West Byfleet Tea Room

A Memory of West Byfleet.

There tea room had a slot charity animal in the door way outside, our grandmother used to give us small change to post in it. The coins made a satisfactory clunk as they reached the bottom, or so it seemed when I was young.
For special treat inside Nan would order a cake stand with a selection of cakes, sandwiches and flapjacks ( my absolute favourite, being chewy and hard) One was only sposed to eat what one wanted but we always managed to scoff the lot. Must have cost Nan a lot because you paid for what you ate, and we often topped up.
There were two ladies, sisters, and I also believe their mother used to make cakes in the back room. There was always a cat or two wandering around. The sisters lived in a big house in Madeira road.
My Nan lived in Woodham park Road and we used to walk to Westbyfleet by cutting through a footpath by the school, and across the canal. We took a shopping trolley on wheels with us for this expedition.
After eating such an enormous tea, we often had bad indigestion during the night which involved Nan ringing Dr Crickmay , and the poor man coming out in the small hours to administer his potions.

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Added 09 April 2020

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My Mum and Dad used to take my sister and I to ‘The Green Room’ tea shop too, usually on a Saturday morning. We used to enjoy a large homemade shortbread biscuit! I remember the animal charity box at the door too, it was of 3 kittens!! Also the sisters who ran the shop. There were always postcards in the window for kittens for sale, and being a lover of cats I eventually persuaded my mum and dad to let us have one, when we lost our hamster! We went through the back and upstairs to where the kittens were one day, and i had the choice of a white and black kitten or grey and white! We chose the grey and white and called him Smokey! We went to visit him often and brought him home when he was 8 weeks old. Adored him for years until he died. Another memory I have is going on the bus along the Old Woking Road with my mum to shop in West Byfleet. I used to look out for the black silhouette house sign hanging on a tall pine tree called “Milestones’, and it had also had the silhouette of Dick Whittington and his cat on it!! We lived in Pyrford and I used to go to Pyrford Primary and then West Byfleet Secondary School, so lots of memories of the area.

By Margaret Jones on Thu Mar 4th 2021, at 4:19 pm

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