Verity finds her voice leading audio tours of Coventry

Ventures with Verity is a small independent tourist guide service, based in Coventry and set up in 2016 by Verity Tiff.

Following a career in education, which had included working in a variety of different school settings as well as student support work at Warwick Business School, Verity retired from full time work.

However, one of the things that she had always enjoyed doing was meeting people. With a love of history and heritage, Verity decided to take the opportunity to learn more about the region which she had made her home in 2004, by training as a Blue Badge Tourist Guide for the Heart of England region (a region which stretches from Staffordshire, through

Shropshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire).

The Blue Badge Tourist Guide qualification is an internationally recognised qualification and is assessed by both written and practical exams. These exams not only focus on knowledge, but also on practical guiding skills.

As Coventry was scheduled to be UK City of Culture in 2021 and with the uncertainty regarding travel, both overseas and within the UK, Verity decided to focus her tours on Coventry and Warwickshire, and in particular outdoor walking tours of the city and the surrounding countryside.

Verity was soon approached by VoiceMap about producing a self-guided audio tour, and after finding that the walking tours were difficult to manage and to generate enough revenue as a sole trader, Verity took on the challenge.

Embracing new technology and a new way of working, including having to set up a ‘recording studio’ in the spare bedroom under a duvet to record the audio tracks, the VoiceMap tour of Coventry entitled Coventry’s Cathedral Quarter; a tale of Riches, Destruction and Rebirth was born. After four months of fairly intensive work, working with an editor who guided her through the process, it was finally ready for publication in the middle of March.

The tour not only takes visitors on a journey through the historic centre of Coventry as well as going inside the cathedral ruins, but it also encourages visitors to spend more time in the city, visiting some of the other attractions such as St Mary’s Guildhall, The Coventry Transport Museum, Holy Trinity Church and of course the cathedral itself.

Now that Verity has found her voice through this new medium, she is already planning further tours, including one following the route of the medieval city walls, which will also take visitors out towards the Charterhouse and London Rd Cemetery. However, due to the city south redevelopment, that one is temporarily on hold and she is concentrating on a tour of Warwick.

Visit www.ventureswithverity.co.uk for more information.