Afternoon tea at the Gardener’s Cottage in Tatton Park is a beautiful way to spend a couple of hours before or after visiting the gorgeous gardens.
My dad is now 81 years old and had his first afternoon tea at the Gardener’s Cottage in Tatton Park (a National Trust property) just a few weeks ago.
Disclosure: my parents and I were hosted for Prosecco afternoon tea at the Gardener’s Cottage in Tatton Park with no strings attached. As always, all opinions are my own.
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Even he was surprised at how much he enjoyed it, but what’s not to enjoy? Delicious savory sandwiches, mile-high scones with cream and jam, sweet treats and endless cups of tea. Oh, I forgot to mention that we started with a glass of sparkling Italian Prosecco!
Let me back up a bit and tell you a little more about Tatton Park before sharing our afternoon tea. Only 20 miles from Manchester, Tatton Park is a National Trust property in England. US residents, this means you gain free entry with a Royal Oak Foundation membership AND you can get a 10% discount by using my special code: CUCINA2020 (NB: this is not usually the case at National Trust properties, but there is a parking charge at Tatton Park. The Royal Oak Foundation parking pass is not valid here.)
Tatton Park is situated within 1000 acres of a deer park, with so much to see and do, such as visiting the mansion (I’ve been twice and still have to go inside!), gardens, working farm and stableyard.
Not to mention, Tatton Park hosts 100 events each year, so there’s often even more entertainment. Before the National Trust acquired the property in 1958, it was the home of the Egerton Family for 400 years! You can find more detailed information about the park HERE.
The Gardener’s Cottage is located at the entry of Tatton Park’s gardens, and is just like a hidden garden itself. I can only imagine how beautiful the atmosphere is on a warm, sunny day when one can eat in the courtyard.
Afternoon Tea at the Gardener’s Cottage
Since it was so cool and overcast, we had our afternoon tea inside the cottage. It was really a perfect day for afternoon tea! We chose our teas and our tea tray arrived shortly afterwards. It looked fabulous!
To me, these were perfect tea sandwiches: no crust, evenly matched sizes, good ratio of filling to bread and FRESH, soft bread! It’s so disappointing when this is not the case. The flavor of these lovely finger sandwiches was up to snuff, too: delicious. My parents loved them too.
And the scones–remember I described them as “mile-high”? Now you can see why.
The pastries were tasty; some delightfully whimsical, and some were traditional. A nice variety of flavors, too.
As shared on my Instagram story that day!
Service throughout our afternoon tea was very good and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves which was wonderful, given it was my father’s first tea outing. Afterwards, we headed out to explore the gardens.
Tatton Park Gardens
Although it wasn’t a bright, sunny day when we visited, the gardens were still spectacular since the rhododendrons were in bloom. One could spend an entire day in the gardens at Tatton Park!
It was a shame that we were there a week or two early for the roses to be in bloom.
Are you going to be in or near Manchester some time in the future? Make it a point to stop in to Tatton Park to visit the gorgeous grounds, mansion and more, but be sure to plan breakfast, lunch or afternoon tea at the Gardener’s Cottage while you’re there. The kitchen uses real butter, local, free-range eggs, and salad, root vegetables and herbs from the walled garden right in Tatton Park. For more information, click on the links below.
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[…] Tatton Park also has a lovely little garden shop where visitors can buy produce from the gardens, and there’s Gardener’s Cottage for dining, which features a quaint outdoor seating area, as well as a tea room. […]
Another fabulous tea experience! Everything looked perfect! And those sandwiches! I can’t believe that everyone doesn’t have a membership to the National Trust! what an incredible deal!
Right? It’s one of my favorite ways to save £ in the UK!
Hi, I’m Christina’s mother, and I have a few things to say about my daughter that very few people know. I’m not the best one for writing things that I like to express, so I’m sorry for any mistakes.
I would love to write every good and kind thing that Christina has done for us and others, but it would take me months to write it all down. We moved to the US from Scotland in 1976. My husband was 40 years old, and we had three young kids; Christina was 9, and her brothers were 4 and 5. We had a very hard time getting on our feet, so Christina decided to start babysitting at a very young age, for $1/hour, and she saved every penny.
My family lived in Italy, and after about 10 years I wanted to go visit them, but we could not afford the fare for 5 plane tickets. Christina came to the rescue, we were only able to go thanks to her.
She graduated from high school with honors, very good grades, put herself through college, she purchased her own car, she worked part-time and also volunteered while she was in college. She went to graduate school while working to pay for it. She gave my husband and me a trip and 2 day stay in Catalina Island for our 25th anniversary, and a vacation to Italy for our 40th. Like I said, she did so much that’s not possible to write down here. They have been many surprises and loving things from her, for many years I wanted to go on a river cruise, last year she made that dream come true for me, it was much better than I ever expected, thank you again Christina.
We are very happy and proud of her, for the great things that are happening to her now, she deserves all the great trips and winnings she’s been receiving. May God bless her and keep her safe as she has a good time traveling.
Your father and I love you Christina! XOXOXO
This is the best comment I’ve ever received!! THANK YOU SO MUCH, Mum and Dad, but I could never begin to repay you for everything you’ve done for me! Lots of LOVE back!! Your loving dotter! XOXOXOXO :)
What a gorgeous place to spend an afternoon. And I must say, your folks looks damn good for their age. Clearly you’ve got some good genes!
It really is a gorgeous place to wander, Frank. Thanks for the comment about my parents, they aren’t very “normal” are they? However, I will say, my mother is much younger than my dad :)