SEDRO-WOOLLEY, Wash. — Tea service in the English countryside doesn’t require a flight across the pond.
Just drive to the Skagit Valley!
Willowbrook Manor English Tea House and Farm Stay is located just outside Sedro-Woolley.
Guests can book tea service, bike tours and overnight stays at the charming property owned and operated by Terry Gifford.
“People tell me that I have a Willowbrook bubble,” Gifford said. “It’s a place where you can leave your troubles and come in and breathe and connect.”
Guests choose their own cup and are seated in a tea tent with views of nearby farmland. Service includes savory and sweet treats.
The manor grounds also include a tranquil garden where guests can stroll, sit, or donate money to support local homeless shelters via a QR code wishing well.
"This garden is a wish for people to be well,” Gifford said. "Part of being well is looking outside of ourselves.”
From June – September, beach cruisers and e-bikes are also available for rent to explore the nearby trail stretching from Lyman to Sedro-Woolley.
For Gifford, it’s a new purpose for a property she and her family have loved for years. The manor is also her home, where she raised her six children.
"We purchased this property as a cow pasture back in '96,” Gifford said.
After her kids grew up and moved out, Gifford planted a chamomile field and began serving the tea it created.
"My job is really an extension of my mothering. I just want to make sure everything's okay,” Gifford said.
The manor features art made by several of her children including daughter Kjaisa, who also decorated the seating areas in the garden.
"As soon as you go out and sit in the garden or wander through the greenhouse, look at the tadpoles in the reflecting pool, it feels like my childhood,” she said.
Since opening in 2017, Gifford has continued to add experiences – earning her loyal customers like friends Sarah Frankum and Denise Fischer.
"You're coming in the middle of nowhere and then all of a sudden there's this castle in the middle of a field,” Frankum said. “It's just magical."
She and Fischer have celebrated their 30+ year friendship by visiting Willowbrook a dozen times over the years.
"Every adventure that we get to have together is a total gift,” Fischer said. "It's just wonderful. We all should slow down and have a cup of tea."
Whatever experience her guests choose, Gifford wants them to take their time and take in the surroundings - an escape from a busy world, and a connection to what really matters.
"The tea is a portal to that, it really is,” she said.
Gifford is hosting "Harvest Teas" the first two weekends in October. Willowbrook Manor is located at 27420 Minkler Road in Sedro-Woolley and open to the public by reservation only.
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