A National Trust venue has sparked outrage among Cornish cream tea lovers after publishing a picture showing a scone with cream spread before the jam.

Lanhydrock in Bodmin posted the photo on its Facebook page, inviting guests to spend Mother's Day enjoying "Victorian recipes from Mrs Beeton and Queen Victoria's own famous tea-time spreads" in their Servants' Hall restaurant.

However, local scone lovers were quick to point out that the advert - which promised "sconelets with Cornish clotted cream and strawberry jam" - depicted a Devon cream tea rather than a Cornish cream tea.

In Cornwall, the tradition is to spread jam first followed by the cream, while in Devon, cream is added to the scone before the jam.

More than 300 people responded to the post, with some threatening to cancel their National Trust membership over the sticky etiquette error.


Lanhydrock were quick to apologise for the "heinous error", assuring guests that the "member of staff responsible has been reprimanded and marched back over the Tamar" back into Devon.

No I am not happy! As the (self-appointed) leader of the #creamfirst party, I note that the (ridiculous) #jamfirst supporters are louder but that doesn’t make them right!!!



Oh and you have to DOLLOP not spread #gospelaccordingtoSuzy https://t.co/Q8nWpr7BBY — Suzy Pelta 👩🏽‍🍳 (@SuzyPelta) March 12, 2018

Rival scone factions sprang up on Twitter using the hashtags #JamFirst and #CreamFirst, with staff from the Victorian mansion joining in and proudly sporting #JamFirst badges on Mothering Sunday.

The restaurant also assured offended scone lovers "that our jam and cream are usually served in little pots so the order of their application is not subject to such appalling error".