The Tea Tavern

This booklet is printed for distribution to owners of roadside cafés

and Tea Taverns in the British Isles and is published by the Hovis
Organization in association with the Tea Bureau

Because we have a professional interest in roadside cafés we learn

quite a lot about many hundreds of these places up and down the
country. They provide us with much food for thought and quite
often we pass the information gained in this way to people who
write asking for advice or assistance.

The diary which is presented in this booklet embodies so many of

our own ideas on the subject that we felt we should pass it on to
owners of roadside cafés all over the country. The story shows
how the present owner, Mr. Peter Macrae, took over in 1938 and
opened it in the spring of 1939. In September of that year the place
shut down like many others in the country and it was not re-
opened until Mr. Macrae returned from the Services in the spring
of 1946. We are given a very clear picture of his thoughts and
methods. We quote from the letter we received in answer to our
request for the story of The Tea Tavern.

He said:

'It is always fascinating to discover why and how other people

succeed in a task in which you've failed yourself. I thought it would
be interesting to find out, if I could, why other people have failed
in a Tea Tavern where, from my own experience, it was not
difficult to make it a success. By degrees I pieced together a
mental picture of the previous owner and these impressions figure
in parts of my diary which, in itself, is a brief record of my own
thoughts, plans and work. The whole thing is rather haphazard,
but I send it to you as it is and hope you can make sense of it. The

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relevant items I have marked for you to see. I also enclose some
original drawings of The Tea Tavern made by a friend of mine. No
doubt they will describe the place more clearly than my diary can
hope to do.'
Having read Mr. Macrae's extracts and seen the illustrations, we
decided to print them as they stand and pass them on to you. Mr.
Macrae's comments make good sense and we hope they will help
in some small way to bring English 'Tea-taverners' closer together
and make them realize the great work they are doing in adding
comfort and a sense of home and hospitality to the beauties of the
English countryside.

Extracts from the personal diary of Mr. Peter Macrae

1939
Early in 1939, Peter Macrae moved into the house which was to
become The Tea Tavern. With him he brought Peggy, his wife, and
a tremendous enthusiasm. Nearly everybody was optimistic during
that spring and summer of 1939, and Macrae was no exception. By
July, his diary shows, he was too deeply engrossed in the affairs of
The Tea Tavern to worry very much about the international
situation . . .

July 13th, 1939

I've located the Fullers at last. They've changed their address three
or four times since leaving The Tea Tavern in 1936. At present Bill
Fuller works as an employed hand in a market garden. When I
arrived at their cottage I didn't know how to explain my visit (I
couldn't say I wanted to know why they had failed to run The Tea
Tavern at a profit). Having told them where I came from, I
explained that we had found a large and interesting oriental idol,
which, I imagined, had been left by mistake. To my surprise Fuller
said that he had left it on purpose and recommended me to throw it

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away because it was quite certainly unlucky. After this
introduction it was quite easy to continue a conversation about The
Tea Tavern and I left, two hours later, feeling I'd learnt a great deal
about them. Fuller, his little red-headed wife and their five children
are to come and visit us one Sunday soon. They seem to be a very
happy family and I like them.

July 14th
I've been thinking over the things which Fuller and his wife and I
discussed yesterday. It seems we all have much the same sort of
problems in managing a tea-house. We can both explain in detail
how NOT to do it! But there's a very real difference between Fuller
and myself . . . a difference in outlook which, perhaps, is due more
to the attitude of our wives rather than ourselves. Mrs. Fuller is
quite sure now that you can't make money out of the business
unless you have a great deal of money to start with, whereas Peggy
has always been convinced that it can be done with small capital. I
think so too. The result is that Peggy and I are full of hope and
enthusiasm (anyway, to start with). Mrs. Fuller, however,
confessed she was never very hopeful from the beginning. So far
our confidence seems to be justified and, after five months of
preparation and ten weeks of actual working, the success of a tea
tavern seems to us to depend on the following things:

1. How attractive the Tavern looks from the outside -- this

includes making it look easy to park cars and bicycles.
(Incidentally, never have an empty car park.)
2. How well you display your notices outside -- giving full
details of the extent of services you offer.
3. How efficient you are as hosts.
4. How quickly and cheerfully you serve people.
5. How good and interesting you make the range of food and
drink.
6. How much opportunity there is for people to be comfortable
in the place. This rule includes a discreetly signposted lavatory.

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7. How much you make people feel you'd be glad to see them
back.
I wonder if we shall think the same rules are right in a year's time ?

July 18th
I met Fuller by chance in the village this morning. He seemed very
interested in progress at The Tea Tavern and promised to come
over on Sunday week -- bringing his wife and family. This means I
must get more fully acquainted with the facts and figures about
work in the kitchen so that I can explain how we're organizing
baking and supplies and tea-making at the moment. Perhaps it
would be better to make a list of the difficulties we're up against
and try do decide on a clear course of action to overcome them. I
must talk to Peggy tomorrow and make out the list as soon as I
can.

July 19th
We must overhaul our working methods in the kitchen as well as
our supply arrangements. Peggy thinks our present system with the
local baker and grocer is unsatisfactory and, from the financial
angle, things aren't as good as they might be. We could make more
profit if we didn't waste so much. On the whole the place looks
quite attractive now . . . from the outside . . . but we aren't
organized to deal with any volume of business if the place
becomes popular.

July 20th
Somehow we didn't get down to the job of planning a better system
in the kitchen. We're beginning to get holiday couples in quite
regularly during the week and one family with three young
children came to tea for the second time. They thought the sand-pit
ideal for the children.

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July 21st
A rainy day. We had our first talk about the kitchen snags. The
main point about supplies is a simple one. The shops are half a
mile away . . . deliveries are unreliable when we want buns or
scones in a hurry and the cakes they make locally aren't very good.
They look anything but home-made. The fact that we can get no
supplies on a Sunday makes it unworkable.

Peggy says she'll confine the things we give people for tea just to
Scots pancakes and scones . . . simple little jam tarts and home-
made cut cake. We cut out the idea of spice bread or sweet currant
bread . . . white bread and Hovis are ample for general needs.

This change in plan will make Peggy's work so much harder that I
shall have to make all the other kitchen work as easy as I can. I've
asked Mrs. Patton if she'll come and help tomorrow and Sunday,
and she has agreed. We shall discuss payment when she comes.
Meanwhile, of course, I now become kitchen-boy with a
vengeance.

July 23rd
Yesterday Mrs. P. was very helpful. Peggy was baking almost all
day and I did the tea-making and bread and butter. We had a fair
day for business. I think Mrs. P. likes us. She gets real pleasure
from looking after people and making them feel at home. She's that
rare type of country woman who keeps serene on the hottest
afternoon.

Today, being Sunday and a fine day, we expected a lot of work but
instead things were much the same as yesterday. Perhaps it's the
rumour of war which makes me feel so gloomy . . . as things are I
shouldn't be discontented. We paid Mrs. P. 1s. 6d. an hour from
2.30 p.m. till 7 p.m. The added expense in wages swallows a lot of
the profit on scones and cakes. But if we'd been buying these

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things from the local shops we'd have been another 6s. out of
pocket. I must be content, while business is small, to make people
satisfied enough to come back again and recommend us to others.

July 24th
Because I can always rely on Peggy to be as economical as
possible, I was surprised to hear her suggest another pair of hands
to help with the serving on Saturdays and Sundays when the
weather's fine. I must think about it but I don't like the prospect.
It's a matter I'd sooner postpone until we know how much we're
making on an average now we are doing the baking ourselves. If
it's really necessary to have extra help . . . then I think either of the
Pavey girls would be suitable. They're both neat, pleasant-
mannered and cheerful, and they get on well with Mrs. P.

July 26th
If the Fullers come on Sunday I shall have lots of interesting
figures for them to see. Peggy has worked out the rates of
production on Scots pancakes and scones. Even though we've had
only one weekend's experience it's quite obvious that people like
the pancakes. Incidentally, they call them 'drop scones' in this part
of the world. When they're freshly made and moist people eat them
either with butter or else with jam. Mrs. P. noticed this over the
week-end and told us about it with the air of a conspirator.

Note. The pancakes are made from sour milk, flour and eggs. One
hen's egg will make enough batter for twelve or thirteen pancakes .
. . but a seven-ounce goose egg will make thirty-six. Peggy
encourages me now to keep and rear Chinese geese. The two old
Chinese geese we've got have produced 106 eggs between them
since January. We used always to make pancakes on girdles at
home but Peggy has found they come out just as well in frying
pans. She reckons to make a hundred in an hour, using one pan on
the paraffin cooker and two other pans over primus stoves. She

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can't use all three burners on the cooker because two of them are
needed to heat the oven for scones. There's a snag about batter. It
has to be prepared several hours before it's used . . . so that it can
stand. If we make enough on Friday night for a hundred pancakes
then we can use what's left over for Sunday trade, but we ought to
have a refrigerator to keep it in. (I suppose I must find out how
much paraffin refrigerators cost.) One interesting point cropped up
in discussion this evening. The pancake batter we don't use can be
thinned down to make either Yorkshire pudding or else those large
pancakes people eat on Shrove Tuesdays.

July 27th
It seems we shall be able to make about seventy scones an hour if
the rush of business ever needs it. If only we had something better
that the paraffin cooker and the smallish oven. We could use the
small kitchen range but it would be very wasteful on coal and
difficult to regulate for temperature. Peggy is against it because the
oven's too small to justify the misery of an open coal fire in the
middle of the summer.

I'm wondering if we can provide more room for tables and chairs.
At present we've got one large and one small room set out with
tables. We've purposely not set them too closely together because
it puts people off to rub elbows with their neighbours. The only
rooms left on the ground floor are this room (the living room) and
the old stone-floored scullery. Could we convert one of the
bedrooms or would it be best to use the living room and transfer
our personal home to the scullery?

July 28th
We had twenty-five cyclists in today and, as result, we know just
how inefficient we are. They wanted single cups of tea. This
problem had always worried us but somehow we managed to side-
step it by giving them tea in pots and saying nothing. These

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cyclists, however, very definitely didn't want tea in pots. The way
we did it today was both wasteful and laborious. By the time the
last man had his 'cuppa' the whole bunch were getting very
restless. We must try keeping large kettles full of tea ready made.
That'll be my job so I may as well start tomorrow.

July 29th
Not a bad day. The best Saturday we've had so far. At 4.30 p.m.
the two rooms were full and Mrs. P. proved to be anything but the
serene countrywoman I'd imagined. Peggy had to help out with
service and a lot of pancakes were burnt and the others were too
well done to be the moist bungey things they should be. It was silly
of me not to have arranged for Gladys Pavey to come today. Peggy
said nothing about it but her furious rushing about and her rather
forced cheerfulness made me far more ashamed than if she'd
complained.

Mrs. P. and Peggy both had an impression during the busy time
that there were all sorts of people putting their noses in the door
and then going away. I had advised against the garden tables
because the day was overcast altho' it didn't rain, and I still think I
was right, but my decision was unpopular when we had the daily
post mortem. I argued that empty tables set for tea do not look
inviting when they're all unoccupied. It gives an unsuccessful look.
If we had enough staff to persuade the late comers to take a table
outside . . . then it could be laid immediately it was wanted . . . but
when we're busy no one has the time to do this. The lesson of
today was learnt, however; we must have one or even both of the
Pavey girls for just two hours in the week-end afternoons.

July 30th
Today was just as hectic for everyone in spite of the fact that
Gladys Pavey came. The Fullers arrived as they'd promised and, of
course, just at the busiest time of the day. I had to leave the kitchen

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and walk round with Bill . . . but Mrs. Fuller took off her Sunday
hat and did my work in spite of those rather half-hearted protests
which everyone puts up on these occasions. From now on she'll be
easily our most popular visitor.

Bill and I spent about an hour walking about and talking while the
children were content to watch the ducks or play in the sand pit.
When we went to look at the place from the road he went through
the motions of a man deeply impressed altho' I realized he'd seen it
all before when he first arrived. He pushed his cap on to the back
of his head and said: 'You must have spent a mint of money'.

The remark was a clever mixture of flattery, disapproval and a

question mark. I had the impression he thought I'd been cheating
by paying so much attention to mere externals. Instead of resenting
this I found myself suddenly wondering if it were true. After all, it
might have been better if I'd spent more of my time thinking about
a well-organized kitchen. A month's carpentering there would have
made our lives easier and I could have left the ornamental pond till
next year. Of course, there isn't really an answer to theoretical
questions. I shall never know just how much the pond persuades
people to come in.

Fuller was politely interested in the kitchen statistics . . . but I think

that he was heartily glad to be working in a market garden. We
discovered that my experiment at making tea and keeping it hot in
a kettle was a failure. Bill Fuller and I tried to drink some when it
had been made about three hours. It was the worst tea I've ever
tasted. Bill is . . . or was . . . quite sure that this business is the
purest gamble but I showed him the till just before he left at 6.30.

I think I detected just a flicker of doubt and even, possibly, envy

when he saw the day's takings. If I'd been a little more honest I'd
have told him it was the best day we'd had.

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July 31st
Peggy has a bee in her bonnet now about tea. I wonder if she drank
some of my kettle brew? She's quite determined that people in this
country are so conscious of the difference between a good and a
bad cup of tea that they'll avoid a place where the quality of the tea
isn't up to scratch. She's asked me to go up to London and find the
professional opinion about these things. She also wants me to buy
in some higher grade Indian and Ceylon teas. At the same time, I
must find out how to organize the single-cup-of-tea-at-a-moment's-
notice. If I have to spend much more money I shall need to talk
kindly to my bank manager about an overdraft

It will be nice to hear Mrs. P. asking the customers whether they

want . . . 'Indian or Ceylon'. It sounds quite impressive.

August 2nd
We'd agreed that the stone-flagged scullery would make a good
darts room for the locals and cyclists. The alterations must wait,
however -- we can't afford the furniture yet. Anyway, while there's
so much rumour of war, I shall go cannily with expenditure. Peggy
has agreed to wait for kitchen improvements until things look more
cheerful. Of course, war's quite unthinkable but I've joined the
local Territorials just in case.

I think I'll make a short inventory of the improvements we've made

here. It should be useful if I have to talk to the bank. Tom Stocker
called in on his way back from market today and, after talking
about the weather and the crops and prices generally, he asked me
how much I'd spent on The Tea Tavern since I'd arrived. He found
it difficult to believe it was only about £120. I'll do the inventory
tomorrow.

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August 4th
Thursday is not usually a busy day but we had quite a large party
in at 7 p.m. They thought we were a sort of road-house and asked
for bacon and eggs. Cooking for eight people in this way was quite
a new experience. In the end they had bacon and sausages, eggs
and fried bread. They were certainly hungry . . . and so am I.
There's nothing left for our own supper. We're beginning to
wonder if it was such a good idea to put that sign outside. We
wanted to keep the wording short while giving the idea of 'Big
Business'. In the end, we agreed to say 'Light meals provided at
any time between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m.' Of course, today's case may
not occur again for a month . . . but, even if it does, it's quite
profitable in spite of the inconvenience.

August 5th
I have made out a description of work completed since 4
September 1938:

1. The first and the biggest job was re-thatching the roof which
we started two weeks after our arrival. It was done by one of the
local schoolmasters who used the roof as an object lesson to teach
his boys the principles of thatching. The children did most of the
work in the end. I paid old Jimmie Reeves for his professional
advice but he refused to take more than a pound or two because his
contribution was largely limited to demonstration. He got me my
thatching straw far cheaper than I could have got it myself. We
were lucky to have fine weather.
2. While they were doing the roof I started to dig a pond and
make a rock garden. It was hard work and occupied all my spare
moments for over a month. The pond was a failure because it
wouldn't hold water for more than a few days. I had to get the local
builder to fix it in the end and so it cost more than I'd reckoned for.
3. In November I grubbed out the hedge which formed part of
our boundary along the lane and replanted it some twenty feet

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nearer the cottage. This made a rectangle open to the road. I found
later that I'd transplanted the hedge at the wrong time of the year
but, by some quirk of fate, it didn't die. Having made enough room
for a sort of car park, I got three young fellows from the village to
help me one week-end and we covered the car park and the path
leading to the cottage with medium grade gravel. I ordered one
lorry load and we had to make this do. The gravel and the men's
labour cost £15. I had a sign painted -- 'FREE CAR PARK' -- and
put it up by the road so that it could be read from both directions.
4. The local blacksmith made me some rather decorative
wrought-iron gates for the entrance to the garden. These and the
bricks and second-hand stone balls cost £11 10s. 0d.
5. One of the alterations which has since become so popular
was the sand-pit. Peggy and I both saw the possibilities of an out-
door play-room which would be under cover. I bought a large
second-hand garden shed and knocked out the whole of one side.
This made a good summer-house with a centre-supporting post
added. Then I painted the wooden boarding both inside and out
with alternate bright red and white stripes. It looked rather
Continental. By the time I'd put a layer of sand about a foot deep,
both inside the shed and all round the open front, we'd got a very
pleasant spot for the children to play in. The old shed cost four
pounds and the sand . . . fine white stuff . . . was fifty shillings a
load.
6. When we arrived there were five big garden tables which had
grown grey and lichenous with exposure. I was able to buy six
derelict garden brollies and Peggy and I re-covered them with sail
cloth I bought in a ship-yard. We dyed some cloth red and some
yellow and made up alternate sections in these colours. On the
whole, they look quite impressive still and well worth the three
weeks we took stiching away with sail-cloth needles. It saved us
about £20.
7. I asked Jack Horniblow to limewash the whole of the outside
walls of the cottage. This was quite a simple and inexpensive job

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really but the difference it made to the place as a whole was most
striking.
Peggy met the local estate agent today and he told her we'd get
£300 more for the place than we'd paid for it. That certainly made
the £120 capital outlay seem solidly worth while.

August 6th
Mrs. Fuller came over to see Peggy again today. I've an idea she
may yet lead Bill into starting another café.

August 17th
I have been thinking of making the scullery into a sort of Tea-Bar
room for the locals and cyclists, with a dart board for the locals and
maybe table-tennis for the youngsters. Then a man could take his
son of fourteen out for a drink of tea and a game of darts. It would
be a good thing to put large-scale maps of the area on the walls for
the benefit of touring clubs and hikers. It's an idea worth thinking
about for next year.

Entries after August 17th were very brief . . . Macrae's time grew
more occupied with Territorial Army activities . . . eventually, on
3rd September, 1939, he wrote . . .

'Well -- it's come. We're at war. Thank heavens for a capable wife.
Peggy can look after things here well enough and with poultry and
the two goats and a decent garden, she shouldn't lack for eggs,
milk and vegetables. I've arranged for Betty and wee David to
come here from Scotland as soon as Donald goes overseas. That'll
save their rent and give Peggy some companionship. I'm away next
week -- posted to a Training Battalion'

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1946
At the beginning of 1946, Peter Macrae returned to The Tea
Tavern, still enthusiastic, still optimistic. Realizing that mistakes
would be more costly in 1946 than those he made before the war,
he laid his plans with care. In March he began serious work . . .

The Diary started again on February 14th, 1946, but earlier

entries were mainly personal. First reference to The Tea Tavern
was made in the middle of March.

March 18th, 1946

I've got two months before the spring season starts. It should be
enough to get things in good shape. We're going to have a little
conference tomorrow to add up generally and decide what is to be
done about The Tea Tavern. I thought we'd written out a list of
plans in 1939 but my papers have been stuffed away in the oddest
corners. I can't find a thing.

March 24th
Peggy seems so certain that Betty will fit in here that I hardly dare
to be pessimistic about it. Donald's been dead now since May,
1944, and yet she shows no sign of interest in anything but this Tea
Tavern of ours. Perhaps the work and the people will cheer her up.

Now that we've decided what to do, I shall make a point, this time,
of recording things in detail in the diary.

March 25th
Peggy suggested today that we should contact the Tea Bureau, who
launched many quick-service tea innovations during the war. She
had met some of their people while serving in canteens.

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March 30th
Things to be bought as soon as possible:

1. A good goat in full milk. British Sanaan recommended.

2. Six hens. For hatching out our own chicks later. One
cockerel.
3. Six pullets.
4. One drake and five ducks (Khaki Campbells).
5. Now that it's so late in the year I shall have to buy a complete
set of adult Chinese geese.

April 1st
Things to be investigated and discussed later:

1. Has Ebenezer still got my bee-hives? Apply for sugar ration

for the bees.
2. Bring our soft fruit plantings up to strength. See Mr. Norris
and the Corbetts for cuttings.
3. Order tomato plants for May.
4. Get permit or licence for running The Tea Tavern.
5. Take out an Insurance against any claims which customers
may make against me . . . if they fall down stairs or eat something
which upsets them. (Note. I believe Hovis put me on to this thing
before the war, as part of their service. Perhaps they'll arrange it
again.)

April 7th
There are lots of things which need painting, creosoting and
distempering. It might be advisable to send out the rumour that
there's plenty of spare-time work to be done up here.

April 9th
I must think out some way to get the local children to use this place
as a club. We might show 16 mm. films for them on Saturdays. I

15
must see the Vicar and the highlights of the Rovers and Scouts and
Girl Guides and suggest they use the place when they want to,
anyway up till May and afterwards in the week-days if they want
to. There's also the Young Farmers' Club. I could learn a lot myself
if they had some lectures up here.

April 14th
We're very short of pleasant ornaments, wall plates, old prints and
things for the interior. I saw old Smith, the antique man, and
suggested he sent things up here on a business basis. He could put
little well-mannered notices in the rooms saying these things were
for sale and are exhibited by O. P. Smith of the High Street. I think
he'll agree but he asked time to think it over. If it's worth his while
for the smaller things he might put a few pleasant pieces of heavy
furniture here too -- on the same basis -- but furniture's so
expensive and so much in demand no doubt he'll not want to yet.

May 1st
I ought to make inquiries again about the pubs and cafés and places
of interest within twenty miles of this place. I want to make the old
scullery into a map room and cover the walls with the largest
possible big-scale maps of the district. It should be useful to hikers
and cyclists and motorists if I can give them details of all the
public footpaths across farmland and plan the best walks and rides
between this place and other 'places of refreshment'. I shall have to
give them an idea of the times of the journeys involved, of
course . . . and the walkers will need to know where all the bus
stops are on the routes back to the 'metropolis'. Cyclists will need
to know distances to railway stations . . . late train times and the
cost of bicycle tickets on the railway.

What a ghastly amount of work that's going to entail. Surely

someone round here knows all this already. Would the geography
master at the school do it for me as part of the children's local

16
knowledge lessons? If they did the map-mounting up here they'd
feel the place was something of their own and the local Scouts
could help by trying out all the best walks and timing them for us.
They could also pin-point the high spots which give the best views.

May 5th
Went to London today. It was certainly worth it. Saw the Tea
Bureau which now has an exhibition and show-rooms in Lower
Regent Street.

Came back with screeds of informations and lists of gadgets which

aren't as expensive as I'd expected. The Planning Department of
the Tea Bureau will let me have suggested model lay-outs, both for
the kitchen, the tea rooms and the Tea Bar, which we plan to have
in service next year. Their Equipment Department advised me on
the best type of equipment for every kind of service we have to
deal with. While I was talking with them I realized how important
it is to keep strict control over all the material we use for tea
making. There's no doubt about it that tea served either by pot or
by the cup is a wonderfully consistent money-maker. I hadn't
realized until I saw the figures how very quickly profits can be
eaten up through extravagance either with tea, milk or sugar.
Peggy was dead right about insisting on quality and from now on
I'm going to insist on economy . . . and strict economy.

There's not much time left now before we open, so decisions must
be quick.

I liked the automatic measurer -- it costs only a few shillings.

May 6th
I started a list of DO's and DON'Ts for Betty. Today I gave her the
facts on tea-making which, under Peggy's strict ruling, is to be the
central point of our efficiency as a Tea Tavern.

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Tea Making:

1. The first rule we proved for ourselves before the war. We

bought some trial high quality blends and they do make far better
tea and give more cups or more pots to the pound. We shall do the
same again and from our allowance buy Indian and Ceylon teas
and give customers the choice, just as we ask if people want Hovis
or white or both.
2. Use freshly drawn and freshly boiled water. This is difficult
for us but it's not impossible if you turn down the heat before the
water actually boils and then turn it on full when you're going to
need it. Over-boiled or merely hot water makes flat and insipid
tea . . . so catch your water when it's just started to bubble fiercely.
3. Warm the pot . . . that's because boiling water poured into a
cold pot lowers its heat and doesn't infuse tea properly.
4. Apparently it's so important that water actually reaches the
tea-leaves boiling that you should take the tea-pot to the kettle and
put the kettle sprout as close into the tea-pot as you can before
pouring. This seems a bit much but Peggy swears it makes a
difference so you'd better do it . . . or else.
5. Allow four or five minutes for tea to infuse. We're lucky here
because our water's really very soft and that makes infusion easier.
We make tea straight away and take it as soon as we can to the
tables but ask people to leave tea-pots to brew just a couple of
minutes before they drink it. This should impress people with our
professional keenness!

May 11th
The Tea Bureau offer a free service which we might be able to use
one day . . . they will give us a design for the most economical and
workable arrangement of the interior of this place. (As we are
rather short of space in spite of all our amateurish efforts to arrange
things perfectly . . . it's obviously necessary to give the
professionals a chance to do their bit.) I shall write and ask them to
do this for us.

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August 24th
The weather's been bad this summer but, in spite of it, people come
out in their cars and nothing seems to deter the cyclists. I begin to
wonder if bad weather doesn't drive people into our place. When
the weather's like this we find that once people are in they tend to
stay. They play darts in the newly organized map and darts room,
which was the old scullery, and stare out of the window
occasionally and say . . . 'It'll clear up in a few minutes' . . . and
they order another tea and a lemon curd pancake and go on reading
or playing darts or listening to the radio. A proper Tea-Bar would
be a great success.

August 28th
So far, our profits this season have balanced the money I've spent
on poultry and livestock, hedging and ditching, painting and
decorating and, wonder of wonders, the new equipment for the
kitchen may be squared off before the season's over. There's
enough left over, to date, to pay this month's bills and leave us just
enough to live on very quietly if I earn a pound or two a week
writing or working at the market garden with Bill Fuller and his
mushrooms. When I think that we started this season with hardly
anything we needed. Our bills will never again be half as heavy as
they were this year.

September 1st
The weather's been impossible . . . and it just goes on raining . . . if
this is the end of our season then I shall have to work hard this
winter to save some money. There's a lot left to do to make The
Tea Tavern perfect and it's work which must be done this winter.

I've had a talk with the bank and they're prepared to give me an
overdraft to cover the cost of alterations and additions. I think the
banks are a bit easier about lending money these days.

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We had only about twenty pounds of honey from our hives. The
worst year I've ever known.

September 18th
We had some tea today which tasted of soap. Peggy was entirely at
a loss to explain it but later this evening discovered the packet had
been stored next to her washing soap reserve. I must keep an eye
open for a good box to keep our tea stores in.

September 24th
The 'Teas with Hovis' Advisory representative called today with a
baking chart we'd asked for. He says there is little hope of getting
any more of their nice decorated crockery until the 'export only'
situation eases. That applies to table linen and things too.

October 18th
The Tea Bar is now installed and looks fine. It means we'll have to
employ someone to serve there next year if business warrants it.
Three of the workmen from the local brick-yard called in for their
usual packet of Woodbines this evening and stayed for a game of
darts. To my delight and surprise they ordered tea and a pancake
each and stayed on at the darts and the tea until nearly 6.30 p.m.

The locals are beginning to adopt this room and often come in for
darts or to borrow a book or play table-tennis.

December 1st (Sunday)

We've just finished erecting a porch over the front door and tea
room.

The Tea-Bar room is still doing business every day. Yesterday I

bought a new dart board for the match we're having next week.

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1947
February 18th, 1947
The kitchen's now looking as much like the Tea Bureau designs as
I can manage. My carpenting could be a lot better but Peggy seems
pleased.

Now that all the major alterations have been made I can take stock
of expenditure. We're well equipped and we know something
about our trade . . . but my gratuity's gone and I've got an overdraft
. . . all in a year. If we have a wet summer again things won't be
easy, but if we have one fine season then we should be set to make
clear profits for a good many years.

February 19th
The children are doing well in this really severe weather. They
have goat's milk and a goose egg each every day so a country life
has its advantages.

May 5th
We opened The Tea Tavern officially today . . . being my birthday.
I discovered today that improvements never cease. We could
replace our old kitchen range with an Esse or an Aga Cooker and
maybe dispense with the old oil cooker and oven. If we have a
good season I'll get one of these largish anthracite cookers on the
'never-never'.

August 18th
Even if we don't take another penny this year we'll be out of debt.
Kitchen and service -- equipment -- Tea Bar -- new porch --
furniture and everything paid for and enough left over for that
anthracite cooker Peggy wants so much. In addition I've been able
to afford a fair salary for Betty. Dolly Graham, who serves at the
Tea Bar in the evenings has been getting 2s. 3d. an hour. To cap it

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all we've got a bumper apple crop and Peggy has bottled over 150
lbs. of soft fruits. The four hives left gave over 25 lbs. of honey
each which isn't bad and one of the goats had twin nanny kids. I
think we're very lucky to own The Tea Tavern.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
One Shilling Net. Printed in England at the Curwen Press,
Plaistow, E.13.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Translated into html by Kai Birger Nielsen.
I haven't been able to contact either The Hovis Organization, nor
The Tea Bureau to obtain permission to publish this. Please contact
me if you know the present copyright holder.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 28, 2001. Birger Nielsen, bnielsen@daimi.au.dk, drinker
of tea.
This document: http://hjem.get2net.dk/bnielsen/teattt.html

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