Tea, cake and a stroll at Charleston



Tea and apple tart at Charleston - and very nice it was too

I’ve been to Charleston - haunt of the Bloomsbury group - to go to the literary festival and look round the house, but this week I went just to have tea and cake at their cafe.


The walk

Charleston farmhouse is on several footpaths so we first went on a 30-minute stroll along the hemline of the Downs, just as they start to billow upwards.

We heard skylarks, smelt silage, and saw elderflower spilling from the hedgerows.

If you want a longer walk you could climb up to the top of the Downs for a view out to sea in one direction, and over the Sussex Weald in the other.

The remains of my plum cake

The cafe, Charleston

The cafe looks small from the outside but has an airy interior and a courtyard garden. We tucked ourselves out of the wind in the garden, and ordered plum cake and apple tart.

The plum cake was delicious in an understated way. It was a light sponge with plums delicately nestling near the bottom. The apple tart was also a classy affair – crisp pastry, moist sweet apple and sultanas tucked here and there.

Sparrows perched nearby in the hope we would leave some crumbs, but they were denied.

Sussex credentials: the cakes are made locally.

Opening hours: the cafe is open 12-5pm, Wednesday to Sunday.