Coach leaves Winsford @ 8.00am through to
Northwich Memorial Court @ 8.30am
Full list of pickup points and times here - schedule (b).
£?? (entry fees extra) - click here to book online
or phone Carol on 07932927694 to reserve your ticket

The Historic Town of Tewkesbury, on the River Severn in Gloucestershire, is where time stood still for 150 years, ensuring the preservation of its medieval character and layout to the present day. It is now a thriving town and at the same time is a living museum of architecture and social history spanning over 500 years. The town has such a perfectly preserved medieval character that in 1964 The Council of British Archaeology listed it amongst 57 towns "so splendid and so precious that the ultimate responsibility for them should be of national concern".

Tewkesbury Abbey bears significant resemblances to its sister church of St Peter's, Gloucester and the twin western towers seem to have been originally planned on the lines of those at Southwell Minster. An indication of this is the thickness of the walls and the solid bays at the west end of the north and south aisles. But plans for this were abandoned. However the superb Norman arch together with its flanking turrets give us what is undoubtedly one of the finest west fronts in England. The Norman choir and transepts of Tewkesbury were probably the earliest four-storeyed buildings in Europe. The tower, completed in the latter half of the 12th century, is certainly the largest and finest Romanesque tower in England and dominates not only the building but also the town and the surrounding countryside. In the south ambulatory are the tombs of some of the earlier abbots. Among them is the tomb of Abbot Alan who died in 1202. He came to Tewkesbury as Abbot having been Prior of Canterbury and it is his first hand account of the martyrdom of St Thomas Becket, still extant in the British Library, which tells us most of what we know of that tragic event.

The Town Museum tells the story of Tewkesbury from the Romans, through the Medieval period and the Wars of the Roses, to the Tudors. The John Moore Countryside Museum is a collection displayed to honour the writings on nature conservation of the late John Moore. Central to the museum is the Natural History Collection of preserved mammals and birds, nearly all the victims of accidents or predators. Displays of hand tools illustrate how people have shaped the countryside which we know today. The museum also houses part of the Alan R. Jack collection of wildlife sculptures, made entirely from scrap metal parts.

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