A Posh English Afternoon Tea at The Slaughters Manor House, England

Honestly, we didn't have the best weather when we have been in England for our annual vacation a little over two weeks ago. It was raining quite a bit and it was unusually cold for the season. Nonetheless, we enjoyed our vacation abroad very much, making the best out of every day regardless of the typical English weather caprioles.

One day was particularly cold and rainy though, and we hardly made it to drag us out of our cozy and warm cottage and realize our plans to explore the charming Cotswolds villages of Lower and Upper Slaughter.

When we parked the car in Lower Slaughter, an impressive manor house in the middle of the village caught my eye with an inviting sign reading "Afternoon Tea" at the entrance gate of the property. When we got closer it turned out to be The Slaughters Manor House, a three-star hotel. We took a closer look at the house...




...and briefly toured the beautiful, well-kept grounds. Isn't this formal "blue garden" lovely?

I always fall for old statuary like this pretty lady surrounded by blue delphiniums and catmint placed in the center of the formal garden shown in the photo above.

After the initial quick look, we dismissed the idea of having an English Afternoon Tea there, because this place seemed to be quite upscale. We dutifully stuck to our original plan and walked an admittedly very beautiful footpath called the Warden's Way to Upper Slaughter (highly recommended for a sunny day!) and explored this charming sleepy village. When we returned back to Lower Slaughter we were so cold and wet that I really felt like having an English Afternoon Tea as a treat. After our rainy walk, posh and fancy somehow wasn't so much of a concern anymore but sounded now on the contrary quite appealing. The need for something warm, delicious and lovely was just overriding any other objections. After all, who doesn't need a special reward from time to times?

So we walked up to the manor house hotel, again.

The entry looked like right out of a fairytale.

The staff was quite friendly and gave us the option to have our tea in the lounge or the library. After a brief reflection, we decided to take our seats in the beautiful lounge and ordered a Full Afternoon Tea to share. And then, after a short wait, the highly anticipated tea arrived! What a feast for the eyes! 

Let's take a closer look: It contained a selection of finger sandwiches, a plain and a fruit scone, clotted cream and jam, and some very fancy sweets. Tea or coffee was included. My husband went for a Darjeeling, which was quite delicious. Instead of tea or coffee, I preferred just hot water with lemon. 

The lounge was such a lovely stately room with a beautiful fireplace, a wonderful ornate white-painted ceiling, beautiful parquet floors, and tasteful modern furnishings. The wonderful ambiance of this space definitively contributed to our overall English Afternoon Tea experience.

Close-up of the sweets. Such a beautiful presentation!

When the waiter brought the three tiered tea stand, he explained to us what all the items were, but some of the descriptions were so complicated that even he got stuck. So please, bear with me that I am not able to explain the tea treats in more detail. 

Overall the savory treats were good. The little bite of salmon on the cracker was outstanding though, the fish just melted in the mouth. The scones were average. Some of the sweets tasted extraordinarily delicious like for example, the nutty mousse served in the special glass. The only sweet that I wasn't sold on, was the one that looked like a mini eclair filled with red and green cream. To me, it tasted a bit synthetic and I hope, that they didn't use artificial food coloring. 

  

Cut through, this fancy sweet tea treat revealed a tart heart. It was ultra delicious! 

I love chocolate and this sweet tasted just heavenly.

As we had initially expected, with 30 British Pounds (about 39 US Dollars)/person having an English Afternoon Tea (yes, that is without bubbly!) at The Slaughter Manor House is on the pricey side,...

...but the beautiful presentation, some extraordinarily good tea treats, and a wonderful atmosphere make up for that.

I would love to come back and enjoy this special tea, again.

Before I finish, I would like to let you know that I am on Instagram now. I post daily and would love if you would pop over to my Instagram account and see what I am up to there. Of course, if you would follow me on Instagram my joy would be even greater! You can either click the link in this text or use my Instagram button on the sidebar to the left of my blog.

Wishing everyone a lovely rest of the weekend, and in addition to that, my American readers, a wonderful 4th of July. Maybe you find the time and treat yourself to a special tea time as well.

See you hopefully soon,

Christina

 I am linking to
Rustic & Refined - Dishing It & Digging It  //  Dwellings - The Heart of Your Home - Amaze Me Monday  //  Between Naps On The Porch - Metamorphosis Monday  //  Antiques and Tea Cups - Tuesday Cuppa Tea  //  Cedar Hill Farmhouse - The Scoop  //  Sweet Sensations - Celebrate Your Story  //  Savvy Southern Style - Wow Us Wednesdays  //  Bernideen's Tea Time, Cottage and Garden - Tea In The Garden  //  A Delightsome Life - Home and Garden Thursday  //  Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson - Share Your Cup  //  21 Rosemary Lane - Share Your Style  // Vintage Mama's Cottage - Thursday Favorite Things  //  French Country Cottage - Feathered Nest Friday  //  Rattlebridge Farm - Foodie Friday and Everything Else  //  Shabby Art Boutique - Create, Bake, Grow & Gather  //  How Sweet The Sound - Anything Goes Pink Saturday  //  My Soulful Home - Sundays at Home  //

Enjoying an English Afternoon Tea at Home

During our June vacation in England this year, my husband and I indulged ourselves with having tea almost everyday. From the relatively simple Cream Tea (scones, jam and clotted cream), to having a cup of tea with a piece of cake, to the very elaborate English Afternoon Tea (sandwiches, scones and sweets) we always loved the experience very much. One of the most memorable English Afternoon Teas we enjoyed in Bradford on Avon at The Bridge Tea Rooms, which I blogged about here already, which was truly one of a kind.

Being back in America, we miss having tea the way the British do and this has inspired us to celebrate the art of having tea at home now. My husband and I have even started to bake our own little tea treats for these special occasions and have so much fun doing it.

In this post I show you our first attempt to prepare a full English Afternoon Tea. We set up our little tea table in the family room, since unfortunately it was too hot to have tea in the garden. And this is what it looked like!

We had whole grain rolls with chicken-celery salad, scones with clotted cream and jam, smoked salmon-cucumber canapes with Nicoise olive tapenade. Instead of further sweets we went with a healthier version and had a mix of fresh fruits. 

Traditionally you will find finger sandwiches as a first course for an English Afternoon Tea, but we chose our home made gluten-free whole grain rolls with chicken-celery salad for a little bit more of a heartier version. I really have to praise my husband, as the rolls were ultra delicious and so was the chicken-celery salad. Unfortunately I can not point you to the recipe, since my husband googled it on the internet and can't remember which one it was anymore.

The gluten-free scone was my doing, you see it cut into two halves on the lower tier, between the rolls with the chicken-celery salad. Usually you cut a scone horizontally and not vertically to spread the clotted cream and jam onto it, but my scone didn't rise enough to do this or maybe I distributed the dough to thin on the baking sheet. The taste was very good though. I used the standard gluten-free recipe from epicurious.

My simple scone became a delicious, melt in your mouth experience, which in my mind transported me right back to England, with a decent amount of clotted cream spread on top of it...

...and the clotted cream had to be crowned by an equally thick layer of jam, of course. Yum!

We found the English Luxury Clotted Cream from The Devon Cream Company at Jimbo's, our local health food store, which has a really authentic taste and texture.

The jam we brought back with us from England. It is an organic strawberry jam from Tonda Terra, which we bought in the little village shop in Blockley, England. What I really like about this jam is, that it wasn't overly sweet and it had a truly great fruity strawberry taste. The little jar is long gone and I haven't researched if the brand is available in the US as well.  

The creme colored roses on the table were coming from my own garden. The variety is called 'Auckland Metro'. The petals of this rose have a good substance, so they make a great lasting cut flower.

Coming to my second contribution to our tea time: The smoked salmon-cucumber canapes with Nicoise olive tapenade garnished with parsley. I wasn't too happy with those, I have to admit. First of all the visual presentation is not so appetizing. The cucumber pieces had to be cut smaller and I would have loved to be able to bring the salmon slices into a more rose or rosette shape, but my clumsy fingers just wouldn't do the job.

The tapenade was a little too salty for my taste, but maybe I have not followed the recipe precisely enough. I still think the idea of having these canapes for Afternoon Tea is great though, so I might try to do them again.

The recipe for the canapes is from the July/August issue of the Tea Time magazine, which I have subscribed to and truly enjoy reading. 

The fruits were a nice little finish for this rich Afternoon Tea and I didn't miss having any "real" other sweets at all.

We served an organic Darjeeling Tea to complement the tea treats. The china I set the table with is called Dibbern, from the maker Schoenwald Germany, which I brought with me from Germany, when I moved to the US many years ago. 

Honestly, I can't wait until we have time to prepare the next English Afternoon Tea for us! Do you also spoil yourselves with a lovely tea time occasionally? I sure hope you do, since it is such a pleasant experience.

Wishing you a wonderful week!

Warm regards, 

Christina

I am linking to

Antiques and Tea Cups - Tuesday Cuppa Tea
The Charm of Home - Home Sweet Home
Bernideen's Tea Time, Cottage and Garden - Tea in the Garden
Rose Garden Malevik -  Saturday Show Off

An English Afternoon Tea in Bradford on Avon, England

By now we have moved to our second cottage located in Turleigh, Wiltshire in the county of Wessex. The area belongs still to the beautiful Cotswolds.

Yesterday, after having a lot of fun exploring the pretty old town of Bradford on Avon and doing some fine hat shopping there, we treated ourselves to the first full English Afternoon Tea in this vacation at The Bridge Tea Rooms.

The cottage that houses the tea room is quite old and charming, like so many houses in England. Originally it belonged to a blacksmith and is dating from 1502. The front of the house is lovingly decorated with planters and window boxes. By the way, we had our tea behind the window to the right on the second floor.

There was a beautiful display of vintage, possibly antique blue china on the window sill. Just lovely!

In the background you can see the old town center of Bradford on Avon and the building in the middle with the round cupola I believe is the Catholic Church of Bradford on Avon.

Now we have been served tea! I chose the Guv'nors Tea and my husband had the English Breakfast Tea. Both teas had nice well balanced flavors. I was so pleased, that they served the tea in really elegant and delicate fine bone china. The maker was Duchess, England.

Tadaaa...! And here is the three tired tea stand. What a delight!

Who is able to resist an English Afternoon Tea?

This is the fireplace in the second story, very close to the table were we sat.

Attention to detail is what made this tea so enjoyable besides the edible treats. Each of us had an own tea strainer, that fit into a small metal bowl, so that it didn't leave a mess on the saucer with the little doily.

We chose the Queen Victoria Afternoon Tea to share, which contained a selection of four finger sandwiches, a scone with strawberry jam and organic clotted cream, and two small slices of cake: chocolate and lemon. Traditionally you eat the scone first, then the sandwiches and save the cake for last as a kind of desert. Let's have a closer look at the food items.

The scone was delicious and had the right texture, not too crumbly, not too moist. I loved the little bowl they served the jam in.

The cakes were also very good. The chocolate cake was rich and moist, exactly as it should be, and the lemon cake refreshing. You hardly can see it on the photo, but they were serving small wild strawberries with the cake and very small red grapes, so that the fruits were more in proportion with the small size of the cake slices. I loved their attention to detail.

The selection of sandwiches included salmon, ham, egg and cucumber. All sandwiches were very tasty, but the cucumber sandwich stood out. It was super delicious and one of the ingredients was mint, which was new to me in this context. It just gave it that extra special memorable taste that stays with you for a long time.  

The china was delicate and beautiful and I appreciated the fact that each of us had our own tea pot. If you serve an English Afternoon Tea at home, I think that would the ultimate treat for a well appreciated guest.

One extra detail that some may find over the top touristy and cheesy, but others a delight, is that the tea is served by staff dressed in Victorian costumes. Our waitresses were very friendly and one agreed that I could take a photo of her. 

The fireplace in the first story is much more elaborate than the one shown a few photos above in the second story.

Since we had read mixed review, we asked some locals about The Bridge Tea Rooms. We have been discretely told by them that the owner has changed about two years ago and that the quality has gone down a bit from really exceptional to "people still like it and go there". Hmm..., were they talking about tourists? The Bridge Tea Rooms has been awarded two times the UK's Top Tea Place by the prestigious UK Tea Guild, but maybe that was before the ownership has changed?

Well, we don't know what the quality of the English Afternoon Tea was like at The Bridge Tea Rooms before the owner changed, but we certainly did not regret our visit there. As a matter of fact we enjoyed our experience quite a bit and think it is still absolutely worth having an English Afternoon Tea in this establishment.

So when you are in the area, maybe you stop by and check it out yourself and come to your own conclusion. I hope your experience will be as pleasant as ours has been!

Warm regards,

Christina

I am linking to 

Bernideen's Tea in the Garden
Antiques and Tea Cups
Rose Garden Malevik
Bernideen's Tea Time, Cottage and Garden

Torre Abbey Gardens, Devon, England I

The first really nice public garden that we visited at our current vacation in the county of Devon in England was the one of Torre Abbey in South Devon.

Torre Abbey was founded in 1196 and there is quite an interesting exhibition in the historic house that documents the history of the Abbey over 800 years. But my husband and I came mainly to see the gardens. Even though the grounds are very old, the gardens that you can visit today are relatively new, but nonetheless very interesting and pretty.

It was already lunch time when we arrived at Torre Abbey and we decided to have an English Afternoon Tea for two instead of a traditional lunch at the adjacent cafe. We were pleasantly surprised when this three tired tray filled with goodies was placed on our table. It contained scones, which are eaten with clotted cream and jam in Devon. Then there was an array of sandwiches (salmon, crab, and ham) and a selection of various cakes. It felt like they wanted to feed a whole army, but, of course, we didn't really complain.

After indulging us with the tea time we were ready to see the gardens. There another kind of treat awaited us. We were greeted by this lovely border.

White and blue is always such a refreshing color combination in the garden. Here you see a hardy geranium, probably geranium x magnificum (purple cranesbill), rosa 'Iceberg', and blue delphiniums in the background.

Walking along this border we came across another beautiful combination of the same variety of purple cranesbill, catmint, rosa 'Iceberg', another saturated pink variety of cranesbill, and an absolutely gorgeous dark magenta peony. All towered by a silvery-green huge artichoke like plant.

When I see these peonies it always makes me cringe, because I just can't grow them in Southern California.

Another scene from a border adjacent to the one that we just passed. I am totally in love with chartreuse colored plants in the moment and the chartreuse shrub to the left is just such a stand-out. The plant to the very right is alchemilla mollis 'Lady's mantle', a very common plant in England, which always makes my heart sing. I think, the tiny yellow-chartreuse blooms are so absolutely charming and the matte light green leaves are very pretty, too. I made a promise to myself that I will try to grow this plant in my own garden, when we are back home.

Next we entered a part of the garden that was called "Agatha Christie's Potent Plants Display". Agatha Christie, the famous mystery novel writer, had a beloved holiday home called "Greenway" relatively close by and maybe inspired by that, the head gardener decided to put in a garden containing poisonous plants.

Modern art presented in historic places often works well and this is another good example.

 

I have to admit that I wasn't so impressed by the fact that some of the plants in this section were poisonous, but by the incredible beauty of the flower beds. Roughly in the middle of the photo you can see a standard tree rose. I can never decide if I like them or not, but in this bed it adds some height, which is very pleasing to the eye. Since the beds are relatively small this couldn't be achieved by planting a regular rose, because it would take up too much room. I have a similar tricky situation in my own front yard at home, where I desperately try to add some height to a very small garden border and maybe standard roses could be a solution there as well.




A lovely peony.

The yellow roses visually go quite nicely with the silvery-gray Stachys byzantina, commonly called 'Lamb's Ear' and the opulent flowering catmint. Notice, there is another standard rose in the middle of the bed, but this one is not doing that well, so the effect is a little bit spoiled. 

Close-up of the purple geranium. This variety is just stunning in terms of the color, but also how freely it blooms. Another plant that I will try to find in Southern California and see how it does in my own garden.

This sage with the newer leaves being quite purple caught my attention. It looks so pretty with the blue flowers.

Incredible colored oriental poppy!

The oriental poppy that I just showed was planted together with this interesting variety of clover. It was a stunning combo, which I managed not to get a decent shot of... But I guess, you can use your imagination and bring the two images together.




Same peony variety that I have already shown further above, but surrounded by catmint and 'Lamb's Ear', it appears very different. I really enjoy to observe how color influence each other. This is a very harmonious pairing up in my opinion.

I didn't want to part from this section of the garden. It was so stunningly beautiful and exactly the garden style that I like so much, but there was much more to explore.

This area was called the scented garden. I love the arch conquered by the white rose with the small and dainty flowers. I believe, it was a type of Eglantine Rose.

We have seen this type of daisies very often growing like a weed in Devon. That doesn't diminish its beauty, though.

One thing that I never get tired of is looking at the sometimes very old stone walls conquered by plants. This is a particular pretty example.

This interesting plant is Echium pininana, tree echium. You really can't see it on the photo, but is was quite tall.

I will say goodbye for today with this last image of a bell flower type of plant. To me, pure white blooms are always so attractive.

There is more to come about Torre Abbey Gardens in my next post. Hope to greet you soon, again, on my blog and wishing everyone a good start into the new week.

See you in the garden!

Christina