Coleton Fishacre

I'm going to be honest with you, readers, I am not in a good place with this blog at the moment. It's supposed to be an affectionate and light-hearted diary of my National Trust adventures, with some scones thrown in as a common denominator. 

I want every scone to be a 5-star lump of gloriousness. I don't want to criticise anyone's work or make them annoyed or sad. And the very good news is that the secret of scone gloriousness is actually very, very simple; having now visited 110 NT properties, I can tell you that the one single factor that almost guarantees enjoyment of a scone is freshness. Scones need to be baked fresh on the day. That's the secret.

The National Trust has been standardising the scone recipe across all of its properties for some time. If this is to cut costs, then OK - it's a risk, because people will stop buying them if the quality drops, and it's kind of a shame to lose the individuality of each property - it's always been part of the fun for me. But I get the need to try for efficiency.

But if it's to improve quality, then it's failing. Both scones I had today were poor. The Coleton Fishacre scone was inedible. If the NT wants to standardise scones to improve quality, then don't worry about the recipe; focus on making sure they are fresh. If scones are not baked fresh on the day, a cream tea is not worth £4.20 in my mind and I'm not going to waste any more of my money on them.

Anyway - ENOUGH of this. This is a blog about scones, not the refugee crisis or Brexit.  

If there's one thing that can rescue a bad scone experience, it's a FANTASTIC house - and that's exactly what we got today at Coleton Fishacre:

Coleton Fishacre was built in 1923 by Rupert and Dorothy D'Oyly Carte. Rupert was the son of Richard D'Oyly Carte, the theatre impresario who made a huge success out of Gilbert and Sullivan, and who also built the Savoy Hotel.

Coleton is located near Kingswear, close to the Devon coast. Some factoids:

• It was designed by Oswald Milne, a one-time assistant to Edwin Lutyens
• The house was inspired by the Arts and Crafts Movement - it is built out of stone that was quarried from the 24 acre garden
• The interior, however, is Art Deco - some of the fixtures are original
• Dorothy lived there permanently, while Rupert came down from London every weekend with friends and associates for entertaining
• In 1932, the D'Oyly Carte's son, Michael, was killed in a car accident - they separated a few years later and Dorothy moved out
• Rupert died in 1948 
• His daughter, Bridget, sold Coleton to Rowland Smith, a very successful London car dealer, in 1949
• When his widow Freda died in 1982, it was sold to the National Trust who opened the gardens to the public and tenanted the house
• It was fully opened to the public in 1999

I loved Coleton Fishacre. Some of my highlights:

1. The building 
I loved the way that the building is curved towards you when you arrive - see picture above. It's very inviting. It was constructed to maximise its exposure to the sun on the seaward side, apparently. And although it's built in the Arts and Crafts style, using local materials to embrace the natural surroundings, the driveway was designed so the D'Oyly Cartes could turn their Bentley around.

2. The Saloon
The interior of the house is very striking but also quite austere. We had also been to Greenway today, which was Agatha Christie's summer home, and yet it was Coleton Fishacre that felt more like a temporary summer residence. 

The showpiece was the Saloon. It's huge and was built to take advantage of the change in levels - you enter down some steps, which creates a stage effect:

3. The wind dial
I had never seen a wind dial before and I was transfixed by it. It has gone on to the list of National Trust Things That I Would Like in my House. Also on that list: the Tudor donkey wheel from Greys Court.

4. The Loggia
The word 'loggia' is one of the thousands of words that I recognise but if you asked me to explain it, I'd be stumped. Coleton Fishacre has a loggia, so I looked it up and it's basically an outdoor sitting room. It's lovely. It has a huge table there for everyone to eat outside, while sheltered from the elements on three sides.

5. The garden
There's a theme developing here - see our visit to Greenway again - but we didn't see much of the garden at all. It was February, it was raining, but it's no excuse - we'll have to go back in the summer and marvel at the views out to sea.

The Coleton Fishacre scone
I'm not going to say much more about this. It looks nice but if you look closely you can see that it doesn't look properly baked. And it was very dry.

But Coleton Fishacre itself is a fantastic place and I highly recommend it. Go early in the summer is my advice.

I'm disappearing for a while, but I've got a big NT trip planned in March and another extravaganza in April, so we'll see how they turn out! 

Greenway

It sometimes takes a bit of effort to persuade the Scone Sidekick to join me on my scone missions. And then on other occasions, I only need four words - in the case of Greenway "it's Agatha Christie's house" - and he's got his coat on. 

And although I forced him to get up at 5.30am on a Saturday and travel for several hours to get there, he wasn't disappointed by Greenway. We loved it. Here are my five highlights:

1. The location
Greenway is situated near Dartmouth, on a promontory above the River Dart. The views are stunning - this is what Agatha Christie used to be able to see from her bedroom window:

I assume it looks a bit nicer on a sunny day but you get the idea.

2. The history

Greenway actually had a long and fascinating history before Agatha came along:

• There has been a house on the site for over 400 years
• A Tudor mansion was built for Otto Gilbert, part of a Devon sea-faring family
• In 1588, a Spanish flagship that had been part of the Armada was captured - 160 Spanish prisoners were put in Gilbert's care and he had them building walls and pathways at Greenway
• In 1700 the Gilberts relocated to nearby Compton Castle
• Greenway then passed through various families
• A man called Roope Harris Roope started work on the Greenway House we see today, after he inherited in 1771
• Roope went bankrupt and the estate passed to the Eltons, the Carlyons, the Harveys, the Bolithos and Williamses
• In 1938, Agatha Christie (or Mallowan, as she was known - her married name) bought the place with her husband, Max
• The house was requisitioned during WWII

2. The Agatha Christie connection
Greenway was given to the National Trust in 2000 by Agatha's daughter and grandson. They stipulated that they didn't want it to become an Agatha Christie theme park and the Trust has stuck to their wishes. It's not a museum or a shrine - it's her house.

It was actually her summer home - her main house was in Oxfordshire - but it doesn't feel like a summer home. I was expecting something small and ramshackle, but it's quite large and sturdy.

I did feel like a bit of a snoop looking inside her wardrobe, I have to say. However, I'm sure Miss Marple would have had a shufti if she'd had the chance so I'm not going to lose any sleep over it:

Greenway features in two of Agatha's books; Dead Man's Folly and Five Little Pigs. The final episode of Poirot was also filmed at Greenway - one of the only areas of the house dedicated to her work features a script signed by David Suchet:

4. The gardens
I'm going to be completely honest with you: I saw very little of the gardens today. And I could give you many credible excuses: it's February, so there was very little to see. The boathouse was shut. However, it was only when I got home and saw that a full ten pages of the guidebook are dedicated to the gardens that I realised I probably should have made more effort. I'll go back. 

5. The lovely people
It's 187 miles from my house to Greenway and we were practically on its doorstep when I realised that you have to book your parking space in advance. I tried not to show my panic to the Scone Sidekick while I hastily looked for a number I could ring. 

To my eternal discredit, I fully expected the phone to be answered by a harassed house administrator - one that was answering the phone while also trying to open the house, fix the heating, and deal with three volunteers ringing in sick.

But it wasn't. The loveliest woman in the world answered and sorted us a space. And then when we got there we were greeted by a very friendly man at the car park entrance, followed by a lovely woman called Linda at reception. The man at the house entrance was really helpful and the staff in the tea-room were lovely too. Even the Sidekick agreed that the people at Greenway were the best NT volunteers he'd ever come across.

And so it pains me a bit to move on to more contentious matters. HOWEVER, I think that the Trust might be responsible for these things, and not Linda or the woman on the phone or the man on the door or the friendly young things in the cafe:

The tea-room
I was given a little bit of paper as we drove into Greenway. I glanced at it, saw the words 'cafe' and 'refurbishment' and stuffed it into my pocket quickly without reading any further - if I had dragged us 190 miles to a property with no tearoom, I needed to hear this at the exact same moment as the Sidekick. 

But, to my relief, the cafe was open. I bought two cream teas, put them down, collected some milk, and went back to the table. The Sidekick was looking absolutely murderous. I thought maybe his boss had rung him and sacked him, or he'd found out about the alternative route to Greenway by steam train. But no; "This has ruined it. This has absolutely ruined it," he thundered. "Do you know what this is like? MCDONALDS."

And then I read the piece of paper and realised that Greenway is conducting a two year experiment with disposable plates, knives, forks, spoons, and cups.

I really admire experiments, I really do. And although I don't see how throwing away thousands of little wooden knives and forks is better for the environment than washing up steel ones, if the Trust tells me that it's true then I believe them.

But it doesn't change the fact that sitting in a tea room eating off a paper plate with a chip fork is not a very enjoyable experience. It just isn't. The German woman next to us was eating a salad off a paper plate and it looked so unappetising - I wouldn't have touched it. 

There isn't much more I can say. We'll just have to wait and see what happens when the experiment is over. 

The Greenway scone
The scone itself was OK. It was a bit dry, and trying to cut it with a wooden knife was more difficult than I expected. But I ate it, and the tea was great, even if it did come in a paper cup.

So in summary, I would highly recommend Greenway; it's a lovely place that doesn't overdo the Agatha Christie connection, with fantastic staff. 

Greenway: 5 out of 5
Scone: 3.5 out of 5 (please note that I originally gave a 4 but slept on it and changed it)
Friendliest staff ever: 5 out of 5

Stoneywell

Leicester is famous for many things: Gary Lineker. Gok Wan. Showaddywaddy. But its greatest claim to fame must surely be the discovery of Richard III beneath a car park in 2012. That must be the kind of thing that heritage professionals dream about. Although my favourite moment in the Channel 4 documentary was the heritage professional saying "I am doing this so I can PROVE that Richard III was NOT an evil hunch-bank" and then being told by a bone expert "he was definitely a hunch-back". 

Anyway. I was pleased to see Leicester having its moment in the heritage spotlight. The National Trust owns only three places in Leicestershire - Ulverscroft Nature Reserve, Staunton Harold church, and Stoneywell. The latter is the only one that does cake, so that's where we went today.

A few factoids about Stoneywell:

• It was built in 1898-9 as a summer home for Sydney and Jeannie Gimson
• Sydney was a Leicester industrialist and owner of an engineering firm
• Sydney asked his brother, the architect Ernest Gimson, to build the house
• Ernest was a leading light in the second generation of the Arts and Crafts movement - he had met William Morris and shared his belief in traditional craftsmanship over industrial mass production
• Detmar Blow was the head mason on the job
• Ernest chose the spot so that the house 'emerges' from the ground - the design means that you can step from the main bedroom window right out onto the garden
• It was furnished with pieces that could withstand the cold and damp - there was no central heating until 1969, two years after the place was connected to mains water- and the result is solid, practical items that are nonetheless very beautiful
• The original thatch roof caught fire in 1939 and replaced by slate 
• Basil, the son of Sydney and Jeannie, moved to the house full-time in 1947
• His son Donald lived there until 2012 when the National Trust bought it
• It was opened to the public in February 2015

An advance booking is essential at Stoneywell - you can't just turn up - and a mini-bus takes you from the car park to the actual house.

The Stoneywell scone
But what about the scones? The tea-room at Stoneywell is tiny - there are only three tables and it was standing room only while we were there. To be fair, nobody seemed to mind balancing their cup on a barrel, but it did make me wonder if they could have laid the room out a bit differently, maybe with shelving around the walls to make it easier to fit more people in?

Anyway. I'm always overjoyed to see home-made scones at smaller properties, and the Stoneywell scone was really tasty. They'd run out of cream - the woman running the place was really apologetic and said that they hadn't been expecting 90 people. I'm still a bit confused about that - surely Stoneywell knows exactly how many people are coming each day - but NEVER MIND! The scone was tasty, if a little bit dry.

Stoneywell: 4 out of 5
Scone: 4 out of 5
Impressive automatic gate to let the mini-bus out: 5 out of 5

Sunnycroft

I had a Ladybird book when I was little that featured a picture of a giant tree in America that you could drive through. It was amazing. I desperately wanted to see that tree and drive through it, possibly reversing and driving through it again.

And last year we did it. We actually went to Yosemite National Park and saw that tree. Unfortunately there was no driving through it because it fell over in 1969. This was extremely disappointing - I was born in 1974, so the tree had toppled over long before I arrived on the planet. People sue each other for less than this in America, although who do I sue? Ladybird books? My parents? The tree?

Anyway. What has this got to do with Sunnycroft in Shropshire? 

Well, my sad experience with the Fallen Tunnel Tree has not put me off giant redwoods, or sequoiadendron giganteum, and Sunnycroft has an avenue of them that was planted in 1899! The Scone Sidekick and I were overjoyed to see them today and we relived our time in Yosemite, with the added bonus that no massive bear was likely to come lumbering out of a hedge and take my face off with a swipe of her paw.

It took us almost as long to get to Sunnycroft today as it did to get to California*. There had been a frost during the night so naturally all the trains had stopped working. But we persevered and it was well worth it. Here's a bit of history: 

• Sunnycroft is a Victorian villa, built by John Wackrill in 1880
• Wackrill was a successful brewery owner and, like many prosperous professionals of the time, he wanted a nice mini country estate in the suburbs to show off his success
• Mary-Jane Slaney bought Sunnycroft when Wackrill died - she extended it and furnished it with fashionable, good quality materials 
• She too shuffled off this mortal coil and Sunnycroft was bought by her brother-in-law, JVT Lander, in 1910
• He owned an iron foundry and was thrifty at work and at home - he was a lot slower to introduce any innovations to the house 
• His daughter Joan moved to London and became a successful embroiderer - she worked on the Queen's Coronation robe! Amazing. 
• Joan returned to Sunnycroft to look after her sick parents and stayed on after their deaths
• She gave Sunnycroft to the National Trust in 1997

A couple of my highlights from today's trip: 

The house

I had read the guidebook before I went to Sunnycroft and have to say that it didn't exactly oversell the place; "Sunnycroft makes no claims to great architecture and is rather solid and conservative in style" is a sample line. 

But I absolutely LOVED the place. It joins Hughenden, Packwood, and Avebury Manor on the list of NT properties that I would happily move into tomorrow. 

The staircase hall is particularly beautiful:

And the rooms were big but homely too, like the Drawing Room:

Joan Lander and her diaries

I've decided that Joan Lander is my hero. Today she put my mind at rest on a matter that has troubled me for years; the difference between mine and other people's diaries.

For example, political diaries when they are published always seem to sound something like: "Tuesday 4 October. Peter put both hands on the table and said "Mike, fiscal adjustment that targets deficit and debt reduction does not necessarily prevent fiscal instability." He was shaking with rage, his knuckles were white and his eyes had an unusual green-ish tinge to them."

My entry for Tuesday 4 October on the other hand reads "Spoke to mum. Had chips." And today Joan proved that I am not alone. Her entries - "We were going to have tennis, but it was much too wet, so Heath, Mary Leake and I played ping-pong, Daddy and Mr Leake billiards" - prove that people can keep simple diaries that end up being useful and interesting to other people. Alright, maybe not mine.

The Sunnycroft scone
The Scone Sidekick kept asking very helpful questions on our lengthy journey today, such as "what are you going to do if there are no scones? What if we've come all this way and there are no scones?" I was therefore VERY relieved to see a pile of scones on display when we reached the tea room.

I have to say that it tasted a lot better than it looked. I'm not sure why, but shop-bought scones always remind me of someone that has been a little bit too fond of their sunbed. It was also a bit dry and metallic-tasting. But I enjoyed it and so did the Sidekick. They had other cake options too, and the tea room was fabulous - it's inside the house, so very much part of the Victorian house experience. 

I'm going to end with a tip for the National Trust: find the lovely, lovely girl that was working in the tea room at Sunnycroft today and give her a job sharing her customer conversation skills with other staff and volunteers. She's a diamond.

Sunnycroft: 4 out of 5
Scone: 3.5 out of 5
Lovely friendly tea room assistant: 5 out of 5

*this may be a slight exaggeration

Saltram

It is scone blog tradition that the first outing of the year is always a disaster. In 2014, the first property was closed at short notice because of rain. In 2015, the first property had no scones. 

However, I only remembered this when I was half way to Saltram in Devon this morning. It's one thing to sit in the car for 40 minutes and be disappointed, but it's quite another if you're travelling a long way. I was worried. 

And I'll be honest, it didn't go perfectly today. Regular readers will know of my antipathy towards TripAdvisor reviewers that a) get the opening times wrong or b) moan about the weather but I'm about to do both:

1. The house was mostly shut. I had checked the website last weekend and it said Saltram would be open. And it was, partially - five rooms were accessible today and they were truly lovely. And let's face it, if Saltram only had five rooms, I would still have gone there. I also think they updated the website during the week to say that visitors should ring the property to check opening times. But I won't lie; I was disappointed.

2. The weather was AWFUL. 

But the scone blogger's motto is NEVER MIND, so let's talk about the GOOD STUFF: 

The History

• Saltram was owned by the Bagge family in the 17th century - they sound like an interesting bunch, what with all the embezzlement charges
• In 1712, the Parker family bought Saltram and kept it until it was handed to the National Trust in 1957
• John Parker I, John Parker II, and John Parker III all developed Saltram in the 18th century, bringing in Robert Adam and other leading lights of architecture and design 
• However, JP III got into debt and times got tough
• His grandson, Albert, married into money and managed to tackle the debt
• But money problems continued in the 20th century and Monty Parker handed the house, its contents, and some land to the NT in 1957

The Saloon

The Saloon at Saltram is a show-stopper. It was designed by Robert Adam - he did the ceilings, the walls, the chimney - and the result is spectacular. The guidebook doesn't do it justice - I highly recommend you see it.

The Fantastic Volunteer Room Guides 
I could write a book about the interaction between National Trust visitors and volunteer room guides. There is an etiquette and I've seen many visitors get it wrong. 

However, I don't have time to write a book so here's the general gist in one sentence: NEVER STEAL A ROOM GUIDE'S THUNDER. They are there to inform and astound you - you ask a question, they answer it, and you say "AMAZING! I did not know that!" 

The only exception to this is if you have some sort of extraordinary knowledge to impart, eg "I worked here during the war, making top secret maps for bombing raids," as happened at Hughenden. The guides will welcome this, although they might not show it at the time. 

Anyway, the room guides at Saltram today were particularly helpful and lovely. But in an unguarded moment, I broke the golden rule: in the Saloon, the guide pointed one of the pictures out to me. "It looks like the Gunpowder Plotters," I said. It was a pure guess from me - it was seven dudes looking over their shoulders in a furtive manner, what else could it be? To my surprise, she nodded and said "we think it might be, yes". I could see the disappointment in her face. I had stolen her thunder. I'm so sorry. 

The Saltram Scone
This was my third Devon scone - the others were at Killerton and A la Ronde - and I can state that Devon scones are not the same as other scones. I know that everyone from Devon will now be rolling their eyes and saying "DUH!" but Devon scones are not as sweet - the cream and the jam do the work in that department - plus the Saltram scone was chewier. 

The Saltram scone also had an air of confidence about it. This might sound a bit weird, and you're probably edging away and Googling the number of the nearest mental health facility, but the Lanhydrock scone in Cornwall was the same. It's like the scone was saying "I am what a scone should be - if you don't like me, that's your problem". But I am very tired, so maybe this is the fatigue talking. 

It also amuses me greatly that you never get Rodda's cream (which is made in Cornwall) in Devon. The cream in Devon is thicker, less sweet, and you get more of it. It's probably a treasonable offence to eat Rodda's in Devon.

Anyway, it was a very good scone. I struggled a bit with the score - normally I know a 5 out of 5 within two bites and I had to think about this one - but I ate every crumb off the plate and that's a sign of excellence. The tea room was lovely as well - there was plenty of room and a very nice, relaxed atmosphere. I could have stayed there all day.

I am going to finish with a note to self. The Scone Sidekick bought me a pair of lovely wellies a few years ago and every time I see them in the cupboard I think "what a pity I never have an opportunity to wear my lovely wellies. Maybe they will come in handy during the Apocalypse," and I close the cupboard again. 

But no more. From now on, during winter, I am going to put those wellies by my front door with a big sign saying 'GOING TO THE NATIONAL TRUST TODAY? WEAR THESE. DO NOT ARGUE.' I just can't take it any more - for the second scone mission in a row, I've been the bumbling idiot sliding into the mud in a pair of Skechers plimsolls, to the amusement/bafflement/irritation of booted and Goretexed visitors. But no more! 

Saltram: 4 out of 5 

Scone: 5 out of 5 

Lovely room guide whose thunder was cruelly stolen: 5 out of 5 

The Best National Trust Scones of 2015

It's that time again, everyone! For the third year running, Scone Blogger Productions brings you a countdown of the top National Trust scones of the past 12 months. This is not to be confused with the list of the best National Trust scones of ALL TIME, which is of course the greatest page on the entire internet.

So without further ado, here are my Best National Trust Scones of 2015, in reverse order:

17. A la Ronde
A la Ronde near Exmouth was built by two cousins in the 1790s to house their souvenirs of the Grand Tour. This has inspired me. When I complete the National Trust Scone Odyssey (in the 2090s at this rate) I am going to build a house that looks like a scone and invite people to come and look at my National Trust memorabilia, which currently consists of 82 guide books, 47 fridge magnets, 16 mugs, and an umbrella. This was our first top-scoring Devon scone. Read about A la Ronde.

16. Anglesey Abbey
Do you know the best thing about being the National Trust Scone Blogger? It's not eating all the scones - that's the second best thing. The best thing is all the Sconepals who send me pictures from National Trust properties around the country. Almost every weekend I get at least one picture from Anglesey Abbey. Having tried the scones, I can see why. Read about Anglesey Abbey.

15. Fountains Abbey
I've always despaired at people on TripAdvisor who review NT properties as 'Terrible' but when you read further it says "Great place but it rained". However, after my day at Fountains Abbey I'm starting to maybe understand where they're coming from - I can confirm that it is very difficult to enjoy walking around a ruin when the rain is coming in sideways. But we loved the abbey and the scone was very good. Read about Fountains Abbey. 

14. Upton House
Did you know that Hitler had two lists of people that he was going to round up when he invaded Britain? One was a list of prominent Jewish people. The other was a list of business leaders. Lord Bearsted, chairman of Shell, prominent Jewish person, and owner of Upton House, was on both. Amazing. The scones at Upton were fantastic. Read about Upton House.

13. Coughton Court
I love Coughton Court. It has been owned by the Throckmorton family for hundreds of years, despite the fact that SEVEN of the 13 Gunpowder plotters were Throckmorton relations, in one way or another. Somehow they weren't booted out of the country or exterminated and the family still holds the lease to Coughton - they'll be there until 2248! Read about Coughton Court.

12. Sissinghurst
I wasn't a massive fan of Vita Sackville-West before I went to Sissinghurst. But anyone who buys a ruined Tudor tower without electricity, running water, heating, or drains, and turns it into a home and spectacular, world-renowned garden gets my admiration. The gardens have been maintained and they are lovely, plus the views from the top of the tower are fantastic, but it was Vita's study in the tower that really left an impression on me. That and the excellent scones. Read about Sissinghurst.

11. Beningbrough Hall
We had just been to Goddards, where we had chanced upon a top class scone, so I headed over to Beningbrough with a heavy heart thinking "no chance of two great scones in one day" BUT I WAS WRONG, sconefans, because the Beningbrough specimen was top drawer. Read about Beningbrough.

10. Studland Beach
Every so often I have to get the National Trust handbook out and re-read the entry about Studland Beach. But it's always there, in black and white: Studland contains the biggest naturist beach in the UK. The National Trust is FULL of surprises. I didn't see any naturists. I did see about 700 German teenagers looking at the pencil sharpeners in the gift shop to avoid the rain. And I saw a delicious scone that looked a bit over-baked but wasn't. Read about Studland Beach.

9. Montacute House
The second best thing on TV this year was Wolf Hall. The best thing was an episode of the kid's TV show Grandpa In My Pocket, which featured an old school pal of mine playing the part of Mr Cheese. Anyway, Montacute House starred in Wolf Hall as Greenwich Palace. I liked its bobbly hedges and I loved its bobbly scones. Read about Montacute House.

8. Tredegar House
I absolutely loved Tre-DEE-ga House. It has everything: a former owner who kept a pet baboon called Bimbo, fantastic volunteers, amazing scones, AND it has a Dalek in the stables (they film Doctor Who there). Read about Tredegar House.

7. Biddulph Grange Garden
If you had told me a year ago that I would have a fantastic day out at a garden featuring a gilded water buffalo and a singing tree, I would have laughed scornfully at you. But Biddulph Grange Garden was A-MAY-ZING, as was the scone. Read about Biddulph.

6. Lanhydrock
It seemed to take about three months to get there, but our very first trip to Cornwall was a TRIUMPH. The Lanhydrock scone was perfect - light and fluffy and gone in under two minutes. Read about Lanhydrock.

5. Goddards
I'm still reeling from my day at Goddards and what was surely the shocking discovery of the year: before Terry's invented the Chocolate Orange, there was a Chocolate Apple!! I KNOW. Other shocks: a) Goddards has a honesty box for sherry b) the family of Noel Goddard Terry, owners of Goddards and of the famous chocolate factory, did not look like five Augustus Gloops, as I had expected. There was table service in the actual dining room and a stunning scone. Read about Goddards.

4. Speke Hall
I was almost dreading my visit to Speke Hall. The baker at Speke is on Twitter and she seems like a lovely person. What if the scones were terrible and I wouldn't be able to lie AND OH MY GOD WHY AM I DOING THIS PROJECT. But the scone was sublime - I ate every crumb of it. And then I went and boggled at the beauty of Speke and the vastness of the River Mersey, which runs right by it. Read about Speke Hall.

3. Nostell Priory
There are three or four NT properties that fall into the 'spiritual home of the Scone Blogger' category and Nostell Priory is one of them. There were three types of scone on the menu - I'd forgotten to bring my fake-moustache-attached-to-a-pair-of-glasses disguise, so I couldn't go back and try the third one. In November they had a Scone Week. They also have the nicest volunteers EVER. I might just pitch a tent on the lawn and move in. Read about Nostell Priory.

=1. South Foreland Lighthouse & White Cliffs of Dover
It's not easy being the National Trust Scone Blogger. The reaction of friends and family to this blog is a mixture of "are you still doing that?" and "WHY?"

But just occasionally I have a day out at the National Trust that is so perfect, it makes everything worthwhile. My trip to the White Cliffs of Dover and South Foreland Lighthouse with the Scone Sidekick was one of those days. 

The White Cliffs of Dover Visitor Centre was our first stop. We sat outside on a beautiful day, eating the most FANTASTIC scones, drinking tea, and watching ferries. Did I expect watching ferries to be quite so immensely enjoyable? No. Was it immensely enjoyable? Yes. Read about the White Cliffs of Dover.

We then walked along the cliffs for 40 minutes to South Foreland Lighthouse. I wasn't expecting much to be honest, but we arrived and were immediately scooped up into a tour with Martin, a contender for National Trust guide of the year. 

I had a bit of a Bruce Bogtrotter moment in Dover. Bruce Bogtrotter is the boy in the Roald Dahl book, Matilda, who is forced to eat a whole chocolate cake by the evil Miss Trunchbull. I enthusiastically tucked into the two scones that came with the cream tea at the White Cliffs Visitor Centre. I then discovered that South Foreland also served two scones. I ploughed on, watched by a very disconcerted Scone Sidekick, but I could only manage one of them. It was a fantastic scone. I often think of the one I left behind. Read about South Foreland.

If you're reading this and feeling very affronted that your favourite scone property isn't mentioned, then don't worry - remember that I only managed to visit 43 properties this year. Here are some other countdowns for you:

• Top National Trust Scones of 2015 as voted by the Sconepals
• Top National Trust Scones of 2014
• Top National Trust Scones of 2013

And that's it for another year! We've completed 106 out of an estimated 230 National Trust tearooms - next year I will venture into the vast unknown, namely Norfolk and Cumbria.

And finally, I would just like to say a giant THANK YOU to all the wonderful Sconepals that have sent pictures and words of encouragement this year. You're all sconetabulous.

Carding Mill Valley

This year I discovered a great new hobby; reading negative TripAdvisor reviews of National Trust properties. 

I have come to the conclusion that 50% of the Terrible or Poor reviews of NT places are connected in some way to the reviewer getting the opening times wrong. We've all done it - the Scone Blogger's own sister once delayed us so much that the mansion we were visiting was shut by the time we got there. Did I go on TripAdvisor and blame the property? No I did not. Did I save £80 on Christmas and birthday presents for my sister that year? Yes I did. 

Another 20% of the Terrrible or Poor reviews complain about the parking, while 20% report that the place itself was fine, but it rained. 5% are annoyed that their dog wasn't allowed in. 

Carding Mill Valley in Shropshire falls into the final category - the 5% who complain that a place was too busy. Of course, saying somewhere was too busy is like giving it a five-star rating. 'It must be GREAT if it's that popular! And I'm not like all these misanthropic misery-gutses on TripAdvisor - I love my fellow man! Even when he waits in the food queue for 20 minutes and then starts asking the 17 members of his family what they want to eat. Yes, I love the general public.'

I obviously wanted Carding to be busy, because I decided to visit on a gloriously sunny day during Christmas week, when all the kids were off school. I knew it was a risk. The ever-present pessimist in me warned that the dreaded day might finally have come, the day when the tea room would be full and I would be forced to sit on a doorstep gnawing at a dry scone. 

But it didn't happen. Carding was busy but the cafe is one of those brilliant National Trust tea rooms that knows exactly what it's doing: serving a lot of people, as quickly as possible. It also offered one of the finest arrays of cakes I have ever seen at the National Trust. I had to force myself to choose the scone. 

The lovely tea room at Carding Mill Valley.
It was imported from Scandinavia, apparently.

The scone itself was very nice - it looked the part and it tasted good. And I got to eat it listening to Christmas carols next to a Christmas tree, which doesn't happen very often for obvious reasons. 

Anyway. Having eaten my scone, I set off with all the other far better equipped people to explore Carding Mill Valley. As I puffed up the hill, I saw cyclists, caravans, children jumping across the stream, dogs jumping into the stream, sheep, fell runners, and a National Trust ranger in his Jeep. It was like I had been dropped into a National Trust Lego set. Naturally, I was a figure from a completely different Lego set, probably the I Live in a City and Work in an Office one, with footwear to match. 

The other thing that struck me about Carding Mill Valley was that EVERYBODY WAS HAPPY. They say that Christmas is a very stressful time and people are just one request to put the kettle on away from a stabbing, but I didn't see a single tantrum or hear any cross words. It was great. 

The one thing I didn't get today was much history about the area. There was a sign explaining that the remains of a 2,500 year old hill fort can be found nearby, but that was it. I didn't really mind though. It forced me to concentrate on the hills and the stream and the countryside. 

Later, I found this useful site that provides a lot of background, starting from the Bronze Age through Roman times to the carding mill that was built in 1812 to process local fleeces. It's well worth a read.

And so 2015 ends with another lovely mission on the National Trust Scone Odyssey. That's 43 visits this year. Only another 125 to go.

Carding Mill Valley: 5 out of 5
Scone: 4.5 out of 5
My desire to move to Church Stretton having walked through it: 5 out of 5