Day 1 We depart by executive coach from our designated pick up points. En route to our hotel we visit the National Trust’s Snowshill Manor and Garden, home to a huge and diverse collection of extraordinary craftsmanship. Charles Paget Wade spent his life and inherited wealth collecting objects from all corners of the globe, with items varying from lowly fire buckets to exquisite ivory carvings, ancient musical instruments, Victorian toys, penny farthing bicycles and complete suits of Japanese armour. We continue to the 4* Mercure Bowden Hall Hotel at Upton St Leonards for a three night stay on a half board basis.

 

Day 2 This morning we visit Chavenage at Tetbury, a wonderful Elizabethan house of mellow grey Cotswold stone that dates back to 1576. Our guided tour of Chavenage introduces us to a fine collection of tapestries, furniture, pictures and many relics of the Cromwellian period. With our Blue Badge guide this afternoon we visit the National Trust’s Newark Park. With splendid views from the Cotswold escarpment, Newark Park is a secluded estate with a historic country home at its heart. From Tudor beginnings, to a dramatic rescue by a 20th Century Texan, the house has many stories to tell.

 

Day 3 With our Blue Badge guide this morning we visit the National Trust’s Hidcote Manor Garden, an ‘Arts & Crafts’ masterpiece, consisting of a series of outdoor rooms and famous for its rare shrubs, trees and unusual plant species from all over the world. This afternoon we enjoy a guided tour at Sezincote House and Gardens. The south front, complete with a curving orangery unfurls above a Repton landscape that has remained unchanged since the mid 19th century. The house was the whim of Colonel John Cockerell, grandson of the diarist Samuel Pepys, who returned to England having amassed a fortune in the East India Company.

 

Day 4 After checking out of our hotel we enjoy a guided tour at Gloucester Cathedral. The cathedral has been a place of Christian worship continuously for over 1,300 years, since Osric, an Anglo-Saxon prince founded a religious house here in 678 AD. We then visit the National Trust’s Hanbury Hall in Worcestershire. Completed in 1701, this homely William and Mary style house is famed for its fine painted ceilings and staircase by master painter Sir James Thornhill. Taking carefully selected comfort stops en route, we return back to our original pick up points.

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