Recently it was my birthday, and to celebrate, Shaun and I took the day off work. He did lots of research and booked us in for Afternoon Tea at Great Fosters, a gorgeous big house near Egham and Virginia Water.

Great Fosters was my birthday destination this year – I decided I wanted Afternoon Tea, and Shaun decided where we would go – but things didn’t go quite to plan. We were about a minute from the venue and my phone went – H had fallen over at school and bumped her head, with a golf ball sized bump on it which they were applying a cold pack to – and could we come and pick her up please?

So we had to turn around. We went somewhere else locally (and eventually ended up in A&E – poor H!), but as we were so close when we got the call, I popped into the venue to tell them we couldn’t make it, and managed to reschedule so we all went two days later.

You turn up the drive into the car park, entering the grounds and straight in front of you is the building – a grade 1 listed building at that – and oh, how gorgeous. To enter the house is a door which you need to duck down to get through – not ideal for tall people! Once inside the smell of burning log fires greeted us.

We were early for our Afternoon Tea, so had a wander around the grounds – pathways and streams, beautiful topiary, plants and flowers. Ducks, swans and even little baby chicks – they were all there. I had the worst shoes imaginable for walking around the grounds – but did it. H ran, ran, ran more while I became the helicopter parent “watch out for those raised slabs!” I’d call, as I ended up being the one who tripped over. Silly me.

And then – the Afternoon Tea. Great Fosters treated us amazingly – I felt so special! The most delicious sandwiches, followed by warm scones, cream cakes, more cream cakes and even more cream cakes. We took a box home. We were then told our portion size was for two people – not three!! Delicious though, with divine Jing teas to accompany them – I had Blackcurrant and Hibiscus, followed by a pot of Rooibos.

Afterwards, completely stuffed we wandered around the grounds again, this time H and Shaun went all the way to the auditorium at the end of the grounds – with the M25 just the other side! There are beehives and pigs too – we went to visit them, H was super impressed and chatted away to them for a bit.

Great Fosters website is here. Our Afternoon Tea came in at around £56 which I think is a bargain considering what you get.