Opening an authentic English tearoom in America’s Hometown has been a learning experience – for both patrons and the business’s owners, Sean and Michelle Sinclair. Residents and visitors to Shelly’s Tea Rooms on Court Street downtown learn about the intricacies of “tea time” while the British proprietors have become acquainted with new tea-related terminology.
“Steep? What’s that? In England, we brew tea,” jokes Michelle, better known as Shelly to her customers.
“Yeah,” says Sean. “Steep is a hill!”
There have been other adjustments as well. The Sinclairs – who include daughter Charlotte, 21, son Teddy, 14, and official greeter Buddy, a 7-year-old golden retriever and support dog – have embraced America’s love of all kinds of tea when they ask for a “cuppa.”
“In England, 98 percent of the tea served is English breakfast tea,” Sean says. “Here, we offer 103 different looseleaf teas and they all sell well.”
In just three years, Shelly’s Tea Rooms – featuring a gift shop, bake shop and emporium selling all those teas – has become the go-to place for English tea on the South Shore. People travel from across the region, state, and even the country to sip tea, and to taste freshly baked scones with clotted cream and jelly, toasted crumpets with butter and other traditional English fare.
“We have a couple from South Carolina who visit us a few times a year,” Sean says. “They come for the mediumship (featuring a resident clairvoyant), tarot readings and tea tastings.”
With Sean running the business and Shelly serving as the beaming hostess – resplendent in her customary blue-and-white polka dot dress buoyed by a frilly white petticoat – the tea room is almost always busy. Sales have easily exceeded the business plan they created before emigrating from England to set up shop Plymouth.
“At the end of the first year, we were already ahead of projections for five years,” Sean says.
“We were packed the week of Queen Elizabeth’s funeral and also for the week of King Charles coronation,” Shelly adds. “The tables are usually full from when we open to when we close.” (Shelly’s is open daily from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.)
As the Sinclairs point out, tea time is a quaint custom that originated in England. Though tea is universally consumed in Great Britain today, afternoon tea – also known as “high tea” – originated in the Victorian era when royals and landed gentry enjoyed a late-afternoon nosh.
“Nobility started having tea around 4 p.m. with food to tide them over till supper in the evening,” says Shelly.
Crumpets with butter and cucumber sandwiches were typically served with tea, as were scones (pronounced “gones”) with clotted cream – a thick spread made by steaming full-milk cream. This led eventually to high tea being called “cream tea” by the general public.
“Clotted cream is one of the things we have to import,” Sean says. “You can’t make it here but you can sell it. Something to do with the pasteurization process.”
For those intimidated by this English ritual, the Sinclairs are quick to point out that there is no correct way to enjoy it. “It’s really up to the individual,” Sean says. “Tea time can be as informal or traditional as you like.”
The Sinclairs’ transatlantic journey to Plymouth was full of challenges. The couple started Shelly’s Tea Rooms in England in 2007, opening two award-winning shops. One was in Canterbury, about 60 miles southeast of London, in a building built about 100 years before the Pilgrims set sail for the New World, while the second was another 20 miles down the road near the White Cliffs of Dover.
Business was good but the Sinclairs had an abiding love of America. They first visited here about 30 years ago and made several return trips. They decided to make the big leap across the Atlantic in January 2020. The couple planned to run a tea room in Plymouth and had already lined up contractors to do renovation work on downtown retail space. All would be completed in time for a March opening.
Then fate threw a wet tea bag into their plans. Covid struck and the world as we knew it ceased to exist. Life was put on indefinite hold as the pandemic did its damage. The Sinclairs stayed put in England.
“We didn’t know what to do,” Sean says. “We didn’t know if this would last for two months or two years. We had to see it through.”
Once restrictions eased, the Sinclairs pushed to resume work at 51 Court St., struggling to keep the project going with international phone calls over a five-hour time difference. Finally, in December 2021, they were granted visas by the US Embassy.
“That was crazy,” Sean recalls. “We had to sell two businesses and our home and pack everything up in just one month. Plus, our daughter was staying behind in England for school.”
After arriving in Plymouth, they forged ahead. Work was completed in February 2022 and Shelly’s began serving daily tea. Business has been brewing ever since.
In 2023 and 2024, it was recognized as Most Authentic English Tea Room in Massachusetts and the U.S. by LUXlife Magazine, and as Team Room of the Year for 2024 and 2025 by Corporate LiveWire
“We have been so welcomed by the people of Plymouth,” Shelly says. “So many people reached out to us and helped us open our tea room. We are grateful.”
And now Shelly’s Tea Rooms is branching out. The Sinclairs recently began offering franchise opportunities and will soon ship fresh-baked scones around the globe via a website.
If you don’t know where Shelly’s is located, it’s easy to find. Just look for the red English-style phonebooth on Court Street.
“Kids love it and people are always taking selfies there,” Sean says.
Dave Kindy, a self-described history geek, is a longtime Plymouth resident who writes for the Washington Post, Boston Globe, National Geographic, Smithsonian and other publications. He can be reached at davidkindy1832@gmail.com.