A coffee and gift shop in a 16th-century building in Buckinghamshire has been named Cafe of the Year at the Beautiful South Tourism Awards.

The Apple Orchard on West Wycombe High Street has long been a beloved local oddity - a quirky coffee shop packed full of unconventional gifts and homeware, located inside a 700-year-old building on the edge of West Wycombe Park.

The shop came under new ownership a year and a half ago and new manager Amit Sisodia, who runs The Apple Orchard alongside his wife Aparna, has seen the already popular business go from strength to strength under his helm.

The latest in a series of wins for the business, a silver Beautiful South Tourism Award naming it as Cafe/Tearoom of the Year, is a sign to Amit that he's on the right trajectory - but his priority remains to provide visitors from both near and far with the reliably cosy and distinctive service they have come to expect since The Apple Orchard opened its doors back in 2018.

"On paper, we are the owners but really, the people who come in are the owners and we are the caretakers. Without them, we are nothing.

"Perfection is a myth, but there is a Goldilocks sense of people liking what we offer and us offering what they like. When you've got an amazing coffee shop, gardens and a gift shop inside a cosy 700-year-old building, what's not to love?"

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He also praised the growing team of staff at The Apple Orchard, usually a 22-strong team, with numbers temporarily reduced as some travel home for the Christmas season.

"We always try to give people the best experience that we can, but it takes a lot of things to come together. That all seems to have aligned for us - we've got a good location, building and team, which really helps to make people feel welcome. Maybe up to 90 per cent of our customers are local regulars.

"People often describe us in two ways - the gift shop is like an Aladdin's Cave, where you find things that you've never seen before, and the coffee shop is like a Tardis because you don't realise how big it is before you enter.

"You can walk through all the rooms in the building, and each one will offer something different."