The weather is a constant source of fascination not only for the British public but also for builders. If you are a bricklayer working thirty miles away it can be a wasted journey if it tips down as soon as you arrive on site. If on the other hand you stay at home and it turns out to be a reasonable day then you have lost a day’s wages for nothing. The third alternative is that you get on site, and the moment you have your first mixer load of mortar poured into the wheelbarrow, down comes the rain in buckets. Now you might think that in this day and age it would be possible to work in the rain and indeed it is. There are plenty of good waterproof jackets and trousers but so far nobody has invented a mortar that doesn't get washed down the face work. So reluctantly we head for the tea hut, close the door and get a brew on.

As the hut warms up the heady fragrance of wet warm builders takes over. If you could bottle it, you wouldn't sell a drop. It is an acquired taste and I have never met anyone who acquired it. In this intimate atmosphere the stories start. Most people have heard of Tales from the Arabian Nights and The Canterbury Tales. Now we bring you Tales from the Tea Hut.