Cheddleton Old School Tea Rooms

A converted Victorian schoolhouse just outside Leek that's been turned into a proper neighbourhood tea room. You get the sense walking in that someone's actually cared about keeping the character intact - high ceilings, original features, the kind of place where locals prop themselves at a table for hours with a pot of tea and yesterday's paper.

It's a straightforward stop rather than a destination in itself. Light lunches, cakes that look homemade, coffee that doesn't taste like it's been sitting under a heat lamp since breakfast. The sort of spot you'd stumble into on a walk rather than plan a trip around, though that's precisely what makes it worth knowing about if you're staying nearby.

Families with younger kids will find it low-key and manageable - no expectation to sit quietly for two hours, and the staff seem unbothered by activity. It works best as a pit stop between walks or after visiting somewhere else in the area. Allow an hour if you're lingering, half that if you just want a quick cup.

If you're based at one of the caravan parks dotted around - Glencote's barely a mile away, or Intake Farm just down the road - this beats driving into Leek proper for a cuppa. Not fancy, not trying to be. Just a village tea room doing what it does without fuss. Worth the short detour if you're walking in the Staffordshire moorlands.