The Art & History of Bristol, Bath & Tyntesfield: five day tour
The Art & History of Bristol, Bath & Tyntesfield, a five-day tour organised by Tailored Travel
Monday 27 May – 31 May 2013
Itinerary
Day 1: Hanbury Hall & Gardens – We board our executive coach at our designated pick up points. En route to Bath we visit the National Trust’s Hanbury Hall and Gardens 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. We continue to our centrally located 4* Marriott City Hotel in Bristol for a four night stay on half board basis.
Day 2: Our Blue Badge guide meets us at our hotel this morning and accompanies us throughout the day. This morning we have a guided tour of Bristol, a delightful city and once one of Britain’s major ports. Our guided tour takes in the Clifton Suspension Bridge, spanning the beautiful Avon Gorge, and the symbol of the city of Bristol. Designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunei, the foundation stone of this Grade I listed bridge was laid in 1831 and was not opened until 1864, five years after he died. On arrival in Bath this afternoon we enjoy a guided tour at the American Museum at Claverton Manor. Built as a means of fostering a greater Anglo American understanding, the Museum is home to a fine collection of American furniture and decorative arts.
Day 3: We visit the National Trust’s Tyntesfield property this morning with our Blue Badge guide. This extraordinary Gothic revival extravaganza survives with its original Victorian interior intact – an unrivalled collection of Victorian decorative arts, an insight into below stairs and a sumptuously decorated private chapel. It is surrounded by landscaped gardens, park, farmland and estate buildings. We visit Wells this afternoon, the smallest city in England, for a guided tour of the famous Gothic Cathedral with its fine medieval statuary, stained glass, chapter house and astronomical clock.
Day 4: This morning we visit No 1 Royal Crescent in Bath with our Blue Badge guide. Built to the designs of John Wood the Younger between 1767 and 1774, it is justly considered one of the finest achievements of 18th century urban architecture. Number One was the first town house of the Royal Crescent to be completed and is an excellent example of Palladian architecture. Decorated with handsome hand painted marbled wallpaper, the rooms of the house contain period furniture and the artefacts of 18th century daily life. We then enjoy a guided tour of the Roman Baths. Around Britain’s only hot spring, the Romans built a magnificent temple and bathing complex that still flows with natural hot water. In the afternoon we have a guided tour of the Holburne Museum of Art. The Museum displays superb English and continental silver, porcelain, maiolica, glass and Renaissance bronzes. The Picture Gallery contains works by Turner, Guardi, Stubbs and portraits of Bath society by Thomas Gainsborough.
Day 5: After checking out of our hotel and en route home we visit the Shugborough historical Estate in Staffordshire. Set on the banks of the River Sow, this magnificent 17th century mansion house offers working Victorian servants’ quarters and a Georgian park farm with a watermill.
Blue Badge guides will be available on days 2, 3 and 4, and we will have the use of an executive coach throughout the tour.
We will stay four nights on a half board basis at the centrally-located 4* Marriott Hotel in Bristol. Facilities at the hotel include a restaurant, bar, swimming pool, gym, sauna and a steam room. All rooms are en suite and feature TV, phone, in-room safe, hairdryer, and tea and coffee making facilities.
Cost is from £389. Extras include: insurance £14; single room supplement £79; entrance fees to places visited as part of this itinerary (National Trust properties free to NT members); gratuities.
