By Amy Britton
Copyright cambridge-news
If you are looking for something to do to catch up with friends and family, going for a meal at a traditional tea room is a great way to get everyone together while also enjoying some sweet treats and warming teas. Cambridgeshire has a few different places to grab an afternoon tea that can be combined with a pleasant walk around the area.
But if you have tried them all and want somewhere new to explore, you could take a trip to the Porters Lodge Gardens and Tea Room in Suffolk. Found just a short drive from Cambridgeshire, the tea room can be found hidden in a garden that you can visit before or after your meal.
The owner of the tea room and gardens, Craig Wyncoll, said he opened the business 40 years ago to help subsidise Limitless Futures, a school for children with learning disabilities near the gardens. Guests make a £5 donation to enter the gardens, which goes towards running the school.
Porters Lodge features two and a half acres of garden and 20 acres of woodland to explore. When asked to describe the gardens, Mr Wyncoll said he likes them “to be a sort of mystery.”
He added: “There’s a walled garden, a fern house, a Japanese garden, and a grotto. There’s a lot to see but I always tell people, there’s no map, I want you to go around and I want you to be surprised. There’s something around every corner. There’s lots of statues and water features so it’s not all about plants here. It’s the features that make the garden.”
In terms of the the must-visit area of the garden, Mr Wyncoll mentioned the walled garden as being “the great highlight”, as “it looks the best and has a big greenhouse” to look through. Mr Wyncoll suggests visitors come to the garden without any knowledge of the garden to be “very pleasantly surprised”.
He continued: “On the whole, I am just overwhelmed by the positivity of people. I’m endlessly being complimented and people tell me they’ve had a wonderful time. But I prefer them to come with very little expectations and go away very happy and that’s what happens really.”
If you need some food after a walk around the garden and woodlands, there is also an “old-fashioned” tea room on site. Mr Wyncoll described the tea room as being “very well presented and very reasonably priced,” and many customers return regularly.
The tea room has a range of cakes available with light lunches and platters in the summer. In the winter, there will be sausage rolls, soups, a hot dish of the day, and a special Christmas afternoon tea that is on every weekend starting from October, with many spaces already being fully booked.
Mr Wyncoll said the tea room feels like going to somebody’s home and that Porters Lodge makes for “a pleasant afternoon out”. He continued: “You don’t have to come and go around the gardens. The rooms are open independently of the gardens. It’s the rooms that draws people in because it really is unique. You’re surrounded by trees and plants, and you can sit there all afternoon. We make people feel comfortable.”
Porters Lodge Gardens and Tea Room can be found on Icknield Way in Cavenham, which is around a 36 minute drive from Cambridge via the A11. There is a car park on site for guests to use.
