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Homes and Gardens in the Heart of England:
Cotswolds and the Peak District
5 days/4 nights from Bath to Manchester
The region of England known as the “Heart of England” is known for many things - quaint, thatched roof cottage villages, a wonderous literary heritage as the birthplace of Shakespeare, among them - but it is often under appreciated that this area is also home to many of the loveliest gardens. From formal castle masterpieces to local arboretums, this tour features a wide ranging highlight. Along the way, we will get to see some of those honey thatch villages and, interest permitting, we’ll certainly find time to wander a bit in the antique and tea shops.
This ‘Homes and Gardens tour’ has the added bonus of following a bit of the region’s literary heritage visiting sites of Jane Austen and other literary greats. Many of the stately homes have recently been used as film sets for popular period films such as Pride and Prejudice, The Duchess and Jane Eyre.
Come and enjoy a lovely few days in the countryside!
Links with Jane Austen’s Hampshire (creating the ‘Week’ with Jane Austen) and Yorkshire Gardens.
Tour Dates: 17 - 21 June, 2012
Tour Rates: $1699 USD per person; $1999 USD single rate
What your tour price includes: Your accommodation for 4 nights while on the tour including both full breakfasts and dinners. Your price also includes entrance fees to listed attractions, transportation, services of driver/guide-companion and all taxes and tips other than those you may wish to give your guide.
TENTATIVE ITINERARY
Saturday
You are welcomed to book an optional transfer from London to Bath and a pre-tour stay at our Bath accommodation base for a supplemental fee. Please discuss options with us.
Day 1 Sunday, 17 June
Our tour starts in Bath, the city of Georgian splendor and Roman antiquity, departing approximately 11am. You have the choice to arrive into Bath this morning (it is a two hour train ride from London) but Bath is a lovely place to spend a day or two prior to our tour independently or as part of our ‘Week’ With Jane Austen tour. The choice is yours!
We will make our way to the medieval village of Lacock, which has hardly changed in the past 200 years. With its magnificent abbey, half timbered cottages and greystone houses, it provides a perfect setting. This lovely place, where TV ariels, telephone wires and advertising are banned, has been used as a film set for many popular films such as the Colin Firth/Jennifer Ehle production of Pride and Prejudice, the BBC series of Cranford and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
Abbey House Gardens is our next destination. Owned by the “naked gardeners,” this 16th Century Abbey House boasts an unusually large 5 acre town centre garden, nestled beside the historic Abbey in the lovely village of Malmesbury. Famed gardener Alan Titchmarsh said about Abbey House, “The Wow Factor is here in abundance!”
NIGHT STOP: Burford/Woodstock area
Day 2 Monday, 18 June
Our day first sees us visiting Blenheim Palace. This incredible treasure house, set near Oxford on the edge of the Cotswolds, was given to Winston Churchill's ancestor John, 1st Duke of Marlborough. The superb collection here includes fine paintings, furniture, bronzes and the famous Marlborough Victories tapestries. In addition to the palace itself with all of the opulent splendor, you'll have ample time to wander the amazing gardens, designed in part by ‘Capability’ Brown. A trip to Blenheim Palace would certainly not be complete without visiting the Water Terraces, Rose Garden, Arboretum, Cascades or the Secret Garden.
The rest of our day will be spent meandering through the honey-thatch cottage Cotswolds villages famous in this region. Each is unique and pretty in its own right and there are many opportunities for a stop in a tea-shop or wandering the antique shops. With our small vehicle, we can get where larger coaches can't and avoid the commercialized 'honey-pots' to discover the best of local treasures.
Seeking a Jane Austen connection, there are two quaint villages between Stow-on-the-Wold and Chipping Norton to discover – Adlestrop and Churchill. Certainly off the beaten track! There are a wide range of Cotswolds gardens for us to choose from too - Painswick Rococo, a hilly gem with magnificent views of the surrounding countryside or perhaps Hidecote Manor, a series of small gardens within the whole, separated by walls and hedges of different species or maybe Sudeley Castle? Perhaps some time in the iconic hometown of Shakespeare, Stratford-Upon-Avon? Spoilt for choice!
NIGHT STOP: Burford/Woodstock area, as above
Day 3 Tuesday, 19 June
For 400 years, Stoneleigh Abbey in Warwickshire was the country seat of Jane Austen's relatives, the Leighs. In 1806, Jane visited her cousin Reverend Thomas Leigh on the estate and was so inspired by Stoneleigh that she wove descriptions of the interiors, views of the grounds and cameos of the family into her novels. Stoneleigh Abbey has changed little since 1806, the rooms and much of the furniture are still as Jane Austen would have known them. The park and gardens at Stoneleigh reveal a long history of landscaping undertaken over four centuries at the behest of the Leigh family. There has been a settlement with gardens here from as early as 1154!
Later, a bit of motorway driving will bring us to the Peak District. Jane Austen stayed in the area for 5 weeks in 1806 at the home of another cousin, Edward Cooper. Perhaps we will choose to route via Lichfield, a bustling market town visited by Jane for touring and shopping; it offers a lovely cathedral, some charming Tudor buildings and is the birthplace of Dr Johnson, the author of the very first dictionary (Jane Austen called him her “dear Dr Johnson” and his house “the best hereabouts.”)
NIGHT STOP: Matlock
Day 4 Wednesday, 20 June
We have a full day to enjoy the Peak District and the magnificent Pennine Hills scenery. Here, where the dry-stone walls make criss-cross patterns of the sheep covered hills, we may find ancient folk customs such as 'well-dressing' as we wander the rural Derbyshire villages such as favorite film location towns Bakewell and Longnor. Another possibility is Ashbourne, a town with connections to both Dr Johnson and George Eliot, who described the church as “the finest mere parish church in the entire kingdom.” It is located nearby the lovely River Dove, a favorite spot for Wordsworth.
There are a few stately homes and treasure houses in this area which may seem familiar for fans of period films. These estates are often used as sets, most famously recent productions of Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre and The Duchess among others. We will visit as many as time will permit.
The grand finale of our day is sure to be a visit to Lyme Park, used by the BBC for the hugely popular Colin Firth version of Pride and Prejudice. Fans may recognize the lake as well as the house itself. Here, we’ll find the Palladian mansion surrounded by a medieval deer park of almost 1400 acres, an amazing formal garden and lavish interiors.
NIGHT STOP: Matlock, as above
Day 5 Thursday, 21 June
Another full day in the Peak District permits us the opportunity to explore even more stunning places. There’s the town of Hathersage, known as “Morton” in Charlotte Bronte’s classic novel Jane Eyre. The town itself is an attractive, prosperous gritstone village of charm and character, perched rather picturesquely on a hillside. This whole area is well known to film crews, capturing real places of inspiration for classic literature. Nearby there’s the soaring Stanage Edge, a famous scene from the Keira Knightley Pride & Prejudice, Lees Hall and connections to Little John from the Robin Hood legends.
A sure inclusion today is a visit to the Duke of Devonshire's stately home at Chatsworth, the real life home of Georgina, The Duchess of Devonshire and said to have been the inspiration for Jane Austen as her “Pemberley.” It was here that most of the exterior sequences for Pemberley in the 2005 Pride and Prejudice were filmed as well as a few interiors including the sculpture gallery.
Our tour finishes in Manchester this evening.
Please note: All attraction opening times are correct at time of printing this website. While we will do our utmost to include all of the properties mentioned as central visits, we reserve the right to change an attraction should it become impossible to deliver a planned visit due to changes in opening days or times that we could not have been aware of at the time of loading this tour to our website.
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