Lavenham Guildhall

It is admittedly a bit of a stretch to compare this National Trust Scone Blog to Game of Thrones. In its last season, each GoT episode cost $15m to produce. This blog post about Lavenham Guildhall cost a bit less than that, although I nearly had a heart attack when the bus driver asked for £7.40 to take me seven miles. I'm not sure what was worse - parting with the cash or the fact that I can remember bus fares costing 25p and am therefore officially of 'nan age'.

BUT ANYWAY. This is the final year of the National Trust Scone Quest and I live in mortal fear that it'll end up like GoT; a massive damp squib with all of you feeling let down. I can't let you down. I just can't.

So I've upped the ante a bit. I've gone into "the cloud" and got some "big data" to help me not fail. My first task: make the first scone mission of the year a non-disaster. They're always a disaster. Usually it's because I'm wearing inappropriate shoes and the weather is bad, but I've also turned up to properties that were shut or partially shut and it's always horrendous.

So I did the maths. Last summer, I ran a survey asking you all to tell me which properties I should prioritise. The runaway winner was Lavenham Guildhall in Suffolk, so I checked the details; open in January, located in a village offering tarmac and limited mud, weather didn't look discouraging. So off I went.

Here's a bit of history for you:

Lavenham Guildhall: for religion, not trade

I had assumed that a guild was an association for people belonging to a trade, for example weavers or masons, but not in this case - trade guilds were found in large towns and cities, whereas guilds in smaller locations tended to be religious. There were five religious guilds in Lavenham and this one belonged to Corpus Christi. Lavenham Guildhall was quite small, suggesting that membership was limited to a few eminent merchants.

Lavenham: very wealthy from 1460 to 1530

In 1525, Lavenham was the 14th richest town in England, paying more tax than Lincoln or York. This boomtime had come about because of cloth - Lavenham was famous for producing a blue broadcloth called Lavenham Blews, using woad as a dye.

The Guildhall: built to impress

The Guildhall was built along with two adjacent properties in 1529-30. They were all constructed using timber plus wattle and daub, as East Anglia lacks natural stone. The Guildhall was a bit more elaborate than the other buildings, again suggesting it was a meeting place for high status folks.

The end of the Lavenham boom...

Sadly for Lavenham, a recession hit the cloth industry in the 1520s and 30s and many merchants moved into other industries, leaving a lot of unemployment. By 1568, Lavenham had fallen behind other towns in the area and never regained the levels of wealth and success that it had achieved.

...and the end of the guild - the Guildhall becomes a prison

Religious guilds also came to an inglorious end, being dissolved from 1547 during the Reformation. By 1655, we know that a portion of the Guildhall was being used to house paupers charged with petty crime in what was then called a 'bridewell'. The museum contains some brutal stories of children being incarcerated there before being transported to Australia.

The Guildhall becomes a workhouse

In 1655 the Guildhall also became a workhouse. This was in pre-Victorian days, when being poor was considered to be a fact of life and inhabitants were reasonably treated. It was only later that the idea of the 'undeserving poor' came about and the workhouse became a terrifying place of absolute last resort. Lavenham's workhouse closed in 1836.

The rescue of the Guildhall

Thomas Patrick Hitchcock owned the properties after 1836. He divided the place up and rented it out to tenants, also using space for a granary and a woolstore. A rich man called Sir William Cuthbert Quilter then bought the buildings in 1886 and set about restoring them. He was ahead of his time, as 30 years later the realisation dawned that Lavenham's buildings needed to be preserved and a wider effort began.

The Lavenham Scone

But let's move on to the all-important business of the scone. I've had excellent reports about Lavenham scones over the years but I didn't want to get too excited - see above for first-scone-of-the-year-disaster precedents.

However, there was nothing to fear. The scone was sublime. It was fresh and warm and tasty and I gobbled it down in about 10 seconds, much to the alarm of the nice ladies at the next table who must have wondered where the Cookie Monster had suddenly come from.

I'll end with this picture of Lavenham village. I took it as I was standing at the bus stop - by the way, I'm pleased to report that they had provided a nice bench for my tired old grandma legs, although presumably not out of bus profits. 

It was only afterwards did I notice that the picture looks like something from 'Postcard from the Past'. Lavenham didn't feel stuck in time though - most of the old buildings have been turned into useful things like pubs and there's a buzz to the place that definitely wasn't tourist-dependent. It just looks very classic.

So there you have it: the first scone mission of the year completed and it was a roaring success. I'm going to take this as an omen that 2020 is going to be our year, scone fans, and we will be victorious in completing the National Trust scone quest!

Lavenham Guildhall: 4 out of 5
Scone: 5 out of 5
Stories of misery: 5 out of 5 (if you like misery)

Melford Hall

I absolutely love watching National Trust room guides interact with the British public. At one extreme you have the room guide that sits in a dark corner and doesn't say a word, and none of the visitors ask them anything, because we're British. Occasionally a German visitor will walk in and say "What is this?" and the room guide jumps a mile. 

At the other extreme is the room guide that talks without drawing a breath - I hasten to add that I now know EXACTLY why they do this: they have a mortal dread of the Expert Visitor. We've all seen them - the architectural expert or professional historian that knows more than the guide and spends the whole time tutting and saying "well, that's not EXACTLY right - the horse that threw him in 1532 was actually called Archibald, because his other horse, Geoffrey, was lame that day" until everybody just wants to shove Expert Visitor out of a top floor window.

But the best room guides are the ones that don't wait to be asked questions and don't fear the know-it-all visitor - they just go for it. And that's exactly what the room guides at Melford Hall did today. They were ALL brilliant - really enthusiastic and happy to show off the property. I wanted to take a quick picture of the library door and the guide walked the full length of the room to shut it for me, so it looked its best - I know this doesn't sound like much, but it really helps to make you feel welcome.

But let me tell you a bit about Melford Hall itself:

1. The Hyde Parkers still live there!

• Melford Hall was bought by Sir Harry Parker in 1786 
• His dad was a real character; as Vice Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, he resigned after the Battle of Dogger Bank in disgust at the terrible condition of the fleet's ships and officers
• Unfortunately for him, he came out of retirement in 1782 and went to sea again with his grandson, but they both drowned in a storm off the Maldives
• Sir Harry's second son, William, inherited Melford in 1812 - he designed the fantastic library with its hidden door: 

The hidden door is very successful at its job -
it's the third panel from the left.

• William was succeeded by his brother, Hyde, who also had an interesting naval career; during the bombardment of Copenhagen he gave the signal to withdraw, but his second in command - one Horatio Nelson - lifted his telescope to his blind eye and said "I really do not see the signal" and continued until the Danish surrendered. I doubt that Hyde was very pleased about this.
• Sir Richard Hyde Parker still lives at Melford today, although the estate was given to the NT in 1960

2. Beatrix Potter was a regular visitor!

• William Parker, the 10th baronet, was married to an Ethel Leech, the cousin of Beatrix Potter
• Beatrix often stayed at Melford, reading her stories to the Hyde Parker children - they called her Cousin Beatie
• She gave them the duck that had inspired Jemima Puddleduck, and it is still at Melford today! I commented on how new she looked and the guide said "well, she had to go to be restuffed last year". It's sad that in today's society even toy stars have to have 'work' done to stay young-looking. Or maybe she had a drug problem? Who knows with these celebrities.

Jemima Puddleduck: ask her to wrinkle her forehead. She can't.

3. The Cordells built the place!

• Melford was originally a manor owned by the abbots of St Edmondsbury
• The Dissolution of the Monasteries put paid to that and after 500 years of monastic rule, the estate was passed to the King 
• He sold it to William Cordell, who had worked his way up and was eventually Speaker in Queen Mary's Parliament
• William built the hall between 1554 and 1578, although he probably used bits of the original abbots' manor
• Elizabeth I visited Melford Hall in 1578

4. The Savages inherited in 1602, then it went back to the Cordells!

• Thomas Savage, great-nephew of Sir William Cordell, extended the house after he inherited 
• Descendants of the Savages apparently include Princess Diana, Camilla Duchess of Cornwall, Sarah Ferguson, the poet Alfred Lord Tennyson, the scientist Sir Francis Galton, Bertrand Russell, and Lord Lucan - you couldn't make it up
• Elizabeth Savage had to mortgage Melford to a John Cordell - the Cordells were back at Melford again, becoming Firebraces before they left Melford for good

The Melford scone
But let's move on to the all-important scone. I think I've been letting the Scone Sidekick watch too much reality TV; today when I asked him for his scone verdict he looked very serious but then said "the best scone I've had in a long time" in the same tone of voice I would expect him to use when sending somebody to the gallows. 

But he was right - it was a fantastic scone. Fresh as a daisy, superb texture, and great taste. Great job, Melford.

I'll end with this, the winner of Creepiest Thing I Have Ever Seen at the NT. I'm still not sure exactly what it is or what it's for, but it was acquired by Sir Harry Parker's dad after he captured a Spanish galleon full of gold and porcelain in 1762. This was one of the things he was allowed to keep. I'd have been locking my bedroom door at night, personally.

As someone on Twitter said, you just totally know
that this thing gets down and runs around at night

Melford Hall: 5 out of 5
Scones: 5 out of 5
Celebrity ducks: 5 out of 5

Suffolk has been a very happy hunting ground for the Scone Blogger. Other properties include: Dunwich Heath, Flatford, Ickworth, Sutton Hoo

Ickworth

I'm going to admit something bad: I sometimes visit National Trust properties just because I like their names.

Even worse, I have been known to overlook properties because I DON'T like their names. I know. Feel free to stop reading.

Anyway, I'm ashamed to say that I overlooked Ickworth for quite a while. And then I was looking for somewhere to go in Suffolk, on the basis that my most successful scone missions to date have been at Flatford and Dunwich Heath and therefore Suffolk must be the Mecca of scones, and up popped Ickworth. I started reading about it and within five minutes I was shouting "HOLY MOLY! Start the Sconemobile!"

I don't even know where to start with the factoids. OK, as we're being open about my shallowness, let's begin with the dirt:

1. Bess Foster lived there
Elizabeth Hervey Foster Cavendish is probably best known for being part of the scandalous menage-a-trois that she formed with the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire (as played by Keira Knightley in the film The Duchess). Bess was the daughter of the Earl-Bishop who built the house at Ickworth and she lived there with her first husband before allegedly having an affair with a servant and ending up divorced and disgraced and in Bath where she made things even worse after befriending Georgiana. Luckily for her, Georgiana died and Bess married the Duke. There's a portrait of Bess in the Drawing Room:

2. Ickworth has been inhabited by scandalous Herveys for 600 years 
Bess wasn't the only Hervey with a "colourful private life", as the guidebook puts it. The Herveys (pronounced Harvey) took ownership of Ickworth in the mid 15th century, through marriage. They were very influential at court down the years, but they were also total scandal magnets. Mary Wortley Montagu is famously quoted as saying that there were three human species: "Men, Women, and Herveys". 

3. Ickworth House was built by an Earl who was also a bishop
The Earl-Bishop, as he was known, was the younger grandson of the 1st Earl of Bristol. He didn't expect to inherit so he wangled himself a bishopric in Derry. He doesn't sound terribly well suited to ecclesiastical life, to be honest - he preferred careering round Europe collecting works of art to doing sermons. Factoid of the Day: he is the reason that you will often find a Hotel Bristol in so many towns on the Continent, as our good friend was frequently seen in those parts, bouncing along in his carriage looking for art, like some sort of 18th century Charles Saatchi. He became the 4th Earl and built Ickworth as we see it today - he loved round buildings and had already built himself a fine one in Ballyscullion, which he then used as a basis for Ickworth.

4. The 7th Marquess didn't like the National Trust and flew his helicopter at them
My taxi driver told me about the man who lived at Ickworth: "He did loads of drugs and threw wild parties and wasted all his millions. A friend of mine once had to pick him up when his helicopter ran out of fuel." I thought to myself: 'I bet they don't tell you THAT in the National Trust guidebook' but I was WRONG because they DO. After the 4th Marquess of Bristol restored Ickworth (thanks to his marriage with a wealthy heiress called Theodora) it all went downhill and the National Trust spares no detail in the guidebook - the 6th Marquess, Victor Hervey, was a playboy in the 1960s who ended up in prison for taking part in an armed robbery. Ickworth was owned by the National Trust by the time Victor moved in, with an agreement that the Herveys could continue to reside there. His son, who became the 7th Marquess in 1985, also did time, for possession of drugs. He loved Ickworth and resented the National Trust's presence, so would hover his helicopter over the upper storey of the Rotunda where the NT custodian lived. He ended up having to sell loads of family stuff to the Trust when his millons ran out and he died when he was just 44. 

So there you have it. And I haven't even mentioned the 3rd Earl, who secretly married an Elizabeth Chudleigh who then went on to enjoy a bigamous marriage with the Duke of Kingston, which caused - guess what - an almighty scandal. Say what you like, you certainly got your money's worth with the Herveys. 

The problem with all of this is that I haven't even mentioned Ickworth itself. It is STUPENDOUS. The house is formed of a Rotunda with two enormous wings curving round either side. It looks more like an art gallery and that's exactly what the Earl-Bishop intended - he wanted it to be a showcase for his art collection, which unfortunately was confiscated by Napoleon before he could get it back to England. 

The whole place is extremely impressive, with huge rooms. I can't recommend it highly enough. The East Wing is now The Ickworth Hotel and I will definitely be checking THAT out at some point (pointed look at Scone Sidekick). 

Ickworth undoubtedly wins the award for nicest house volunteers. I've mentioned before that going to properties on your own can sometimes be a bit of an uncomfortable experience (the Scone Sidekick didn't have the day off like me) but at Ickworth it was the total opposite - I had more time to chat and the guides were absolutely lovely, every one of them. 

The Ickworth scone
And what about the scones? Ickworth has a lovely swanky restaurant, complete with table service. I did have to wait quite a long time to actually get served, but never mind - I am not going to turn into one of those Tripadvisor reviewers that gives a place a TERRIBLE rating "because it was raining". I got served in the end and that's the main thing.

The scone itself was fresher than a daisy with a new chat-up line - the texture was perfect in every way. I'd had a choice of plain or fruit and there was plentiful fruit in mine. It was a great scone, so bravo to the Ickworth scone maker.

My trip to Ickworth was the 59th stop on my National Trust Scone Odyssey and it was a watershed moment, because I have now visited every National Trust property that begins with an i. To be fair there are only two of them - Ightham Mote is the other - but it's still an achievement. I'll just have to hope that the Trust doesn't buy Iceland or an igloo before the Scone Odyssey is complete (and you never know with the National Trust). 

Ickworth: 5 out of 5, no question
Scones: 4.5 out of 5
Loveliness of the volunteers in the house: 5 out of 5

Flatford Revisited

You may be wondering why I returned to Flatford Bridge Cottage today, when I have approximately 500 National Trust properties still to see.

If you've been to Flatford, you'll know why. It's a stunningly beautiful little place. John Constable based many of his greatest paintings on Flatford and his scenes are still recognisable today, thanks to the National Trust who look after the buildings and countryside in Constable Country.

It gets my vote as the most idyllic spot in Britain. I would gladly and willingly pay the National Trust £58 a year for the upkeep of Constable Country alone. In fact, I'd probably pay them ten times that amount, but don't tell them.

Anyway, I covered the general story of John Constable and Flatford in my first post about Flatford and its scones in November 2013. But here are a few pictures from today's visit:

A rare sighting of the Scone Sidekick at Flatford Bridge Cottage

Flatford Bridge Cottage, River Stour and apple-laden tree

Flatford - scene of the The Haywain (see below)

The Haywain, by John Constable

There was one moment of heartbreak for me today. Last time I came to Flatford I helped bake the scones. I remember being amazed at how the outside of the scone was so crisp, while the inside was soft and fluffy. 

Well, it turns out that this wasn't down to me. The fruit scone today was exactly the same. I've eaten around 60 National Trust scones since I last visited Flatford and I haven't come across any other scones that achieve crisp vs fluffy perfection.

Flatford Scone of the Month
Flatford is on my World Scone Heritage List because it is brilliant at scones but also because they have a Scone of the Month. I arrived at the tea counter ten minutes after it opened - today being 1st September - and was HONOURED to be the very first person to buy an Apple & Blackberry scone. I'd seen about a billion blackberries in the hedgerows round Flatford and the tree next to the tearoom was about to keel over under the weight of all the apples, so it made perfect sense. It was delicious:

Flatford scone of the month - Apple & Blackberry

I'm going to end by giving you another helpful tip (the first tip being GO TO FLATFORD): I recommend staying overnight. I had noticed on my first visit that the granary once owned by John Constable's father is now a B&B called, cleverly, The Granary. It claims to offer "3* accommodation at 2* prices in a 10* location" and I wouldn't argue with that. Here it is:

The Granary at Flatford

We had a lovely evening wandering around the area and the best night's sleep I've had in ages, because apart from the odd quack there wasn't a sound.

Sunset near Flatford

So you haven't been to Flatford/Constable Country, go as soon as you can. If you've already been, go back. It is without doubt one of my favourite places in the world.

Sutton Hoo

I grew up in the East Midlands. This meant that every night for 18 years I had to watch a local news programme called Look East. Except there was nothing local about it; it was all King's Lynn this and Bury St Edmunds that and Felixstowe the other. For a twelve year old girl doing her homework in a house near Kettering, Ipswich may as well have been Papua New Guinea. 

But guess what! It turns out Ipswich wasn't that far away after all! I just looked it up and Sutton Hoo, the site of an Anglo-Saxon king's burial ground, is 109 miles away from my old school! In America, that's practically NEXT-DOOR! You could be there in two hours! Amazing!

What a shame then that we didn't have to learn about the Anglo-Saxons when I was at school...oh wait a minute, we did. Yes, my teachers spent a good 20 hours or so making us read textbooks about pre-Roman Britain, when all the time we could have got on a bus and gone 109 miles down the road to see it brought to life.

I spent my day at Sutton Hoo in a bit of a fury, as you can probably tell. It's the perfect place for an educational tour - the burial ground itself needs a bit of imagination but the museum explains everything. 

Let me summarise the history of Sutton Hoo:

• Sutton Hoo shot to stardom in 1939, when a local archaeologist called Basil Brown unearthed the remains of a massive wooden ship, 90 feet long, that had been buried on the site.
• Basil had been asked to excavate the area by its owner, Mrs Edith Pretty, who had often wondered what the mounds on her land contained.
• In 1938, he explored a few of the mounds and found evidence of a burial site - each of the mounds had clearly been plundered, probably in Elizabethan times.
• In 1939 he returned to excavate Mound 1 and, just 3 days into the dig, he uncovered iron rivets like those found in other excavations of Anglo-Saxon and Viking ship burials.
• He was amazed at the size of the boat that he was uncovering. In the middle was a shaft that suggested the site had been robbed.
• However, the burial chamber had not been breached and the team were soon uncovering gold jewellery, coins, weapons, leather and more.
• The most famous item is the great iron helmet (picture of the replica above), which is now in the British Museum, along with many of the other treasures.
• The burial site is thought to be that of King Raedwald who died in 625 AD.
• In 1992, Mound 17 was excavated and a double grave was found, containing a young man and a horse. 

The museum at Sutton Hoo tells the story of the site very well and there are replicas of some of the finds, plus a treasury containing genuine artefacts.

And then you can walk around the actual burial site itself. I did at this point think of some of the kids that I was at school with and how they'd probably have run up the mounds and caused destruction, so it was probably just as well we didn't get to go.

This mound once contained a smaller ship burial - it has been rebuilt to its former size to give you some idea of how the site would have looked when there were 20 mounds looming out of the earth:

And this mound, which hasn't been restored, is where Basil Brown found his ship:

The Sutton Hoo scone
It was an all-round day of education for me, as I also learnt something else: if you have to deliver bad news then just cut to the chase and do it quickly (I didn't get this from Sutton Hoo though, this came from The X Factor). So here goes: the Sutton Hoo scone wasn't great. It was very dry and although it was nowhere near as bad as the Wakehurst scone, it just wasn't very enjoyable to eat. The clotted cream was really strange too - it had solidified for some reason, and it just flaked into little tiny bits like a really old soap.

It was a real shame because it was a very good-looking scone and the tearoom was great - it's big and there's a lovely outdoor bit.  

But I recommend Sutton Hoo - the treasures might be in the British Museum but you really do get a sense of what old Basil Brown and Edith Pretty must have felt, stood in a Suffolk field, brushing away at the soil and not knowing that they were about to make one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of all time.

Sutton Hoo: 4 out of 5
Scones: 3 out of 5
School trip organising skills of my teachers: 0 out of 5

Dunwich Heath

I love National Trust guidebooks. I always buy them and read them when I get home though, and this has its dangers. National Trust guidebooks invariably contain some little factoid that would have been useful when you were on-site, so you find yourself wailing "I didn't know there was a crypt containing the bones of 1,000 peasants!" or "I didn't see the carousel that plays Bat Out Of Hell!" (I did see one of those once).

I bought a guidebook at Dunwich Heath today and, sure enough, there it was on page 5, the stop-you-in-your-tracks factoid: in 56 years' time, in 2070, much of Dunwich will be gone. The beautiful coastguard cottages (which house the tearoom and shop), the approach road, the village - the coast will have eroded and it'll all have plopped down into the sea. And that, my friends, is a very sobering thought.

Luckily for us, of course, the National Trust team at Dunwich will have some warning of this (I presume they will anyway, it'd be a bit mean otherwise). Because while the loss of wildlife habitat is a tragedy, the loss of scones, the likes of which I saw today, would be unthinkable. 

Today, readers, I saw with my own eyes 20 DIFFERENT TYPES OF SCONE. TWENTY. I can't even IMAGINE 20 different types of scone, never mind bake them.

But that's exactly what Rob, the lovely chef at Dunwich, managed to do at their Sconeathon. He very kindly invited me along - I'd love to say that the scone blogger intuitively senses when a Sconeathon is going down but I don't - so off we trotted, half expecting to find a man crying on his knees in the kitchen with 400 burnt scones scattered around him, wishing he'd never thought of the idea. 

This is what greeted us:

If you click on the image you can see it better, but to summarise: you're looking (left to right) at Chocolate Orange, Raspberry & White Chocolate, Lemon & Ginger (I think), Sticky Toffee, Malteser, Apple & Cinnamon, Pistachio & Nutella, Apricot & Almond, Cherry, Chocolate & Coconut, and to the right there was a gluten-free option.

It got better - there was a savoury selection too. Cheese & Chive, Bacon & Maple, Cheese & Bacon, Stilton, Sundried Tomato & Red Onion:

On the way there, I'd been talking tough about trying all of them but in the end I only managed three, while the Scone Sidekick snaffled down two. Here they are up close:

Sticky Toffee Scone

Chocolate Orange Scone

Malteser Scone

Apple & Cinnamon Scone

Raspberry & White Chocolate Scone

I can honestly say that the Sticky Toffee scone was one of the most sublime things I have ever eaten. It was absolutely 100% a scone but it was also absolutely sticky toffee, complete with dates and everything. The Chocolate Orange scone was out of this world too - a really fresh and tasty scone with divine extra flavours. Malteser was lovely too and Scone Sidekick assures me that his were fantastic but he'd eaten them before I got a chance to taste them. 

Rob created the Dunwich Sconeathon because he wanted to give his regular customers something different. The regulars are the ones that come along in the depths of winter and so an ever-changing variety of scones gives them something a little bit special.

He then bravely invited me into the kitchen to help him bake some of the Sticky Toffee scones. I found it fascinating - every chef has their own approach to making scones and Rob let me into one of his secrets; the faster you make them, the nicer they are. 

The tearoom was completely mobbed and I'm pleased to report that the scones were a massive hit. 

Dunwich itself is an absolutely beautiful spot. It's in between Southwold and Aldeburgh on the Suffolk coast and is tucked away in its own little corner. At the time of The Domesday Book, Dunwich was twice the size of Ipswich but it was gradually lost to coastal erosion, which continues today at a rate of 1m per year. The heath is rare coastal lowland heath (thanks, guidebook) and is home to Dartford Warblers, adders, and other rare species that the National Trust works hard to conserve and protect.

The beach is perfect for walking - in fact there are countless walks around the area to help you burn off the effects of 20 types of scone:

I'm going to finish with a picture of the lovely Rob holding a tray of his Lemon & Ginger scones. The people of Dunwich are so lucky to have him. Thank you for a lovely day, Rob - the world of scones salutes you.

Dunwich Heath: 5 out of 5
Scones: 5 out of 5 x 20 

Flatford Bridge Cottage

I have good news and bad news. The good news is that today, at Flatford Bridge Cottage in Suffolk, I tasted the best National Trust scones EVER. The bad news is that this means I have accomplished my quest to find the best National Trust scones EVER and I should probably call it a day and end the blog.

However, I've decided that Flatford takes special status, because today's scone mission was a mission with a difference. Unlike my other scone trips, I didn't just turn up - Flatford INVITED ME. And not only that - THEY LET ME BAKE THE SCONES.  

Yes, that's right, today I ACTUALLY BAKED NATIONAL TRUST SCONES. It all came about after my visit to Houghton Mill in September. A very lovely lady called Jemma saw my blog post and contacted me to say that Flatford has its very own SCONE CLUB and would I like to visit? Would I? Readers, I couldn't get there fast enough. 

I was also very excited because Flatford Bridge Cottage was once the home of John Constable. He produced a lot of drawings and paintings but he is most famous for The Hay Wain, a picture my parents still have on their living room wall. Interesting factoid: Robbie Williams has had The Hay Wain painted onto one of the walls of his LA home, as it reminds him of his nan. 

Anyway - here is the story of my day at Flatford:

The Scones
I was late getting to Flatford, and although I didn't admit this to Jemma at the time, I was very worried. She had arranged for me to meet the chef and I know that sometimes they can be a little bit temperamental (I was once a terrible waitress in a hotel and the chef threw a cake tin at me). But Russell, the catering manager at Flatford, is quite possibly the nicest, most patient man in the world.

The daily scone bake was already well underway when I arrived. Below you will see plain scones and the walnut and honey Scone of the Month for November (try not to feel desperately hungry):

The Scone Club at Flatford was set up mainly for regular visitors, so that there would always be something new for them to try. Russell likes to use local produce and had intended that the walnuts for Scone of the Month would come from the tree by the cottage. However, he was cruelly outwitted by the squirrels, who nabbed all the nuts and left him with just five. 

My day then began in earnest with a scone masterclass. Russell explained that scone dough needs very little handling, so once you've rubbed in the butter it's a good idea to use a palette knife to bind the dough together with egg and milk. It's also important to move quickly once you get started, so the baking tray was ready and the oven was on (it needs to be at 190-200 on a domestic oven). 

Russell likes to use a 7cm cutter and he explained that you must never twist as you cut - if you do, the edges of the dough knit together, which stops it from rising. As you can see, Russell's scone on the baking sheet looks perfect, while mine looks a bit squidged, as if it's trying to fly off to safety: 

And here are our plain scones coming out of the oven:

Russell then proved himself to be an utter genius and possible reader of minds, by announcing that we were also going to make some MINCE PIE SCONES. I don't think there are three nicer words in the English language. I am probably ruining the surprise for Flatford's regulars but the December Scone of the Month will involve spice, fruit, and a dollop of mincemeat with crumble topping. If you are now salivating and eating the cushions, I'm sorry. 

And once again, 16 minutes later, we had our mince pie scones:

I am rarely short for words but I actually cannot express how delicious those scones were. Somehow Russell had got the outside to be really crisp, while the inside was as fluffy as anything. 

Once Russell has cut all of his scones from the dough, he pulls the remnants together to form a scone that isn't cut but just goes onto the tray with the others. One lucky visitor then gets a scone that is bigger than the others. Unfortunately mine looked more like Ayers Rock, so if you picked that up today at Flatford, I'm sorry. You're probably still eating it.

Flatford
I then joined Jemma and the two Sarahs on a tour of Flatford. Sarah, who works at the property, showed me The Hay Wain spot as it is today, with Willy Lott's cottage on the left:



Sarah also told me about how much Constable changed the course of art history - until he came along, nobody had really painted ordinary people in rural settings. He also had quite a sad personal life - because he was an artist, he wasn't allowed to marry his sweetheart until he was 40 and had come into some money. His wife then died of TB only 12 years later. Very sad.

Bridge Cottage itself is very pretty:

But the whole location is breath-takingly beautiful. The Granary along the road, which was once owned by John Constable's father, is now a B&B, and there are walks to other nearby towns. I can't wait to go back and I can't recommend it highly enough.

The Lunch
And then, as if Russell hadn't done enough for us, he offered to make us lunch. I'll be honest, I was expecting a baked potato. This is what he served:

It's a four course scone lunch, basically. I should have written down what was involved as it was so cleverly thought out but I was too amazed to think of it. They were all delicious but the drop scone with pea puree and ham, and the walnut scone with quince jelly and mulled apple were out of this world. I could happily eat this for lunch every day of my life.

Russell also gave me two bags of our scones to take home, so the Sconesky to my Hutch didn't feel left out. He's eating them now, as I type.

So Flatford goes right to the top of the National Trust scone leader board. I had such a fantastic day that I don't think it can ever be outdone. My massive thanks to Jemma, Sarah, Sarah and the very awesome Russell for their time and effort. 

I highly recommend you follow the East England account on Twitter - https://twitter.com/East_England_NT - and it goes without saying that if you haven't been to Flatford then GO, GO, GO. They're having a Christmas event on 30 November/1 December - as well as Russell's mince pie scones he's making mulled wine so you're frankly INSANE if you don't go along and try some.

Russell - scone genius

The lovely Jemma, Sarah, and Russell bravely eating one of my scones.