MISS Matty’s tea shop only ever existed in Elizabeth Gaskell’s imagination.

But now the building where the protagonist of Mrs Gaskell’s novel Cranford was supposed to have lived has actually become a tea shop.

When Miss Matty’s family fell on hard times she turned to selling tea because it was one of the few socially acceptable jobs for a lady.

But the couple who have opened Mallard in Princess Street have left high-flying city jobs to follow their dream of running a tea shop.

“One of the reasons we liked this site was because of the really nice link with the history,” said Nicola Grimes, 34.

“We really want to make Miss Matty a feature of the place.”

Historian Joan Leach, who founded The Gaskell Society, has already popped into the store to tell Mr and Mrs Grimes more about the shop’s history.

She said Miss Matty’s tea shop would never have sold cups of tea - only leaves.

A Miss Harker, in fact, lived in the former Oddbins off-licence in real life.

She owned a cow that fell into a lime pit on the Heath - a story that was included in Mrs Gaskell’s novel Cranford, only with Miss Harker becoming Miss Betty Barker.

“Cranford is a real blend of fact and fiction and it is sometimes difficult to disentangle the two,” said Mrs Leach.

“But it’s very suitable for it to go back to being a tea shop.”

Mrs Grimes, a former finance director, said people seemed to be interested in trying new teas from places such as India and China.

“We thought they’d steer towards the well-known teas,” she said.

“But it seems Knutsford has more of a discriminating tea palate than I think we gave it credit for.”

She said English-themed tea shops were now common in America and it was time for the British to reclaim their national hot beverage.

“It is really quite embarrassing for the Brits that tea drinking has developed more elsewhere,” she said.

“We’ve become more educated about wine and coffee. Tea’s just starting that journey.” The couple hope to open more Mallards in other Cheshire towns and villages.

And they are not worried by the current global financial crisis - with its echoes of the collapsed bank that saw Miss Matty turn to tea.

“People’s allocation of spend has stepped away from luxuries but a cup of tea and a cake is something people can stretch to,” said Mrs Grimes.

“We could both go back to the corporate world but that wasn’t where our heart was.”

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