A SPARE space in a Welwyn Garden City care home was transformed into a tea room and shop as part of a fundraising initiative.

In what will become a monthly cash booster, Elizabeth House revamped one of its meeting rooms into a traditional cafe for the day.

And on its first outing the tea room at the Elizabeth Close-based home helped to collect �350, which will go towards a specialist chair.

Louise Tomlin, activities co-ordinator, told the Welwyn Hatfield Times the tea room gave “residents a chance to feel like they were going out for the day with their families”.

Co-ordinator Laraine Ellisdon, whose mother Betty Sheward stays at the home, helped decorate the room using her mum’s kitchenware.

She said: “The display table of over 20 beautiful homemade cakes, homemade scones with jam and cream, and over 30 luxury cupcakes and strawberry tarts, looked fantastic.

“My mother had taught me how to bake, and now this was helping her and all the other residents, completing the circle for me, in some way.

“We had a great team of helpers serving tea and cake and, of course, washing up.

“We had a queue when we opened, it was a fantastic day, the residents and families had a great time and really enjoyed having somewhere different to spend together, and were asking when the next one was.”

She added: “We now plan to do this the first Saturday of every month. We have big plans for Christmas selling homemade sweets, jams and, of course, cakes as presents as well as for consumption in the tea room.

“So we are trying to get as many friends and families as possible to support us by coming along, having tea and cake, buying cakes to take away, and also to bake for us.”