Lanhydrock House cream room.

The Driver and the Passenger visited Lanhydrock house on the way back from their honeymoon many years ago.  Lanhydrock house near Bodmin in Cornwall has one of the most impressive sets of kitchens of any National Trust house we have visited. The Kitchens had been remodelled in the late Victorian era, after the house had been almost completely burnt to the ground.

It has kitchens for almost all the different needs of the house. A bread bakery, a meat preparation room, game larder a dairy and something I had never seen before, a clotted cream room.

It was laid out with broad shallow bowls sitting over a heat source, with the cream scoops and cream jugs beside.

It was a nice little insight into the backstage areas of a grand victorian country house.

Montacute House and the worlds worst pouring milk jug.

It is holiday time and we have been to the home of cream teas, the west country. 

The first cream tea we had was on the way down to Cornwall, at another National Trust property, Montacute House in Somerset.

The tea shop was in an outbuilding with a nice courtyard with seats outside. It was very wet while we arrived, so we sat in and ate, by the time we finished is was sunny. If the sun had been out earlier we would have sat out under the large umbrellas.

We ordered our tea and as usual the passenger had Earl Grey Tea and the driver had Ceylon. The teas were Taylor's and were in bags. The milk was served in the usual metal jug but this was a jug straight out of a joke shop. 

When the jug poured it ran down the side and dribbled off the bottom, tip it a bit more and it just dribbled down the side faster, after the first round of drinks we tried again usualy as a jug empties it gets easier to pour, but it still dribbled. Even when emptied all the way to the bottom it still dribbled. Never have I seen a jug that poured so badly. 

Apart from this the food was standard National Trust fare. The jam was Wilkin's and the cream was Roddas and both pre packed. Easy to portion manage, little waste and little in the way of any individual style. As we were sharing we had a scone each the passenger preferring plain and the driver fruit.

Service was friendly and the room clean. 

On the wall was a notice with what was claimed as the historic origins of the cream tea. 

I suspect that there are many conflicting ideas about how the cream tea came about.

We gave the cream tea the following marks.

Ambiance and Presentation:- 4 A clean room and we had the choice of which scones we wanted.
Jam and Cream:- 3 lost marks for limited choice of jam and pre packed cream.
Scones:- 3 good but nothing great.
Tea:- 3 reasonable choice but that milk jug!
Service:- 4 Friendly counter Staff.

Overall:- 17/25

Petworth House Tea Shop, National Trust.

National Trust properties are always a guaranteed location for a cream tea. At Petworth house the restaurant is located in a large hall in the servants wing of the house. This wing also displays the kitchens of the house, and as always these are as interesting as the actual house itself.

The cream tea was an assemble it yourself tea. A large wicker basket with plain scones sat on the counter with a sign saying two scones, jam and cream for £4.90. Being picky we chose our scones from the basket and then looked for the jam. The options were Strawberry or Apricot in 28g jars from Wilkin of Tiptree, with only two types of jam to choose from it seemed a bit limited. Strawberry was chosen by both of us, as Apricot is a bit 'funky' for a cream tea.
We then moved up to the counter and were given tubs of Rodda's Clotted cream. The choice of tea was the usual,  And we chose an Earl Grey and and English Breakfast. These were both loose teas and were served in a Stump teapot. A nice detail and something I had never seen before. We also had a pot of water as top up.

We found a table and sat down.

The scones were good. I would hazard a guess that they were fresh that day and not frozen and defrosted. They were a bit hard but had a good texture and taste.

We gave marks as follows out of 5 in each category.

Ambiance and Presentation:- 3, we had to assemble ourselves, room was clean but a bit of a 'barn'
Jam and Cream:- 3, lost marks for limited choice of jam and pre packed clotted cream.
Scones:- 3, Good but nothing outstanding.
Tea:- 4, Liked the tea pots.
Service:- 2, Sadly not a great interaction with the counter staff.

Overall:-15/25

A good cream tea and about what we would expect from a National Trust restaurant.