A recipe book, a rolling pin, and rather a lot of early mornings

The English Rose began with a handwritten notebook passed down three generations — scone quantities in ounces, margins full of corrections, and one page simply headed "for best".

We still bake from those pages. Butter is cut in by hand, sponges are weighed rather than guessed at, and nothing is finished the night before. It means smaller batches and the occasional sold-out sign, which we consider a fair trade.

The tea list is treated with the same seriousness. Loose leaf only, timed properly, and poured at the table from a warmed pot.