The owner of an Audlem cafe which has not even completed two years of business has admitted her shock at winning a prestigious award.

Hannah Barton, who owns Best Made Tea Rooms in the village, won Gold in the Best Cafe Category at the Taste Cheshire awards held at Chester Racecourse last week.

She opened the cafe in August 2017, making Best Made the youngest winners, and said she was delighted to have been crowned the best.

"We found out on the night," she said.

"Customers nominated businesses across the region and then the judge 'mystery shopped' us over a period of six weeks.

"We went knowing we had been nominated but we found out on the night and we can't believe it. The event can't be rigged because they checked how many times a vote came from one IP address.

They said out customer service was outstanding, event when we were busy, which was great to hear.

"When we heard our name called out, I ran to the stage and collected my award.

There were 44,000 votes for all categories, which the organisers said was the most they have ever received – this is not a small award so for us to win is brilliant.

"I knew we were good but crikey!

"Audlem is right on the edge of Cheshire too and we're only a little village. People have been coming in to say well done and thank you for doing this for a small village.

"But it's all down to my wonderful team who work so hard every day."

Stephen Wundke, Taste Cheshire chief executive officer, said: "This has been a simply fabulous night, 20 years ago when these awards were first created, I don't think we could ever have imagined how big they would be.

"We don't know of any other awards of this type where more than 40,000 people vote and to have more than 400 people here tonight shows the value that the industry puts on them.

"Thank you to everyone who voted and I hope your choices did well. To me, they are all winners here."