Jervaulx Abbey: New chapter for Yorkshire's only privately-owned abbey as family tearoom re-opens for the first time since 2020

Carol Burdon first started selling her home baking to visitors from a converted greenhouse that was once part of Jervaulx Hall’s gardens back in 1994, using the income to maintain the abbey ruins her husband had inherited from his parents.

Yet in 2020, Carol, Ian and their daughters Anna and Gayle took the decision to put the award-winning cafe on hold, fed up with the confusion of lockdown rules and the difficulties in finding staff.

Instead, they pivoted their focus to their new luxury holiday accommodation, caravan site and wedding cakes business, which moved into the former tearoom building.

Now four years on, the family, who care for the only privately-owned Cistercian abbey in the country, have decided the time is right to open the tearoom up once again.

"We’ve let the dust settle, and now we’re coming back afresh. It’s had a great reputation since Mum opened it 30 years ago, and it will be great to have that hub on the site again, for visitors to come and speak to us and use the toilets. We were still paying bills for the building, and were wondering what we were going to do with it, other than use it for baking wedding cakes,” said Anna.

This time, there will be no hot food, with the sisters themselves staffing the counter and serving home-made cakes, pastries and drinks.

"Everything has changed since Covid. There are a lot more dog walkers, prices have gone up, and people are a bit happier to just have lighter bites and spend less. We hope eventually to have our smaller weddings in here too. We are going back to what we did well, rather than having to tell people we can’t open the kitchen because we don't have enough staff."

The tearoom re-opens on May 2, initially trading from Thursday-Sunday from 10am-4pm – the start of a new chapter in the Burdon family’s custodianship of Jervaulx Abbey, which began in 1971 when Anna’s grandfather bought part of the estate that included the ruins as well as 500 acres of tenant farms and parkland.

"We need to find that balance and figure out how we as the next generation keep the abbey in private hands as our parents step back. We’ve been promoting ourselves as a wedding venue, as in cashless times the honesty box doesn’t bring in a lot of income any more! Dad still maintains the abbey, and Mum looks after the guest accommodation. People often think we must be very wealthy and live in the hall, but that’s all separate now and we are just a family of four. It’s a huge responsibility.”

Future plans include introducing retreats, as the abbey grounds were ‘rewilded’ long before the word became popular and support over 200 species of flora and fauna.

"We’re still using local suppliers for the tearoom, with eggs and jam from down the road and pastries from Malton. We’ve got a book of 100 recipes that have been passed down and we’re going to put rhubarb from our gardens in the scones.”