The beautiful manicured gardens of Tymperleys restaurant tea rooms are a sea of tranquillity.

Tucked away off Trinity Street in Colchester, they are a stone’s throw from the hubbub of the town centre, but they may as well be another world.

But in the not too distant past, this peaceful haven was the centre of a political storm.

In 2010, Tymperleys, a Grade II* listed building, once home to Royal physician William Gilberd, had been closed by Colchester Council which said it could not, in austere times, afford to pay for it.

The town, including respected historians, was horrified.

The 15th century building had been left to the town by philanthropist Bernard Mason.

He had been a prolific clock collector and the timber-framed house had, after his death, become a clock museum.