Johnsons Journal

The continuing, amazing adventures of Pauline & Ken, on their travels

Whilst I haven’t managed to go out with my group during May, Ken and I with a couple of friends have been out looking at possible places to visit in the future. Gardens during lock down, whilst houses and other indoor venues have been closed, have been a lifesaver to many. These are just two that we visited.

Morton Hall Gardens near Redditch, which we visited during the early May bank holiday, links with The Royal Shakespeare Company and Bloms Bulbs for their annual Tulip Festival. The RSC costume department had several costumes on display the colours of which rivalled the tulips. It’s not a huge garden but it was lovely wandering around, getting ideas for planting and choosing which bulbs we wanted to order for our garden, and as a present for our son.

The Garden welcomes groups by appointment and offers a guided tour with the owner or head gardener, followed by homemade refreshments. Bookings are available between April and the end of September on Tuesdays, Wednesday and Thursdays.

The second garden is to be found attached to Ashwood Nurseries near Kingswinford. The garden centre itself has a shop and excellent restaurant and the Nursery has been awarded 53 RHS Gold medals to date. The outdoor sales area is beautifully planted up BUT the reason we went was to visit John’s Secret Garden. It is open on selected days throughout the year. John Massey MBE, VMH (owner of Ashwood Gardens, nurseryman, plant breeder and collector) is a often seen wandering around the three acre private garden

Now a caut ionar y t ale

In late 2020 I booked tickets for a London show. I had been sent from the outset an invoice showing all the seats that the theatre had allocated to the ticketing agents. Let me say now that I have used these agents, who are part of a big group, for some years now and never had any problems and I did look carefully at the tickets details when the invoice arrived. In January, having succeeded in selling only 28 tickets – a low number due to the uncertainty of COVID19 restrictions - I paid and was emailed a receipt. On the front page it detailed the tickets purchased. I didn’t print this out or re check; why would I? It was only a receipt.

with his two dogs, engaging in conversation with visitors. Set along side the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal it is regarded as one of the finest private gardens in the UK. There are many rare plants to be the nursery to learn how they are grown. seen and John and his team trial new plants and bulbs. There is a wild meadow with a bird hide looking down onto the canal.

There are full details on the websites for these two gardens about group visits.

Tickets for the Secret Garden need to be pre-booked and they do take groups by prior arrangement. The nursery breeds world-famous Hellebores which have won RHS Gold medals. From January to March groups can book a guided Hellebore Tour, where you go behind the scenes at

Staying with the Garden theme, at the end of June our group is looking forward to our visit to RHS Bridgewater. The recent BBC programme about its conception has really whetted everyone’s appetite. I have two coaches going with just 30 passengers on each as I wanted to be sure we could socially distance if the longedfor end of socially distancing didn’t happen on 21st June.

In March when someone asked if I could get any more tickets I went onto the theatre website to see if there were any seats showing that were close to those we already had. Imagine my horror when I saw that many were labelled as ‘restricted view’ including half the ones we had. I immediately contacted the agency who said they had told me this. No they hadn’t, verbally or on the original invoice. However, when I looked again at the receipt, there on the back page were the words ‘restricted’. We all know that once purchased you can’t get a refund but how do you ask or choose 14 people (out of a total of 28) who have all paid the same amount if they will accept a restricted view seat. The agency asked the theatre to swap the 14 seats, which they did BUT they were mostly singles and on the other side of the theatre from the rest of the group. I had only couples or one group of 3 who had to sit together. In the end I decided I would purchase premium seats at an extra £25 per ticket. The agent and I chose the tickets to ask for as, happily, they were next to our other unrestricted seats. That should have been that. 14 of the group were very happy to pay something towards the new cost and our club agreed to subsidise, in this instance, the difference. Although the email was sent and received on that same day it wasn’t actioned by the theatre immediately, and in between they put up the price by £15 to £95 per ticket! When the new invoice arrived showing this AND a 10% commission because they were premium seats, which I hadn’t been told about, I really did think someone was having a laugh.

I contacted the agency’s management and had an immediate reply the outcome of which was that they honoured the £80 price and said they wouldn’t charge the commission this time. A good outcome but only achieved by persistence.

Lessons to be learned from this; check the theatre website first; don’t pay until you have been assured that none of the tickets are restricted view and ask that it is put in writing as well. Look as carefully at the receipt as you would the invoice. I have been told that my account handler – I didn’t have one before - will mark my account so I never get offered or receive restricted view again. In the agencies defence, it didn’t help that the agents and the box office staff at the theatre were all working from home and the agent who took over the complaint was only working part time.

Coa ch sea tin g

Those of you who have already been out and about and arrange your own coaches will no doubt also have had headaches over the coach seating plan whilst we have to have social distancing. Why is it that all the people who will not sit in the back half of the coach are those who want to get on at the first pick up point? I looked at a plan B, which was to have the coach pull up at the second pick up on the wrong side of the road, and people get on at the middle door. The steps there are too steep for some so onto Plan C. This is if you want the front then you have to come to a pick up point that is convenient for the rest of the group, even if its then inconvenient to you. Or you sit at the back.

Welcoming groups from this summer contact the team