East Riddlesden Hall

I think East Riddlesden Hall will go down in scone blog history as the hardest-fought scone of all time. I've had my travel battles before but this one took the biscuit, thanks to Storm Eunice.

I have to tell you that I don't normally ignore travel advice. I'm usually the batten-down-the-hatches type, but I knew that if I timed it right I could get ahead of the bad weather and batten my hatches down in West Yorkshire.

I won't go into it, except to say my journey took nine hours instead of four.

Instead, let's get straight into the history of East Riddlesden Hall, which is located just a mile from Keighley station!

• There have been inhabitants on the site since the 7th century
• In the early 14th century a hall was constructed on the site where the facade on the right in the picture below now stands:

• In 1638, a rich wool merchant called James Murgatroyd bought the estate and built most of the house you see on the left in the above picture
• This included a Great Hall that sits between both wings but he died before it could be finished
• A man called Edmund Starkie completed the acquisition of the estate in 1708. He built the Starkie Wing, although all that's left of that is the facade, as it was demolished in 1905.
• The estate was eventually inherited by Starkie daughters who had married Suffolk men - they became absentee landlords and pieces of the estate were sold off 
• The Brigg brothers saved the house from demolition in 1933 and gave it to the National Trust

East Riddlesden reminded me of Cotehele in that it was a) very dark and b) one of those labyrinthine houses where you can never quite work out where you are or why there are so many rooms in a relatively small building. Or at least I couldn't.

The Drawing Room,
known as 'His Own Parlour' in James Murgatroyd's time

The interior of the house was chopped up and remodelled several times during its history, as different tenants moved in and out. As a result, it has some oddities, like this very tiny bedroom with an enormous rose window:

Surely the most incongruous
bedroom window in Britain

The Airedale Heifer

My favourite line in the guidebook was without doubt this one: "During the 1820s East Riddlesden enjoyed the reflected glory of the celebrated Airedale Heifer" who was apparently "fattened on the estate". I was instantly fascinated by this Airedale Heifer and did some more research: "It was said to have been 3.5 metres (over 11 feet) long and weighed more than a ton and became a much-visited local animal celebrity until its slaughter following a serious injury in 1830."

I'm not sure I've encountered a "local animal celebrity" before. I was quite sad that she wasn't mentioned in the house (although I just checked the book and there's a picture of her in the kitchen that I must have missed). There wasn't any Heifer merchandise in the shop either. I'd have paid good money for a "I got fattened at East Riddlesden Hall!" mug or fridge magnet. 

The impressively huge Airedale Heifer with the Hall
in the background - she was 170 years too early for 'Pets Win Prizes'

The East Riddlesden Scone

I don't want to worry any of the remaining places on my list, but I seem to have become the angel of doom for National Trust properties. An hour after I left East Riddlesden, they closed the place early because of snow. Ilam Park also closed early, an hour after I had eaten my scone there in January.

Or maybe I'm the National Trust scone ninja, using great skill and agility to grab my scone in the very nick of time before the weather catches me. To be honest, it's all quite stressful whichever way you look at it. But such is life for us hardy National Trust members venturing out before Easter.

Anyway. The tea room at East Riddlesden was really lovely. I was the only person in there, presumably because a) it was the first day of their season and b) it had literally opened about 20 minutes earlier. This in itself carries risk - is it fair to judge the first scone of a property's entire season?

This was National Trust scone #194. As you can imagine, I've learned a few things from the previous 193 specimens. One of those things is that a perfect scone often dances on the precipice of disaster. Take the East Riddlesden scone today: it was still warm, which is always an encouraging sign (although not entirely surprising at 11am). However, fresh and warm can sometimes suggest that a scone is under-baked and I had to deliberate a lot on this today before adjudicating that it was, in fact, perfectly done. 

I've also had to establish a Crumbleometer. According to me, if a scone disintegrates into more than six pieces during preparation or consumption, then it must be marked down. The East Riddlesden scone tottered on the edge today but remained intact enough for a top five star rating. Bravo!

Haworth and the Brontë Parsonage Museum

By now, you have probably realised that I am ruthlessly single-minded in my pursuit of a National Trust scone. I don't really like distractions. I can count on the fingers of...well, three fingers the number of occasions when I've combined my scone missions with a visit to another heritage location. 

(For the record, they are: Tintagel Castle when I visited Tintagel Old Post Office; Hever Castle when I went back to Knole; and finally York Minster and the York City Walls when I went to Treasurers House for the third time and decided I needed to add a bit of  'value', so I wrote The Christmas Pudding Scone Tour of York.) 

But I decided to make an exception on this trip, because just five miles down the road from East Riddlesden Hall is a village that I have wanted to visit for a long, long time. 

Haworth was home to the Brontë sisters, and their former residence is now a museum dedicated to their lives:

The museum was about to close for the day by the time I turned up, bedraggled and cold like a true Brontë heroine, although I'm not sure Brontë heroines typically wore a Brentford FC bobble hat that was, in retrospect, an unwise decision in Leeds United territory. Anyway, my lateness is the reason for the poor quality photographs. However, it was absolutely worth nine hours of train pain. 

Below is the room where the sisters wrote their celebrated novels, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. If you've seen To Walk Invisible, the excellent BBC film about the family, you'll recognise it - although the parsonage is much smaller in real life than it seemed to be in the film.

I then headed to the Old White Lion pub/hotel where I was staying and watched the Michael Fassbender version of Jane Eyre while Storm Eunice raged outside. (There have been 24 films of Jane Eyre! 24! And that doesn't even include the TV versions! I recommend the Fassbender one. Let me know which one you prefer, in the Comments.)

Keighley & Worth Valley Railway

But I STILL wasn't done. I decided to throw caution to the (very strong) wind and add a third heritage stop to my trip. During my preparations, I had discovered that The Railway Children was filmed near Haworth on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway. 

It's an amazing thing: the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway originally opened in 1867 and ran for 95 years before the line was closed in 1962. However, a group of determined and dedicated enthusiasts worked to reopen the line in 1968 and restore it to its past glory, leading to its appearance in the 1970 film. The station at Oakworth is the one that appears in the movie and you can stop there during the five mile ride from Keighley to Oxenhope (you can go back and forth all day if you like).

And that's it! A miraculous feat, considering I'd attempted three heritage visits during a very bad storm and managed to successfully achieve all three! This really could be my year! Who wants me to come and force them to close their property early next?? 

  

East Riddlesden Hall: 5 out of 5
Scone: 5 out of 5
Brontë Bonus: 5 out of 5  - I'd give it more if I could

Ilam Park, Dovedale and the White Peak

Consider this: in the first seven years of the National Trust scone project, I visited an average of 32 National Trust properties per year. That's thirty-two different places visited (and scone purchases attempted) annually.

Last year, I managed one - ONE National Trust property with ONE single National Trust scone. As it happens, that one visit to Winchester City Mill was great: I was joined by one of the Sconepals, so I got to meet her after years of following her on social media, plus the volunteer guides in the Mill were brilliantly entertaining and knowledgeable.

But the scone situation was just too stressful. It was takeaway only (due to COVID), it was absolutely pouring with rain (due to England), so at one point our only recommended option was to take the scones and eat them in Winchester Bus Station. (We didn't do this, obviously: we just stood outside eating a cream tea in a downpour next to a river, because that's what you do when you're British.) 

For this reason, I decided to sit it out last year and wait. It didn't feel right to be highlighting missing scones or closed tea rooms caused by staff shortages. And as Johnny Logan said; "What's another year, when it's already taken seven?" (He didn't say that last bit.)

What I had forgotten is that visiting the National Trust always contains an element of risk, because COVID isn't the only thing that can shut a tea room. Power cuts, weather...you never know when your plans might need to change. As Steven Tyler from Aerosmith said; "We're living on the edge in the National Trust." (He didn't say that last bit.)  

It probably helps to manage the risk with some planning and weather awareness skills but I don't have any, so I was halfway to Ilam Park, Dovedale and the White Peak today before I was even aware of Storm Malik. I hastily looked at the Twitter feeds of some NT properties and saw that a few were closing their doors for safety reasons. But we continued on and made it to the Manifold tea room, which is named after the nearby river and valley. 

I'm going to start with the scone, having made you wait 223 days for it. As you know, I have a 'Scone First' policy whenever I visit a new property because otherwise I walk around mentally accusing all the other visitors of having just eaten the last scone of the day.

And that policy served me well today, viewers, because by the time we got back from our walk the tea room had been closed due to the high winds! Can you imagine if we'd waited? But Scone First it had been and so I'd already bagged this big, rugged and reassuring scone. It was also very fresh and delicious and got a unanimous 5 stars from the panel:

The panel today was made up of members of the Scone Blogger's family. This wasn't their first rodeo and their standards seem to have gone up during the COVID hiatus: there was a minor complaint from one member who claimed that all of her fruit was in the bottom half of her scone. This was overruled by everyone else. But we all agreed that the tea room itself was lovely with friendly, helpful staff. 

We then set off to see what Ilam Park, Dovedale and the White Peak had to offer. I was completing my Peak District trilogy today, having visited Kinder, Edale and the Dark Peak in June 2019 and Longshaw, Burbage and the Eastern Moors in January 2018. You'd probably assume that I would have been prepared, but no - I was still tottering around with a handbag and a pair of trainers while sturdy booted rucksackers strode past me. I think we have established that I will never learn.

So here's what we discovered:

• This area of the Peak District National Park is known as the White Peak Estate
• It's situated in the central and southern part of the Peak District, while the Dark Peak covers the north-east-west area
• The White Peak Estate contains Ilam Park and the valley of Dovedale as well as other valleys
• Ilam Park contains Ilam Hall, the Italian Gardens and the tea room
• Ilam Hall was built between 1821-1826. It is currently a youth hostel and you can stay there for just £15 a night! Bargain!

• There's a very nice walk from Ilam to Dovedale - you can either walk across the fields and hop over one small stile, or head up a hill and go the long way. We won't dwell here on the option we chose. Let's just say that we came back the less arduous way.

• The stepping stones across the River Dove are quite easy to negotiate (I didn't negotiate them)

What you don't see in any of these pictures, of course, is the wind. It was almost unworldly - a huge swirling gust would suddenly build up and almost knock you off your feet.

This led to a first for Team Scone Blogger. As we walked along the river there was a sudden loud creaking sound and a tree on the other side was uprooted and fell away from the water. The smell of damp wood was incredible as the roots were exposed to the fresh air. Even the Scone Blogger's mother, who grew up in the countryside in Ireland, had never seen such a thing. We were very lucky it didn't fall on any passing walkers, as it was a very clear reminder of the sudden dangers of the weather. Plus it explained why the NT closed the car park and tea room as a safety precaution.

So that completes the first National Trust Scone Mission of 2022! Bring on the final 23! This is going to be our year!

Ilam Park, Dovedale and the White Peak: 5 out of 5
Scone: 5 out of 5
The wind: 5 out of 5 for being the wind but 0 out of 5 for stopping scone production

Best National Trust Scones 2013-2021

Happy Birthday to the National Trust Scone Blog! It's been a difficult year but you're hanging in there and you've made it to eight years old!

In those eight years:

• 214 National Trust properties have been visited!
• 84 have delivered a 5 out of 5 top-rated scone!

I had promised to complete this National Trust Scone Quest in seven years but I didn't see a global pandemic coming.

So today marks eight years since I decided to take my National Trust membership a bit more seriously: I would start a blog to help me learn about each property and I would reward myself with a scone at each place I visited.

I have around 27 properties left to visit, as I'm only visiting the ones with a cafeteria. I'm determined to be finished by 17 August 2022 but let's keep that between ourselves, as who knows what life will throw at us.

In the meantime, here is the National Trust Scone Blog Birthday Honours List - the 84 properties with 5-star scones, in reverse order of when I visited:

• Stackpole - after six months of lockdown, I made a bid for freedom in September 2020 and made it to Pembrokeshire for a fantastic scone. 
• Wentworth Castle Gardens - little did I know when I set off for Barnsley in March that it would be my last National Trust scone for months. Lucky I ate two.
• Lavenham Guildhall - it hasn't always had the happiest of histories but the scones made me very cheerful indeed. Absolute perfection.
• Fell Foot - my attempt to eat three scones in one day in the Lake District got off to a promising start at Fell Foot. It subsequently won Scone of the Year 2019.
• Cotehele - here's a top tip: it always bodes well when the property has a mill that produces flour for the scones. 
• Buckland Abbey - previous owner Sir Francis Drake might have a bit of a questionable history but there was nothing questionable about the scones.
• Antony: I loved Antony. I loved the name, I loved the house, I loved the scones, and I loved the fact that there's a street called Sconner Road nearby (check the photos).
• Florence Court - located near a mountain where a legendary horse appears every July to talk to people (and have a scone I hope, as they're good).
• The Argory - you can get there by canoe but however you get there, make sure you have one of their superb scones. 
• Dudmaston - there was a wand workshop going on when I visited and the scones had indeed been touched by magic.
• Kinver Edge and the Rock Houses - people lived in these caves until the 1960s and although rock buns may have been more apposite, the scones were super.
• Arlington Court - see the house, visit the National Trust Carriage Museum, but definitely don't miss the excellent scones.
• Dunster Castle - a very old estate with a working water mill, a leather room, and very good scones.
• Watersmeet - the beautiful place that inspired me to keep going with the National Trust Scone Blog did not disappoint. Excellent scones.
• Mottistone Gardens - Benedict Cumberbatch wasn't there but we did find some very superb scones.
• Kinder, Edale, and the Dark Peak - the Pennypot Cafe is next door to Edale station. Kinder Scout is not. But we all know which part of the property is most important.
• Erddig - donkeys, a thief housekeeper who stole £30,000, and fantastic scones can all be found at Erddig.
• Oxburgh Hall - everybody loves a moat and everybody good scones. Oxburgh has both.
• Croft Castle - Owain Glyndŵr may be buried under the floor but they don't bury the scone baking talent at this cosy castle.
• Nunnington Hall - I went to try and solve a mysterious peacock murder case and found some very excellent scones.
• The Workhouse - I was certainly tempted to say "please, sir, I want some more" but I restrained myself, although the scones were excellent.
• Shugborough Estate - the ancestral home of society photographer Patrick Lichfield was a picture! Ha ha!
• Chirk Castle - murder, scandal, adultery, violence, great scones...it's all going on at Chirk.
• Longshaw Estate and Eastern Moors - I thought the mud might defeat me, but no - I finally found my Peak District scone and marvellous it was too.
• Peckover House & Garden - Lonely Planet has just announced that a cream tea at Peckover is one of the top eating experiences in the world! I concur!
• Clumber Park - it might have lost its house to the demolition men but Clumber offers beautiful gardens, a beautiful lake, and beautiful scones!
• The Needles Old Battery - chalk rocks, guns, secret missile testing. And now - outstanding scones!
• Wicken Fen - home to 9,000 species of wildlife, flora, fauna and a first-class species of scone! Bravo.
• Berrington Hall - even Capability Brown couldn't improve the scones at Berrington Hall - they were berri-good!
• Tyntesfield - maybe one day someone will describe Tyntesfield without saying "the man who built it made his money from Peruvian bird poo" but that day isn't today. The scones were a bird poo-free zone.
• Sudbury Hall - a great house AND the Museum of Childhood starring Sooty and Sindy AND an outstanding scone! What more do you want from life.
• Melford Hall - famed for its celebrity resident, the original Jemima Puddleduck! Her views on scones are not known.
• Wallington - the former home of Charles Edward Trevelyan, the third most hated man in Ireland (after Oliver Cromwell and Thierry Henry), who was name-checked in The Fields of Athenry.
• Belton House - the kids book and 80s TV show, Moondial, was set at Belton! And when I tweeted that I'd been there, the actor who played Tom responded! Fantastic.
• Felbrigg Hall - poor old William Frederick 'Mad' Windham - all he wanted to do was dress up as a train guard and blow a whistle on the station platform at inopportune moments. Instead he ran up huge debts and lost Felbrigg. Amazing scone. 
• Hidcote - a beautiful garden built by "a dull little man" according to James Lees-Milne but we loved it AND we loved the scones!
• Plas Newydd - a fantastic scone on Anglesey! We only really went there to see the Victorian dude who dressed like Noddy Holder 50 years before Nodders was born!
• Dyrham Park - superb scones AND free 17th century hot chocolate (the recipe is from the 17th century, not the actual hot chocolate)!
• Trengwainton Garden - the 5th NT scone we'd eaten in 48 hours during our Tour of Cornwall and it was FAB!
• Trerice - a quiet little manor house near the not-so-quiet town of Newquay, with AMAZING scones!
• Trelissick - the house may be relatively new to the NT but they've certainly got to grips with the scones!
• Boscastle - a little Cornish fishing village that was almost washed away in 2004 - unusual scones but absolutely top-rate!
• Acorn Bank - the third top-class scone on the Spring Tour to the Lake District!
• Sizergh Castle - amazing scone AND a copy of Wham!'s Greatest Hits!
• Wordsworth House - I was moved to compose a poem about the Wordsworth House scone - I expect a call about being Poet Laureate any day!
• Saltram - everything went wrong on our first trip of 2016, apart from the scone!
• Fountains Abbey - it was in the video for Maid of Orleans by OMD! And it had fantastic scones!
• Lanhydrock - our first foray into Cornwall and we were not disappointed! Fantastic scone!
• Biddulph Grange Garden - they had a singing tree and a golden water buffalo but nothing could upstage the scones!
• Nostell Priory - one of the best properties EVER with THREE types of scone!
• Coughton Court - 7 of the 13 Gunpowder Plotters were Throckmortons! Somehow they kept hold of Coughton and are still there today! 
• Tredegar House - fantastic scones AND they keep a Dalek in the stables (Doctor Who is filmed there)! 
• Anglesey Abbey - they have a working flour mill! You can buy bags of flour that you transform into scones that won't be as good as the ones here!
• Montacute House - they filmed Wolf Hall here! If only Anne Boleyn had been able to bake scones like these, it could all have turned out differently!
• Goddards - brilliant scones at the house once owned by Noel Terry, of Chocolate Orange fame! There used to be a Terry's Chocolate Apple as well! 
• Beningbrough Hall - spectacular works of art (and a few pictures on loan from the National Portrait Gallery as well, boom, boom!)
• Sissinghurst Castle - did you see the scones, Orlando? They were great - and fantastic gardens too, in the former home of Vita Sackville-West!
• South Foreland Lighthouse - excellent sconeage in this 'shining' example of a National Trust property HA HA! 
• The White Cliffs of Dover - I really was inspired to ransack the Vera Lynn back catalogue and sing "we'll meet again" to the WCoD scone - it was that good. 
• Speke Hall - it has the River Mersey, it has a priest hole, it has a baker on Twitter, it has fantastic scones, I LOVED it!
• Studland Beach - famous for the UK's most popular naturist beach, for inspiring Noddy's Toytown, and now for very good scones!
• A la Ronde - a round house full of trinkets AND fantastic scones, what more do you want from life? 
• Upton House and Gardens - a lot of pictures, an outdoor swimming pool, and truly excellent scones!
• Treasurer's House, York - they had a Christmas pudding scone with brandy butter that I literally still dream about!
• Hinton Ampner - lots of sheep and fantastic scones!
• Uppark - burned to the ground a few years ago while it was open to visitors, but now restored and serving very excellent scones!
• Stowe - it costs £30,000 a year to attend Stowe school - I'd rather spend that on scones, personally!
• Charlecote Park - William Shakespeare was once caught stealing a scone from Charlecote Park. Did I say scone? I meant deer.
• Bateman's - "Well I'm the king of the sconers/the tea-room VIP", as Rudyard Kipling would have written if he'd had scones at Batemans!
• Claremont Landscape Garden - more of a park than a garden but who's counting - the scones were fantastic!
• Standen - tests proved that the Standen scone was genetically closer to a cloud than a baked foodstuff!
• Nymans - another place that burned down (before the National Trust was involved), now serving amazing scones!
• Waddesdon Manor - they have a mechanical elephant that flaps its ears at Waddesdon but as an attraction it's no match for the top-class scones!
• Scotney Castle - the scones were EPIC. Scotney also had a Banana and Walnut Scone of the Month and Richard Gere, who filmed Yanks there!
• Dunwich Heath - they had 20 TYPES OF SCONE at the Sconeathon we attended! Sticky Toffee, Chocolate Orange, Apple & Cinnamon, Malteser...!
• Morden Hall Park - big, warm, and glazed. 'Morden enough' to warrant a five out of five (ha ha ha! Sorry.)
• Sutton House - Sir Ralph Sadleir of Wolf Hall fame built Sutton House - go along and see them bring out the sconies!
• Quarry Bank Mill - amazing scones in one of the most fascinating NT properties ever - you can even buy a tea towel made in the cotton mill!
• Flatford Bridge Cottage - we helped bake the scones at Flatford but we gave them 5 because they were mince pie scones and they were ruddy delicious! 
• Winkworth Arboretum - a very understated place - not a fridge magnet to be had - but serving fantastic scones!
• Houghton Mill - the Scone Blogger was very hungover but she soldiered on and tried the scone made from home-milled flour, which was DELICIOUS!
• Brownsea Island - we didn't see any red squirrels, which shows that they don't have very good taste as there was a Sconeathon on the day we visited!
• Bodiam Castle - our very first 5 out of 5, setting the benchmark for all!  

You can marvel at all 184 scones on Pinterest. There's also a National Trust Book of Scones, which is available in NT shops or on the internet.

My ever-lasting affection and thanks, as ever, go to all of the fantastic Sconepals that send in photos and show ongoing support and enthusiasm for this mad project. Keep sharing your National Trust scone sightings, either on Twitter or Facebook or Instagram. I love them. 

Winchester City Mill

How often are we able to say "he was really bad at baking" about a member of the royal family? Is Prince Charles a dab hand at a clafoutis? Does Princess Anne bake the best clootie dumpling south of Gretna? We don't know, even in these times of social media and 24/7 news channels. But we do know that Alfred the Great, born in 849 and 33rd great grandfather of Charles and Anne, was rubbish in the kitchen.

The story goes that Alfred was on the run from the Vikings and took refuge in the house of a peasant. She asked him to watch her cakes – small loaves of bread – that she had baking on the fire but he took his eye off the ball and the cakes burned. There was no Hollywood handshake for Alfred that day.

This is why I headed to Winchester City Mill with some trepidation. They love Alfred in Winchester - he made the city his capital after he was crowned King of Wessex in 871 - so I wasn't sure if burning baked goods on a daily basis was seen as a way of honouring the great man.

But let's begin with some history of the mill itself:

Winchester City Mill: probably the oldest working watermill in the UK

There has been a mill on this site since Saxon times, possibly stretching back even further to the Roman era. The Domesday Book reported that it was the most valuable mill in Hampshire. From 989 it was owned by the nuns of Wherwell Abbey.

The Mill declines after the Black Death

The plague devastated the population of England and once-productive land was left uncultivated. The poor harvests impacted the mill (known as Eastgate Mill). At the same time, Winchester itself lost its position as capital. By 1417 the mill was derelict.

Queen Mary gifts the Mill to the town

Winchester Cathedral was the venue for Queen Mary Tudor's marriage to Philip of Spain in 1554. In gratitude, Mary gifted the mill to the town and it was renamed the City Mill. I'm not entirely sure how they felt about being given a derelict mill as a thank you for hosting an expensive royal wedding but let's assume it's more generous than it sounds.

James Cooke rebuilds City Mill

In 1743, a man called James Cooke leased the mill and rebuilt it. He retained a lot of the medieval materials but spent a huge amount creating the building we see today. In 1795, JMT Turner painted the mill during a visit to Winchester. There's a lovely story about how this was 'discovered' in 2013 by the mill's assistant manager. He was looking through the Tate's digital archive and found the painting from Turner's Isle of Wight Sketchbook from his student days at the Royal Academy: 

City Mill stops being a mill

The mill remained in use until the early 1900s. It was used as a laundry during WWI but then fell into disrepair. In 1928 it was put up for sale and purchased by a group of benefactors who gave it to the National Trust. It was leased to the Youth Hostels Association in the Thirties and the hostel remained until 2004.

City Mill starts being a mill again

In 2004, City Mill started to produce flour again. This was thanks to 12 years of restoration work. I've said it many, many times on this blog but I'll say it again: we really should put National Trust mill enthusiasts in charge of all the world's big problems. They just make things work. (See also Acorn Bank, Houghton Mill, Anglesey Abbey, Dunster Castle and Cotehele).

The Winchester City Mill scones

I knew that the tea room at the mill was small and I also knew that it hadn't long reopened after lockdown. However, I wasn't expecting it to be takeaway only and I had chosen the worst - and I mean THE WORST - day of the year to visit. The rain was sheeting down in that way where you seriously wonder if it will ever stop (apparently it also rained non-stop on Mary and Philip's wedding day). And let's face it: a cream tea is not the easiest thing to consume on a takeaway basis.

Luckily for me, I had a very resilient companion on this scone mission. The very lovely Helen, better known to many as the handler of Hattie the Otter, lives in the area and came along to the mill with me. 

Once it was clear that we couldn't eat our scones inside, we trudged out into the little garden and defiantly ate them in the pouring rain, which is probably the most British thing that anyone can do. The scone was very tasty though and well worth the drenching.

I cannot praise Helen enough - she was a lovely, entertaining and interesting guide and I could not have had a better companion for the day. But - and she must get this a lot - when we greeted each other beneath the looming statue of King Alfred, all I wanted to blurt out was "have you brought Hattie Otter??" I managed to not do that but Helen knows what's what and Hattie was indeed with us. 

Hattie Otter: unconvinced by scones eaten al downpouro

It was particularly fitting that Helen and Hattie joined me at Winchester City Mill, as it's a hotspot for otters. Back in 1994, three otters were reintroduced to the River Itchen and they've thrived ever since, along with the trout, water voles, kingfishers and other wildlife that can be found. You can watch 'otter footage' at the mill, showing them marauding around late at night.

So there you have it: the National Trust Scone Quest is back, back, BACK and Winchester City Mill was a great place to restart. A big thank you to the lovely Helen and Hattie for showing me around.

Winchester City Mill: 5 out of 5 - especially the fantastic volunteers
Scones: 4.5 out of 5
Fortitude of the Sconepals when faced with eating a scone in lashing rain: a gazillion out of 5

Best National Trust Scone of 2020

It has all the elements of a Greek tragedy: I announce in January 2020 that I am going to finish the National Trust Scone Odyssey in the next 12 months. It's taken me seven years so far and this will be the year when I visit the final 30 properties on my list. Several people politely ask if this is a little over-ambitious. "Nooooooo!" I tell them. "I am going to TRIUMPH in 2020!"

Well, we all know how that ended up. But the motto of the National Trust Scone Blog is "NEVER MIND" and we ploughed on together, facing the ups and downs with as much cheerfulness as we could muster.

But when I sat down with a heavy heart to write up the obligatory review of the year, knowing I'd only managed to eat three official National Trust scones so couldn't even stretch to a top five, I realised how many lovely things had happened in 2020. And it's all thanks to the Sconepals.

So here it is - instead of Scone of the Year, here's the National Trust Scone Blogger's List of Seven Lovely Things That Happened in 2020:

7. The Year of 100% Five-Star Scones

The silver lining to my only managing three proper National Trust scones in 2020 is that all three of them scored 5 out of 5 to deliver my first annus hundredpercentus. I started off at Lavenham Guildhall in Suffolk in January for a perfect scone. I then made it to Wentworth Castle Gardens near Barnsley shortly before everything closed down, before making a bold dash to Stackpole in Pembrokeshire when things opened up again in the summer.  

This is how I will remember the scones of 2020 - they were few but they were memorable:

6. The Year of the National Trust's 125th Birthday

Did you, like me, have times this year when you had to sit quietly just to contemplate the magnitude of the utter disaster that was unfolding in front of you? For me, not getting to see Brentford's last game at Griffin Park was such a moment, as was the National Trust's 125th birthday. The one bright spot here is that the NT hadn't actually sent out the invitations confirming which lucky members had had their names drawn out of a hat and would be going to a celebratory Garden Party at Buckingham Palace. (To all of my friends and family who received WhatsApp messages at 3am reminding them to apply and that they would be taking me as their guest if they got through; thank you anyway.) We'll never know who missed out and I'll never know what the scones at BP taste like. 

I received many pictures of the Sconepals' substitute garden parties and they were all brilliant - I'm not sure the Palace could have lived up to some of them, frankly. Special mention goes to Fussy the Explorer (top left below) and to our man Sconepal Ole of the Canine Division. Like Kate Moss getting spotted at JFK airport, Ole's dedication to appropriately regal attire got him noticed by the editor of the National Trust magazine and we were all starstruck to see him in print.

5. The Year I Tried to Bake 50 Scone Recipes in One Day

I am no stranger to the question "What were you thinking?" but I outdid myself in April. I decided to emulate Kristen Wiig in the film Bridesmaids, where she bakes and decorates one cupcake, then eats it. I, however, decided to try and bake one scone from every recipe in the National Trust Book of Scones...and there are 50 recipes. I tweeted the experience, which obviously ended in abject failure. You can relive it here: 50 National Trust Scones in One Day.

4. The Year of the Sconestice at Sconehenge

I must be clear that I didn't invent the Sconestice and Sconehenge. But seeing as I had a fairly large window in my diary in late June, I decided to bake my own prehistoric monument, get up early and experience a Sconehenge sunrise. My efforts, of course, turned out to be rubbish compared to those sent in by the Sconepals that also found themselves with a spot of time on their hands at midsummer. I particularly loved the one that looked like it might transform into a squadron of police cars and the one in a wheelbarrow:

3. The Year of Not-The-National-Trust House Tours 

This one still makes me laugh: several bored Sconepals sent in Not-The-National-Trust tours of their own homes. My own effort included an unkempt lawn, a very poorly stocked shop, and my star attraction: a spectacular water feature, which I have helpfully compared to that at Cliveden to give you some idea of the general theme: 

If you do a search for the hashtag #notthenationaltrust on Twitter you can still enjoy many of the Sconepals' efforts. A few highlights:

2. The Year Sconepal Ole Kept Our Spirits Up

You know when actors win an Oscar and they shout "I love you man!" at a co-star during their acceptance speech and you think 'oh for God's sake stop being so ridiculous'? Well, when the Book of Scones finally wins the Nobel Prize for Literature I will be shouting "I love you dog!" at Sconepal Ole because he has kept me going this year, quite frankly. His marvellous assistant, Corinne, has shared photos of him on Twitter throughout the year, celebrating VE Day (middle top below), doing a spot of DIY, going to Scotland before lockdown (middle centre and bottom), enjoying the summer, enjoying Christmas, not enjoying a bath, and getting his deserved moment of fame in the National Trust magazine. He has never failed to make me laugh. To Corinne and her husband: a heartfelt thank you for sharing Ole with us. 

1. The Year of Amazing Sconepals

Which brings us to the biggest highlight of 2020: the enthusiastic home-baking of scones that took off during the first lockdown. You can see pictures of all 275 scone bakes here. Every single picture was brilliant but three stuck out for a special mention:

The Moomin scone from Catherine:

The Googly-eyed Chocolate scone from Jo:

And finally, my favourite picture of 2020. Sent in by Dr Joe Flatman, I named it "The Green, Green Grass of Scones" as it evokes so much: the sun so bright yet casting prison bar shadows onto a lawn this is actually a carpet. The scones looking spectacular, yet served with gin jam because, well, coronavirus. The perfect picture for a year that promised plenty, denied us all so much, and yet we persevered.

In all seriousness, I know this has been a very difficult year for many of you. To all affected by redundancy or work shortages, this will not last forever and brighter times lie ahead. Here's to a happier 2021.

Until then, I say a huge, heartfelt thank you to everyone that is part of the National Trust Scone Community. Thank you for sharing your pictures, thank you for making us all laugh and for laughing at each other (in a good way), and thank you for the scones. You have helped to make 2020 bearable for everyone else.

Your Best Christmas at the National Trust?

What's the best Christmas experience you've ever had at the National Trust? I've decided to do a festive retrospective because, frankly, I can't face doing a Sconepals' Poll Winners Party this year. 

Below are my favourites but it's yours I'm interested in - please add them in the comments below or tweet them to me. 

Flatford Bridge Cottage, 2013

I went to Flatford in November, but it still counts as a festive experience because they let me bake Mince Pie Scones. I remember getting the email inviting me along and thinking that the properties allowing me behind the scenes to do baking/meet the chefs was going to potentially compromise the integrity of the blog. I needn't have worried as I remain untroubled by any similar invitations, which is hilarious. Actually, Greys Court did invite me to do baking but that was a bit different. Anyway. One of my best days ever.

Polesden Lacey, 2013

It was the first year of the blog and the Scone Sidekick and I arrived at Polesden Lacey completely unprepared for what we found: it was absolutely mobbed. They had gone all out for the festive season; a choir, Christmas lunches, mulled wine and a sleigh ride pulled by these two magnificent reindeer (ahem): 

Hughenden, 2014

We'd been to Hughenden the year before and they - steady me, someone - didn't have any scones. So we went back at Christmas time because I'd been told that they decked the place out in true Victorian style. It was beautiful and well worth the return visit (and they did have scones the second time round).

Treasurers House, 2014

I've told this story so many times: I'd heard that Treasurers House in York was doing Christmas Pudding Scones, so I schlepped up there in the fog on a cold late November day wondering what on earth I was doing. The rest is history: the sublime scone with brandy butter will probably never be surpassed. I even went back in 2019 and recorded a podcast with the wonderful team AND I created a full York Christmas Pudding Scone Itinerary (and I don't do that for every scone).

Please send me your Christmas National Trust memories - if you have any photos to go with them, even better. I'll add them to this blog.

In the meantime, what will 2021 bring?

I set out so full of bravado back in January. I was sure I was going to finish this National Trust Scone Odyssey in 2020. I made it to Lavenham Guildhall and Wentworth Castle Gardens before the world closed down. I later managed to escape my house and make it to Stackpole before the world closed down again. 

Rest assured that the very day my vaccine 'sets' (or whatever vaccines do when you have to wait for them to kick in), I will be getting in my Fiat 500 and roaring off down the motorway to Castle Drogo, Dolaucothi, Ilam...all of the places below. 

Colby Woodland Garden

If yesterday's trip to Stackpole was a highpoint in the annals of the National Trust Scone Odyssey - my first post-lockdown scone, 199 days in the waiting - then today was...well, let's just say it wasn't a highpoint. Anything that involves sheeting rain, no scone, and an AA man fixing your hired Toyota Aygo in a car park is unlikely to be a highpoint of anything.

But! Our motto here in NT Sconeworld is NEVER MIND and, anyway, I didn't actually need to visit Colby Woodland Garden in Pembrokeshire at all - it was a bonus. The Bothy tearoom is tenanted and I took the decision ages ago that tenanted cafes would not be a mandatory part of this quest. But I was in the area and I'd heard great things about the place so I decided to drop in.

The first mistake I made was to save the scone until after my walk. I never, ever do this - it's Rule 1 in the Scone Blogger Handbook: Eat Scone As Soon As Possible. The second mistake I made - and this is the one that I believe angered the Scone Gods - was I bought a cup of tea and a piece of apple cake to sustain me. WHY? Why did I break with years of best practice? I don't even like apple cake.

It all went downhill from there. I trudged off into the torrential rain, noting the signs about keeping two metres apart. I needn't have worried; there was hardly anyone else there.

There were other signs advising that a one-way system was in place. This troubled me immediately. I had no idea how long the woodland walk was - what if it stretched for 20 miles and I was stuck on it for days with no way of legally turning back? It turned out I was right to be worried; I stuck to it so diligently that I soon found myself walking out of the estate altogether and down to the nearby seashore at Amroth. 

On the plus side, Amroth had a bus shelter,
which came in handy while I spoke to the AA

There had been no phone signal on the Colby estate and as I walked down into the village my phone suddenly burst into life with voicemails and texts. I sat in the bus shelter while I spoke to the car hire company - the light that kept flashing on was indeed potentially a problem so the AA were on their way. I beetled back to the car park and spent the next 20 minutes sorting out tyre pressure.

I could, and should, have gone back for my scone but I was soaking wet and extremely miserable. I'm not giving up though! I will claim my bonus Colby scone before the week is out!

Part Two...The Return to Colby Woodland Garden

True to my word, I made it back to Colby Woodland Garden on my final day in Pembrokeshire. The rain was (just about) holding off and I was 100% clear on what was needed: I went straight into the Bothy tearoom and ordered my scone.

Things didn't bode too well: a microwave was involved and when I tried to cut the scone it disintegrated into about 12 pieces. However, I have stopped worrying about microwaves ever since my niece asked for her scone to be heated up at Croft Castle. It must be very tiring working in a National Trust cafeteria.

But in fact the scone was delicious. Just the right amount of fruit, sweet and tasty, it was well worth the return trip.

Colby Woodland Garden: 4 out of 5

Scone: 4.5 out of 5 (a bit crumbly but very tasty)

Worthwhileness of the return trip: 5 out of 5

Other National Trust properties I have visited in Wales: Aberdulais Tinworks, Bodnant Garden, Chirk Castle, Dyffryn Gardens, Erddig, Penrhyn Castle, Plas Newydd, Plas yn Rhiw, Powis Castle, Stackpole, Tredegar House