A TEAROOM that was entered for a national award without the owners even knowing won its category at an award ceremony in London recently.

Periwinkle Cottage Tea Rooms, in Selworthy, won Tourism Business of the Year at the National New Business Awards 2018, set up to to raise the profile of deserving new small and medium enterprises.

Paul Gibbs and David Pollard, former West Somerset teachers who also have longstanding experience in the industry, took over Periwinkle Cottage on the Holnicote Estate in March 2017, to run their independent business in partnership with the National Trust.

They completely refurbished the tearooms, and also took on nearby Clematis Cottage, once a National Trust shop, which had been closed for a few years. Now it sells the produce of over 40 artists and craftspeople on Exmoor, and is part of Exmoor Arts Trail.

“The award is fantastic news, we’re still a little overwhelmed,” said Paul.

“We didn’t enter for it, someone must have nominated us, so it was completely out of the blue.”

Paul and David, who both taught hospitality at West Somerset College until 2016 and have their own hospitality consultancy business, applied to run the tearooms after they spotted a National Trust advertisement for leasehold tenants.

“I’ve known Selworthy all my life, and the opportunity to run a business and live here, was too good to miss,” said Paul.

His great-great-grandparents worked on the Holnicote Estate as a woodsman and domestic staff, and had a grace and favour cottage there.

Paul can still recall conversations with his great-grandmother about life in the village.

“We and the National Trust are very pleased with how it’s gone,” he said.

“We’ve had 25,000 visitors over the last year, and calculate we’ve made 15,400 scones and used 423 kilograms of clotted cream and 557 kilograms of jam.”

He and David bake all the produce themselves, making cakes every evening and scones every morning, seven days a week.