Great British Tours

19/01/2022

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/london-best-europe-city-tripadvisor-2022-b1996028.html

UK capital beats Paris, Rome and Barcelona

09/01/2022

Westminster Abbey: How the nation's coronation church has touched our lives for 1,000 years...

Robert

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In anticipation of The Queen’s Jubilee Year, Country Life had the opportunity to photograph the majestic interiors of Westminster Abbey, our coronation church, amid the quiet of lockdown. In the …

26/11/2021

Long Meg and Her Daughters

The nights are still getting shorter, but we are just a few weeks from the turn of the year, when we can look forward to longer days, with Spring not far behind. On 21st December druids and other people will gather at stone circles like Stonehenge and Avebury to celebrate midwinter and the return of the Sun. This is the Winter Solstice and marks the moment when the northern half of the planet is tilted at its furthest point away from the Sun. The word 'solstice' comes from the Latin solstitium, which means 'sun stands still.' This is because the apparent movement of the Sun's path north or south stops before changing direction.

Although Stonehenge and Avebury are amongst the most famous of stone circles, and probably the most visited, there are nearly 1300 stone circles in the British Isles, of varying sizes, and found in every corner of the kingdoms. One of my favourites is Long Meg and Her Daughters, a Bronze Age stone circle near Penrith in Cumbria. It consists of 59 stones (of which 27 remain upright), set in an oval shape measuring 340 ft (100 m) on its long axis. There may originally have been as many as 70 stones. Long Meg herself is a 12 ft (3.6 m) high monolith of red sandstone 80 ft (25 m) to the southwest of the circle made by her Daughters. Long Meg is marked with examples of megalithic art including a cup and ring mark, a spiral and rings of concentric circles. There are many legends connected with the stones, including one that says the stones are a coven of witches turned to stone by a Scottish wizard called (appropriately) Michael Scot, but the name itself is said to come from a local witch, Meg of Meldon, who was alive in the early 17th century.

Perhaps see you there on the solstice?

Photos: aerial photo by courtesy of the public domain, all other photos by Roy Nicholls

14/11/2021

LONDON TO BRIGHTON VETERAN CAR RUN

7 November 2021 marked the 125th anniversary of the world’s longest running motoring event. This year over 300 lovingly restored veteran vehicles drove the 60 mile route between London’s Hyde Park and the seafront in Brighton, with thousands of spectators lining the main roads to cheer them on their way.

The first ‘Emancipation Run’ in 1896 was organised to celebrate the passing of the new Highway Act for ‘Light Locomotives’ which raised the speed limit from 4 to 14 miles per hour. Prior to this new Act, all non-horse drawn vehicles had to be attended by a crew of three, two on the vehicle, and one walking 60 yds in front waving a red flag as a warning to other road users. This requirement was also abolished.

The Veteran Car Run has taken place every year, except during the war years, petrol rationing in the late 1940’s, and during the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic. However, last year, car enthusiasts around the world took part in a Virtual Veteran Car Run, sharing photographs and videos from their own home countries.

Vehicles must have been built before 1905 in order to qualify. In 1971 Her Majesty the Queen entered (but did not drive) the 70 year old Daimler owned by her great grandfather King Edward VII. Another celebrated car which takes part in the Run each year is ‘Genevieve’, made famous in the 1953 film which told the story of two couples’ misadventures on the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run. In 2017 veteran cycles were invited to join the Run, followed by veteran motorcycles in 2018.

Post by Gillian Chadwick
‘Genevieve’ photo by ‘Buch-t’

07/06/2021

Pargeting

Those travellers who are familiar with the area of England known as East Anglia (which takes its name from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles), that is the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, and Cambridgeshire, know that it is an area famous for its half-timbered and coloured buildings. In an area not known for good building stone, timber framed buildings were the norm for hundreds of years and various colours were added to the traditional limewash which was used to paint the outside of the buildings. Suffolk ‘Pink’ dates from the 14th century, and was obtained by adding elderberries, which released a beautiful carmine red. Other methods included mixing pig/ox blood with buttermilk which was then painted onto the house. Blackthorn or sloe juice was sometimes added too, to produce a redder pink.

Another feature of these beautiful buildings is pargeting (sometimes pargetting), which is a decorative plastering applied to building walls. The word is thought to derive from the word 'parget', a Middle English term, which means to throw about, or roughcast a wall. Over time the term was only applied to the decoration in relief of the plastering between the studwork on the outside of half-timber houses, or sometimes covering the whole wall. Pargeting is believed to have been introduced to England in the sixteenth century by Henry VIII (although some experts believe it dates to the Roman occupation of Britain), who imported Italian plasterers to decorate Nonsuch Palace. The craft was referred to as ‘stucco’ in Italy but became known as ‘pargeting’ in England. Initially, patterns were stamped or scratched into the surface of wet plaster, but the most skilled pargeters came to create their own designs which they stamped directly on the wet plaster. Sometimes these figures are geometrical, and in the time of Elizabeth I human figures, birds and foliage all became popular.

While the craft is mainly associated with East Anglia and particularly Suffolk and Essex, historically it was much more widely employed and examples can be found in the West Country, Kent (Maidstone), Cheshire (Chester), Wirral peninsular (Port Sunlight) and Staffordshire (Stoke on Trent). Examples of early pargetting also exist in Wales, Scotland, Yorkshire, although in these areas it is much more common to find internal work, which is often easily overlooked. The wonderful village of Lavenham in Suffolk, with its wealth of medieval houses, is probably one of the best places to see pargeting.

05/05/2021

MONARCHY

We just wanted to let people know that Gillian Chadwick will be taking part in the Guide Collective Roundtable discussion on Monarchy, on Thursday May 6. This will be streamed live on Facebook at 11am PT/2pm ET/7pm GMT. Please click on the following link if you would like to watch the debate
https://www.facebook.com/guide.collective

28/04/2021

Green Lanes

Any traveller exploring the British countryside will frequently hear the expression ‘green lane’, particularly if they are exploring an area on foot. A green lane is any unmetalled route, which may be so infrequently used that there is no wearing of the surface, allowing vegetation to colonise freely, hence the expression ‘green’. Many green lanes are ancient routes that have existed for millennia, such as hollow ways, drover's roads, ancient trackways, and even Roman roads.

Under modern public rights-of-way (PROW) law (in England and Wales at least), the expression ‘green lane’ has no legal meaning. Instead, there are four different types of public right of way, listed below, in addition to public roads: a footpath has pedestrian rights only; a bridleway allows pedestrians, horse traffic and cyclists; a byway that is open to all users and all types of traffic, although, as they are unsurfaced, they are often only passable in a 4x4 or on a trail motorbike (users of 4x4’s often refer to the exploration of these byways as ‘green laning’), as well as pedestrians and horse riders; and a restricted byway that allows pedestrians, horse traffic and vehicles other than mechanically propelled vehicles (e.g. bicycles, horse-drawn carriages, etc).

Regardless of their classification, or lack of, these roads, tracks, lanes and paths are fascinating places to explore, and while many are field-flanking enclosure tracks and are generally less than a couple of centuries old, others will be abandoned Roman roads or sections of prehistoric trackway, that create a complex of routeways connecting settlement sites long since abandoned, or, as in the case of drove roads, for a purpose that is no longer part of 21st century economics. A drove road, drove or droveway was a route for droving (driving) livestock from one place to another, either to move them to market, or between winter or summer pasture. Many drovers' roads were ancient routes of unknown age; others are known to date back to medieval or more recent times (especially those created to feed the growing populations of the Industrial Revolution). This movement of livestock on the hoof was a trade that carried on well into the 20th century. My grandfather worked as a drover in the 1920s and 30s, driving cattle and sheep from the markets in the Welsh Marches to the industrial towns of the West Midlands.

A large-scale Ordnance Survey map (generally 1;25000) is essential, as it will have the necessary detail to both find and explore these forgotten byways. Rural areas are generally the best places to discover these green lanes, but they even exist close to large towns and cities. Although they can be muddy and difficult to walk during the wet, winter months (and well nigh impossible if heavy farm traffic has been along them), they are delightful routes during most of the year. Enjoy!

Roy Nicholls
All photos by Roy Nicholls

24/04/2021

In January of 1215 a group of disgruntled barons gathered for the annual Christmas court. They were calling for the restoration of ancient liberties from King John, particularly his unrelenting tax demands on them. The barons wanted a contract that promised much better behavior on the part of the king and that he no longer could act like a tyrant, taking their property and leveling cruel taxes. These contracts had been struck before between Kings and the barons going back as early as 1014 during the reign of Ethelred who had struck deals with his nobles and those same deals were then repeated by William the Conquerers two sons.

In the summer of 1215 the disgruntled and impatient barons decided to act and they met the King on the banks of the river Thames at a place called Runnymede or the soggy meadow. As a result of several days bargaining one of the most important documents of Medieval England the Magna Carta, a rather optimistic declaration was sealed by King John. It’s often said that the King placed his Royal seal on the document because he could neither read nor write, this however is not true, John was known to have owned many books and an extensive library. Royal seals were more common than signatures during this time simply because there were many who couldn’t read or write.

Once King John had sealed the document it was then very carefully copied and these were then sent to the main Abbeys and Cathedrals throughout the land so that the scholarly monks could then translate a document that had been written in latin by French speaking nobles into English and the Nation would then be able to grasp the new laws by which they should live. You can imagine the monks scribbling away furiously on sheepskin making copies of the charter, the first written document limiting the powers of the king. Four famous copies of the document are kept in England. Salisbury Cathedral keeps its copy in the chapter house and it’s still one of the cathedrals greatest treasures. In 2018 a man with a hammer was arrested after attempting to steal the cathedrals copy. Theres a copy in Lincoln Cathedral and this is often on loan to museums around the world and two can be found in the manuscripts department of the British Library.

There are a number of clauses from the document that are interesting today although not really relevant in our modern world and only three of the original sixty or so clauses are still used in law. These clauses defend the rights of the church, privileges of the City of London and the most famous establishes the right to trial by jury. Most of the demands by the Barons were clearly aimed at them getting a good deal from the King including a one hundred pound limit on taxation for Barons, the King could not sell or deny the right to justice and the Royal forests were to be reduced in size. Nowhere in the text are there any words relating to democracy and although it refers to the rights of free men the majority of the realms men were not free.

Time has in many ways romanticised this great document as being far reaching in establishing the peoples liberties when in many respects it's purpose did no more than to protect the rights of the rich landowners who were simply fed up being so heavily taxed by the King.The barons were certainly not fighting for the rights of those downtrodden neighbours who worked on their estates. However this eight hundred and six year old document is still important because it shifted the power between the governed and the government. The document meant that no King of England was ever again to have absolute or unrestricted power over the populace and almost fifty years after the document was sealed England had a parliament to represent the wishes of the barons to the King.

King John of course refused to except the charter, he felt that it was impossible for a non Royal body to infringe on his sacred power and by the autumn England was engulfed in a bloody Civil War which ended in East Anglia where King John was said to have lost all of his wealth including his crown in the muddy waters of the Wash, an estuary leading out to the North sea and to this day those jewels remain undiscovered. King John was already seriously ill by now and he died in 1216 of dysentery after eating large quantities of peaches and drinking gallons of cider which he had hoped would cure him.

If you wish to see the Magna Carta then Salisbury Cathedral and the British Library can be visited using one of the Great British Tour Guides.

Post by Robert Halkett and photos courtesy of free-images.com

17/04/2021

PRINCE PHILIP 1921 -2021

The ceremonial funeral of HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, which took place this afternoon, was both poignant and personal. The backdrop of Windsor Castle in spring sunshine providing a setting that Prince Philip had known all his life. His mother born there, Princess Elizabeth courted there, 73 year of marriage living there. Today he took one final journey as the funeral procession moved from the State Entrance to St George’s Chapel for a funeral he planned entirely. Little escaped Prince Philip. He was well aware that visitors flocked to Windsor Castle because of its 1000 year history, but equally because of its connections with the Royal Family. I was once told he’d heard (and repeated) the famous tourist guide anecdote that a visitor had asked why the Castle had been built so close to Heathrow airport. The anecdote would have appealed. All four of us Great British Tours guides know Windsor Castle, introducing it as guides to visitors. We all know that our groups will remember today and will want to see Prince Philip’s last resting place. At our Zoom yesterday we decided this post would share our personal thoughts about Prince Philip. In such an extraordinary and full life we glimpse just a very small part of it. Gillian highlights his contribution to the country , Roy talks of how he was a contemporary of his parents and has been part of our lives since we were born, Robert recalls a close encounter and remembers him being an innovator and I relate an anecdote that showed his sense of directness and humour.

‘HIS ALTRUISM, PUBLIC SPIRITEDNESS AND PLAIN DECENCY’ - Gillian
Last night I heard a celebrity on TV saying that often with famous people, we hear about all the good things they do during their lifetime, then the bad things come to light when they die. But with Prince Philip it is exactly the opposite, we were always hearing about the embarrassing gaffes he made on many of his state visits, and the press had a field day when he was involved in a car crash near Sandringham a couple of years ago, but we never really heard about the terrific contribution he made to society during his lifetime.

This is what has really struck home with me in the week since Prince Philip’s death. I have heard so much about his inventiveness, his artistic ability, his intellect, his encouragement of young people all over the world to transform their lives by participating in the Duke of Edinburgh Award, and of course his constant support and devotion to the Queen throughout their long marriage. It has made me wish I’d taken more interest in this complex and intriguing gentleman whilst he was alive, and also that our media had given more coverage of his altruism, public-spiritedness and plain decency, rather than the persistent harping on about his occasional errors of judgement

‘A CONSTANT IN MY LIFE ALL MY LIFE’ - Roy
I rather surprised myself at how sad and shocked I felt at the passing of Prince Philip last week. Some of the sadness was in sympathy for the Queen, losing her husband and companion of over 73 years. And undoubtedly the Prince was genuinely dedicated to the interests and well-being of the people of the United Kingdom, as he was for the Commonwealth as a whole, a role followed by virtually all the Royal Family. All that apart, however, I realised that my sadness was largely because the Prince had been a constant in my life for all my life, a public figure that most of us took for granted but are shocked when we lose them. My parents were exact contemporaries of the Queen and Prince Philip, born just a few weeks apart in 1926 and 1921, respectively, and I think part of me
subconsciously associated the Royal couple with my parents and the passing of the Prince has revived my sense of loss when they passed many years ago.

‘A PIVOTAL ROLE IN THE CORONATION’ and how our coach blocked Prince Philip’s light - Robert
I recall that when the Duke of Edinburgh became chair of the Coronation Commission in 1952 he was said to have played a pivotal role in ensuring that the Queen's Coronation, which took place in June 1953 was televised, despite the concerns expressed by the Queen Mother and the Prime Minster Winston Churchill. He was interested in technology and was keen on modernising the Royal Family. The Duke was also the first member of the royal family to give a televised interview in 1961. He was interviewed by Richard Dimbleby about his involvement with the Commonwealth.

On a more personal note I remember taking a group to the Guard Change at Buckingham Palace which involved the coach parking near St James’ Palace. It turned out that our coach has partly blocked a barbers where unbeknown to us Prince Philip was enjoying a shave. Apparently the coach was, in fact, blocking the light through the barber windows. The solution - apparently Prince Philip rang Scotland Yard to get the coach moved!

‘HOW ADEPT HE WAS AT MAKING MEMORABLE AND INTERESTING COMMENTS’ - Tom
Through sheer chance I managed to meet Prince Philip twice in one day. Once in the morning at a tourism reception near Piccadilly where he’d asked our small group, whom he knew were tourist guides, how much we earned and again in the evening when I was fortunate to be invited to a second reception at Buckingham Palace. I and a colleague were nowhere near the middle of the room but somehow Prince Philip came straight up and commented, ’I see that you found your way here then!’ It was his birthday. Of course we wished him a Happy Birthday, not that he was at all concerned about it. But I also mentioned that I’d understood that Corfu, where he’d been born, in a change in calendar had deleted the day on which he was born resulting in him having no birthday at all. Prince Philip related the whole story to us. It was true apparently.

I’d always realised that Prince Philip wasn’t keen on small talk and tended to be direct and sometimes brusque. I only realised afterwards that his comments at both receptions showed how adept he was at making interesting, memorable and often amusing comments. What’s more he’d possibly remembered me and that I was a tourist guide. Of all people a guide should know how to get from Piccadilly Circus to Buckingham Palace so his quip about “finding our way” was also well timed and funny. I’m pretty sure that some of his gaffes were misconstrued and that actually he was hoping to get a constructive conversation going.

PRINCE PHILIP insisted that his main role was to support The Queen. He did this ably for an incredible 73 years as the longest serving consort. He now leaves a void as Prince Charles has remarked. But support will now come from the Royal Family and our thoughts are with them and especially with The Queen. In the words of one commentator it has been a sad but beautiful day. In naval terms, God Speed Prince Philip. Rest in peace.

Post compiled and edited by Tom with recollections from Gillian, Roy, Robert and Tom.

Photographs 1 and 2 commons.wikimedia; Photograph 3 Wikinews

16/04/2021

CROSSBONES CEMETERY - THE OUTCAST DEAD

Tucked away in a quiet street just a stone’s throw away from the bustling Borough Market and the shiny new Shard, is this pitifully named patch of unconsecrated ground where 15,000 of the Outcast Dead of London were buried.

When this part of London was a Red Light district outside the jurisdiction of the City Authorities, activities forbidden elsewhere in London - theatre, bear- baiting, prostitution - were able to thrive. The Bishop of Wi******er, who owned the land, licensed the many brothels, and the prostitutes became known as the ‘Wi******er Geese’. These desperate women, struggling to survive, were obliged to pay taxes to the Bishop throughout their lives, but when they died the Church denied them the right to be buried in consecrated ground.

The cemetery was later used for other members of society who were also denied a Christian burial, including paupers and criminals, until it was closed in 1853 because it was ‘completely overcharged with dead’. Development plans were overruled and the graveyard was abandoned.

In the 1990’s, the Museum of London was asked to carry out an archaeological survey before excavations took place for a new underground line. They removed 148 bodies but had to leave an estimated 15,000 bodies behind - the majority of the dead were women, the unborn or children under the age of 5.

Nowadays, the site has been transformed from its previous derelict state to a thought provoking garden of remembrance. The visitor is struck by the colourful ribbons, messages and tributes which adorn the entrance to the shrine, and some will want to join the Friends of Crossbones in the vigils which take place every month to commemorate those on the margins of society.

Post by Gillian Chadwick

Photos from Public Domain and Duncan Harris of Nottingham

05/04/2021

St. Mary’s Church, Kempley

I had been pondering a post about another of England’s beautiful medieval churches, but not sure which one to write about, when my mind was made up for me. The BBC’s Countryfile program, had a short article about the Church of St. Mary in the little village of Kempley, in Gloucestershire, a church I know quite well. Close by is another village, Dymock, the eponymous home of the Dymock Poets, a group of poets who lived in the village just before the Great War. They included the American poet, Robert Frost, his great friend Edward Thomas (see my earlier post) and Rupert Brooke, who wrote one of his most famous poems, The Soldier, while living in the village.

St. Mary’s is an historic building, and a dendrochronology test on its oak roof gave a date of 1120 – 1150, perhaps the oldest medieval roof in Britain ever tested. What makes the church particularly special, though, are the medieval wall paintings, which date from the early 12th century and regarded as the "the most complete set of Romanesque frescoes in northern Europe". Some of the paintings are true frescoes, where the paint is applied to wet plaster, whereas the paintings in the nave were painted on to dry lime mortar. The paintings include Christ Ascending into Heaven and The Wheel of Life, showing the life cycle of humankind. As with most other churches during the 16th century, the paintings were covered with a coat of lime wash, which helped to preserve them, and were uncovered in the 19th century. There have been a couple of attempts at preservation, the most recent in the 1990s, which created their own problems, but the paintings remain an amazing and glorious survival from the medieval period.

And should you be visiting the area in the Spring, there is a circular walk (The Daffodil Way) from Dymock through the wild daffodil country of the 'Golden Triangle'. The walk takes you through a wealth of woods and orchards, ponds and streams, meadows, and fields. The best time to walk this route is in late February and March when the wild daffodils are in bloom in the woods and fields around Dymock and Kempley.

23/03/2021

WESTMINSTER ABBEY BECOMES A VACCINATION CENTRE

I’m writing this on the first anniversary of lockdown in the UK.
You may have read that from 10 March Westminster Abbey became a COVID 19 vaccination centre. For two days a week a clinic operates in Poets’ Corner under the watchful eye of William Shakespeare’s statue. The Comedian Stephen Fry spoke of the “wonderful” moment he was vaccinated there and tweeted, “Never felt a thing! Fancy the call to be jabbed sending me to Westminster Abbey of all spectacular places”. David Hoyle, Dean of Westminster Abbey, who is delighted that the Abbey is able to be a vaccination centre noted, “We are used to having this place absolutely full of people and it feels very, very peculiar and frankly wrong to have it empty. To be part of making this country safe and healthy again, that is an immense privilege and we are really pleased to be doing this.” About 2000 people a week will be vaccinated close to the graves of Samuel Johnson, Charles Dickens and the ashes of Thomas Hardy.

But how might these permanent residents have reacted to our times?

William Shakespeare (statue Westminster Abbey - buried Stratford Upon Avon 1616)
Shakespeare took a keen interest in physical and mental conditions. He was a great observer and articulate describer of both. He was also much interested in cures as when the Friar in Romeo and Juliet extols the effectiveness of flowers. Madness is a recurrent theme, characters are afflicted by anything from gout or boils to pestilence and syphilis; there is widespread mention of childbirth - and of abortion, whilst King Lear wishes his own daughter sterile. Julius Caesar, Othello and Macbeth have fits and Lady Macbeth has hallucinations. Shakespeare would undoubtedly have written about the pandemic and even gives a relevant incite - In Coriolanus and Cymbeline he seems to have been aware that illnesses can be spread from one person to another even though someone may have no symptoms.

Charles Dickens (buried Poets’ Corner 1870)
Dickens also took a keen interest in human conditions, writing with detail and accuracy about them. One obituary in the British Medical Journal paid tribute by saying of him, “None, except medical men, can judge of the rare fidelity with which he [described] the devious paths of disease and death”. In Nicholas Nickleby Snike is dying of tuberculosis, in Bleak House Mr Krook was dyslexic and in Pickwick Papers the messenger Fat Boy Joe repeatedly falls asleep and snores. I’ve appreciated for some time that Dickens had 'causes' and would speak out about them. The plight of the child chimney sweep was frequently covered, as in Oliver. In his life Dickens was without doubt a strong force. He championed what is now Great Ormond Street Hospital for children (GOSH), founded with just 10 beds in 1849 and was a fundraiser for the hospital too. He effectively helped revolutionise the way sick children were cared for by providing for the mother to stay with the child in hospital. Dickens would have brought his immense talents, honed from the days when he was parliamentary reporter, to write about the pandemic and the response to it.

Samuel Johnson (buried Poets’ Corner 1784)
Having compiled an English Dictionary of over 100,000 quotations Johnson has some quotations of his own that might apply to the present. He wouldn’t have entirely identified with Thomas Hardy, however, describing grief as a’ “species of idleness”. The following observations I’ve chosen are but about hope and achievement and I leave Johnson to speak for himself:
“Few things are impossible to diligence and skill”.
“Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome”.
“Hope is necessary in every condition”.
“Hope itself is a species of happiness and perhaps the chief happiness this world affords”.

Thomas Hardy (heart at Stinsford, ashes Poets’ Corner 1929)
Hardy observed 19th century life, predominantly rural life in south west England. He understood and related the conditions of society. Often health and happiness eluded his characters, sometimes starkly described, as culminating with Fanny’s death in childbirth in Far From The Madding Crowd. He says, “Happiness was but the occasional episode in a general drama of pain” in the Mayor of Casterbridge, whilst in Tess of the D’Urbevilles he says, “This hobble of being alive is rather serious, don’t you think so?” Many of his books were written after Hardy met his first wife Emma in Cornwall and after they had grown apart. However the sadness, loss and grief following Emma’s sudden death in 1914 was palpable, leading to an outpouring of poetry about love. His War poems recognised the horrors and loss in war. Hardy would surely have had an empathy with the immeasurable loss from the pandemic. Described by many as humanist he did also recognise the role of science - so critical at the moment.

Perhaps how apt that he wrote, “But time is short, and science is infinite…”.

Post and photographs by Tom Hooper