Fletcher's House, Rye

Surveying the long bleak days of winter, hubby & I fancied treating ourselves to a couple of days away in the delightful little town of Rye on the Sussex coast.  The town was home to the novelist EF Benson, who wrote the Mapp & Lucia novels which were recently televised, but have long been favourite reading in our household.  We were recommended the wonderful Jeakes House hotel in Mermaid Street for our stay.  This is a gorgeous Regency house, sumptuously decorated and home to an 1860s Broadwood piano which I was permitted to run my fingers over on several occasions during our stay much to the owner's delight!

 The cobbled streets and half timbered buildings of the town make an ideal location for genteel pottering with a proliferation of antique shops and a number of coffee shops, but only a couple that advertise themselves as tea shops.  Of these, the one that beckoned to us was Fletcher's House in Lion Street, adjacent to St Mary's Church.  It was once home to John Fletcher, a Jacobean dramatist and has been a tea room since 1932.  






The building itself is most attractive with oak paneling, a beamed ceiling and a glowing log fire.  Dark wood country style tables and chairs are housed in two adjoining rooms.  We were welcomed and shown to a table in the window and opposite the fire.


Perusing the menu, which offers a range of light lunches as well as afternoon tea options, I selected the 'Fletcher's Set Tea' comprising a choice of sandwich (egg & cress, smoked salmon & cucumber, or ham & mustard); a fruit scone with jam & cream and a choice of cake (bread pudding, chocolate fudge, lemon & blackberry tart, carrot cake, gluten free chocolate cake, lemon tart, coffee & walnut, victoria sponge, apple & blackcurrant crumble cake).  The set tea comes served on an attractive cake stand, and is complimented by the stylish, plain white crockery.

We chose a pot of the house blend tea which came with a jug of hot water.  (An unfortunate error was just averted when hubby mistook the jug of milk for the jug of hot water - they were identical jugs - and nearly topped up our pot with the wrong liquid!).  I also noticed that hubby employed an interesting circular pouring motion which he asserted made a great improvement to the taste.  I enquired if it mattered whether the motion was clockwise or anti-clockwise, and he embarked on a rather exploratory discourse about the origin of the tea affecting the required motion (invoking plugholes and the equator), at which point I promptly considered the whole thing complete invention on his part! 

 After an ample full English hotel breakfast, hubby could only manage a slice of bread pudding - although he did later help me out with half a scone!  His bread pudding was served warm - you could see the steam rising from it - and he was really impressed with it.

My egg & cress sandwich was very tasty with large chunks of egg and plenty of cress.  The fruit scone was large and served warm, with good strawberry jam and clotted cream.  I then selected the lemon & blackberry tart which was absolutely delicious.  The sweetness of the blackberry was superbly contrasted with the sharpness of the lemon, and all encased in a delicate pastry case.

A visit to the toilet upstairs revealed an adequate facility, but pleasurably housed behind an elaborately decorated door!

Just as we were concluding yet another delightful teatime adventure, we were surprised by the arrival of a friend who was also visiting Rye and happened to spot us through the window!  What a small world, as they say!