for lunch, dinner or afternoon tea all year round. The Goldstone restaurant is open all year round.
Garden Admission
In 2025 the entrance price to the garden is £8.50 per adult and children are free of charge. RHS members are admitted for free (member 1 only) and BBC Gardeners’ World 2for1 Card Holders also during the garden open season. Both must present their cards on entry. Hotel and restaurants guests, plus their children, are admitted free of charge. Visitors may reserve a table in the restaurant for lunch or afternoon tea, but must book this in advance by calling the reservations team on 01630 661 202. Visitors are also very welcome to visit the bar or orangery to buy a cup of tea, coffee, other drink, and a slice of cake – booking for this is not necessary.
Awards, Features and Testimonials
Goldstone was recently awarded Silver in the ‘Small Serviced Accommodation Provider of the Year’ category of the West Midlands Tourism Awards 2024 and has again been shortlisted in ‘Small Serviced Accommodation Provider of the Year’ in 2025 awards (results to be announced in 2025) . Goldstone has also been awarded AA 2 rosettes for culinary excellence, AA Hotel Services Breakfast Award, 3 RED Star AA award and is included in he AA Notable Wine List.
Goldstone were featured in the Good Hotel Guide Editor’s choice for gardens in 2024 and have also been featured as:
· One of ‘10 best British hotels with beautiful gardens’ in English Garden Magazine.
· One of the ‘Top 10 UK hotels and hideaways with landscapes gardens’ in the Observer.
· One of ‘Britain’s 20 loveliest hotel gardens’ by the Telegraph Travel
· One of the ‘10 of the Top UK Hotels with Gorgeous Gardens’ by Luxury Lifestyle Magazine.
· One of seven gardens featured in ‘Top of the Plots’ article in RHS The Garden Magazine.
· One of ‘10 best British hotels with beautiful gardens’ by Discover Britian Magazine.
· ‘One of the largest hotel kitchen Gardens in the UK’ by RHS The Garden Magazine
The Goldstone hotel and garden has also been featured in The RHS Garden Magazine, Gardens Illustrated, Garden News, Great British Gardens, Gardeners’ World Magazine, The Sunday Telegraph, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail, Cotswold Life Magazine, Cheshire Life Magazine, Waitrose Weekend Magazine, Sainsbury’s Magazine, The English Garden Magazine, Women’s Weekly, Horticulture Week and on the BBC Radio, plus local media such as the Shropshire Star and BBC Radio Shropshire.
For more information about Goldstone Hall Hotel, or to enquire about bookings, or any further information, please contact the team on 01630 661202 or email [email protected]