Time For Tea: Tea the Eleventh

Find yourself a cup; the teapot is behind you.

Now tell me hundreds of things.

Saki

Betty's, York - Wednesday 29th May, 2013

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Tea Takers

Sarah Ryan

Sarah Clarke

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One of my hopes had been that in having so many micro-celebrations of my birthday, in different places and at different times, it would be possible to meet with a wide variety of people from various areas of my life and to catch up with some who I hadn't seen for a long time. Given that the last time I saw Sarah was her eighteenth birthday party, and that she is a little over a year older than me, it is evident that it has been some years since we met. Since buying our house in York, four years ago, we have been threatening to meet up and now seemed absolutely the time. So to Betty's, and how joyful it was - so lovely to catch up and rediscover a great friend - I am sure it will be a much shorter time before we meet again.

Then (1984) and now... Little has really changed, except that I have learnt how better to present myself in photographs (that and the fact that Betty's provided sadly little opportunity for playing pass-the-parcel).

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The Legendary Betty's

It was only a matter of time before this Yorkshire girl was enticed into a Betty's for tea, and I'm pretty sure that other excursions to related establishments will follow.

The main York branch is one of six such places, The original Betty’s was opened in the Harrogate in 1919, but its Swiss founder Frederick Belmont found the enterprise so successful that he very quickly was able to develop the chain. Todays café tea rooms, on the corner of St Helen's Square and Davygate became the flagship, its style glamourous and fashionable, inspired by the liner, the Queen Mary. It is a lovely setting and worth the inevitable queue, even in the rain.

The range of cakes, sandwiches and snacks available is vast and they are consistently very good quality. The great sadness for me is that lack of the plain scone on the menu, and this is the most serious mark against the establishment's name. However, choosing instead the citron torte, with mixed berries and raspberry sauce, I was not disappointed - you know where you are with a Betty's cake and that is a very good place indeed. Sarah went for a 'medici' which was caramelised hazelnuts on a bed of plain chocolate which looked so good that after I had finished my shopping later I went back to the shop and bought two to bring home (one as a nice gift for Paul, and the other so that he didn't feel bad eating it on his own - I am so thoughtful).

We sat downstairs in the wood-pannelled basement. During the Second World War this was known as Betty's Bar and was the popular haunt of American and Canadian airmen stationed nearby and 'Betty’s Mirror', still on display bears the signatures of many of them, signed with a diamond pen on the glass.

As well as an amazing line in patisserie, Belmont’s Swiss confectionary background also means that Betty’s does a fabulous line in chocolates, and the shop is extraordinarily tempting with its rows of aesthetically delightful treasures and the smell of cake and chocolate ensnaring all but the most hardened resister of temptation. I felt any such attempt at resistance was futile and came home with the pleasing little Betty's paper bag which signals continued delight.

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Eleventh Tea - Eleventh Year

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Childhood Friendship

Sarah and I met when I was eight and she nine, when we moved to the village of Womersley, North Yorkshire, where my Dad was to be vicar for the next four years. The Ronksley’s farm, the vicarage gardens and the lanes and fields around the village were our playground and the setting for what I now appreciate was an incredibly privileged childhood in terms of experience and opportunity. We went to the local village school together (number on roll: c.25), and then in consecutive years on to senior school near Selby (the shift to a school of 1000 was something of an adjustment). We climbed on mountains of hay bales, made secret societies, I seem to remember that we got particular joy out of ringing the speaking clock from the village phone box, put on interminable shows and plays (for which I apologise now to our long-suffering families); we sang in the church choir, were Brownies, Guides and enthusiastic members of the YOC together, we graduated from our own plays to Youth Theatre, shared ideas, excitements and ambitions and I have gone through my life the richer for a friendship like this.

By coincidence on our way North this half term, with heavy traffic on the A1, Paul suggested we took a detour through Womersley - a very brief but powerfully nostalgic stop to look at the church (couldn't get past the locked gates to the church yard) and vicarage (which didn't have the clashing white fascia board and windows in our day...).

Tea today was a mixture of catching up on years of busy lives since then, stories of motherhood, teaching and families, but also reminiscing – it was truly lovely and I very much look forward to opportunities to do it again.

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