The Tea Barn, Durleighmarsh

Date visited: Friday 19th July 2024

Durleighmarsh is a tiny settlement in West Sussex, mid way between Rogate and Petersfield. The Tea Barn is one of several businesses on Durleighmarsh Farm, which includes a farm shop with pick-your-own fruit, a ‘Barn Emporium’ where several crafters and artisans sell their wares, and a couple of other barns that are now the factories for small craft-based businesses. The Tea Barn has operated as such since 2019 when its current owners took over from the previous occupants who ran a cafe there.

A plentiful Ploughman’s lunch and a pot of green tea.

The Tea Barn has over thirty tables for those wishing to take tea. There are nine tables inside, two tables outside at the front, and about twenty tables in the tea garden at the rear. Half a dozen of these are on a veranda which has glass screens that can be closed if the weather is poor.

The summer menu has a page for food and a page for beverages. The food includes light breakfasts and mainly cold lunches, as well as hot and cold sandwiches and beans or melted cheese on toast. There is also a specials board with a small selection of additional items, and eight cakes and bakes on display at the counter. Beverages include eight leaf teas from the Sussex Tea Company, as well as tisanes, coffees, hot chocolate, smoothies and soft drinks. Tap water was also freely on tap on the day we visited. All food and beverages are served on crockery from Gabriella Shaw Ceramics – a business in one of the other barns on the farm.

A huge chocolate brownie.

I chose to have Ploughman’s lunch with a pot of green tea, followed by a chocolate brownie. The Ploughman’s lunch was quite substantial, with plenty of ham and a piece of Sussex Charmer cheese, chutney, pickled onions, homemade coleslaw, and thick slices of corn bread with butter, from Netherend Farm in Gloucestershire, that was warm enough to be spreadable. The pot of leaf tea was enough for two cupfuls. The chocolate brownie was huge – many a place would have divided this into at least two pieces. Not only was the quantity of brownie impressive, so was its quality. It was moist yet solid, and pleasantly chocolately without having a flavour of cocoa powder as is often the case. In view of both the quality and quantity of the food, the price of £18.30 seemed quite reasonable, especially as West Sussex is one of the more expensive areas of Britain.

With the Tea Barn being very busy on an exceptionally hot summer Friday lunchtime, the eight staff were kept very busy. Some of the local birds made the most of this, assisting, in a small way, with clearing the tables of leftover food.

A couple of dunnocks assist with clearing the tables.

The Tea Barn at Durleighmarsh is open daily in the summer and open most days between 10 am and 5 pm, with an earlier start (9 am) on Saturdays and earlier close (4 pm) on Sundays. In the height of summer it is also open on Saturday evenings up to 9.30 pm.

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