We decided to take our little fledgling and one of her friends to The Tramway Museum at Crich for a day out during the summer holidays. We have been there before and our ticket was still valid ( they are valid for a whole year from date of initial purchase ), so we were looking forward to a nice family day out and the weather was just forecast to be nice too – perfect.

First stop, predictably, was the traditional sweet shop to stock up on some of my ( and the hubsters) childhood favorite goodies. With pockets suitably stuffed full of paper bags of sweets we made our way down to wait for the first tram of the day -  which was one of the open top trams :

It wasn't long before us adult birds were surplus to requirements; so after being abandoned we made our way to the tea-rooms for a pot of tea and scones. The tea-rooms have a very quaint feel to them, with oil cloth covered wooden tables and chairs and old pictures on the walls. The staff were very friendly and helpful, nothing seemed to be too much trouble for them.

The scones themselves were of a lovely generous size, nice and light ( not stale at all ) and came with a couple of pats of butter and a small jar of jam each. Our pots of tea gave us just over 2 cups each, and a quality brand of tea was obviously used as it didn't take 30 mins for it to brew ( which it very often does at other places, much to my annoyance ). I know it’s a small detail that the tea should brew in a short space of time, but when you’you've got a delicious scone in front of you you really don’t want it to be spoiled by an insipid cuppa do you?

Due to having such a pleasant experience for our mid-morning pit stop, we decided to have lunch with the younger birdies in the tea rooms. Thankfully we went fairly promptly at noon, which was just as well because within a very short space of time the tea room was teeming with other people. Children could have their own special “ meal-deals “, ideal for smaller children or there was an extensive range of options including sandwiches, soup, and jacket potatoes with various fillings. Also on offer were various hot meals, such as chilli con carne, meat pies and fish and chips, as well as daily specials.Hubster and myself had paninis, and the fledglings had jacket potatoes. The food was well presented with a little salad garnish and was lovely and hot.

I was more than happy to eat in the tea-rooms, and to say it is “ only “ a cafe-type establishment at a local attraction, it absolutely excels at what it does. Some high-street cafe’s could do worse than take a leaf out of the tea-rooms’ book. If you ever find yourself at The Tramway Museum, pop in to this little gem and you won’t be disappointed.