Award Winning Tea Room open Sunday - Wednesday, 10am - 4pm

Winner of the 2011 Flavours of Herriot Country Tea Room of  the Year. The judges said, "There's a warm, friendly welcome and lots of local food on the menu - including some home-made cakes and pies we can only describe as sumptuous".

Our Tea Room is run by Mary Exelby who does most of the baking herself. Each opening day a delectable array of cakes and scones are served from 10 in the morning.

Home-cooked lunches are served between 12 and 2, and include soup, freshly prepared sandwiches, salads and cooked meals. The menu may be restricted on special event days. Wherever feasible our produce is locally sourced and fresh produce from our Walled Garden is used in season.

The Tea Room is located in the panelled entrance hall of the house. Visitors are served by friendly staff beneath the gaze of Charles II and Kiplin family portraits.

There is no admission charge for visitors who just wish to use the Tea Room without visiting the Hall or gardens.

Coast-to-Coasters and other walkers welcome.

Our shop is small, but offers an interesting but inexpensive choice of items including personalised Kiplin Hall memorabilia, greetings cards, small gifts and pocket money toys.

Fresh vegetables from the garden now on sale.

 The Tea Room and shop are open when the gardens are open.

THANK YOU...

...to all the kind people who have brought china to the Tea Room. We have received nearly 80 donations. Visitors are now served on a Harlequin collection of china, some of which dates back to the late 1800s. The mis-matched collection of crockery has created much interest in the Tea Room, and many enthusiastic comments have been received from people who enjoy taking their tea from a traditional cup and saucer.

PLATE APPEAL – IT’S A PIECE OF CAKE!

Guests of Miss Bridget Talbot, who visited her at her North Yorkshire home, Kiplin Hall, in the 1960s were served tea on an assortment of old and mis-matched crockery. Mary Exelby, Tea Room Manager at the 17th century Hall, is keen to revive this practice and is appealing for people to donate china for use in the award winning Tea Room.

 Mary, an excellent cook and baker, who produces all the food for the Tea Room in the kitchen at the Hall, is offering tea for two in return for donations of cups, saucers, tea plates, dinner plates, teapots, sugar bowls, cream and milk jugs, cake and sandwich plates. This might not be the proverbial free lunch, of which, as we all know, there is no such thing, but it is definitely a free tea in the form of a pot of Mad Hatter tea and two portions of Mary’s delicious home-baking.

 Mary enthuses: “This is a really special place to eat. Where else can you take tea or enjoy lunch in a room like this? The oak panelling and plasterwork ceiling were put in place in the 19th century, and the portraits gazing down from the wall date from as far back as the 1660s, and even include royalty! I would like the china to complement the special feel of the room. It just isn’t possible to buy china of this age and quality in bulk, so we came up with the idea of offering tea in exchange for plates. We’re really looking for china plates and cups up to the 1960s, the sort your granny might have used.”

 Bring your china plates to Kiplin Hall between 10 and 4pm, any Sunday, Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday in March, and receive your free tea!