Shuttleworth - interesting place - there’s the Shuttleworth Collection of old planes, the Swiss Garden, a Bird of Prey Centre and some kind of play area - all a bit random, all in the grounds of a big house that isn’t open like a stately home, but I think you can hire it for weddings.

The tearoom/restaurant is in the main visitor entrance building semi-detached to the gift shop and serves all the various attractions. This means it’s also accessible to people not visiting the attractions, but does also mean it features uninspiring views over a gravel carpark.

Tea in a pot, with a jug of milk, which you fill youself, so you get plenty, china cup and saucer - I got two cups of tasty tea.

The scone was oddly flat, as you can see from the pic and had a slightly catering look to it, but it was much tastier than it looked, with a fresh moist texture and plenty of fruit. The prepackaged clotted cream was more than generous and yummy. Jam was in a carton, too, but I was offered a choice of blackcurrant or strawberry. Strawberry, of course, is the only sensible choice. It was Robinsons - a good old reliable. Nothing special, but did the job.

Not a bad tea, of a supermarket restaurant kind of standard, not really something you’d make a special trip for.

£3.85 - definitely on the high side for what you got.

Scone was fruited, decent texture, served with a mini pot of jam and a couple of pats of anchor butter. Which all sounds fine, but it was lacking in flavour somehow.

Tea - well that’s another thing altogether. Only nasty paper cups available, no real milk, only the unpleasant miniature cartons of ‘milk with non-milk fat’ which apparently ‘tastes like real milk’. Pah! And how much do they charge for just one cup of this sacreligious brew? £1.60. Bloody Nora.

£3.90 - far too much for what you get.

Moggerhanger Park is a cut above your average stately home on the catering front. I have, in the past, enjoyed a splendid meal in their restaurant which serves up excellent local food in the evenings. On hearing that the tea room had been awarded prestigious membership of the Tea Guild I had to test it out.

Maybe my hopes were a little too high, but I don’t think Moggerhanger quite came through for me. It’s a nice joint in the old kitchens - waitress service with tablecloths and flowers on the table. It also serves lunches, and a wide array of home-made cakes and puddings. There were several parties partaking of some very tasty looking feasts while I was munching on my scone. And to be fair, I fully intend to go back and test them out.

There was a choice of scones - Lemon, Strawberry or Cheese - I chose strawberry, after being assured that this meant a plain scone with strawberry jam. However, there was a distinct lemony sensation to the scone, which was odd. The scones were billed as warm, but their slightly rubbery texture lead me to believe this meant a cold scone had been wapped in the microwave for a quick blast. Pointless.

The scones themselves were pretty good, nice soft texture - would have been better served cold without the ‘warm’ pretensions. Two scones came served with just enough cream for one, and a pat of pre-packed butter and flora on the side. (Flora! as if!). Just about the right amount of decent jam.

Things perked up more with the tea. Loose leaf - hurrah! The china teapot gave up 3 cups of tasty tea (one has a choice of blends) and the milk was real and plentiful. Presumably membership of the Tea Guild is related more to quality of tea than quality of scone.

£4.35 - bear in mind that’s for two scones, where mostly my prices are for just one. Very good.