Tours
Guests customise their itinerary to suit their own preferences and interests. Here are some suggestions. Houses marked* are open all year. All tours are in English; we are happy to translate into French for a small extra charge.
DAY 1: Lyveden New Bield* [an Elizabethan pleasure house that was never finished and a Tudor garden that is being restored; meet the custodian who will show us the restoration plan and take us round – he has presented the site on TV]; lunch at the Old White Hart in Lyddington village, delightful food in traditional surroundings; Lyddington Bede House [former palace of the Bishops of Lincoln, converted to almshouses in 1600; lively audio tour]
DAY 2: Broughton Castle* [home of Lord and Lady Saye and Sele who may show us round their Tudor home, which has been used for film sets (watch ‘Three Men and a Little Lady’ for a good view); moat, gardens and gorgeous views; morning coffee in the castle tearoom]; Oxford* [lunch, then tour of the Tudor colleges with an Oxford expert. Time for shopping]
DAY 3: Kenilworth Castle* [impressive castle that belonged to Robert Dudley – why did Elizabeth not marry him? Audio tour available in several languages]; lunch at the Saxon Mill, an old watermill turned into a charming and stylish restaurant; Lord Leycester’sHospital* [set up as a home for old soldiers in Tudor times and still used for the same purpose today – a beautiful building]; St Mary’s church* [tombs of Dudley and his family, as well as Warwick the Kingmaker]
DAY 4: Stratford on Avon* [visit the houses connected to William Shakespeare (crowded in summer); three in the town, the church where he is buried and some cute shops; two more houses out of Stratford if you have the stamina]
DAY 5: Hampton Court Palace* [the great palace of Henry VIII; there’s so much to see and do here; buildings, rooms, furnishings, gardens, exhibitions, costumed characters from history]
DAY 6: Winchcombe [the Dissolution of the Monasteries began here]; Hailes Abbey [a major victim of the Dissolution, as it was one of Europe’s major pilgrimage destinations]; lunch at the White Hart in Winchcombe, a 16th century timbered inn; Sudeley Castle [the home of three queens; the burial place of the wife of Henry VIII who survived; a place of scandal that left its impression on the young mind of the future Queen Elizabeth I]
DAY 7: Coughton Court [since the 15th century, the home of the Throckmorton family, who maintained their Roman Catholic religion; connections to the Gunpowder Plot; beautiful gardens]; lunch at the Throckmorton Arms inn; Baddesley Clinton [a medieval moated manor house little changed since 1633 when Henry Ferrers died; priest holes created in the 1590s to hide Jesuit priests]
DAY 8: Buckingham old town [guided stroll round the historic centre led by a local expert]; lunch at Hatfield restaurant in the coach house; Hatfield House [home of the Cecil family; portraits of Elizabeth; remaining wing of the Royal Palace where Elizabeth spent much of her childhood]
DAY 9: Sulgrave Manor [the Tudor home of Lawrence Washington, whose coat of arms, the stars and stripes, was to be made famous by his descendant, George; expert guided tour]; lunch in the Sulgrave restaurant; Canon’s Ashby [home of the Dryden family since about 1550; Elizabethan wall paintings; priory church that was once part of a monastery]
DAY 10:London (large groups travel by coach; please note that we do not drive small groups into London, so there will be an extra charge for train fares) the Tower of London; boat trip on River Thames to Westminster; walk to Houses of Parliament (exterior); Westminster Abbey (crowded in summer); Downing Street; Trafalgar Square; The Mall; Buckingham Palace.
Other destinations are available; for example, Blenheim Palace and Warwick Castle, which is not especially Tudor but is an entertaining visit.
