Tuesday 15 April 2014

Tea the Thirty-Seventh


I smile, of course,
And go on drinking tea

T.S. Eliot - Portrait of a Lady


Monk Fryston Hall Hotel, North Yorkshire - Friday 11th April 2014


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Tea Takers


Sarah Ryan
Paul Ryan
Jill Fairley


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Serendipity led to tea in Monk Fryston - Paul was alerted to some dining offer at Monk Fryston Hall via some internet scheme and it immediately struck me as a very suitable location.

The village is situated South East of Selby in the Vale of York, and at one stage my father used to drive me through here each day as he took me to and from school. In some far distant year, I think around 1884, my paternal grandmother was born in Monk Fryston, and my Dad often pointed out to me the inn where this great event took place, her father having been an ostler there. So tea with the shades of the ancestors seemed only fitting.

The birthplace of Jane Shan, later Thacker:



Monk Fryston Hall, just across the road from The Crown is a very attractive stone mullioned manor house, in attractive and stately gardens. The oldest parts of the building date back to the Twelfth Century when a Benedictine monastery stood on the site.




Augmented and refashioned over the centuries, as is typical of so many country seats, by the Eighteenth Century the grounds also featured a zoo, an aviary and a boating lake. The entertainments offered today are not on quite so exotic or lavish a scale, but it has the requisite gentility of a country house setting and a more than suitable site for the next installment of the odyssey.





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We took tea in the dining room which runs the length of the front of the house, and was light and smartly appointed.





The service was friendly and helpful (if not of the greatest finesse) and when they realised that the message requesting provision of plain scones had been missed they were most apologetic and tried several times to ply us with extra sandwiches and cakes.




An interesting twist to the presentation of the tea was the inclusion on the cake stand of chutneys to accompany the sandwiches.  These were not to my taste (and I do query the wisdom of putting them on the stand itself and next to the jam and cream) but it was nice to offer these as optional and did mean the sandwiches were largely unadulterated and well suited to my fussy palate.


The scones were pleasant, although not as light as they might have been, and the clotted cream and jam were plentiful which is always a sign of generosity of spirit in such establishments. The sweets included a very pleasing vanilla cream dessert, a light cream sponge swirl and little biscuits sandwiching cream and fruit. As a spread it fulfilled its brief very well.







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Tea with Jill


This was another particularly delightful reunion - Jill was my A-level English teacher, and has been a hugely important influence in my life, both as someone who helped shape the way I read and learn myself and as greatly significant model for me of what good teaching is.  I still stand at the front in my own lessons and think 'how would Jill deal with this?' Perceptive, thoughtful and quietly passionate about her subject she inspired and challenged me and I know I wouldn't have been able to make as much of my university education or the opportunities that have come up since if it hadn't been for her academic grounding and encouragement to engage critically and reflectively.




It was lovely to see her and to catch up for the first time in a couple of years. She is excellent company and we had a lovely time talking about what has been happening in our lives, but also about history, ideas and books.

Spring sunshine, an interesting historic and personally linked location and a very important guest - an excellent tea indeed.


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Thirty-Seventh Tea - Thirty-Seventh Year





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I am particularly proud of my improvement, over the course of this project, in being able to pour tea and talk at the same time.




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Wednesday 9 April 2014

Tea the Thirty-Sixth


Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the 
world revolves, slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future.
Thich Nat Hahn


Pilgrims Coffee House, Front Street, Lindisfarne - Tuesday, 8th April, 2014



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Tea Takers


Sarah Ryan
Paul Ryan
Olivia Ryan

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Paul and I first came to Lindisfarne together on 9th July 2000, it was the first day of our honeymoon and we had a glorious week staying in a cottage on the island.  We have since returned numerous times, with friends and on family holidays where our small infant frolicked on the wide breezy sands and clambered on rocks. It is a very special place that we love very much and it has been a sadly long time since we last came.  It was always on the tea location wish list, but in a rather wistful, probably-not-going-to-happen kind of way. So when Paul suggested that a day trip from York might be rather nice it seemed too good an opportunity to miss.

The weather forecast was for sun and so armed with clothing for every weather/temperature, a picnic, and a predisposition to have an amazing time, we drove the 150 miles North and arrived about midday just half an hour after the causeway had cleared.

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Tea at My House.





It must be conceded that despite the very many virtues of the place, Lindisfarne is not overly endowed with 'proper' tea-taking opportunities. Afternoon tea as a concept has not really taken off in the catering establishments of the village.

A bright Easter holiday day had drawn many visitors and the number of small cafes about the place were busy. One cafe promised freshly made scones but what it offered in terms of bakage it lacked in charm.  However, we were immediately taken with this place: an attractive stone house, with quirky and pleasing interior, and the promise of home made cakes and (for those who like to substitute such things for tea) their home blended and roasted coffee.




Additionally, and of particular satisfaction to me, is the fact the a few years ago I really wanted to buy this house. It was on the market at the time when we were looking to buy our house in York, and it was both beyond our budget and an exceedingly impractical location, but that didn't stop me looking longingly at the estate agents' particulars online and imagining my alternative life there. So I may not have been able to live here, but now I have taken tea, which is the essence of good living after all.


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Getting past the anomalous idea of tea in a 'coffee house' (and in doing so tipping a nod to the delights of coffee which I would by no means deny - do note the excellent name for the day's roast) and accepting that this is very much a cafe geared to the practical and swift service of large numbers of tourists, Pilgrims made a very pleasing tea location.




Yes, it was paper cups only, (and sadly we hadn't thought to bring mugs with us - if only we'd known...) but the drinks were good and didn't seem to suffer from the lack of china.




The bedrooms are attractive little seating areas now, with eclectic 'vintage' furniture and quirky accessories (cushions made from coffee sacks etc). We had a room to ourselves for most of the time and reclined in armchairs and on the windowseat.






It was a tea of varied drinks and cakes, and, for all its more utilitarian chic, was very enjoyable, sitting in these comfortable surroundings out of the wild wind (which was a hallmark of much of the rest of the day).




Olivia had a beautifully squidgy brownie and I enjoyed a very commendable lemon drizzle, but certainly the most interesting cake of the day was Paul's:



This is Cuthbert cake - advertised as a mix of oats, honey, fruit and nuts, and named for one of the islands more pre-eminent saints (of whom more in a moment). It was acclaimed as very fine and was a pleasing topical addition to the occasion.

Most of us remembered our table manners and dainty habits





Others however...




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Thirty-Sixth Tea - Thirty-Sixth Year






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The Holy Island of Lindisfarne





Holy Island, or Lindisfarne, is a tidal island off the coast of North East England, just south of Berwick upon Tweed. St Aidan came to Lindisfarne from Iona in the the early Seventh Century and founded the monastery here, and the place became the base for Christian evangelisation in the north of England. A second Saint who became inextricably linked with the place is Cuthbert, becoming bishop of Lindisfarne. He was ascetic and heremitical by temperament and would retreat to a small island itself only linked at low tide to the main island, and then ultimately removed to Inner Farne, a much more isolated place, to live as a hermit.




It was here that the magnificent Lindisfarne Gospels were illuminated in the Eighth Century, and on a more grizzly note a violent attack by vikings at the end of that century is now frequently noted as the start of the viking era in this country. The Priory ruins that are left now are from a later house, mostly built in the Twelfth Century and in use until the dissolution of the monasteries, are beautiful red sandstone, with ornate carvings and patterned columns, much like those of Durham Cathedral.

We brought Olivia here first ten years ago and she was fascinated by the information boards (this became a regular delaying tactic of hers in many sites of historic interest in her toddler-hood). Little changes:






The other most striking landmark of Lindisfarne is its castle.




A fortress was initially built on this dramatic crag in the Sixteenth Century, and then in 1901 the ruins were bought by publishing magnate Edward Hudson, who had discovered it when touring Northumberland with his friend Edwin Lutyens. Hudson had Lutyens refurbish the place in the arts and crafts style and for good measure Lutyens' friend and collaborator Gertrude Jekyll transformed an old vegetable plot into a walled garden.  The castle remains a beautiful combination of castle and country house, on a very attractive domestic scale.  It is set out as it would be for an Edwardian holiday retreat and it is very easy to imagine making yourself very at home there. It combines so many desirable traits in one place, it is certainly one of my most ideal residences.






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We had an utterly fabulous day and a three hundred mile round trip for tea was most definitely worth it.

A quick jump across the stones to St Cuthbert's island (and even quicker jump back because it looked like the tide was coming in);



Ending the day with a stop off at the North Shore for a game of boules and some sustaining sandwiches before returning southwards;





Taking with us, naturally, an appropriate souvenir:



Glorious.

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Sunday 6 April 2014

Tea the Thirty-Fifth

My dear, if you could give me a cup of tea to clear my muddle of a head,
I should better understand your affairs.

Charles Dickens

Cedar Court Grand Hotel, York - Saturday, 5th April, 2014



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Tea Takers


Sarah Ryan
Paul Ryan
Olivia Ryan
John Storey
Clare Storey


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An extremely late Easter has meant an unusually long Spring term, and we have finally arrived at the holidays very much ready for a break from school.  Arriving back in York has been joyful as ever, and what better way to mark the start of the long awaited holiday than to take tea.

We were joined for this by John and Clare Storey. John has been a colleague of Paul's at both Sherborne and Ardingly and they seem these days generally to be partners in scurrilousness (scurrility?), and those who know Paul will be aware that he needs very little encouragement in this.
The four adults in the party all being teachers, there was a general aura of holiday relief and an appreciation of the civilised possibilities of grown-up conversation, although Olivia's enthusiastic sociability tempered this appropriately.

The Ardingly Posse:


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Our tea venue for the day was The Cedar Court Grand Hotel, which proudly asserts it credentials as Yorkshire's only five star hotel.  It is an impressive Victorian building and a bold statement of the confidence and style of that era.  With more than a hint of the French Chateau style, it is pleasing to note that it was originally neither a hotel, nor grand residence but the headquarters of the North Eastern Railway Company.



It is certainly very smart and well maintained, and, whilst some of the decor might have been more aligned to modern fashion than to classic hotel chic (a little too much purple quilting in some of the alcoves - that's going to date...), it is a very attractive setting.

Tea was served in a large light dining room, which looked out over the city walls, where crisp white lined table cloths, decent silver milk jugs and attractively restrained white china with a fine blue line about the edge, achieved a suitably serene and conducive setting.


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High standards were maintained when it came to the tea itself.  A good range of teas were on offer and whilst Clare and I opted for classic leaves, Darljeeling in her case and a blend of Ceylon and Assam in mine, there were other options for the more adventurous/fussy. John, having given up caffeine for Lent (and how anyone even contemplates that is entirely beyond me) chose something featuring Hibiscus which is certainly a first for the odyssey, and Paul and Olivia were entirely uncouth and chose caffe latte and hot chocolate respectively.




The service was excellent, very helpful and understanding of our varying sandwich requirements (the poor waiter did quail slightly but manfully took copious notes and by dint of reading back to us his understanding of our specifics, met everyone's desires very adroitly) and providing plain scones at our request.

The fruit scones had an unusual variation in containing cranberry, although Paul reports that he didn't particularly notice anything different about them. The plain scones were very pleasant, perhaps just a little doughy, and I do think that only one scone per person (even though they were reasonably large) is  ungenerous. However, they thoughtfully provided a choice of locally made jams and lemon curd, and a good supply of clotted cream, so the staple requirements were well met.





The cakes were attractive and varied. A very pleasing glossy rectangular chocolate number contained within a surprisingly light mousse and biscuit base. These were accompanied by macarons and blackberry and fig shortbread sables. A rather quirky addition to the cake stand were small choux buns topped with white chocolate - so far, so conventional, but it turned out that they were filled with 'mulled wine flavoured cream' - now this was not unpleasing, in its own way, but distinctly seasonally confusing.

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People at Tea







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Thirty-Fifth Tea - Thirty-Fifth Year





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The City Walls


Being the former railway headquarters the hotel is unsurprisingly close to the station and is situated directly by the city walls, and it was especially pleasing that the dining room looked out on a  picturesque stretch of these.





York's walls are the longest medieval town walls in England, with stonework dating back in some places to the Eleventh Century, and in part built along the route of older Roman fortifications. A circuit around the city of about two and three-quarter miles is still walkable (with just a couple of small gaps where the walls have disappeared), passing the five ancient gates (or 'bars' as they are properly known). The walls are both beautiful and striking in themselves and also afford a wide range of views around the city. They have always been a feature of the city that I have loved and I still get a kick out of walking along sections of them as thoroughfares whenever there is a reasonable opportunity, just as much as Olivia does.

So after tea, with the ostensible reason of needing to get a photograph of the hotel, we took the chance to take in a small section before our more prosaic pavement bound walk home.



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