Goldstone Hall

‘In the middle of nowhere down narrow country lanes’, John and Sue Cushing’s Georgian manor house hotel sits among five acres of brimming gardens, a prolific source of fruit and vegetables, cut flowers and perennial joy. All bedrooms have a bath and separate shower, fresh milk, home-made cookies. A trusted reader’s Chamber room was ‘huge’, with a hand-built oak bed, a couple of armchairs, an 'impressive bathroom’ with large bath and bracing wet-room shower. A snooker table ‘immediately outside’ the rooms seemed not such a great idea late at night. Home-grown produce appears at dinner in dishes such as fillet of stone bass, onion potato, sweet cicely, vanilla dressing. Hits included ‘perfectly cooked and very tender’ roast beef at Sunday lunch, ‘good sea bream’, and deep-fried apple pie, ‘much nicer than it sounds’. Tempura shitake mushrooms didn't get a thumbs up ('just deep-fried mushrooms'), but the desserts trolley made a second lap, bearing ‘excellent tiramisu and cheesecake’. Breakfast brings garden apple juice, eggs Florentine with garden greens. ‘We will stay again, but in a room as far from the snooker table as possible!’ (Peter Anderson, CH)