The Orchard (tea room) facts for kids
The Orchard is a famous tea room and garden located in Grantchester, a village close to Cambridge. It's a lovely spot where people can enjoy morning coffee, tasty lunches, and traditional afternoon tea. Since it first opened in 1897, The Orchard has been a popular place for students and teachers from the University of Cambridge. Tourists and local people also love to visit. Many well-known people have spent time here. The Orchard is open almost every day of the year, usually from 9:30 AM to 5:00 PM. You can get there by car or even by punt, which is a flat-bottomed boat.
History of The Orchard
The story of The Orchard began in 1897. The fruit trees themselves were planted much earlier, in 1868. Back then, students from Cambridge University used to have their tea on the front lawn of Orchard House. One day, a group of students asked Mrs. Stevenson, who owned Orchard House, if they could have their tea among the apple trees in the orchard instead. She agreed, and soon, having tea in the orchard became a popular tradition.
The Orchard became even more famous when the poet Rupert Brooke moved into Orchard House in 1909. Rupert Brooke was a very popular student at the university. He soon attracted many friends and thinkers to The Orchard. This group included famous writers and thinkers like Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, E.M. Forster, Bertrand Russell, Augustus John, and Ludwig Wittgenstein. They were sometimes called the "Grantchester Group" or "neo-pagans."
Rupert Brooke later lived in a nearby house called the Old Vicarage. He wrote a famous poem called The Old Vicarage, Grantchester, which mentions both houses. He wrote this poem in 1912 while he was in Berlin. The poem ends with these famous lines:
Stands the church clock at ten-to-three?
And is there honey still for tea?
Later on, the ownership of Orchard House and the tea room was taken over by Robin Callan. He created the Callan Method, which is a way for people who don't speak English to learn the language.
