Pictured above: Mark Lewis at the naming of the new restaurant

Shropshire, the culinary capital of Great Britain, welcomed its newest restaurant on Saturday evening during a gala-dinner which also marked the successful completion of a £1.5-million redevelopment and expansion of Hadley Park House Hotel & Restaurant, in Telford.

The competition to find a new name for the restaurant generated an incredible response of well in excess of 1,000 suggestions. 

And the winner was Dorrells Restaurant, as suggested by Mr Tom Farmer, from Wellington.

"I cannot believe how creative some of the suggestions were, and how much research people had been prepared to put into naming the restaurant," said General Manager and Owner, Mr Mark Lewis. "It was one of the toughest decisions we've had since taking-on Hadley Park House, but in the end, we opted for something which reflects the history of the building.

"Our new function suite is called The Mulliner Suite, after the family which lived here from 1901 to 1941.  And Dorrell is the name of the family who lived here much more recently, around 40 years ago. So many people remember it when it was Dorrell's Farm, when it was possible to stop off and buy an ice cream here!"

Mr Farmer and his wife Maureen were guests of honour at a gala dinner to announce the new name at Hadley Park Hotel on Saturday evening.  And they were joined at their table by two generations of the Dorrell family: Annie, the mother of current Hoo Farm & Animal World owner Edward, and his son, Will.

Hadley Park House Hotel & Restaurant has been owned and operated by Mark and Geraldine Lewis since 2003.

They have steadily built a reputation for quality dining, comfortable accommodation and exceptional service; and following the period of refurbishment, investment and development the hotel now offers 22 luxury bedrooms, a 140-seater function suite and a dedicated Restaurant.

The Dorrell family lived in Mill House, the house next door to the main building at Hadley Park, from 1963. They worked and operated Hadley Park Farm, where Annie and her husband Peter farmed up to 2001. During that time, Edward took over the running of the farm. And when Edward acquired Hoo Farm, Annie and Peter retired to Bank Farm in Leighton, near Little Wenlock.

While at Hadley Farm, the Dorrells found that their dairy herd was producing too much milk. At a time when farmers were allowed to use the excess to produce Ice Cream, they started to produce Hadley Park Farm Real Dairy Ice Cream - which proved to be an award winner at the Royal Show right up to 2001.

The hotel's new extension is built on the remains of the farm buildings, which were in such a state of poor repair when Mark and Geraldine Lewis bought the premises that they needed to be demolished.

"One of the reasons we chose the name Dorrells Restaurant is because it brings to life another part of the building's incredible history," added Mr Lewis. "And what we would like to do now is to name the bar, and some of the rooms after other people who have been associated with Hadley Park in the past".