Belong Wigan residents to tackle world's largest tea party

Afternoon tea will be taken to a new level when residents and customers at Belong Wigan join nearly 700 others in the borough to try and break the record for the world’s largest tea party.
50 people from the village will sit down for a cup of tea and cream scone on Wednesday, March 16 for the world record attempt, which is taking place as part of National Nutrition and Hydration Week.
They will join staff and customers from Wigan’s other care homes for the simultaneous tea party between 3pm and 4pm.
Those joining the attempt will be given an extra special party with staff going all out to create an authentic vintage 50s themed afternoon tea event.
Marie Calderbank, experience co-ordinator at the village, who has been organising the event along with Wigan public health, said staff would be busy preparing from now until the day of the attempt.
“It’s quite strict how it’s got to be set up,” she said. “Each venue will have to simultaneously have an afternoon cream tea with tea and scone. And it has to be a proper afternoon tea set up with cups, saucers, side plates, table clothes and napkins and all that kind of thing. We’re going to set ours up as a 50s vintage tea party and our catering manager will be making all the scones here at the village.”
Marie added: “It’s quite well set up for us here because we’ve got the village’s Bistro to use and the kitchen facilities, so it should be quite easy to organise from here.”
The current world record for the largest afternoon tea held across multiple venues is currently held by Yorkshire Building Society, which had 667 people sit down for tea and scones on June 25, 2015 across six locations in Leeds, Bradford, Peterborough and Chelthenham.
To find out more contact the village on 01942 855600.