Top hotel provides afternoon tea for Leamington care home resident who celebrated her 100th birthday in lockdown

Joan Hughes, a resident at the Helen Ley Care Centre, has just celebrated her 100th birthday with a COVID-safe party with her carers.

After seeing news of her milestone birthday – which saw Joan receive a card from the Queen – Mallory Court Country House Hotel and Spa decided to send her the first of the afternoon teas it has produced as it prepares to emerge from lockdown.

The venue, which is part of the Eden Hotel Collection, delivered two of its Takeaway Afternoon Teas – one for Joan and one for Sylvia Hook, the registered manager of Helen Ley Care Centre.

Bryony-Jayne Bateman, Operations and Events Manager at Mallory Court, said: “After seeing the news that Joan celebrated her 100th birthday, we thought it would be a lovely idea to let the celebrations continue in some way.

“Now that we have launched our afternoon teas, we thought they were perfect for Joan and Sylvia to indulge in and have a little treat especially after what the past year has brought us all.

“We hoped that they both enjoyed them and it meant that they could carry on the birthday celebrations for a little bit longer.”

Mallory Court’s award-winning chefs spend every season coming up with indulgent ways of spoiling guests and they have done it again with the

Afternoon Teas that everyone can enjoy in the home.

Sylvia, who has worked at Helen Ley since 2008, said: “Everyone has celebrated Joan’s birthday over the last few weeks and this delivery has topped it off perfectly.

“It was really kind of the hotel to think of Joan – and was a real treat when they turned up with two teas.

“Covid has been hard to everyone – staff and residents – and we have worked hard to come through as well as we can and hopefully now we are beginning to emerge from what has been a difficult year.”

The hotel is now planning to reopen on May 17.

Bryony added: “We are all looking forward to opening but we wanted to make sure that people could still get a taste of Mallory until then.

“Our chefs have been working hard to come up with delicious menus using local ingredients and produce that we have also grown ourselves.

“When the hotel is open again, we will be continuing with the Takeaway Afternoon Teas so that people can enjoy them in the comfort of their own home or within our beautiful grounds.”

Afternoon Tea needs to be ordered by 5pm for collection the next day. Collection available between 11am and 4pm Wednesday to Sunday.

They feature a delectable mix of sandwiches from roasted sea trout with a dill and lemon mayonnaise on granary bread to home cooked ham with Dijon mustard on white bread.

There is also a flavoursome selection of cakes including chocolate and passionfruit choux bun, Yorkshire rhubarb and custard macaroon and scones with clotted cream and jam.

There are also pescatarian and vegetarian options available.

For further information about the Takeaway Afternoon Teas or to order visit www.mallory.co.uk/eat/takeaway-afternoon-tea or call 01926 330 214.