The 12 Days of Sophmas | Day 4 | Royal William Yard Festive Market
Hi lovelies!Or Ho, Ho, Ho lovelies I should say... Tis the 4th day of Sophmas! A couple of Saturdays ago, me and young Thomas one of my bestest chummys, new housemate (yay!) and resident Sophmas elf went to one of our favourite places in the city, Royal William Yard to take a look around their festive weekend extravaganza.
We're big fans of their monthly food market (we won't even talk about how much cheese I purchased last time... I was a woman possessed) so we thought it would a fun idea to check out their festive offerings. Apart from being one of the most beautiful places, the yard is home to some of my favourite places to eat, Wagamama, Prezzo and The Bakery which has one of the coolest concepts i've seen in ages...thats for another day though. The festive craft market was held in one of the yards buildings that is yet to be converted, a lot of the buildings have been converted into enviably beautiful appartments and snazzy eateries but some are still in the planning stages so to see one of the areas that is usually reserved just for parking be turned into a hive of festive activity was fab.
There was everything from stalls selling handmade fudge, handmade christmas decorations and art to one selling vintage clothes. There was a fab variety and it was brilliant to find out some more about some fab local businesses and the personalities behind them while having an obligatory tasting session of lots of tasty produce... it would be rude not to really! All this was set to a festive soundtrack of a local brass band who filled the area with christmassy tunes as Father Christmas and his elves wandered around greeting children (we also saw him leave later on in a Renault Scenic with elf in tow, it's nice to see he's upgraded the sleigh, though a sleigh is probably much more economical anyway...)
After a wander around the main market we popped around the corner to the River Cottage Canteen and Deli, brainchild of Hugh Fernley Whittenstall of River Cottage fame for their Festive Fayre. In there we met some lovely ladies from Tea's Me, a local producer of fab loose leaf teas and got chatting over some mulled wine. The teas were incredible and I ended up purchasing three, one for my boyfriends mums christmas hamper, and two that may or may not now be firmly placed in my own cupboards...they were far too good to give away. I'm a huge tea drinker and I think it's so worth the effort of a loose leaf tea as it tastes a million times better, plus with such lovely people passionate people that produce some amazing products locally, it makes it even better! It also means that I can sneak a bit of Devonian charm into Dans mums hamper which is never a bad thing!
Overall it was a fab little day trip, theres an accompanying vlog to this post if you want to see us in action (with a musical interlude from me than i'm sure Tom will agree is not to be missed) and that my friends was the fourth day of Sophmas!
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