Tollgate Teashop

A blackboard in a layby with the single word 'SOUP' advertizes the presence of this little former toll house on the A46 a few miles north of Bath, along with another sign in the shape of a kettle. This place always seems busy, and the layby type car park is often full, especially in summer, so you sometimes have to wait for a table. Inside it is small and cottagy, a bit gloomy and chintzy, but with a light conservatory at the back with wonderful views across rolling fields towards the Severn Estuary and Wales beyond. There are tables in the garden and even a coin-operated telescope (bring binoculars). The food is pricey for a teashop, anything more complicated than a sandwich (eg jacket potato, shepherds pie, lasagne) will cost 7 or 8 pounds. We had toasted sandwiches (ham and cheese, tuna mayo) and a Welsh Rarebit (pefectly done, bubbly brown on top, gooey within, on a thick slice of brown bread)and the aforementioned SOUP, which on this day was celeriac and stilton, which I am told was nice and cheesy.Quite a friendly little place really. If you drive to the nearby village of Tolmarton, the other side of the M4, there is a nice stretch of the Cotswold Way to follow north towards Old Sodbury.