Glynde Place, Glynde, East Sussex
01273 858224

Review: May 13 2005

Tea rooms open noon-5pm, Weds, Sun and Bank Holiday Mondays, May to end of August. Garden open from 11.30am. Entry to park £2.50 adults/£1 children

Crumpets, tea cakes and cucumber sandwich cream teas, the new tea rooms at this picturesque country house is all about traditional English munchies.

"It's the quintessential English tea," says Caroline Peate, who runs the newly-opened haunt.

"Very much your typical cucumber-sandwiches-on-the-lawn sort of place.

It suits the house and is what people tend to feel like when they have been looking round it."

Set amid the 16th-Century flint Glynde Place, the tea rooms opened on May Day Bank Holiday to immediately heaving crowds taking advantage of a sunny outdoor area.

The emphasis of its menu is very much on locally-sourced produce and milk comes from a local farm, cheese is made in Sussex and even the pork in the sausage rolls is from Sussex.

Typical cream teas include the Sussex cream tea - your basic scones with jam and cream with a pot of tea (£4.50), and the more filling Glynde tea, which includes a selection of finger sandwiches, cake of the day, scones with jam and cream and a pot of tea (£7.95).

For those wanting a bit more to line their tummies, light lunches include an old Sussex cheese and roasted onion tart, served on a bed of mixed salad leaves (£4.25), honey-glazed ham salad with hot buttered new potatoes (£6.75), pork and herb sausage roll (£1.75) and a selection of chunky sandwiches (£3.75).

Also new for this seasonal rural spot - open from May to August each year - is a sculpture park.

Artistic structures are scattered around a lush lawn for visitors to admire or buy.

Sculptures this year include bird baths from Sarah Walton, bronze horses in the style of the Greek Parthenon series by Nic Fiddian-Green and huge clay portraits of WW2 Czech veterans by Marcus Cornish, the resident sculptor for London Museum.

"It is something I've been working towards for ages," says Glynde Place owner Francis Brand.

"It's the realisation of a dream. There's nothing like a walk about a park admiring artworks before settling down to a good cream tea."

Review by Katya Mira

If you are interested in restaurants in Brighton, Hove and Sussex, visit www.theargusfoodguide.co.uk