Midsummer Murders. (Hoxne Tea room, Hoxne)

Hoxne Deli and Tea Room,

Hoxne,

Mon-Sat 9.00-5:30, Sun 9-12,

Highly Recommended

Today I planned to go in search of the holy trinity of cafe cycle riding: a new free car park, a new cafe and a new fruit scone to try. This would not only make for a great cycle ride but mean 3 different spreadsheets to update. Life on a bike doesn't get better than that.

I was joined on the quest by Big George who was now on his summer bike, which we carefully loaded into the car as we set off down the A140 in search of todays free car park.

Tyrrells Wood Car Park

We found it at Tyrrells Wood near Pulham Market and it was a little cracker. There may have only been room for a dozen or so cars but it was nicely hidden and offered up a number of riding opportunities in the South Norfolk North Suffolk area. It has gone straight in at number 3 in my "top 10 best free car parks to start a bike ride" from list (even though there are only 5).

Riding in the South Norfolk North Suffolk area

With the first part of the mission complete we set off on a 35 mile loop South into North Suffolk. The terrain was a bit bumpier than further North in South Norfolk but it was nice to be cycling in a less familiar region and we soon arrived in Hoxne and our target distention; the Hoxne Post Office Shop Deli Tea Room B and B, or the Hoxne POSDTRBAB for short.

Outside Hoxne POSDTRBAB

We looked for somewhere to leave the bikes but then spotted a notice in the POSDTRBAB window saying that cyclists should go right past the Phone Box library and park round the back of the POSDTRBAB. Which we did. On the way we checked the phone box library to see if they had a copy of the Cake Crusader book but they didn't, I expect it was out on loan.

Big George passing the Hoxne village Phone box library

After correctly following the direction we found ourselves in an outdoor seating area. The lawn need a bit of TLC, and some grass, it was tempting but we opted to sit inside where I first checked out the cakes.

The Hoxne  POSDTRBAB outdoor seating area

There was a nice selection of sponge cakes plus the final item on today's list, a fruit scone to successfully tick all my cafe cycle ride boxes.

Todays sponge cake selection and useful bell

We placed our order of dark hot chocolate and coffee and walnut cake for me and a cup of tea and pastie for Big George. As a cup of tea always gets a 7 and a pastie is not cake he wasn't of much use in any cafe reviewing today.

Excellent cakes and drinks

The atmosphere inside was best described as a scene from mid summer murders. There was a very pleasant white bearded gentlemen taking orders, a couple of ladies on the table next to us discussing village matters before they were joined by a jovial man in a pink shirt who had come in to sell tickets for the next village hall concert. We agreed they all looked likely characters to be either the next victim or perpetrator of a country murder. When John Nettles walked in to buy a sausage roll and some local cheese, it was clear murder was a foot.

Our drinks and food soon arrived but we ate them in silence as we waited for the inevitable scream to come from the kitchen where the body would surely soon be discovered.

For the record my hot chocolate was very good and the coffee and walnut cake excellent meaning the Hoxne POSDTRBAB had scored very well and I highly recommend a visit.

After a while and with no sign off any dead bodies we decided that maybe there wouldn't be a murder today and left the cast villagers to get on with their day to day village business.

With no more talk of country crime it was only a few more miles back to the car park in the woods. There was no one about and as we loaded our bikes back into the car it became  obviously this would be the natural location to hide the body (if there had been one). But there was no time to hang around as I needed to get back home as murder she wrote was on TV this afternoon.

Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
7.2	7	6.5	8.2	7.2	7.22

Route


Click here to download 35 mile Pulham Hoxne loop GPX file to your GPS