A landowner's plans to develop a historic tea garden have been dealt a blow after a temporary tree preservation order was placed on the site.

Bath and North East Somerset Council has placed the provisional order on trees at the Rockery Tea Gardens in Combe Down.

The site's owner Richard Lovegrove submitted a planning application to the council to build houses on the land last year.

A council spokesman said the order would not prevent development at the site but would enable the authority to give greater weight to the protection of trees in its consideration of the current application or any other development proposals.

But Mr Lovegrove said the application for two new houses, nine apartments and nine garages would in any case see the vast majority of woodland protected at the site.

Residents in Combe Down have expressed concern about the proposals and many have expressed a wish to keep the tea gardens in their current form as they have a history stretching back to 1924.

In the past it has acted as a wedding venue for hundreds of couples through the generations.

It was started after the war by two women who served tea in what is now the car park, to passengers from tramcars which turned at Rainbow Woods.

But after Mr Lovegrove failed to find a new tenant for the two-acre site, the tearoom shut and he applied for permission to replace the three function rooms and two licensed bars with homes.

He has defended the development and said it was a very sympathetic one.

He declined to comment this week but had earlier said: "This could have been a bigger development but it is not.

"It is a very sympathetic development which will fit in with the surroundings."

A variety of animals including deer, foxes, woodpeckers and owls are often seen at the tea gardens, which have been owned by the same family for the past 80 years.

One of its best kept secrets is the one-and-a-half-acre garden with its stone terraces, quarry wall and curving green lawns.

The National Trust is interested in buying or leasing the landmark, but says Mr Lovegrove's agent has rejected any overtures.

National Trust property manager Wendy Stott said: "The National Trust has investigated options to take over management of the Rockery Tea Gardens in Bath, either through lease or purchase, but for the time being at least it is not something the charity can pursue further.

"From our talks with the owner's agent, it appears they are not keen to consider leasing or selling the site to the charity."

Jane Goodwin, whose house overlooks the gardens, said she was glad a tree preservation order had been placed on the site.

She said: "This only lasts for six months at the moment but I am delighted as he can't do anything to the gardens while it is there.

"I am very sad about the development and it is not the fact that it is not being kept as a tea garden because they have to find someone to run it.

"But I would rather have it as a tea garden than a housing development."