First Class Tea Room

Long ago it was obvious that Gibson Mill was failing at the business for which it was originally constructed, namely spinning and weaving.  It was too far from the main road and the new fangled railway thing; transporting raw materials to, and goods from, the mill was too expensive.  So, it was turned into a tea room and the lagoon at the back was designated a boating lake.  But, given the time, there had to be classes of tea room.  This was the 1st class one.  With cakes and things.  Presumably the 2nd class one, on the other side of a partition, had cold tea and no cake.

Today, it's been restored by the National Trust to be completely carbon neutral.  It has no mains water (but it's next to a river) and it isn't connected to the National Grid - it generates and stores it's own power, also from the river.

It was worth the walk to get there.