Tea & Stones
“There are few hours more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.”
The Bridge Tea Rooms
Not a day goes by where we don’t ask Will if he wants to join us for tea. While he never accepts, he did promise he would have tea with us one time on this trip. We figured we’d make the occasion special by taking him to the single greatest tea room we’ve ever visited—The Bridge Tea Rooms in the picturesque village of Bradford-on-Avon.
When you Google “quintessentially English building,” a picture of this building comes up—or at least it should. It’s as old and quirky as they get. In eighties vernacular, it’s totally rad! That it hasn’t yet tumbled down seems miraculous.
Even Amanda had to dip her head to go inside.
Our table upstairs near the fireplace.
Tea for three please.
Will takes his first sip of English Breakfast with 2 Demerara sugar cubes and milk—Brilliant!
Will also had his first eggs Benedict and loved it.
The bridge over the River Avon is at the center of the town. The Bridge Tea Rooms is on the far side of the bridge. The small early 18th century stone dome on the side of the bridge was once the town’s two-cell lockup. (Sorry…a little washed out with the sun.)
Lacock
After tea we drove to the village of Lacock, which is home to Lacock Abbey. The abbey and town were used extensively during the filming of the first few Harry Potter movies. The Abbey was closed, but there were still several movie sites to visit with Will.
Will’s version
Beautiful Lesser Celandine flowers with Lacock Abbey in the background.
Every street in Lacock is utterly charming!
In the very first Harry Potter film, Hagrid is explaining to Harry why he is so famous and, as he does, we see an image of a black-cloaked Voldemort approaching the Potter house (captured in this screenshot).
Here is the actual house in Lacock.
The photo above is from our 2015 visit to The Making of Harry Potter in London. In later films they built the set above, shown damaged after Voldemort’s attack. Obviously they did not follow the design of the original house from Lacock. It also just dawned on me that this set was not at the studio when we visited with Will; it has been replaced with the mandrake greenhouse.
Above is the site of where Dumbledore and Harry apparate to “the charming village of Budleigh Babberton” to find Horace Slughorn in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The cross-like structure was a set, but you can clearly make out many of the buildings from the movie in the picture below.
The apparation site in “the charming village of Budleigh Babberton,” aka Lacock.
“Wands out Harry”! This was the house used as the exterior of Horace Slughorn’s hideaway.
After convincing Horace to return to Hogwarts, Dumbledore and Harry are walking down the street when they pass by the “Babberton Arms.” In real life, the Babberton Arms is the timber-framed 15th-century pub shown above.
I found this fun little Queen Elizabeth II wobbler in a storefront window: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwdMFwEAIBc
While we weren’t able to see the cloisters and classrooms at Lacock Abbey, it was amazing to see Harry’s house, the site of Harry’s first apparation, Slughorn’s hideaway, and the Babberton Arms.
Quintessentially English indeed.
Thought our boys would appreciate the name of this tea.
Avebury
It’s not every day you can visit a pub that sits in the middle of a gigantic complex of standing stones dating back 6,000 years ago!
In many ways Avebury is more impressive than Stonehenge—the stones are older by 1,000 years, there are far more stones, the site is considerably bigger, and you can walk up and touch the stones.
Well, I guess you can touch almost every stone. They were trying to restore the grass here.
From our table in the Red Lion Inn pub, we could look out the window and see some of the many huge stones.
Looking toward The Red Lion pub (white).
Cool Copse
Even from the car park you can see more stones. Very impressive and worth a visit! A picture-perfect day. We hope you enjoyed your tea Will!
