There are times when coffee and a slice of cake will do perfectly well.

And then there are times when you're taking Mum out.

Or Granny.

Or meeting an old friend you haven't seen for six months.

Or perhaps you've got a client you'd quite like to impress without sitting opposite them in another beige hotel meeting room.

That's when Orton Hall starts making considerably more sense.

You arrive through parkland at a 17th-century manor house in Orton Longueville.

It's old.

And, yes, in places it looks old.

After several hundred years, that seems a reasonably forgivable character flaw.

Because walk inside and the oak panelling, old wood, high ceilings and traditional surroundings are doing something a modern coffee shop simply can't.

This is somewhere you have afternoon tea.

Not grab one.

Not squeeze one in.

Have one.

Coats come off. Phones eventually go down. Tea gets poured.

And then somebody arrives carrying three tiers of reasons why you probably weren't going anywhere quickly anyway.

There are sandwiches, homemade cakes and freshly baked scones.

The scone is where sensible behaviour normally starts deteriorating.

Warm scone.

Strawberry jam.

Clotted cream.

There are debates in Britain that have lasted considerably longer than necessary about which of those last two should go on first.

At Orton Hall, we'd suggest concentrating on the more important question:

Is there another scone?

Then come the cakes.

This is where afternoon tea reveals people's true personalities.

Somebody politely asks whether anyone wants the last one.

Nobody answers.

Everybody wants it.

Eventually somebody takes it while pretending they were merely preventing waste.

And if a small cupcake somehow ends up in a handbag for later, we saw absolutely nothing.

The building does quite a lot of the work

You could put sandwiches and cake on a three-tier stand almost anywhere.

The reason Orton Hall works for this is everything around the stand.

The Huntly Restaurant has the traditional feel you'd hope for inside an old manor house. Outside, you've got the grounds and parkland.

It slows the whole thing down.

That's useful because afternoon tea shouldn't really feel like something you're trying to complete.

Two hours can disappear remarkably easily when nobody is waiting to bring the bill because they need the table back in 45 minutes.

It's why this feels right for birthdays, taking Mum out, catching up with an old friend, an anniversary or meeting somebody when you want the surroundings to do a little more than provide chairs.

You don't need to manufacture an occasion here. The building does quite a lot of that for you.

Don't arrive expecting a shiny new luxury hotel where every surface was installed last Tuesday.

That's not the point.

This is an old building with the character and occasional signs of age that come with being an old building.

For us, that's part of why it works.

And if afternoon tea isn't enough…

There is an obvious danger here.

Orton Hall is also a hotel and has Imagine Spa on site.

So what began as:

“Shall we take Mum for afternoon tea?”

has the potential to become considerably more elaborate.

We'll leave that decision between you and your bank account.

Afternoon tea itself is served in the Huntly Restaurant and is available to residents and non-residents.

Booking is highly advisable.

Then all you really need to decide is who you're taking.

And possibly establish the cupcake-handbag rules before you arrive.