Steaming through the Cotswolds
Saturday 4th September 2010
Northwich Memorial Hall Other Pick-up Points Available
8.30am (b)
Pickup Times
SOLD OUT

Bourton-on-the-Water has been described as the Little Venice of the Cotswolds and has many shops, cafes, and attractions, including Birdland, a zoo for birds, with a remarkable collection of penguins, some of which have come from the owner's islands in the South Atlantic. The Model Village is a miniature of Bourton using authentic building
materials depicting it as it was in 1937 at 1/9th scale.

After lunch we move on to the Warwickshire and Gloucester Steam Railway, and take a trip on a steam train from Cheltenham to Toddington and back. The railway offers a 20-mile round trip through some of the most spectacular scenery in the Cotswolds. The line, part of GWR, was primarily built (1900-1906) to improve through services from Birmingham to
Bristol and the West Country. It also carried fruit from the highly productive farming areas in the Cotswolds and the Vale of Evesham.

Harewood House
Saturday 25th September 2010
Northwich Memorial Hall Other Pick-up Points Available
8.30am (b)
Pickup Times
£20.00

We start the day at the Yorkshire market town of Knaresborough. Knaresborough Castle dates back to the 14th century and is perched high above the River Nidd with suberb views of Knaresborough and the river valley. St John's Parish Church dates back almost 900 years and much of the current beautiful building dates back to the 14th century.

After lunch we visit Harewood House, described as a ‘St Petersburg Palace on a Yorkshire hill'. The House, one of the treasure houses of England, was built in the mid-18th century and has magnificent interiors by Robert Adam, furniture by Thomas Chippendale and paintings by JMW Turner, Reynolds, Titian and El Greco, among others. An Italianate Terrace, designed by Sir Charles Barry, stretches along the South Front of the House and provides stunning views of Lancelot ‘Capability' Brown's landscape and lake. Harewood Bird Garden is one of England's most important avian collections, with over 90 species of birds from Java Sparrows to Ostrich, Penguins, Flamingos, Macaws and Red Kites.