Inside
HUNDREDS OF ATTRACTIONS REVIEWED & RATED TOURS & WALKS ANIMALS & NATURE HOUSES & CASTLES FREE FUN GARDENS CHURCHES ACTIVE OUTINGS ROCKS&RUINS MUSEUMS
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2 1 0 2 e d i u g t u o days In association with Grand Pier All you need for a summer of leisure and fun!
map & intro .............................................................................................................6 houses & castles ...................................................................................................8 rocks & ruins . .................................................................................................... 17 animals & nature .......................................................................................... 23 trains, boats & planes ............................................................................... 28 museums & galleries . ................................................................................ 34 churches & cathedrals .............................................................................. 43 towns & villages ............................................................................................. 46 tours & guided walks . ............................................................................... 49 active outings ................................................................................................... 51 further afield .................................................................................................... 54 wales ........................................................................................................................... 56 theme parks ........................................................................................................ 59 beaches ..................................................................................................................... 60 free fun ................................................................................................................... 62 further information .................................................................................. 67 index . ......................................................................................................................... 69 Important notes on listings Opening times: This guide concentrates on opening times for the summer/autumn season only. Many attractions open in winter, but times may be more restricted. Phone or visit their website to check. Admission prices: Listed in this guide are the full prices for everything at a particular attraction. At some, e.g. country houses, it’s often possible to get into the grounds only, and not the house, at a lower price. Gift Aid: Many attractions listed here are charities and take advantage of the government’s Gift Aid scheme. Where Gift Aid admission prices are mentioned in this guide, note that lower prices are available if you opt out of it, or are not a UK taxpayer. Full details of how Gift Aid is supposed to work on the HMRC website at tinyurl.com/yljnoc9 Family Tickets: These usually admit two adults and two children, but sometimes more. If in doubt, check beforehand. Many attractions don’t charge admission for children under three or sometimes even five. Others, however, particularly popular family attractions and theme parks, define ‘children’ as quite young and will charge full adult admission for school-age teenagers. Parties: Most attractions offer discounted rates for large parties, provided you book your visit beforehand. Abbreviations: BHMs = Bank Holiday Mondays. TBC = To be confirmed. Ffi = For further information. All information in this guide was as accurate and up-to-date as possible at the time of going to press, but note that some attractions may change prices, opening times or attractions through the season according to circumstances. Published by Venue Publishing Ltd Web: www.venue.co.uk Head Office: Bristol News & Media, Temple Way, Bristol, BS99 7HE Tel: 0117 942 8491 Fax: 0117 942 0369 Email: editor@venue.co.uk (editorial), sales@venue.co.uk (advertising) Bath Office: Windsor House, Windsor Bridge Rd, Bath, BA2 3AU Tel: 01225 429801 Fax: 01225 447602 Editor/author: Eugene Byrne Additional material: Simon Fry Publishing Director: Dave Higgitt Sub-Editor: Tom Phillips Production: Cath Evans, Stacey Black Advertising sales: Adam Burrows, Ellie Pipe, Rebecca Baddiley Publications Co-ordinators: Sam Ulewicz Look out for other forthcoming Venue guides Eating Out West The definitive guide to restaurants, cafes, gastro-pubs, delicatessens and more in the Bristol and Bath area, free with the June edition of Venue. The Festival Guide Your nationwide directory of the summer’s music, arts and outdoor festivals, free with the May edition. Drinking Out West The definitive guide to Bristol and Bath’s pubs and bars, as well as the best country pubs in the region, free with the July edition. Don’t miss out on your monthly Venue/Folio magazine! If you want to be sure of getting two magazines in one AND these essential guides, get a subscription. Call 0117 934 3741 (and have your credit/debit card ready) or visit www.venue.co.uk/subs to find out how you can get Venue delivered to your door for just £2.99 a month.
DAYS OUT GUIDE 2012 // 3 Contents A5.indd 3
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r u o m o r f e g a s s e Am sponsors… Welcome to the Grand Pier – the best pier in the world. The Grand Pier in Weston-super-Mare is the ultimate 21ST Century indoor theme park. We are open every day, except Christmas Day, so come hail, rain or shine, you’ll always get a warm welcome here. Whatever the weather is doing on the outside, it’s still fun, fun, fun on the inside. We offer our visitors some world-class rides and attractions, and admission is absolutely free. There is something here for everyone, young and old alike – from the arcade machines to thrilling rides, or a relaxing traditional afternoon tea in our exquisite Edwardian-style tea rooms. The Pavilion building now boasts function rooms, wedding venues, state-of-the-art conferencing facilities, entertainment and event space – all under one roof. We have bars and restaurants serving a wide selection of food and drink. We serve everything from that traditional seaside favourite fish and chips, to formal wedding breakfasts and corporate dining. The Grand Pier owners travelled the world to source the best rides. We now have thrilling rides like the Robocoaster, which is a robotic arm that throws passengers around inside the roof void of the Pavilion – sometimes upside down – and two Formula 1 Simulators, which are exactly the same machines that are used by the F1 teams to train in the closed season. But we’ve also kept some of the old favourites, like the Dodgems and the Ghost Train.
The Grand Pier is open every day from 10am. Closing times vary throughout the year. We occasionally close early for private functions. Please call us to check on 01934 620 238. Regretfully pets are not allowed onto the Grand Pier, except Guide Dogs. DAYS OUT GUIDE 2012 // 5 Sponsors.indd 5
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INTRODUCTION
! y a d i l o H A ’s y a Every D
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he leaves are back on the trees, the dustsheets have come off His Lordship, the rollercoaster has been oiled, the lions and monkeys have come back from their winter breaks in the Algarve, and the admission prices have gone up. Actually, it’s a sign of the times that the 2012 Days Out Guide features a lot of places that haven’t put their prices up. That’s never happened before. The miserable pittance that we’re paid to lovingly compile the Days Out Guide hasn’t gone up either. But it is bigger and better than ever. That’s how much love has gone into this here guide. It doesn’t matter if you’ve just arrived here on the coach from Krakow, or whether your ancestors arrived at the end of the last ice age and survived being eaten by the cannibals of Cheddar (see Rocks & Ruins section). There’s loads to see and do over the spring, summer and autumn, and most of the people reading this guide will find loads of ideas for places they’ve probably not even heard of. There’s not room to mention everything, but we’ve crammed in quite a lot. While we’ve tried to include every single visitor attraction in Bristol and Bath and the immediate vicinity, we’ve had to be a little more choosy the further out we go. We’ve also included a few suggestions from further afield. Used responsibly, we guarantee that Days Out 2012 will take you to some fabulous places that are within easy reach of home. Places where you can relax, places where you can have adrenalin-fuelled adventures, places where they do nice tea and scones, places where you can admire fine art and architecture, places where you can contemplate the utterly miserable lives that ordinary people in the past had, and therefore feel all grateful for living in the 21st century, economic troubles and all. It’s going to be a good summer.
included, please tell us. Your feedback is essential. Praise is nice, but constructive criticism and helpful suggestions are much more useful. No, actually, to be honest, we prefer the praise. Send praise, criticisms and (most important of all) money to: Days Out Guide, Venue Publishing, Bristol News & Media, Temple Way, Bristol, BS99 7HE or email: editor@venue.co.uk
Eugene Byrne (Editor and author, who has visited nearly all the places in the guide, but who didn’t do the active hairy-chested outings section as he has a sick-note. Simon Fry is the Active Outings Guy.)
The map Using a state-of-the-art high-tech pencil, this here map has been done for you as a rough guideline as to how far things are from Bristol and Bath. Most places listed in this guide will have a Zone reference in their listing entry. But if you’re travelling far and wide, don’t rely on this map – get a proper one. Or SatNav, or a phone with GPS on, or simply stop every so often and ask for directions (“Is this the M5?”). In fact, use anything in preference to this useless map.
But seriously… We don’t claim to know everything, so if you disagree with anything we’ve said, please tell us. If we’ve got anything wrong, please tell us. If we’ve missed out somewhere you think should have been
The director’s cut The size of this guide is limited by what we can squeeze onto a page. A slightly longer version, with even more outings, is on the Venue website at www. venue.co.uk
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HOUSES, GARDENS & CASTLES ABBEY HOUSE GARDENS
Malmesbury Abbey, Wilts SN16 9AS. Zone C. Open 11am-5.30pm 21 Mar-31 Oct, admission £8 adult/£7 concessions/£3 age 5-15/£18 family. Ffi: 01666 822212, www.abbeyhousegardens.co.uk • Glorious gardens! Several acres of plants, ponds and water. It’s got loads of tulips in April, and is also famed for its borders, wooded and laburnum walks and vegetable garden, all in the shadow of the spectacular Malmesbury Abbey. Yeah but ... Yeah, but actually, what it’s really famous for is the nakedness. Owners Ian and Barbara Pollard are keen naturists and organise ‘clothes optional’ days on which naturists are welcome to come along and disrobe. See website for this year’s dates – though, of course, clothed visitors are also welcome on those dates as normal. Abbey and gardens combine for a very nice grown-up day out. ACTON COURT
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Latteridge Rd, Iron Acton, nr Bristol, BS37 9TL. Zone A. Open Wed-Sun 4 July-12 Aug only, tours 2pm, 3.30pm Wed-Sat and 1.30pm Sun, price £7 adult/£5 child, concs. Ffi: 01454 228224, www.actoncourt.com • Tudor manor house that looks as though it might fall down at any minute. This is partly because it was built in a tremendous hurry, using a technique that avoided mortar, but hey, that was nearly 500 years ago, and it hasn’t fallen down yet. In the early 16th century it was owned by ambitious C-list aristo Nicholas Poyntz, whose cunning plan to get on in the world was to impress Henry VIII. He rebuilt his early medieval manor, Henry and the court dropped in and Poyntz did indeed profit. The house is now privately owned and a lot of restoration and conservation work has gone into it. And you can indeed look upon the toilet once graced by Henry’s royal and anointed arse. It’s only open for a few weeks in summer, and admission is by guided tour (the guides are very good), but there are due to be special events (puppet shows, musicians etc) every Sunday. A fascinating and charming oddity, so take care you don’t miss the limited opportunities to visit. AMERICAN MUSEUM & GARDENS
Claverton Manor, Bath, BA2 7BD. Zone A. Open noon-5pm Tue-Sun, plus BHMs & Mons in August to end of Oct, Gift Aid admission £9 adult/£8 senior & student/£5 age 5-16/£24 family. Ffi: 01225 460503, www. americanmuseum.org • OK, technically a museum, but it goes in this section because the house and its beautiful setting and grounds are half the pleasure of visiting... The house has been a museum since 1961 when a rich gay American and a rich gay Englishman got together and decided the world needed a museum of American decorative and interior art. So different rooms in the house have been done out in the styles of different periods and places in American history, from the first New England settlers to the late 19th century. It all adds up to a fascinating view of American life, particularly the rural and small-town side. The museum also hosts regular living history events. It’s also famous for its big annual exhibitions, put on in a separate modern building in the grounds. The big one this year is ‘John James Audubon: Fur and Feather’ (until 28 Oct), a set of folio engravings
by America’s pioneering wildlife illustrator. Make sure you also pick up on Audubon’s colourful personal life. AVEBURY MANOR
Avebury, nr Marlborough, Wilts, SN8 1RF. Zone D. House opening times and prices TBC. Ffi: 01672 539250, www. nationaltrust.org.uk • This one’s probably going to get a bit of a boost in visitor numbers after the broadcast earlier in 2012 of ‘The Manor Reborn’, in which the BBC, and presenters Penelope Keith (get it?) and Paul Martin followed the restoration of various rooms in appropriate style for key parts of its history. It’s a 16th-century manor house, built on older monastic foundations, with formal Edwardian gardens. Admission to house is by guided tour only, and if the restoration work is everything it’s cracked up to be, this place will now be well worth a look. For a while it was home to Alexander Keiller, the playboy antiquarian and marmalade millionaire (no, really) who restored Avebury’s ancient stones. As it’s in the middle of the Avebury complex (see Rocks & Ruins section), you might want to drop in if you’re visiting anyway. BARRINGTON COURT
Barrington, Somerset, TA19 0NQ. Zone D. Open 11am-5pm daily to 4 Nov (shorter hours in winter), Gift Aid admission £10 adult/£5 child/£25 family. Ffi: 01460 241938, www. nationaltrust.org.uk/barrington • A sequence of gardens influenced by Gertrude Jekyll and laid out as ‘rooms’, with particularly attractive walled gardens. There’s also an arboretum, some interesting craft workshops and a shop selling produce grown on site. The house, which was built in Elizabethan times, has a long and colourful history; it was disused for a long time, then revived in the early 20th century. Main points of interest are enigmatic carvings and wall panellings, and an ancient toilet. This isn’t a proper National Trust stately home, though, as there’s no furniture, paintings or family history on show. What there is, though, this year – from 30 April to 27 August – is something rather special. ‘Field for the British Isles’ by right famous sculptor Antony Gormley consists of thousands of little clay figures, and is going to cover the entire floor area of three rooms! Well worth a visit, though navigate carefully as Barrington’s hidden in a warren of country lanes. BECKFORD’S TOWER & MUSEUM
Lansdown, Bath, BA1 9BH. Zone A. Open Sat, Sun & BHMs only from 7 April to end of Oct 10.30am-5pm, admission £3 adult/£2 student, senior/£1.50 age 5-16. Ffi: 01225 422212, www.bath-preservation-trust.org.uk • Everyone needs to visit this delightful and eccentric folly. It’s a 120ft-high neo-classical tower built in the early 19th century by bisexual eccentric William Beckford. Beckford inherited the sort of cash that made him one of the richest men in the world, but he was also an author of lavish gothic fantasy novels. But don’t get too Guardian-reader about him; history has a habit of biting modern political attitudes on the arse, and none more so in the case of this would-be gay icon... whose immense fortune came from the West Indies, therefore sugar, therefore slave labour. The tower features an exhibition on his unbelievably self-indulgent life and
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HOUSES, GARDENS & CASTLES
Get a load of Audubon’s engravings at the American Museum this year.
architectural works. The main point of visiting, though, is the 156-step clamber to the room at the top, lovingly restored and offering amazing views over the area (some less physically able visitors might not be up to it). There are also very enthusiastic and well-informed guides in attendance. The tower is surrounded by Lansdown Cemetery, which has Beckford’s own tomb, along with a load of other elaborate Victorian monuments, each with a story to tell. BERKELEY CASTLE
Nr Dursley, Glos, GL13 9BQ. Zone B. Open 1 Apr-4 Nov on various days & from Sun-Thur in July & Aug – phone or check website, admission to all attractions £9.50 adult/£7.50 senior, student/£5 child/£24 family (2 adults + 2 children)/under-5s free. Ffi: 01453 810332, www. berkeley-castle.com • This is the proper medieval real deal, complete with bastions, cannon, weapons hanging on the walls and dungeons and stuff. But it’s also been home to the Berkeley family for hundreds of years so it includes some fabulous living spaces – though one suspects they’d be pretty chilly in winter. Down the years it’s been the scene of some pretty serious history; it got fought over in the Civil War and King Edward II was supposedly murdered here in circumstances most foul. Actually, that whole Edward II thing gets more interesting the more you look into it; there’s a plausible conspiracy theory that his death was faked and that he escaped to Italy. There’s loads to see indoors (knowledgeable, friendly attendants will tell all) and with some nice terraced gardens outdoors, plus a magical butterfly house (open from May). You might also want to visit the Jenner Museum (see Museums section), which is next to the castle (a few quid extra will get you a joint ticket). Over the summer the castle has a busy diary of events, of which the biggest is the Berkeley Skirmish (21-22 July 2012), with jousting and other medieval re-enactments – see www.berkeleyskirmish.com BOWOOD
Nr Calne, Wilts, SN11 0LZ. Zone C. Open daily from 28 Mar 11am-5.30pm, admission £10 adult/£8.50 senior/£5.25 age 2-4/£8 age 5-12/£30 family (2 adults + 2 children). Ffi: 01249 812102, www.bowood-house.co.uk • Big old stately home which has bolted on a lot of family attractions.
The house is (still) the ancestral home of the Marquesses of Lansdowne, who make the old place pay for its keep by also running a hotel, spa, conference centre and golf resort. It’s a weird hybrid of theme park and country house/estate, though actually it’s all been done in pretty good taste. It has a lot of 18th-century stuff on display, as well as historical exhibits from India. For 2012 there’s also a special Jubilee-themed exhibition looking at the family’s royal connections and the story of Bowood over the last 60 years. Huge gardens and parkland, too. It also has a spectacular and cleverly designed adventure playground, so you absolutely must visit with the kids before they hit teenagerhood. There’s also a soft play area for younger children. The grounds (with lake, temples and cascades) are fabulous – wonderful for picnics. Lastly but not leastly, Bowood has an awful, awful lot of rhododendrons that are in bloom in April/May/early June. If you don’t want to do the house and gardens, simply do the ‘Rhododendron Walks’ for a small separate admission charge. Phone or see website to check when’s the best time to see them. BRISTOL UNIVERSITY BOTANIC GARDEN
The Holmes, Stoke Park Rd, Stoke Bishop, Bristol, BS9 1JB. Zone A. Open Sun-Fri April-Oct, also Sats June-Sept, weekdays only in winter, admission £3.50 adult/under16s, Bristol University staff & students free. Ffi: 0117 331 4912, www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/BotanicGardens • Fantastic place, a must-see even if plants normally leave you cold, because this is about the science as much as pretty flowers. The garden is actually a teaching aid for students and a research facility for 9 more advanced study, but it’s also a sort of botanical theme park designed to educate, enlighten and amuse and includes several specimens you won’t see anywhere else in the UK. Big attractions include tropical greenhouses, the Evolution of Land Plants display, local plant collections and the biggest and best garden of Chinese and Western medicinal herbs in Britain, if not Europe. There are displays that take state-of-theart DNA technology to show the very surprising ways in which different plants are related and a major display showing how different plants are pollinated. Phone or see website for details of guided tours and other events. BROADWAY TOWER
On A4 1m from Broadway, Worcestershire, WR12 7LB. Zone D. Open 10.30am-5pm daily, admission £4.50adult/£4 conc/£2.50 age 4-14/£12 family. Ffi: 01386 852390 www.broadwaytower.co.uk • Beautiful old folly tower thingie built by Capability Brown, with a museum inside telling the remarkable story of the place. And yes, as it’s in the Cotswolds, the Arts and Crafts crowd did hang out here. Apparently, William Morris was a regular visitor, and the place inspired him to campaign for the preservation of historic monuments. If you’re walking the Cotswold Way, it’s a good starting off point and, of course, there are fabulous views from the top. Which is how come it was used by the Royal Observer Corps to look out for Jerry aircraft during the war, and later became an observation post during the Cold War. And it does indeed have a nuclear bunker, which is fully equipped and open to the public one day a month during the summer. Check website for open days.
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HOUSES, GARDENS & CASTLES BROKERSWOOD COUNTRY PARK & WOODLAND RAILWAY
Brokerswood, nr Westbury, Wilts, BA13 4EH. Zone B. Open daily 10am-6pm (shorter hours in winter), admission £3.75 adult/£2.75 senior, child age 3-16/ children under 3 free. Ffi: 01373 822238, www. brokerswood.co.uk • Some 80 acres of parkland, with lake, picnic areas, adventure playgrounds, woodland play trail and indoor play areas (also has a big caravan park). For the more serious-minded there’s a heritage centre with info on the area. There’s also a miniature railway that runs in the afternoons at weekends from Easter to October, and daily during school holidays (extra charge for rides). Good prospect for getting the little dears to let off some steam. CLEVEDON COURT
Tickenham Rd, Clevedon, N Somerset, BS21 6QU. Zone B. See website for opening times; Gift Aid admission £7.20 adult/£3.50 child, garden only £3.80. Ffi: 01275 872257, www.nationaltrust.org.uk/clevedon • Originally a medieval manor house, this place has had bits added on to it ever since by owners the Elton family, the local big shots. The Eltons were eccentrics, academics, engineers, inventors and literary groupies, plus the occasional interesting wastrel to squander the family fortune. The house reflects all this with its pictures, glass collection and attractive display of pottery from the factory of a later Elton. It’s not big history nor particularly interesting architecturally, but the NT guides are chatty and fun, and if10 you live in Bristol, it’s a pleasant Sunday afternoon outing. CORSHAM COURT
Corsham, Wilts, SN13 0BZ, off A4 5m W of Chippenham. Zone B. Open daily except Mon (apart from BHMs) & Fri to 30 Sept 2-5.30pm, open Sat & Sun only 1 Oct-19 March 2-4.30pm, admission £7 adult/£6 senior/£3 child. Ffi: 01249 701610, www.corshamcourt.co.uk • Bit of a hidden gem, this one. A very grand pile originally built by a wealthy Elizabethan merchant but in the hands of the Methuen family since the 18th century. Impressive house and fabulous grounds, all next to a picture-postcard village… This place also has a very impressive art collection that includes works by Van Dyck, Filippo Lippi, Michelangelo and Andrea del Sarto. THE COURTS GARDEN
Holt, nr Bradford on Avon, Wilts, BA14 6RR. Zone B. Open daily (except Wed) 11am-5.30pm 5 March-4 Oct, Gift Aid admission £6.80 adult/£3.40 child/£17.30 family. Ffi: 01225 82875, www.nationaltrust.org.uk/ courts-garden • Old house originally built by a wealthy 18th-century Quaker cloth merchant, and more recently the property of a rather eccentric spinster (until it was left to the National Trust). The house isn’t open to the public, but the fabulous gardens are. The National Trust bills it as “one of Wiltshire’s best-kept secrets” and it’s full of delights and surprises, with an arboretum, fun topiary and wonderful water gardens planted with irises and lilies.
DUNSTER CASTLE
Dunster village, 3m SE of Minehead, Somerset, TA24 6SL. Zone D. Gardens open daily all year 10am-5pm (11am-4pm in winter), castle open daily 11am-5pm 10 March- 4 Nov, 11am-5pm, Gift Aid admission £9.70 adult/£4.70 child/£23.10 family. Ffi: 01643 821314, www.nationaltrust.org.uk/dunstercastle • While the castle looks all imposing, like something out of ‘Lorna Doone’, it’s not as ancient and battle-scarred as you might think, being mostly mid-Victorian. There are some older paintings and furnishings, though. Anyway, it’s dead romantic, and there’s a terrific garden and miles of terrace walks with views over the Bristol Channel and Somerset coastline. Anyway, you’ve absolutely got to go here: it’s one of the nicest days out in Somerset, what with it being at the top of the very pretty and very ancient village of Dunster with its famous medieval Yarn Market. The National Trust also runs an 18th-century working watermill (separate admission charge) in the village. See if you can combine a visit here with a trip on
TYNTESFIELD OF DREAMS ● OK, you’ve lived in or around Bristol/Bath for 10 years or more, you’ve already visited Tyntesfield, so you don’t need to go again, do you? You do, actually. It’s been in the hands of the National Trust since it was acquired from the estate of Lord Wraxall as a job-lot. If you’re one of those people who can never bear to throw anything out, just imagine what you’d be like if you had an entire Victorian mansion to hoard your stuff in. One of the reasons the National Trust wanted Tyntesfield so much was that the whole thing was intact, the family rubbish and all. There were over 50,000 items, which they’re still conserving and cataloguing. This year will see the opening of more rooms in the house to visitors, and there’ll be more objects on show. The old children’s nursery rooms are interesting, though one of the new stars is bound to be the early 20th-century bathroom shower contraption, which looks more like an instrument of torture than hygiene. Other new displays also tell the story of the house’s conservation, the auctioning of objects, and even the rules for volunteers who had to sleep here just after the Trust took it over. If it’s been a few years since you visited, you’ll probably also be impressed with the huge amount of restoration and conservation that’s gone on generally. And take a walk down to the walled gardens while you’re about it. Of course if you’ve never visited at all, what are you waiting for?
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HOUSES, GARDENS & CASTLES the wonderful West Somerset Railway – with perhaps an excursion to the seaside at Minehead as well. DYRHAM PARK
Dyrham, Glos, SN14 8ER. Zone B. House & Garden open 11am-5pm Fri-Tue to 28 Oct, also Wed & Thur 30 June-2 Sept (shorter times in winter), Gift Aid admission £11.90 adult/£6.20 child/£29.70 family. Ffi: 0117 937 2501, www. nationaltrust.org.uk/dyrhampark • Built at the end of the 17th century by William Blathwayt, whom the 2012 National Trust guidebook describes as a “hard-working civil servant”, which is true up to a point. He was a civil servant, he did work hard, but Blathwayt took and paid bribes on a stupendous scale, effectively bought himself the job of Secretary of War and was instrumental in promoting the transatlantic slave trade. Dyrham, then, is a good example of how behind almost every great country house is a great crime, or a whole series of ‘em. Anyways, it’s still lovely to visit. The house has been loaded with a lot of Dutch school paintings, delftware and other bits and pieces from the golden age of the Dutch Republic. The understairs bit, the kitchen and servants’ workplaces are interesting, too. The gardens are very pleasant, recently restored to their late 1800s/ early 1900s condition, plus a new-ish contemporary design West Garden. The park is enormous, with plenty of scope for picnicking, walking, running around. While you’re visiting, don’t miss the tiny little parish church at the back of the gardens, which isn’t actually part of the house but has some wonderfully well-preserved gravestones from the 18th and 19th centuries, each with a poignant tale to tell. HANHAM COURT GARDENS
Hanham Abbots, Bristol, BS15 3NT. Zone A. Ffi: www. hanhamcourt.co.uk • Awful shame this; the gardens will not be open to the public in 2012. Let’s hope they will again someday. HESTERCOMBE GARDENS
Cheddon Fitzpaine, nr Taunton, Somerset, TA2 8LG. Zone D. Open daily 10am-5.30pm, Gift Aid admission £9.70 adult/£9 senior/£4.85 wheelchair user (helper free)/ £3.70 child/£24.20 family. Ffi: 01823 413923, www.hestercombe. com • You can’t visit Hestercombe House (it’s the HQ of the Somerset Fire Brigade), but what you can see is one of the country’s truly great gardens, originally laid out in the mid-18th century by the mellifluously named Coplestone Warre Bampfylde. They’re big and beautiful, and you get three complete period gardens for the price of one – Coplestone’s original secret landscape garden, a Victorian terrace garden and a formal Edwardian garden courtesy of Lutyens and Jekyll, no less. Nice tea rooms, too. Also on hire for weddings and conferences. HIDCOTE MANOR GARDEN
Hidcote Bartrim, nr Chipping Campden, Glos, GL55 6LR. Zone D. Open Sat-Wed 10am-6pm to Nov and daily from 30 April-2 Sept, Gift Aid admission £10 adult/£5 child/£25 family. Ffi: 01386 438333, www.nationaltrust. org.uk/hidcote • Serious garden fans really rate this place, another of the numerous Arts & Crafts-style attractions
Kilver Court’s very nice gardens.
of the Cotswolds. In this case it was the work of a wealthy American Anglophile, Lawrence Johnston, who owned it in the early 20th century. The gardens are all laid out in different-themed ‘rooms’. Famous also for lots of rare shrubs, trees and plants, and with a busy programme of events through the whole season. Popular plant shop. KELMSCOTT MANOR
Kelmscott, Lechlade, Glos, GL7 3HJ. Zone D. Open Wed & Sat 11am-5pm 4 Apr-31 Oct, also first & third Sat of month during summer – check for details, Gift Aid admission to house & garden £10 adult/£5 age 8-16, student. Ffi: 01367 252486, www.kelmscottmanor.co.uk • Kelmscott is one of the Arts & Crafts movement’s most important shrines. William Morris himself rented the Tudor-built Kelmscott Manor as his summer retreat for 25 years. If you’re a socialist, or are into that pre-Raphaelite thing, or you just like flowery wallpaper, a pilgrimage here is in order. This was where Mozzer and his wife Jane hung out. For quite a while, the couple lived here with Dante Gabriel Rossetti, with whom Jane had a lengthy affair. Morris loved the place, saying it looked as though it had grown organically out of the surrounding countryside, and is buried with his wife and two of his children in the grounds of the village church. The house features a lot of his stuff, and paintings and artworks from others in their circle. KILVER COURT GARDENS
Kilver Street, Shepton Mallet, Somerset, BA4 5NF. Zone B. Open daily 10am-5pm (4pm in winter), admission £5 adult/£4.50 conc/£2.50 child. Ffi: 01749 340410 www. kilvercourt.com • Very nice garden indeed, originally created in the 19th century as a recreational space for his factory workers. The site was later owned by the Showering family of Babycham and cider fame (the factory is just across the road). Restored in recent years, the gardens are very nicely offset by the massive railway arches running along the edge. The gardens are attached to a small shopping centre including a Mulberry outlet and local crafts and food shops.
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HOUSES, GARDENS & CASTLES LACOCK ABBEY & FOX TALBOT MUSEUM
Lacock, nr Chippenham, Wilts, SN15 2LG. Zone B. Museum, abbey, cloisters & grounds open daily 10.30am-5.30pm (11am-4pm in winter), Gift Aid admission to everything £11.80 adult/£5.90 child/£30.10 family. Ffi: 01249 730227, www.nationaltrust.org.uk/lacock • Not a religious building (any more), but a country house. The abbey – it was actually a nunnery – was snapped up for a song by a detestable chancer named William Sharington following the dissolution of the monasteries. Lacock was later acquired by the Fox Talbot family, and it was here, in the 1830s, that William Henry Fox Talbot carried out some of the earliest experiments in photography and took the first photograph in England. And actually, like, invented photography (no matter what the French might tell you). The house has bags of character – atmospheric cloisters and medieval rooms. If the children complain, tell ’em that some ‘Harry Potter’ scenes were filmed here. The nearby museum is excellent, and commemorates Fox Talbot’s work and traces the development of photography. The abbey features some pleasant Victorian wooded gardens. The village, handed over whole to the National Trust in 1944, is to-die-for lovely and the star of numerous TV and film costume dramas. The place gets popular at the height of the season and is overrun by coachloads of pensioners and schoolkids and carloads of people, who also cram the village’s four excellent eating/drinking places (we particularly recommend The Sign of the Angel). If you’ve never been here, you must, but do it on a rainy Monday morning in term-time if you want to see anything other than rubbernecking grockles and middle-aged men with very large cameras. LODGE PARK & SHERBORNE ESTATE
Sherborne, nr Cheltenham, Glos, GL54 3PP. Zone C. Grandstand & deer park open Fri-Sun only 11am-4pm to 4 Nov, estate open at all times, Gift Aid admission to grandstand £5.50 adult/£3 child/£14 family, admission to estate free. Ffi: 01451 844130, www.nationaltrust.org. uk/lodgepark • Meet one of the more bizarre aristocratic footnotes in British history, John ‘Crump’ Dutton. Crump was a hunchback, aesthete, sportsman and inveterate gambler who in 1634 decided to build a grandstand on his estate, where he and his pals would make bets on deer-coursing – deer pursued by dogs, usually greyhounds. The seventh Lord Sherborne left the estate to the National Trust in 1983, and in recent years they’ve restored the grandstand. It’s well worth a visit – the park was designed by Charles Bridgeman in the 1720s, and the wider estate (about 4,000 acres of it) offers a range of walks, a sculpture trail and views and rare wildlife habitats. The village of Sherborne is also owned by the Trust. LYTES CARY MANOR
Charlton Mackrell, nr Somerton, Somerset, TA11 7HU. Zone C. Open Fri-Wed to 4 Nov 10am-4pm, Gift Aid admission £8.50 adult/£4.50 child/£21.50 family. Ffi: 01458 224471, www.nationaltrust.org.uk/lytescary • Well worth the trip for anyone interested in matters horticultural and, particularly, herbal. It’s also in the middle of some of that lush, wealthy south Somerset
countryside where old houses and the very landscape itself speak of centuries of back-breaking work. The house (14th-century chapel, 15th-century Great Hall, 16th-century other bits) has bags of character, and it’s all restored in appropriate style. The gardens are very formal, with topiary hedges, statues, hidden paths and borders. The rest of the estate offers some pleasant walks and features old plants that were once common on English farmland before the advent of intensive agriculture. MONTACUTE HOUSE
Montacute, Somerset, TA15 6XP. Zone D. Open daily (except Tue) to 4 Nov 10am-4pm, Gift Aid admission £11 adult/£5.50 child/£27.50 family. Ffi: 01935 823289, www.nationaltrust.org.uk/montacutehouse • One of the National Trust’s star attractions in the West Country, this magnificent house was built by Sir Edward Phelips in the late 16th century and is a masterpiece of the Elizabethan renaissance style. It’s been used in lots of movies, including, among many others, ‘The Libertine’ with Johnny Depp and Jane Bronte’s ‘Sense and Prejudice III: This Time It’s Blander’, starring Keira Knightley (guess which one of those we just made up?). Montacute’s most famous interior bit is the Long Gallery, which features over 50 famous paintings of Tudor and Stuart monarchs and big shots from that era on loan from the National Gallery. The Days Out Guide, being an insufferable smartarse and history spod, once humiliated the Days Out Family by telling them (in a loud) voice about the sex lives of the Tudor and Stuart aristos in the pictures (most of them were gay, you know) and inadvertently gathering a following of several visitors who thought it was a guided Sexy Tour. This is proper big history – you’ll recognise many of these characters from your school books. The other big history here is that George Nathaniel Curzon, Marquess Curzon, lived here from 1915 to 1925. Curzon is one of the most imposing alpha males of British history and he was living here when he found out that Stanley Baldwin was to be Prime Minister – a job Curzon thought he had in the bag. There’s also a magnificent tapestry collection, massive formal gardens and historic parkland. It’s actually a bit of a grind to get here, especially if you’re travelling from Bristol, but the pay-off is some beautiful countryside and some very romantic villages. Regular living history events and local produce and craft markets over the summer. A must. NEWARK PARK
Ozleworth, Wotton-under-Edge, Glos, GL12 7PZ. Zone C. Open Wed, Thur, Sat & Sun to 28 Oct, Gift Aid admission £6.90 adult/£3.60 child/£17.40 family. Ffi: 01453 842644, www.nationaltrust.org.uk/newarkpark • Bit of a secret, this place. It’s a (mostly) Georgian manor house (though with older bits from the original Tudor hunting lodge) with a few interesting items and artworks. One of the biggest bonuses, though, is the fantastic Cotswoldly views you get from the top windows. Interesting gardens, though the main horticultural selling point is its snowdrop displays in February. A good place to visit if you want to avoid crowds. Also good jumping-off point for countryside and Cotswold Way walks.
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HOUSES, GARDENS & CASTLES PAINSWICK ROCOCO GARDEN
Painswick, nr Stroud, Glos, GL6 6TH. Zone C. Open daily 11am-5pm to 31 Oct, Gift Aid admission £7.15 adult/£6.05 over-60s/£3.30 ages 5-16/£18.70 family. Ffi: 01452 813204, www.rococogarden.co.uk • Large rambling garden, originally laid out in the 18th-century rococo style and now restored to its original glories. Lots of architectural oddities and surprises, though if you have kids in tow, the star of the show will probably be the maze. The place has a wonderful feel of peace and quiet to it. Stages a few events through the summer, of which the biggest is a garden art exhibition in August (see www. artinthegarden.org.uk). If you visit, don’t miss the nearby Painswick village and the bizarre, ornate graveyard. THE PETO GARDEN
Iford Manor, Bradford on Avon, Wilts, BA15 2BA. Zone B. Open from April-Sept daily except Mon & Fri (but does open BHMs) 2-5pm, Sun only in Oct, admission £5 adult/£4.50 senior, student & child over 10/children under 10 admitted free Tue-Thur. Ffi: 01225 863146, www. ifordmanor.co.uk • Now this you have got to see, as it’s one of the most romantic gardens anywhere, ever, laid out in Italian style by Edwardian architect and landscape designer Harold Peto, who lived at Iford Manor from 18991933. (The house isn’t open to the public.) It features lots of pools, terraces, classical sculptures, evergreen planting, magnificent rural views and all sorts of hidden delights to discover. Its homemade cream teas on Sat & Sun over the summer months come highly recommended by the Days Out Guide, though they also14 have more modest teas on weekdays. Note that the gardens are not suitable for unsupervised small children. Also hosts Iford Arts Festival over summer, with a programme of opera, chamber music and jazz events. See www.ifordarts.co.uk PRIOR PARK LANDSCAPE GARDEN
Ralph Allen Drive, Bath, BA2 5AH. Zone A. Open daily to 4 Nov 10am-5.30pm, Sat & Sun only in winter months, Gift Aid admission £6 adult/£3.30 child/£15.30 family. Ffi: 01225 833422, www.nationaltrust.org.uk/priorpark • Wonderful 18th-century landscaped garden, running in unspeakable tranquillity down a small, steep valley to the edge of Bath, with lakes, a grotto and a ‘wilderness’ woodland area with mazy paths. Ornamental features include a Palladian bridge with genuine 18th-century graffiti. A bracing one-mile walk (steep in places) rewards you with panoramic views over Bath. When the National Trust opened the place to the public a few years ago, it had the then rather daring idea of making it completely car-hostile. There is no parking here (except for disabled visitors – phone to arrange), though it’s easily reached by Park & Ride buses, tour buses or the No 2 Bath-Combe Down service. It’s worth visiting in itself, but it also leads onto the wonderful Bath Skyline walk. Also hosts lots of family-friendly events through the summer. RODMARTON MANOR
Nr Cirencester, Glos, GL7 6PF. Zone D. Open 9 Apr 2-5 pm, and then Wed, Sat & BHMs from May-Sept 2-5pm, plus other times for group tours by prior arrangement, house & garden admission £8/£4 ages 5-15. Ffi: 01285
841253, www.rodmarton-manor.co.uk • In the early 20th century, Claud and Margaret Biddulph, a young married couple with tons of cash, moved here and decided not only to build an Arts & Crafts-style manor house, but to promote traditional crafts among the locals as well. The Biddulphs’ idealism even extended as far as holding craft classes for local people (which the Days Out Guide has always thought would make a great script for a BBC Sunday-night costume drama in which the peasantry are patronised and the toffs made to look silly). Joking aside, this is a must-see if you’re into that Arts & Crafts thing, or simply fancy visiting a fascinating house set in a spectacularly intricate garden. SNOWSHILL MANOR
Snowshill, nr Broadway, Glos, WR12 7JU. Zone D. Open Wed-Sun 12noon-5pm from March 31 - 28 Oct, 11.30am4.30pm July & Aug, when house is also open Mon. Gift Aid admission to house by timed ticket due to restrictions on numbers, £9.70 adult/£4.90 child/£24.80 family. Ffi: 01386 852410, www.nationaltrust.org.uk/snowshillmanor • Not really suitable for young children, pushchairs or people with mobility problems… But it’s essential viewing, because it’s less a historic house and more a shrine to a true English eccentric. It was bought in 1919 by Charles Paget Wade, a war veteran and architect who had inherited a sizeable fortune, which he then spent on collecting stuff – clocks, lace, samurai armour and weapons, bicycles and children’s toys. All this is fascinating and poignant enough, but your visit also gets you into the gardens, all terraced and full of ‘rooms’ and absolutely magical. Look out for the spectacular sundial and the gateways bearing Latin and olde worlde mottoes of Wade’s own devising (he also wrote poetry). The restaurant serves organic produce grown on the estate and boasts fantastic views over the Cotswolds. STOURHEAD GARDEN & HOUSE
Stourton, Warminster, Wilts, BA12 6QD. Zone C. Garden open daily 9am-6pm, house open Fri-Tue from 10 March-4 Nov and every day in school holidays, Gift Aid admission to house & garden £13.80 adult/£6.90 child/£32.90 family, King Alfred’s Tower £3.30 adult/£1.70 child/£7.40 family. Ffi: 01747 841152, www.nationaltrust.org.uk/ stourhead • One of Britain’s truly outstanding gardens and the National Trust’s star attraction in this part of the world. The gardens were landscaped in the 18th century, complete with lake… There’s loads to discover, especially among all the odd 18th-century follies dotted around the place in the form of fake classical temples and grottoes. The house is OK, though you’re not missing too much if you’re not into National Trust houses. King Alfred’s Tower on the edge of the estate is, on t’other hand, a must. A marvellous folly, offering views for miles around, it was built on what was thought to be the site of the Battle of Edington, the great showdown between King Alfred and the Danes. In truth, we don’t really know where the battle actually took place, though this is as good a guess as any. Essential visiting, with a huge programme of events through the summer, from fun family stuff through to serious historical intellectual pursuits. When visiting, look out for the replica of Bristol’s old High Cross, which
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HOUSES, GARDENS & CASTLES our idiot city fathers gave away to a former owner of Stourhead. Unfortunately, it’s no secret that this is one of the loveliest places in the world, and even in term-time it tends to be overrun by pensioners. The head gardener informed the Days Out Guide that the smart thing to do is come on a weekday, and make sure you get there the minute it opens. That way you’ll have some of it to yourself for a short while. SUDELEY CASTLE
Winchcombe, nr Cheltenham, Glos, GL54 5JD. Zone D. Open daily from 1 Apr 10.30am-5pm, closed in winter, admission £8.50 adult/£7.50 senior/£5 age 5-15/£24 family. Ffi: 01242 602308, www.sudeleycastle.co.uk • Was once the home of Katherine Parr, last wife of Henry VIII. When the revolting old tyrant died, she married Sir Thomas Seymour, who owned this place. Tragically, Kate’s happiness was short-lived, as she died in childbirth here. There’s little left of the house/castle in which she lived, as it was knocked down in the Civil War and left derelict for 200 years until the Dent family bought the place and built a posh house. The house itself is reasonably interesting, with exhibitions on Henry VIII, old textiles and more, but the gardens are magnificent and have won all manner of awards. There’s also a very good adventure playground, a pheasant and wildfowl area and the usual family events over the summer. Sudeley was probably the model for Blandings Castle in the PG Wodehouse stories and was the subject of a TV documentary a couple of years back about the family members trying to turn its business fortunes round. 16 TYNTESFIELD
Wraxall, N Somerset, BS48 1NT. Zone B. House & chapel open Sat-Wed until 4 Nov 11am-5pm, gardens and estate open daily all year, 10am-6pm (5pm in winter), Gift Aid admission to whole property £13.90 adult/£6.90 child/£34.50 family. Ffi: 0870 458 4500, www. nationaltrust.org.uk/tyntesfield • Built in the 19th century on the proceeds of its owner’s trade in guano (bird poo – it was used as fertiliser), this fabulous Gothic mansion set in hundreds of acres of rolling countryside is now one of the West’s leading heritage attractions. The National Trust held a huge appeal to raise the cash to buy the place from the heirs of the late Lord Wraxall in summer 2002, but it was in a hell of a mess. It is extremely popular, so admission to the house is by timed ticket only and on busy days you might not get in at all, so go on a weekday in term-time. Once you see it, you’ll understand what all the fuss is about: everyone has their own favourite bit, whether it’s the library, the drawing-room, the billiard room (with its Victorian hi-tech gadgets) or the lavish High Anglican chapel. The gardens and grounds are nice for a stroll as well. You can also visit the secondhand bookshop, the walled gardens, garden shop and restaurant, with the tables arranged in the old stables. If you live in Bristol, there’s no excuse as there’s a bus stop right outside the gate. See panel for what’s new this year. WESTBURY COURT GARDEN
Westbury-on-Severn, Glos, GL14 1PD. Zone C. Open Wed-Sun to 28 Oct (also open daily 2 July-2 Sept) &
BHMs 10am-5pm,Gift Aid admission £5.35 adult/£2.60 child/£13.60 family. Ffi: 01452 670461, www. nationaltrust.org.uk/westburycourt • One of the most spectacular gardens in the region – a Dutch-style water garden originally laid out in the early 18th century and now fully restored. Also home to what’s claimed to be the oldest evergreen oak tree in England. Visit midweek during term-time, and you could have this fascinating place pretty much to yourself. WESTONBIRT ARBORETUM
See Animals & Nature listings. WILTON HOUSE
Nr Salisbury, Wilts, SP2 0BJ. Zone D. Open 11.30am4.30pm 5 May-2 Sept (NB house open Sun-Thur, gardens only Fri & Sat), Gift Aid admission to house & gardens (includes gift shop or restaurant discount voucher) £15.50 adult/£12.25 senior, student/£8 ages 5-15/£37 family. Ffi: 01722 746720, www.wiltonhouse. co.uk • Grand mansions that are still in the hands of their original aristocratic families often follow a similar pattern; visitors get to admire the huge stately pile and its architecture, furnishings and paintings, but there’s also plenty of stuff in the grounds to make it fun for all the family. The house is one of those places that’s seen a lot of big history, and it’s got a truly fabulous collection of paintings, plus lots of carvings by Inigo Jones. The landscaped grounds go on forever and there’s a fantastic adventure playground. Look out also for the doll’s houses in the old Riding School. Busy programme of events in the summer, of which the biggest is probably the ‘Supercar Day’ car rally, which is on 5 August in 2012. WOODCHESTER MANSION
Nr Nympsfield, off B4066 Dursley-Stroud road, Glos, GL10 3TS. Zone C. Mansion opening dates vary but include every Sun and some Sats & BHMs Apr-Oct, phone or check website for exact dates, admission £6.50 adult/£5.50 concs/under-14s free. Ffi: 01453 861541, www.woodchestermansion.org.uk • Now this place you absolutely have to see. A Victorian mansion that was never completed. What you see is the hollow shell of a building, waiting for floorboards, plumbing, wallpaper and furniture that’s never going to arrive. Given that it was done in the Gothic style the Victorians loved, and given its spooky appearance at dusk, it’s not surprising that the mansion has a reputation for being haunted. The trust which runs the mansion (and which also uses it to promote traditional stone masonry skills) does cash in on this, running regular ‘Paranormal Nights’ in its programme of events. You’ll also find all manner of strange stories about the place on the wilder shores of the internet. Now if that’s not reason enough to visit, the grounds are vast and spectacular, with ornamental lakes, a hidden garden and acres of way-marked woodland and grassy walks. The grounds are run separately by the National Trust (open 9am-dusk daily all year round, admission free, but there’s a pay and display car park fee).
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ROCKS & RUINS few hundred years back and the site was bought by a bishop in Victorian times for turning into a sort of 19thcentury religious theme park. Because, of course, they thought that the bones were the remains of animals that had perished in the Great Deluge of Noah’s Ark fame. The bish installed fake pagan artefacts (as the nonbelievers had died for their wickedness), a wood and, at the other end of the estate, a tower to the sky. The house and land are privately owned and not often open to the public, but this is an absolute must-see. On open days you can go into the caves, gasp at the thousands of accumulated bones, climb the tower and wander the woods. Give it a go – you’ll love it. Admission on open days is free, but donations towards the upkeep of the site are most welcome. Open days for 2012 include Sun 27 May 10.30am-4.30pm (tea & homemade cakes available), and Sat 8 and Sun 9 Sept 10.30am-4.30pm (lunches & cream teas available). There may be other days too – check website. Chedworth Roman Villa: this is the museum, obviously, not the villa.
AVEBURY STONE CIRCLE
Avebury, nr Marlborough, Wilts, SN8 1RF. Zone D. Open all the time, admission free. Ffi: 01672 539250, www. nationaltrust.org.uk/avebury • On a good day, this is one of the most magical outings in all of England. Avebury is the heart of a huge ancient complex, including some of the most important megalithic monuments in Europe, spread over a large area of land mostly owned by the National Trust. The stone circle, which encompasses part of the village of Avebury, is enclosed by a ditch and bank and approached along an avenue of stones. Nearby are such ancient sites as the West Kennett Long Barrow and the eerie manmade Silbury Hill. Be prepared to walk if you want to get the most out of the site. As there’s not much in the way of trees or shade in the area, don’t do it on a hot sunny day, or a cold windy one: a good one for spring or autumn. Aside from the walking and the communing with the stones, there are added bonuses, too. There are often groups of New Age nuts and assorted bullshit mystics to laugh at, and the village of Avebury itself is very nice. Also in the village is the excellent Alexander Keiller Museum & Barn Gallery (open daily 10am-6pm, 4pm in winter months, Gift Aid admission £4.90 adult/£2.45 child/£13.45 family (2 adults + 3 children)/£8.70 family (1 adult + 3 children), reductions for visitors arriving by public transport or bicycle). This is well worth a visit, telling you everything we know about the history and archaeology of the site and the people who lived there. The other attraction in the village is Avebury Manor, once the home of said Alexander Keiller – see Houses & Gardens section. BANWELL BONE CAVES & TOWER
Banwell, nr Weston-super-Mare, N Somerset, BS29 6NA. Zone B. Should be signposted off A371 to Weston. Ffi: 01934 820516, www.banwellcaves.org • Thousands of years ago, animals round these parts lived, died and decayed, and the bones of many of them were washed into caves here. This wealth of bones was discovered a
CHEDDAR GORGE AND CAVES
Cheddar, Somerset, BS27 3QF. Zone B. Open daily 10.30am-5pm (10am-5.30pm in July & Aug and Easter & Whitsun school hols), Caves & Gorge Explorer ticket for all attractions £18.50 adult/£12 ages 5-15/£48 family, 10% discount if booked online. Ffi: 01934 742343, www. cheddargorge.co.uk • One of Somerset’s leading tourist attractions. You can get into various bits for a lower charge, but if the all-in Explorer ticket seems a bit steep, bear in mind that you do get a full day’s fun and adventure – it gets you into the spectacular Gough’s and Cox’s caves, plus the Crystal Quest fantasy adventure walk (it’s claimed that JRR Tolkien visited in 1916 and used Cheddar Caves as the inspiration for Helm’s Deep in ‘Lord of the Rings’). You also get access to Jacob’s Ladder (a 274-step ascent to the top of the gorge), the cliff-top Gorge Walk AND an open-top bus tour of the Gorge. One of the biggest favourites with visitors is the Museum of Prehistory; Cheddar is the home of Britain’s oldest complete skeleton. He’s 9,000 years old and DNA tests some years back turned up three descendants still living in Cheddar! He died a violent death and there’s plenty of evidence that he and his mates were cannibals, which the exhibition deals with in a suitably gruesome manner. Nowadays, many Cheddar residents regard cannibalism with almost as much distaste as the rest of us. CHEDWORTH ROMAN VILLA
Yanworth, nr Cheltenham, Glos, GL54 3LJ. Zone D. Open Wed-Sun 10am-5pm (4pm in winter), also open BHMs, Gift Aid admission £9.40 adult/£4.70 child/£23.50 family. Ffi: 01242 890256, www.national-trust.org.uk/ chedworth • This is one of those places where, for some visitors, the journey may be more interesting than the destination. The Days Out Guide has always contended that if the Plain People of England spent more time visiting the nation’s more desirable rural locations and seeing exactly how t’other half lives, we’d have a revolution in no time. You take round here for instance; the villa’s in a beautiful wooded valley dotted with posh houses bought with old money or bankers’ bonuses. The site is what remains of a villa from Roman times. Some
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ROCKS & RUINS beautiful mosaics on show, plus some bath and central heating complexes, and everyone’s favourite bit, a pool that’s thought to have once been a shrine to ancient water spirits. Bang in the middle of the site there’s this stupid and completely incongruous pretend-Tudor building that houses a small museum of local Roman finds. It’s a fascinating and well-explained place, though, like all archaeological sites, it demands a huge leap of imagination to try and picture the lives of the people who lived here 1,600 years ago. So unless everyone in your party is of a particularly cerebral bent, it’s worth timing your visit to coincide with one of the many excellent educational and living history events it hosts over the summer. If they’ve got the gladiators again this year, be warned that while they’re very educational, and quite fun, the show’s not as bloodthirsty as you might hope. CLEARWELL CAVES
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Nr Coleford, Forest of Dean, Glos, GL16 8JR. Zone C. Open daily to 4 Nov, 10am-5pm, admission £6 adult/£5.50 senior, student/£4 age 5-16/£19 family (2+2) or £21 (2+3). Ffi: 01594 832535, www.clearwellcaves.com • Absolutely fascinating place in the middle of some lovely Forest of Dean countryside (there’s some excellent walking and mountain biking on the woodland paths hereabouts). Iron ore was mined here from before the time of Christ until the middle of the 20th century and, in fact, small-scale mining for paint pigment still goes on here. Your admission gets you a wander through a huge complex of (well-lit) underground caverns, which dozens of generations have cut out of the rock. Also offers (at additional price) longer guided trips to deeper levels and caving adventures. Plus blacksmith’s shop, pleasant tea room and large outdoor picnic site. If you have smallto medium-sized children, look out for the brilliant Christmas Fantasy displays they do in December. CLEEVE ABBEY
Washford, Somerset, TA23 0PS, just off A39. Zone D. Open daily from 1 Apr-31 Oct 10am-5pm (to 6pm in July & Aug, 4pm Oct), admission £4.20 adult/£3.80 concs/£2.50 ages 5-15 (prices for special events may be slightly higher). Ffi: 01984 640377, www.englishheritage.org.uk/cleeveabbey • Might reward a stop if you’re passing by. Founded as a monastery in the 12th century, it survived ruin in the Reformation and still has one of the finest medieval cloister buildings in England, some very rare medieval wall paintings and lots of lovely hidden corners and things to discover, all in the middle of some undiscovered and peaceful countryside. Dead romantic. CLIFTON OBSERVATORY & CAVES
Clifton Down, nr Suspension Bridge, Bristol, BS8 3LT. Zone A. Open (weather permitting) daily from Easter to end Oct 10.30am-5pm, weekends only in winter, admission cave £1.50 adult/50p child (must be over 4 yrs), camera obscura £2 adult/£1 child. Ffi: 0117 974 1242. • In that funny-looking building with a tower overlooking the Avon Gorge, there’s a camera obscura, which is great fun if you’ve never played with one
before – a miracle of primitive science that enables you to spy on people for miles around and makes you feel all voyeuristic. Best done on a bright, sunny day. For a separate fee, you can go down into St Vincent’s Cave, sometimes also known as the Giant’s Cave, and onto that yellow-railinged viewing platform in the side of the Avon Gorge, 250 feet above the valley floor. In legend, this used to be the hang-out of ancient Christian hermits, and there was a chapel on the site, carved into the rock itself, but that has long since fallen away. Note that observatory and caves close in very wet weather. Definitely worth dropping in next time you’re showing your weekend guests the Suspension Bridge. FARLEIGH HUNGERFORD CASTLE
Farleigh Hungerford, nr Frome, Somerset, BA2 7RS. Zone B. Open daily from 1 Apr-30 Sept 10am-5pm (to 6pm July & Aug, 4pm Oct), 10am-4pm 1 Oct-4 Nov, open Sat & Sun only from 5 Nov-28 Mar 10am-4pm, admission £4 adult/£3.60 concs/£2.40 ages 5-16 (prices for special events may be slightly higher). Ffi: 01225 754026, www. english-heritage.org.uk/farleighhungerford • One of the Days Out Guide’s favourite ruins in all the world. The castle was built by Sir Thomas Hungerford in the 14th century, and down the years it was the site of some fabulously gruesome goings-on (murders, poisonings, involuntary cremations – it’s all in the audio-guide you get when visiting). Most of the castle is now in ruins, although the chapel is still there, complete with some very precious medieval wall-paintings. And in the crypt, there are some mysterious and sinister lead coffins. This is England’s equivalent of Čachtice Castle, and if it were set atop a crag on windswept moors or the Carpathian Mountains, it’d have a world-wide reputation as one of the most accursed ruins in the world. But it’s in the beautiful, fertile green countryside of the Frome Valley, so actually it looks rather twee. Very family-friendly place, too, with regular living history events over the summer. GLASTONBURY ABBEY
Glastonbury, Somerset, BA6 4EL. Zone C. Open daily 9am6pm March-May, 9am-9pm June-Aug, 9am-5pm SeptNov, 9am-4pm Dec-Feb, admission £6 adult/£5 senior & student/£4 age 5-15/£16 family. Ffi: 01458 832267, www.glastonburyabbey.com • Glastonbury, with all his historic, religious and legendary overlays, is a day out all of its own, but the Abbey is the true heart of the place. Nowadays, most people tend to think of Glastonbury as a hippy mecca, but you have to remind yourself that it’s been a major Christian centre for a whole lot longer – and it still is. The legends surrounding Glastonbury’s Christian past have the advantage of at least being partly rooted in fact. This is where Joseph of Arimathea supposedly founded English Christianity, planting his staff in the ground to flower as the Holy Thorn each Christmas. Along the way it became the burial place of three Saxon kings, and in 1191 the monks found the remains of what they said were King Arthur and Guinevere and, partly because of that, it became one of the wealthiest and most powerful religious houses in Europe, and a major place of pilgrimage until Henry VIII took it all for himself and it fell
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ROCKS & RUINS café (though there are a couple of excellent-looking pubs in the village nearby), nice views, lovely woodland setting, good shop as well. HAILES ABBEY
Clifton Observatory. Essential part of your Sunday afternoon stroll to the Suspension Bridge.
to ruin. For lovers of mystery and weirdness, Glastonbury Abbey is probably one of the top 10 sites in the whole of England. The museum next to the ruins does a good job of telling you both the history and the legend. Do the museum before you actually wander around the site to get a proper feel for the place. Notice how it now opens quite late on summer evenings, so there should be a bit of added atmosphere then. From 5 April to 16 Sept this year it’ll also feature a new exhibition looking at the archaeological finds from 20th-century excavations of the site. See website for details of the many living history and other events taking place there through the summer. GOODRICH CASTLE
Herefordshire, 5m south of Ross-on-Wye off A40, HR9 6HY. Zone D. Open daily 10am-5pm (closes 6pm in July & Aug), shorter hours and fewer days in winter, admission £5.80 adult/£5.20 conc/£3.50 child/£15.10 family. Ffi: 01600 890538, www.english-heritage.org.uk/goodrich • Here’s a plan; set off to get to this place, but don’t complain too much if you don’t make it as you’ll have been waylaid along the way by something up the lovely Wye Valley (maybe Tintern or Symonds Yat). If you do make it this far, it’s quite an interesting old ruin. It was built by some bloke named Godric (hence ‘Goodrich’), it had a big square Norman keep added by Richard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke, better known as Strongbow. Most of what’s left though was built by Henry III’s halfbrother William de Valence, who, along with Mrs de Valence, niced it up on the inside so it was comfy to live in as well as being easily defended against invading Welshmen. Its interest is less on the military side and more for the living quarters and a rather haunting chapel. Obviously you have to use a bit of imagination with most of it, but there are interpretation boards and your admission charge gets you an audio-guide. On the military side, it was fought over during the Civil War and one of its prize exhibits now is ‘Roaring Meg’ – a mortar with which the Roundheads captured the place. Nice
Winchcombe, nr Cheltenham, Glos, GL54 5PB. Zone D. Open daily from 1 Apr-4 Nov 10am-5pm (to 6pm in July & Aug, 4pm Oct), admission £4.30 adult/£3.90 concs/£2.60 ages 5-16 (prices for special events may be slightly higher). Ffi: 01242 602398, www.english-heritage. org.uk/hailesabbey • Tucked away in some very lovely wooded Cotswold countryside, ruins of an abbey and monastery founded by the famously ascetic Cistercian order in 1246 and closed down in 1539. All very quiet now, but in its day it was a hugely popular attraction on the pilgrimage trail as the monks had a vial that was said to contain a small amount of the blood of Christ. Visit the ruins, do the audio-tour and look through the museum. Hosts the occasional living history event, so if you’re going this way, phone or see website to see if there’s anything on. Wonder whatever happened to the holy blood? KINGS WESTON ROMAN VILLA
Long Cross, Lawrence Weston, Bristol, BS11 0LP. Ffi:: 0117 903 9818, www.bristol.gov.uk/museums • The foundations of what was once a prosperous family’s home during the times of the Roman occupation of Britain, now mostly housed in a couple of sheds protecting the remains of its central heating system, baths and mosaic 9 floors. It’s situated rather incongruously in a little fenced-off area in the middle of a vast housing estate and isn’t normally open to the public. To visit it, you either need to collect a key from Blaise Castle House Museum or Bristol City Museum & Art Gallery (£5 deposit payable) or watch out for the occasional open days/nights and guided tours. These are very good, and you’ll probably learn more than just poking around the place for yourself unless you’re well up on this Roman stuff. MUCHELNEY ABBEY
Muchelney, nr Langport, Somerset, TA10 0DQ2. Zone C. Open daily from 1 April-4 Nov 10am-5pm (to 6pm in July & Aug, 4pm Oct), admission £4.20 adult/£3.80 concs/£2.50 ages 5-16 (prices for special events may be slightly higher). Ffi: 01458 250664, www.english-heritage. org.uk/muchelneyabbey • The remains of an ancient Benedictine abbey, hidden away on the Somerset Levels. Perhaps not worth the visit on its own, but well worth stopping at if you’re in the area, and the remoter, flatter bits of the Somerset Levels are fascinating for their eerie atmosphere. There are cloisters and church ruins from the Middle Ages, while the abbey hosts occasional living history events and entertainment over the summer. NUNNEY CASTLE
Nunney, Somerset, BA11 4LW. Zone B. Open all the time, admission free. Ffi: www.english-heritage.org.uk/ nunneycastle • If you’re passing anywhere near this place, make a detour to visit it, as it’s magical. In the middle of this very, very posh village are the remains of a
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ROCKS & RUINS small castle that looks exactly how castles are supposed to look – four big towers joined by high, flat curtain walls, and the whole lot surrounded by a moat. It was built in the 14th century by Sir John de la Mere, a local thug who’d made a pile from murdering and robbing the King’s Enemies (the French). Castle experts say that it looks very French in style, so obvs Sir John got nostalgic in his old age. Holds a record for longest-delayed reaction to gunfire; it was bombarded with cannon-balls in 1645, but the damaged bit of the wall didn’t fall down ’til 1910. OLD SARUM
Two miles N of Salisbury on A345, Wilts, SP1 3SD. Zone D. Open daily from 1 Apr-30 Sept 10am-5pm (9am-6pm in July & Aug), shorter hours in winter, admission £3.80 adult/£3.40 senior & student/£2.30 ages 5-16 (prices for special events may be slightly higher). Ffi: 01722 335398, www.english-heritage.org.uk/oldsarum • An immense and imposing ancient earthwork crammed with Big History, and it actually used to be Salisbury, until they moved Salisbury down the road. In ancient times it was a fortress, and there have been people living here since the Neolithic age. It’s been an Iron Age hill fort, Roman fort, and was a Saxon strongpoint where people took refuge from raiding Vikings. Later on it was the site of one of the largest and richest monasteries in England (and the Domesday Book was written here), but fell into decline after the local bishop decided to move Salisbury to where it is today. By the early 19th century it was notorious 10 to parliamentary reformers as a “rotten borough” – a place that elected an MP to parliament, even though no one actually, like, lived there. Anyway, English Heritage look after the site now and, though it tends not to be as well-known as certain other ancient sites in Wilts, it’s great just for the frisson of all that ancient Englishness. Though of course most people can’t get the frisson, which is how come English Heritage sweat the place to pay for its keep with excellent guided tours and occasional living history events and battle re-creations through the season. OLD WARDOUR CASTLE
Nr Tisbury, Wilts, SP3 6RR. Zone D. Open daily from 1 Apr-30 Sept 10am-5pm (to 6pm July & Aug, to 4pm Oct) and Sat & Sun only from Nov-Mar 10am-4pm, admission £4 adult/£3.60 senior & student/£2.40 ages 5-16 (prices for special events may be slightly higher). Ffi: 01747 870487, www.english-heritage.org.uk/oldwardour • In its time this was one of the most desirable addresses in all of England. A romantic, French-style fantasy set atop a hill in some pleasant countryside, and built in the Middle Ages, not just as a fortress but as a luxury home as well. Visit for the atmosphere and the excellent audiotour. It also hosts occasional living history displays and re-enactments over the summer, so it might be worth timing your visit to coincide with one of these. Some of ‘Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves’ (the one with Kevin Costner being upstaged by Alan Rickman) was filmed here, you know. It’s available for private functions and licensed for civil ceremonies as well.
Still waiting for the French to invade. Brean Down fort.
IT’S THE FORT THAT COUNTS ● Brean Down is one of the most fascinating places Round These Parts and has been owned and run by the National Trust for a few years now, after a relieved Sedgemoor District Council, terrified of potential law suits, got shot of it. In the last year or so the Trust has been getting its act together over the presentation of the place, and last year took over the running of the cafe at the bottom. Sticking into the sea from the long, sandy Brean beach, and just to the south of Weston-super-Mare, Brean Down is a big lump of rock, which makes for a bracing walk most of the time, though you’re on top of a big cliff, so small children and dogs should be kept on a tight leash. It’s also a bit of a schlep to get to the top (choose from steps or a path), so it’s a no-no for anyone with mobility problems. For everyone else, the reward for the walk up to the top and then to the end is a fascinating bit of military history. The ruined fort here was originally built in the mid-19th century during a long forgotten invasion scare. Like a lot of other so-called ‘Palmerston Forts’, it enjoyed a new lease of life in the Second World War, both as a coastal defence battery and also as a top secret research facility where the boffins mucked around with fiendish new weapons, including bouncing bombs. All this is explained on the panels when you get there. You also get wildlife, spectacular views and the odd remains from far older times. There was a temple here in Roman times, you know. Back down at the bottom there’s a couple of caffs, and a small Tropical Bird Garden, the latter privately owned and open daily during the season. Brean Down is open all year, no admission fee. Ffi: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/brean-down/
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N
o.1 Royal Crescent is a magnificently restored Georgian town house that creates a wonderfully vital picture of life in Georgian Bath. The first house to be built in the Crescent, it originally provided luxury accommodation for aristocratic visitors who came to take the waters and enjoy the social season. • Dining room • Gentleman’s Study • Drawing Room • Lady’s bedchamber • Bustling Georgian kitchen • Shop • Group tours by arrangement
For more information email no1museum@bptrust.org.uk or visit www.bath-preservation-trust.co.uk No.1 Royal Crescent, Bath BA1 2LR
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ROCKS & RUINS
Tintern Abbey inspired William Wordsworth, you know.
ROMAN BATHS & PUMP ROOM
See Museums, Galleries & Exhibitions STONEHENGE
Stonehenge, nr Amesbury, Wilts, SP4 7DE. Zone D. Open daily 9.30am-6pm (9am-7pm June-Aug), shorter hours in winter, admission £7.80 adult/£7 student & senior/£4.70 age 5-16/£20.30 family. Ffi: 01980 624715, www.englishheritage.org.uk/stonehenge • Yeah, well, OK, so it’s one of the most important ancient sites in the world, and nowadays the only place in the UK outside London where you’ll hear so many different languages being spoken in such a small area (lots of foreign tour coaches go straight to the Roman Baths from here). The stones were erected between 4,000-5,000 years ago, at massive effort by our ancestors, for reasons that our finest academic minds can still only make educated guesses about. Thankfully, some of our least fine minds can offer absolute certainty that it was the work of ‘druids’ (it so bloody wasn’t, you know) or space aliens. Anyway, the visitor experience is considerably less-than-fabulous. There’s the traffic rumbling past on a bloody great dual carriageway a few yards away (you have to go through an underpass beneath same to get from the car park and box office to the henge) and don’t bank on being able to commune with your ancestors as the stones are fenced off and, of course, there’s usually hordes of visitors. On the plus side, there’s a branch of Pieminister, the audio tour and bookshop are very good and the National Trust owns miles and miles of the rolling plains hereabouts so you can go for long walks and see some of the lesser ancient sites in the vicinity. Frankly, though, Avebury (see above) is altogether more pleasant and in many ways a more interesting and complex complex. TINTERN ABBEY
Tintern, Monmouthshire, NP16 6SE. Zone C. Open daily 9.30am-5pm (9.30am-4pm Mon-Sat in winter),
admission £3.80 adult/£3.40 child, concs/£11 family. Ffi: 01291 689251, tinyurl.com/7bj7xd9 • Quite famous ruin this, of an abbey founded in the 12th century, the first Cistercian house in Wales and only the second in Britain. The Cistercians were famously ascetic, setting up shop in only the most inhospitable places, but the abbey grew in wealth and power over the next 400 years before the monks were turned out during the dissolution of the monasteries in 1536. What remains is still pretty impressive, inspiring a painting by Turner and, in 1798, a famous poem by Wordsworth. An easy outing from Bristol, and the village of Tintern itself is worth a wander around. WOOKEY HOLE CAVES & PAPER MILL
Wookey, nr Wells, Somerset, BA5 1BB. Zone B. Open daily 10am-5pm (last tour), last tour 4pm in winter, admission £16 adult/£11 concs, age 3-14/£49 family (2 adults + 2 children). Ffi: 01749 672243, www.wookey.co.uk • As with its neighbour down the road in Cheddar, this might seem expensive, but you do get your money’s worth if you set aside most or all of the day for your visit. You get a guided tour of the caves, which are pretty spectacular and have been a site of human habitation and activity since the days when the locals would catch their dinner by persuading the odd mammoth to run off a cliff. Then you get to see the papermill and see how paper is made – they’ve been doing it here for 400 years. There’s also a museum of the caves, a magical mirror maze, the Fairy Garden and the Dinosaur Valley, which comes complete with life-size dinosaurs. There’s also circus shows during holidays (check site for times), light shows in the caves and loads more. The Days Out Guide’s very, very favourite bit remains the Penny Arcade, where you buy old predecimal pennies to feed into ancient arcade machines. Wookey Hole is run by Gerry Cottle of circus fame. With all the Cottles’ flair for old-school showmanship, there’s often something new and amusing. Great fun.
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ANIMALS & NATURE Ffi: 01452 812727, www.thebirdpark.co.uk • An interesting little corner of the world that can easily consume the best part of a day. The bird and deer park has loads of peacocks, waterfowl and more exotic birds in tropical aviaries. Also a few deer and dead-cute miniature goats, fishponds and a dinky Tudor-style Wendy house. This is only a small part of what was once a huge and powerful monastic estate until Henry VIII came along and broke it up. The wider estate is once again a religious community, run by Benedictine monks, and you can wander around its extensive grounds and visit the abbey gift shop. For more on the abbey see www.prinknashabbey.org.uk
PIC: BOB PITCHFORD
BIRDLAND PARK AND GARDENS
Bristol Zoo creatures. Everyone loves meerkats.
ANIMAL FARM ADVENTURE PARK
Red Rd, Berrow, Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, TA8 2RW. Zone C. Open daily 9am-6.30pm (10am-5pm in winter), admission £7 adult/£6.50 child/£6 senior/£26 family of 4 (slightly more for bigger families)/under-2s free). Ffi: 01278 751628, www.animal-farm.co.uk • Big unpretentious place which gets a lot of trade when this stretch of the north Somerset coast gets completely covered in caravans. There’s a big park with farm animals, a petting zoo, a vast outdoor adventure playground, nature trail, indoor play barn, some awesome slides and more. Also themed fundays. AVON VALLEY ADVENTURE AND WILDLIFE PARK
Pixash Lane, Bath Rd, Keynsham, BS31 1TP. Zone A. Signposted off Bristol-Bath A4, open daily to 4 Nov 10am6pm, admission £8/£7.50 ages 2-16/under-2s free. Ffi: 0117 986 4929, www.avonvalleycountrypark.com • Riverbased park with terrific play and climbing areas, assault course, fairly scary drop slide, trampolines and lots of animals – donkeys, goats, llamas, cattle, sheep etc as well as falconry displays. A good prospect if you have children in need of burning off that excess energy, but if you’re on a budget, beware of additional costs for things like miniature train rides and sessions on the mini quad-bikes and ‘Dizzy Ducks’ THE BIRD AND DEER PARK, PRINKNASH
Cranham, Glos, GL4 8EX. Zone C. Open daily 10am-5pm (4pm winter), admission £6.80 adult/£6 senior/£4.70 child.
Rissington Rd, Bourton-on-the-Water, Glos, GL54 2BN. Zone D. Open daily Apr-Oct 10am-6pm (Nov-Mar 10am-4pm), admission £7.25 adult/£6.25 senior/£5 age 3-15/£23 2 adults + 2 children. Ffi: 01451 820480, www. birdland.co.uk • One of the major attractions in Bourton. It was once a trout farm and poplar tree plantation but is now home to hundreds of birds, including flamingos, pelicans, cranes, storks, penguins (the only king penguins in England), toucans (very popular) and waterfowl. There are also aviaries with parrots, falcons, pheasants and lots more, plus indoor tropical and desert houses. The latest addition is Marshmouth Reserve, a new marshy area where there are otters. Meanwhile, the penguins are fed at 2.30pm daily. Phone or check website for bird of prey encounter days. Dogs welcome as long as they’re kept on leads. BRISTOL AQUARIUM
Anchor Rd, Harbourside, Bristol, BS1 5TT. Zone A. Open daily from 10am (closing time varies seasonally - check website for latest details), admission £12.50 adult/£11.50 concessions/£8.75 child/£38.50 family (2+2). Ffi: 0117 929 8929, www.bristolaquarium.co.uk • The thing about aquaria is that they’re never especially cheap to get into, but take it from the Days Out Guide (which is a connoisseur of these places) that Bristol’s offers pretty good value. There’s a very impressive array of native and tropical marine and freshwater critters on show in a series of different naturally themed habitats. These range from UK waters to a coral sea and (our special favourite) the Amazon, and lots more. There’s everything from octopi (they have a Giant Pacific Octopus called Velcro!), seahorses and puffer fish to living corals and tropical sharks, cuttlefish, stingrays, jellyfish and more. FWIW, the Days Out Guide’s very favourite fish is the aquarium’s arowana, a spectacularly ugly creature from South America whose behaviour is, say the staff, as evil as its looks. You can get up close to the critters via an underwater walk-through tunnel and from inside bubblehelmet viewing points. Look out for talks, feeding times etc. BRISTOL ZOO GARDENS
Clifton, Bristol, BS8 3HA. Zone A. Open daily 9am-5.30pm (5pm in winter), admission £14.50 adult/£8.75 age 3-14/£12.50 senior, NUS/ISIC card/£42 family (2 adult + 2 child)/£6.75 disabled child. Note that all prices include 10% voluntary Gift Aid surcharge which you
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ANIMALS & NATURE do not have to pay if you do not wish to, 10% discount if you book in advance online. Note that there’s also a car-parking charge of £3 per vehicle. Ffi: 0117 974 7300, www.bristolzoo.org.uk • Easily one of the best days out in the west of England, Bristol Zoo has loads to see and marvel at. In 12 acres of very pleasant gardens you’ll find over 400 species, many exotic or endangered, and the place effortlessly mixes fun with education and several conservation and breeding programmes. Highlights? You decide. There’s a family of gorillas, including new gorilla baby, Kukeña. There’s the tropical Butterfly Forest, the impressive Seal and Penguin Coast. Other big favourites with visitors include the Monkey Jungle, reptile house, Asiatic lions, Bug World, Twilight World, and the Aquarium. Obviously there’s also lots aimed at children, such as Explorers’ Creek with its water play area, and bird forest where you can also (for a small extra charge) feed nectar to the wonderfully colourful lorikeets. Plus there’s a sort of adventure playground where you can have a go on the aerial ropes course, ZooRopia, and swing alongside the gibbons and gorillas and zip down the zip wire (restrictions and charges apply here, mind). There are daily animal shows and talks, a popular Zoolympics trail and over the summer there’s a big programme of music and theatre events. If you have small or medium-sized children you might want to check out their annual membership schemes for repeat visits – see website.
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CHOLDERTON CHARLIE’S RARE BREEDS FARM
Amesbury Rd, Cholderton, Wilts, SP4 0EW. Zone D. Open daily 10am-6pm from 1 Apr, admission £6.50 adult/£4.95 senior/£5.50 age 2-16/£22 family. Ffi: 01980 629594, www. choldertoncharliesfarm.com • Former dairy farm, now with lots of rare breed farm animals and lots of rabbits, guinea pigs etc. Many of the animals can be fed (though you buy food separately). Lots of talks, demonstrations and fun stuff every day in the season. Good play area and awesome sand pit, too. Close to Stonehenge, and also has a Youth Hostel AND a field of tipis that sleep up to six if you fancy staying the night. COTSWOLD FARM PARK
Guiting Power, nr Stow on the Wold, Cheltenham, Glos, GL54 5UG (NB Beware using SatNav systems to travel here as they may direct you through a deep ford; follow brown and white tourist signposts instead). Zone D. Open daily 17 Mar-4 Nov 10.30am-5pm, closed in winter, admission £7.95 adult/£7.50 senior/£6.50 under-16/£26 family. Ffi: 01451 850307, www.cotswoldfarmpark.co.uk • There’s a lot of places out there that promise kid-friendly farm encounters, but this is one of the originals (started in the 1970s) and one of the best. It profile has also been raised in recent years after owner Adam Henson became a TV celebrity (he’s a BBC Countryfile presenter). The park is big, with loads of rare breeds, including sheep, cattle, pigs, goats, horses, poultry and waterfowl. There’s also a big play barn, the Touch Barn (petting zoo), farm safari rides, maze, adventure playground, a giant pillow kinda like a bouncy castle, battery-powered tractors for kids to ride on and a regular programme of seasonal demonstrations each day.
Horseworld: a firm family favourite.
COTSWOLD WILDLIFE PARK
Burford, Oxon, OX18 4JP. Zone D. Open daily from 10am, last admission 4.30pm Apr-Oct, 3.30pm Nov-Mar, admission £13 adult/£9 senior, ages 3-16. Ffi: 01993 825728, www.cotswoldwildlifepark.co.uk • Large and very popular family attraction that’s home to a wide and impressive variety of birds and animals, many of them endangered, including Asiatic lions and Amur leopards and much more, including a special section dedicated to animals from Madagascar. Aside from animals, the place boasts hugely impressive gardens and parkland, including a water garden. It’s set in the grounds of an early 19thcentury manor house, parts of which are open to the public. It’s also one of the few wildlife parks where dogs are allowed in most (but not all) of the areas, provided they’re kept on leads. COURT FARM COUNTRY PARK
Wolvershill Rd, Banwell, nr Weston-super-Mare, BS29 6DL Zone C. Open daily Mar-Oct 10am-5.30pm, shorter hours in winter, admission £6.95 adult/£6.25 senior/£5.50 child/£23 family/under-3s free. Ffi: 01934 822383, www.courtfarmcountrypark.co.uk • Very child-friendly place with all sorts of farm animals and pets as well as tractor-pulled safaris, daily demonstrations, notably bottle feeding of baby animals and the “milking show” in which you see how the cows are milked. Also adventure playground, indoor play barns and, during the school summer holidays, a maize maze. Good weekday option for the hard-pressed parent during the hols to get the young ‘uns to burn off some energy. CITY FARMS
See Fun for Free section, page 62. FARRINGTON’S
Home Farm, Main St, Farrington Gurney, Bristol, BS39 6UB. Zone A. Open Mon-Sat 8am-7pm, Sun 9am-5pm. Ffi: 01761 452266, farringtons.co.uk • Named the UK Farm Retailer of The Year 2011 in the Countryside Alliance awards,
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ANIMALS & NATURE Farrington’s farm shop is already renowned for its high quality produce and its popular café and Udder Room eatery (with demonstration kitchen). In May, though, Farrington’s is launching a new and exciting venture: a farm park and play trail, where families can see farm animals, play in farmthemed areas and explore the activities on the trail. FERNE ANIMAL SANCTUARY
Chard, Somerset, TA20 3DH. Zone C. Open daily 9am-5pm, admission free. Ffi: 01460 65214, www. ferneanimalsanctuary.org • One of the oldest animal sanctuaries in the region, with hundreds of residents – guinea pigs, tortoises, ferrets, ducks, hens, geese, goats, pigs, sheep, donkeys etc. Families welcome. The sanctuary, which is set in 50 acres of rather pleasant countryside, is mostly wheelchair-friendly and there are picnic tables and a nature trail. Admission is free, but obviously they hope you’ll put some money in the collecting tin or give an animal a good home. HOLLY HEDGE ANIMAL SANCTUARY
Wild Country Lane, Barrow Gurney, nr Bristol, BS48 3SE. Zone B. Open daily 11am-4pm (until 2pm Tue), admission free. Ffi: 01275 474719, www.hollyhedge.org.uk • Animal sanctuary, mostly with cats and dogs and the occasional rabbit. Drop by and they’ll appreciate a donation or, better still, offer one of the animals a good home. HORSEWORLD
Staunton Lane, Whitchurch, Bristol, BS14 0QL. Zone A. Open daily 1 Mar-31 Oct 10am-5pm (10am-4pm Wed-Sun from 1 Nov-28 Feb), admission £7.95 adult/£6.95 senior and concs/£5.95 age 3-15/£24.95 family. Discounts for B&NES Discovery Card holders, annual family memberships with free repeat visits start at £22.50. Ffi: 01275 540173, www.horseworld.org.uk • A firm local favourite, especially with family visitors and younger children. This is no mere horsy theme park – it’s run by a registered charity which looks after horses, ponies and donkeys that have been mistreated or neglected, and which has put together an excellent visitor centre in order to raise funds. You can get up close to the animals, and there’s an indoor play barn and outdoor adventure playground, picnic area, café, interactive museum and daily demonstrations. Lots of special events all year round – see website. LONGLEAT
Nr Warminster, Wilts, BA12 7NW. Zone C • See Theme Parks section. NOAH’S ARK ZOO FARM
Failand Rd, Wraxall, nr Bristol, BS48 1PG. Zone B. Open Mon-Sat until 10 Nov 10.30am-5pm, closed Sun, admission £12.50 adult/£11.50 concs/£9.50 ages 2-16/£38 family (1 adult + 3 children)/£40 family (2 adults + 2 children). Ffi: 01275 852606, www.noahsarkzoofarm.co.uk • About 100 acres of farmland in pleasant North Somerset countryside with all the usual petting zoo favourites, plus a growing array of bigger and more exotic animals, including deer, rhinos, camels, alpacas, giraffes, reptiles, birds and lions. The place also has hugely ambitious plans for a new state-of-the-art elephant enclosure. There are
big indoor and outdoor play areas, daily animal shows, keeper talks and more. Some visitors may care to note that this place is hugely controversial; animal rights campaigners don’t like it (it’s a long story, and, to be fair, animal rights campaigners don’t like most places where creatures are kept in captivity). Equally contentious, if not more so, is the overt promotion of creationism by the attraction’s Christian owners. If you want to hurt your brain, go to the website and click on ‘Earth History’. OLD DOWN COUNTRY PARK
Foxholes Lane, Tockington, nr Bristol, BS32 4PG. Zone B. Open daily 10am-5pm (6pm June-Aug & 4pm Nov-Feb), admission £6.50 adult/£3.50 senior, age 2-15/£18 family (2+2). Ffi: 01454 414081, www.olddownpark.co.uk • Big old manor house (not open to public) and farm and grounds with lots of animals, including chickens, ducks, turkeys, rabbits, guinea pigs, wallabies, reindeer, alpacas… Also adventure playground, fishing lake, woodland walks as well as a pleasant walled garden where you can pick your own fruit ‘n’ veg in season. Café and farm shop selling local and own produce. Nice place that’s a bit hidden away, but not far from Bristol. PUXTON PARK
Cowslip Lane, Hewish, Weston-super-Mare, BS24 6AH. Zone C. Open daily 9am-5.30pm, summer admission prices £6.70 adult/£5.20 concs/£7.70 ages 4-16/£26 family (up to 4 persons, inc at least one adult). Ffi: 01934 523500, www.puxton.co.uk • Farm park designed to show the connections between 9 food, farming and conservation while still being fun. Based on a 70-acre organic dairy farm, there’s farm animals, a lake, wildlife hide, several miles of trails, livestock pens and crop displays, and lots of demonstrations and talks, especially during school hols. Farm shop specialising in local, seasonal and/or organic food, a restaurant and café, plus play barn. PUZZLE WOOD
Off B4228 nr Coleford, Glos, GL16 8QB. Zone D. Open daily 10am-5pm to end Oct (weekends only in winter), admission £6 adult/£4.50 ages 4-16/£20 family. Ffi: 01594 833187, www.puzzlewood.net • The Forest of Dean is full of oddities, but this place probably takes first place. More than 2,000 years ago, before the Romans arrived, the area was an open-cast iron mine, but it’s long since been reclaimed by nature to become a maze of weird moss-covered rock formations and gnarled trees, and even though it only stretches to around 14 acres, you can get seriously disorientated and lost here. The site also includes some farm animals (the pygmy goats and Highland cattle will be a hit with most kids), an indoor maze and a willow maze. Seriously, you HAVE to see this place! It’ll make you feel like you’re in ‘Lord of the Rings’, though you should note that it’s completely unsuitable for wheelchairs or pushchairs. SEAQUARIUM
Marine Parade, Weston-super-Mare, BS23 1BE. Zone C. Open daily 10am-5pm, admission £7.99 adult/£6.75 conc/£5.99 child/£24.99 family. Ffi: 01934 613361, www. seaquariumweston.co.uk • Not the biggest and best
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ANIMALS & NATURE
Year-round attraction: the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust.
marine-life place but fascinating nonetheless. It’s always wonderful to get up close and personal with these creatures, particularly if they’re denizens of Britain’s own cold, murky coastal waters. Several themed displays introduce you to the astonishing variety of creatures – sharks, eels, octopus, cod and lots more – that haunt our shores. OK, maybe not that many cod any more. There are some tropical creatures, too, including 10 the enigmatic and intriguing seahorses. TROPIQUARIA ZOO
Washford Cross, Watchet, Somerset, TA23 0QB. Zone D. Open daily 10.30am-5pm (6pm in August) until 12 Nov, admission £9 adult/£7.50 age 3-16, senior, members of HM Forces/£30 family (2+2). Ffi: 01984 640688, www. tropiquaria.co.uk • Small but fun zoo housed in a former radio transmitting station. Inside there’s an indoor jungle with free-flying birds, plus various reptiles and small mammals and an aquarium. Outdoors there’s a tapir, lemurs, meerkats and more. Daily programme of demonstrations and feeding to watch, plus indoor and outdoor play areas. There’s also a radio museum with loads of old radios and radio memorabilia. WESTONBIRT ARBORETUM
Westonbirt, nr Tetbury, Glos, GL8 8QS. Zone C. Open daily 9am-8pm, closes 5pm in winter, admission rates vary according to season and for major events. See website. Ffi: 01666 880220, www.forestry.gov.uk/westonbirt • Some 600 acres, covered with around 18,000 trees from all over the world, collected by the Victorian gentleman-horticulturalist whose estate this once was (his very grand house is now a private school for girls but opens to the public a couple of times a year – see www.westonbirt.gloucs.sch.uk). Apart from its scientific importance as one of the most extensive collections of trees in the world, it’s a grand day out. Plenty of buggy/wheelchair-friendly pathways, but also lots of grassy bits to burn off excess energy. Some people
will tell you it’s best to visit in the autumn, when the leaves are changing colour, but any time is a good time. See the blossoms in spring, have some lovely shaded walks in summer, and do the winter wonderland thing if it snows. As one of the West’s greatest attractions, it gets crowded, so weekdays in term-time are a definite favourite for visiting. Boasts lots of events, educational and conservation activities for adults and kids as well as open-air summer concerts and the famous Festival of the Tree (25-27 Aug 2012, and now re-branded Treefest), whose attractions include vast sculptures done with chainsaws. Also look out for the evenings when lights and lasers turn it into an ‘enchanted forest’ in the run-up to Christmas. And bring your camera – places like this make us all feel like photographic geniuses. The place is also currently planning and fundraising for lots of improvements – follow its progress at www. westonbirtproject.co.uk WILDFOWL AND WETLANDS TRUST
Slimbridge, Glos, GL2 7BT. Zone C. Open daily 9.30am5.30pm (closes earlier in winter), admission £10.95 adult/£8.45 concs/£5.95 ages 4-16/£30.70 family, admission includes voluntary donation under Gift Aid scheme; reduce price by 10% if you do not wish to pay it. Ffi: 01453 890333, www.wwt.org.uk/visit/slimbridge • One of the world’s leading centres for the study and conservation of wetland birds was founded by the late Sir Peter Scott. It makes for a day out that’s as worthy as it’s fun. See, feed and learn about wetland birds, and help the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust to conserve wetland habitats. There are hides in the grounds for you to spy on shyer species, and you might even catch a glimpse of a kingfisher. Very nice visitor centre, decent café/ restaurant and shop, play area and loads of activities for children and grown-ups, particularly in the school hols. Phone or check website to see which seasonal visitors are flying through and find out about events. A good visit any time of year.
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TRAINS, BOATS & PLANES Trains… ASHTON COURT MINIATURE STEAM RAILWAY
Ashton Court Estate, Bristol, near the golf course car park. Zone A. In steam on BHMs & on some (but not all) Sundays in 2012 from Apr-Oct – see website for full timetable. Trains run from 12noon-5.15pm, weather permitting, tickets 60p for one circuit of the track, £5 for 10 tickets. Ffi: 0117 946 7110, www. bristolmodelengineers.co.uk • A delightful corner of English eccentricity at Ashton Court, an oversize train set run with love and enthusiasm by the Bristol Society of Model & Experimental Engineers. You sit astride a little carriage as a miniature steam or diesel loco and hauls you over a few hundred yards of track. AVON VALLEY RAILWAY
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Bitton Station, nr Keynsham, BS30 6HD. Zone A. £6.50 adult/£5.50 over-60s/£5 ages 3-14/£18 family, all tickets provide unlimited travel on day of issue; note that prices for special events may vary and are 50p lower when only diesel trains are running. Ffi: 0117 932 7296/932 5538, www.avonvalleyrailway.org • Small and friendly local steam (and diesel) railway, running along a fivemile stretch of the old Midland Railway line, with lots of former mainline and industrial steam and diesel locos and rolling stock at the station. Also a busy programme of special events, including days with Thomas the Tank Engine and the annual bus rally where vintage buses, including some of those beautiful old green Bristol buses, turn up (12 Aug 2012), plus murder mystery trips and learn-to-drive-a-loco sessions. When the trains are in steam the railway often also offers pleasant river cruises along the Avon (extra charge). For train times and details of special events, call the 24hr talking timetable on 0117 932 7296 or see website. BRISTOL HARBOUR RAILWAY
Bristol Harbour. Zone A. Fares to Create Centre £3 return/£2 single, to ss Great Britain £2 return/£1 single, under-6s free. Ffi: mshed.org/whats-on/events • The
AND, ER, A BIG WHEEL ● Rather predictably dubbed The Bristol Eye by the local media, there’s currently a big wheel right in the middle of the Broadmead shopping centre. If you’ve been on the Eye, you’ll know it’s rather better to be looking down on the world from a little glass and steel room (the technical term is “gondola”) than sitting up high over Blackpool on an old-skool wheel with a cold wind blowing up your sun-dress. The Bristol Wheel is a state-of-the-art piece of tech the height of 15 double-decker buses, and the views are grand, and a go on it lasts around 12 minutes. It’s here ‘til 7 May, so get on it now. Open 10am-8pm Sun-Thur, 10am-10pm Fri & Sat, price £6 adult/£5 conc/£4 child under 1.4m. Ffi & online bookings: www.bristolwheel.co.uk
steam trains that used to run from outside the old Industrial Museum (now M Shed) and along the docks to the ss Great Britain will be running on various Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holiday Mons from 24 March until the autumn. See website for dates and times. DEAN FOREST RAILWAY
Norchard, nr Lydney, Glos, GL15 6HD. Zone C. Usual fare for unlimited train travel on day of issue £11 adult/£10 senior/£5 age 5-16/£30 family, prices may vary for special events. Ffi and timetable: 01594 843423 (24hr info line), www.deanforestrailway.co.uk • If you’re exploring the Forest of Dean, do not on any account miss this magical little preserved steam railway, especially if you have children in tow. The restored line runs from the HQ at Norchard to Lydney Junction with five stations in between (though two are usually closed), and there are plans to open more stations and re-open more track. Get out and have a look round if you like. There are quite a few working engines (and a big graveyard of locos and rolling stock undergoing restoration) and the usual range of special events, including learning to drive a loco, Thomas the Tank Engine, a popular 1940s weekend, murder mysteries and more. Also does particularly good Santa specials for the young ’uns in the run-up to Christmas. Excellent souvenir shop and museum. EAST SOMERSET RAILWAY
Cranmore Station, nr Shepton Mallet, Somerset, BA4 4QP. Zone B. Day Rover tickets £8.50 adult/£7.50 senior/£6.50 ages 3-16/£26 family, note that fares are higher for certain special events, including Thomas the Tank Engine Days. Ffi and timetable: 01749 880417, www.eastsomersetrailway.com • It used to be called the ‘Strawberry Line’ – two-and-a-half miles (five-mile round trip) through some pleasant Mendip scenery, with some steep gradients. The place has a rather romantic history, having been rescued by artist and conservationist David Shepherd on the proceeds of a sell-out exhibition of elephant paintings in New York. There’s a loco shed (and a very impressive collection of steam locos), museum, shop, restaurant, model shop and play area. Call or see website for ticket prices and timetable, and details of special summer events. GLOUCESTERSHIRE WARWICKSHIRE RAILWAY
Toddington, Glos, GL54 5DT. Zone D. Ffi and timetable/ fare details: 01242 621405, www.gwsr.com • With stations at Toddington, Winchcombe, Gotherington and Cheltenham racecourse, GWSR is one of the most impressive preserved railways round these parts, and got the Ian Allan Publishing Heritage Railway of the Year award in 2011 to prove it. There’s currently 10 miles of track and a number of both steam and ‘heritage diesel’ locos pulling vintage rolling stock. There’s the usual busy timetable, including the obligatory Thomas the Tank Engine specials for the kids and steam train driving experience days through to its famous ‘Cheltenham Fryers’ (you get to eat fish & chips on a steam train) and, of course, it’s busy on Cheltenham race days.
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TRAINS, BOATS & PLANES part a forlorn and windblown commuter bedroom with a rubbish-strewn mud and shingle shoreline, but there are a couple of cafes, and an interesting path along the coast, which goes under the massive Second Severn Crossing. The line has undergone a remarkable renaissance in recent years, thanks to energetic local campaigners. It’s getting more and more popular with commuters, and there’s talk of increasing services and even re-opening disused stations on the line as part of a wider local public transport strategy. In the meantime, though, you have to try it for yourself; we can’t honestly recommend a day out at Severn Beach, but travelling the line is a great way of seeing Bristol from a completely new angle. A good halfday adventure. STEAM: MUSEUM OF THE GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY
Steam into happy seaside holidays of yesteryear with the Torbay Express.
HEART OF WESSEX LINE
Ffi: www.heartofwessex.org.uk • This is the fancy name given by First Great Western and a number of local authority partners to the line that runs from Bristol to Weymouth through some of the nicest countryside in the West Country. It’s worth the journey all on its own, but also through the summer there should be a programme of guided walks from various towns and villages along the route. The website also has downloadable trails you can follow for yourself. THE RAILWAY TOURING COMPANY
Zone A. Ffi: 01553 661500, www.railwaytouring.co.uk • Firm offering rail excursions all over the UK, everything from scenic trips through the Scottish Highlands to shorter day-long adventures, some of them to West Country destinations and some hauled by steam locos. Only a handful stop at Bristol or Bath in 2012, but you can always join them elsewhere if you fancy. See website for timetables. The same firm also operates tours of the great railways of Europe and the world; the ones they’ve got going to Eritrea this year look absolutely brilliant. THE SEVERN BEACH LINE
Ffi: www.severnbeachline.org • This is the First Great Western scheduled service that runs from Bristol Temple Meads out to Avonmouth via Lawrence Hill, Stapleton Road, Montpelier, Redland, Clifton Down, Sea Mills, Shirehampton and Severn Beach. To go all the way from Temple Meads to Severn Beach takes about threequarters of an hour and only costs £3 for an adult return (this might go up after May 2012). Severn Beach isn’t a fraction as nice as the name suggests, being for the most
Kemble Drive, Great Western Way, Swindon, SN2 2TA. Zone D. Open daily 10am-5pm, admission £6.40 adult/£4.25 senior, student, ages 3-16/£17 2 adults + 2 children/£20.20 2 adults + 3 children. Ffi: 01793 466646, www.swindon.gov.uk/steam • The National Railway Museum in York may be the daddy of steam train museums, but this place runs it a pretty good second and is easier to get to. Swindon owes its very existence to the Great Western Railway, where it became home to the company’s carriage and locomotive factories. STEAM, set in part of the old railway works, tells the story of one of the most famous railways in the world and the men and women who worked on it. Get up close with a load of famous GWR locomotives, 9 explore hands-on displays and discover more about Brunel and his world-beating railway system. There’s always a big programme of fun/ educational events and activities, especially during school hols. Temporary exhibitions this year include a small one about the GWR’s connections with the Titanic (until 24 June) and ‘The Royal Road’ (now until 30 Dec 2012) marking the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee with a look at the railway’s royal connections. Look out also for the Swindon Railway Festival (15-16 Sept 2012) and the hugely popular Great Western Lego Show (6-7 Oct 2012). Easy enough drive from Bristol/Bath area, but you can always go by train – the museum’s about a 10-15min walk from Swindon station. If you buy your STEAM ticket with your First Great Western railway ticket, you get a 20% discount. TORBAY EXPRESS
Running some Sundays in July, Aug & Sept 2012. Ffi: 01543 834477, www.torbayexpress.co.uk • Something of a local institution, and it’s not hard to see why. Steamhauled rail excursions calling at Weston, Bristol Temple Meads, Taunton and Paignton down to Kingswear, where it stops for a few hours (take the ferry and explore Dartmouth. It’s very nice). A wonderful experience that feels like spending a day back in some 1930s or 50s never-never land of lost innocence. These outings are not especially cheap – an adult ‘standard class’ ticket is £79 – so maybe you can do it as a special birthday treat or something. Trips also feature the option to travel Premier Dining Class where you get very well fed while you watch the countryside go by. See website for full details of this, and other outings, though these mostly go
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TRAINS, BOATS & PLANES from Poole. The same firm also runs Pathfinder Tours, steam- and diesel-hauled excursions to various other parts of the country. These include fabulous tours of lines in the Highlands of Scotland lasting several days and trips to Canterbury or the Settle-Carlisle line and many more, including several which stop at Bristol. See www. pathfindertours.co.uk WEST SOMERSET RAILWAY
Zone D. Fares vary according to journey; Day Rover giving a day’s unlimited travel is £17 adult/£15.40 senior/£8.50 child. Ffi: 01643 704996, www.west-somerset-railway.co.uk • One of the biggest and best steam railways in Britain, running for 20 miles through some fabulous countryside and along the Somerset coast, complete with 10 restored stations and bags of atmosphere. It goes from Bishops Lydeard (TA4 3BX) near Taunton to Minehead (TA24 5BG) and, given all the rural and coastal stops along the way, can easily make half-a-dozen days out all by itself. The former fishing port of Watchet is well worth stopping to look around, and Minehead is a nice old seaside town with loads of character (and home to the vast Butlins complex). The Minehead station also has a small railway museum. The stop before Minehead is Dunster, a quaint village overlooked by the imposing National Trust-run castle (see Houses, Gardens & Castles section). Loads of regular and one-off special events (the train-borne fish suppers and murder mystery evenings are especially popular), so phone or see website for details.
And boats…
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BATH BOATING STATION
Forester Rd, Bathwick, Bath, BA2 6QE. Zone A. Open daily from Easter-30 Sept 10am-6pm. Ffi: 01225 312900, www. bathboating.co.uk • Yes, you too can pretend to be in a costume drama of your very own by spending a lazy sun-dappled afternoon messing about in boats, possibly wooing or being wooed, This is the only place round these parts you can do that sort of thing, and wonderful it is, too. Lovely old Victorian boat-house where you can hire yourself a small vessel (traditional wooden punts, skiffs and canoes) by the hour (£7 per adult for the first hour, £4 per hour extra) or day, and explore the river. Choose a fine day, pack the rug and hamper, and picnic in style. If you’re taking a punt, make sure you do their brief tuition session first. BRISTOL CHANNEL CRUISES
Zone A. Ffi: 0845 130 4647 (office hours), www. waverleyexcursions.co.uk • Balmoral is a former Scottish loch steamer, while the Waverley, built in 1947 to replace a previous ship lost at Dunkirk, is the last sea-going paddle-steamer in the world, restored to her original 1940s appearance inside and out. Through the summer season they sail regularly to and from Bristol, Clevedon, Weston-super-Mare, Minehead, Ilfracombe and Penarth, and occasionally other Bristol Channel ports as well, and they put on some of the best summer days out ever. Cruises vary in length from a whole day to a few hours, so you can pick whichever duration will best suit. Both ships have restaurants and bars, and plenty of room
Take a punt at Bath Boating Station.
to sit down and enjoy the view. Couple of handy hints: if you’re averse to excited children, go on a term-time weekday. If you’re averse to excited drunks, don’t go on any trip that will be stopping to pick up passengers anywhere on a Friday or Saturday evening. In the Days Out Guide’s humble, the bestest adventure these ships offer are the day-trips to Lundy Island, but bring a good book. Full timetable (and tickets) available online or via the number above. BRISTOL FERRY BOAT CO
Zone A. Ffi: 0117 927 3416, www.bristolferry.com • Operates a waterbus service from various stops around Bristol Docks every day (and all year round) that’s popular both with tourists and commuters. Scheduled service runs from Hotwells to Temple Meads and back, with stops including Castle Park, Welsh Back, city centre, ss Great Britain etc. Outside of the rush hours, it becomes popular with sightseers. A Round Trip Ticket for a 40- or 60-minute circular tour of the docks is well worth doing, even if you’ve lived in Bristol all your life, as it gives an interesting perspective on the old place, and, of course, is a grand adventure for the kids. These cost £4.90 adult/£3.50 child, senior, student. They also do a range of public trips through the summer, including Gorge trips, a Wildlife trip, and excursions to the legendary Beeses Tea Gardens.
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To reach 72,000 families in your area... advertise in the next issue of Primary Times Contact Caroline tel 0117 934 3737 email c.stretton@bepp.co.uk or Ruth tel 0117 934 3730 email r.morris@venue.co.uk DAYS OUT GUIDE 2012 // 31 p31.indd 31
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TRAINS, BOATS & PLANES
Dirty Harry the Harrier. At the Fleet Air Arm Museum ’til 21 May.
BRISTOL PACKET
Zone A. Ffi: 0117 926 8157, www.bristolpacket.co.uk • Firm with four boats (the Tower Belle celebrated its 90th birthday in 2010) operating tours of Bristol’s Floating Harbour every weekend (weather permitting) and daily during the school holidays, leaving Wapping Wharf at 11am, 11.45am, 12.30pm, 2pm, 2.45pm and 3.30pm or from its pontoon by the Watershed 15 mins later, price £5.50 adult/£4.95 senior/£3.25 child. The same firm also does river trips along the Avon Gorge, day trips to Bath and to the Chequers Inn at Hanham. It’s probably best known, though, for its wonderful excursions along the river to Beeses Tea Gardens, a nice old-fashioned treat, provided the weather’s good. Also does docks and river cruises with cream teas on board every Mon and Wed during school hols. Also available for private party hire, including dockside pub tours – good prospect for birthday/office party. See website for full timetable.
Zone D. Due to open daily 11am-4pm (10.30am-5pm July & Aug), admission £4.75 adult/£3.75 concs/£3.25 age 4-16/under-4s free. Ffi: 01452 318200, www. gloucesterwaterwaysmuseum.org.uk • It’s a big museum of canals in Gloucester docks, telling the story of how Britain’s canal transport system was built, how people lived and worked on the canals, plus spaces devoted to the wildlife that can be found on waterways today, with lots of interactive and fun bits. The museum also maintains two boats that offer cruises along the Gloucester-Sharpness Canal complete with commentary. It’s not the most scenic of river tours until you get well away from Gloucester, but the history is interesting. See website for 2012 timetable and fares. NO. 7 BOATS
See Museums, Galleries & Exhibitions
Zone A. Ffi: 0117 929 3659, www.numbersevenboattrips. co.uk • Runs two inexpensive ferry services from the ss Great Britain, one to Hotwells, one to Temple Meads. The firm also runs that nifty and very useful ferry straight across the docks from the ss Great Britain, price 60p
MATTHEW CRUISES
PULTENEY CRUISERS
BRUNEL’S SS GREAT BRITAIN
Zone A. Ffi: 0117 927 3416, www.matthew.co.uk • In the 1990s, a replica was built in Bristol of the stout little caravel that John Cabot and his brave crew sailed on their voyage of discovery in 1497. She’s now often to be found moored next to M Shed (she moved from her old berth by the ss Great Britain earlier this year). The ship offers regular trips round the Floating Harbour (the ones involving fish & chip suppers are understandably popular) in season, along with bigger adventures, sometimes as far away as Devon and Cornwall. See website for full timetable and fares. GLOUCESTER WATERWAYS MUSEUM
Llanthony Warehouse, Gloucester Docks, GL1 2EH.
From Pulteney Weir, beside Pulteney Bridge, Bath. Zone A. Fare £8 adult/£4 under-16. Ffi: 01225 312900, www. bathboating.com • Stately 60-minute river cruises with live commentary up the Avon to Bathampton aboard one of three boats that leave the Pulteney Bridge landing stage. Sailings at the busiest times of the summer season are every 20 minutes, with less frequent departures in spring and autumn from about 10am, with last sailing around 6pm, sometimes later at busy times in nice weather. STEEP HOLM
Zone B. Ffi: 01934 522125, www.steepholm.org • Steep Holm is that big island that sticks out of the Bristol
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TRAINS, BOATS & PLANES Channel like an oversized whale, and it’s not easy to get onto. There are, however, trips out there from Weston-super-Mare on various dates between 25 March and 18 Sept 2012. The full timetable is on the website. Departure times depend on tide times and can be cancelled in the event of bad weather, but if all goes to plan, you get between five and six hours to explore the island, which is bigger and longer than it looks from the shore. It’s a bird sanctuary – you’ll see herring gulls, black-backed gulls and cormorants – and home to many rare plant species. It was originally settled in Roman times, and there was a small priory here in the middle ages, but the most visible remains are the 19th-century fortifications, including massive 50-ton iron cannon, as well as gun and searchlight positions from more recent wars (and a rusting WW2 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft gun!). The island is owned and managed by the Kenneth Allsop Trust and is basically run with a huge amount of love and hard work by a small army of mostly retired volunteers whose excellent work has included converting the old Victorian barrack building into a splendid visitor centre and café. Getting off the boat on the island (there’s no pier, and just a tiny pebble beach), and indeed back onto it again, is a bit hairy, so it’s not suitable for anyone with mobility problems, and under-5s aren’t allowed due to safety and lifejacket regulations. Oh, and you’re in an open boat, and the Bristol Channel can get a bit choppy, so beware if you’re prone to seasickness. Also, in spring and early summer the gulls are aggressive and will crap on your head (so wear a hat). Seriously, these feathered vermin are complete bastards; when the Days Out Guide was there someone had written in the visitors’ book: “I HATE gulls – I could write this in my own blood.” All this aside, this really is one of the very best summer adventures in the whole South West; it’s like stepping back into an Enid Blyton story, and it’s almost all thanks to the hard work and dedication of a bunch of (mainly) pensioners, who deserve some sort of award. The trips are understandably popular, so book now. Fares are £25 adult and £12.50 child.
And planes… THE BRISTOL AERO COLLECTION
Kemble Airfield, nr Cirencester, Glos, GL7 6BA. Zone D. Open from 10am & last admission 3.30pm Sun & Mon only to end Oct (Mon only in winter), admission £5 adult/£4 senior/£2.50 ages 4-12/£12 family. Ffi: 01285 771204, www.bristolaero.com • Growing collection of military and civil aircraft, missiles, satellites, rockets, engines, buses and other transport relics built in Bristol down the years, lovingly collected, tended and restored by enthusiasts. The place is a bit rough around the edges, but it’s guaranteed to send shivers down the spine of any true-blue Bristolian. Star exhibits include the 1979 Bristol bus (pure nostalgia!) and a genuine 1895 Bristol tram, half of which has been painstakingly restored and half of which has been left in its previous run-down condition. Watch out also for the sailing dinghy built in the 1950s by the Bristol Aeroplane Plastics Division; the boat’s called Polly Esther. The Days Out Guide’s favourite bit is the full-size mock up of the GIOTTO probe, which
got up close to Halley’s Comet in 1986 and, against all the expectation, survived to visit another comet: a thrilling bit of machinery, and all made in Bristol. The volunteers are all lovely people, delighted to chat for hours, and let’s hope that one day they can realise their dream of a proper museum of aerospace in Bristol itself. FLEET AIR ARM MUSEUM
RNAS Yeovilton, nr Ilchester, Somerset, BA22 8HT. Zone D. Open daily 10am-5.30pm to end of Oct, open 10am4.30pm Wed-Sun only Nov-March, 2012 admission prices TBC, last year’s were £13 adult/£11 senior/£9 age 5-16/£38 family. Ffi: 01935 840565, www.fleetairarm. com • The Royal Naval Air Station at Yeovilton is home to one of the finest aircraft museums in Europe. It stretches over six acres (most of it undercover), with dozens of aircraft tracing the complete history of British naval aviation, and a whole lot more. Displays take you from an excellent interactive bit showing you how aircraft actually get up in the air and stay up in the air and thence to the First and Second World Wars via Korea and the Cold War and on to the Falklands conflict (a special new exhibition on the Falklands to mark the 30th anniversary is due to open in June). You also get to walk through Concorde 002, have a simulated helicopter flight and experience life on an aircraft carrier from the 1970s/80s era, as well as play with all sorts of simulators and interactive exhibits. Plus restaurant, café and picnic area, and outdoor adventure playground. The added bonus is that it’s next door to a working airfield, and if you’re lucky you just might get to see Royal Navy helicopters doing their stuff. Look out for events, too, including the wonderful Air Day (23 June) and the hugely popular Dalek Invasion (18 & 19 Aug). Get there before 21 May and you’ll see GR9A Harrier ‘Dirty Harry’, one of the last Harriers in service, and still in her Afghanistan markings. THE HELICOPTER MUSEUM
Locking Moor Rd, Weston-super-Mare, BS24 8PP. Zone B. Open Wed-Sun 10am-5.30pm from Apr to end Oct, open daily during school Easter & Summer hols, admission £6 adult/£5 senior/£4.50 age 4-15/£17family (2+2)/£19family (2+3). Ffi: 01934 635227, www. helicoptermuseum.co.uk • The world’s largest dedicated collection of whirlybirds features over 80 civil and military machines from Britain, the USA and Europe, as well as several from the former Warsaw Pact countries, with new acquisitions coming in all the time. Stars of the show include two former royal helicopters of the Queen’s Flight and an East German Mi-24 ‘Hind’ gunship, the most badass-looking piece of military hardware ever dreamed up. It’s also a major centre for helicopter conservation and restoration and puts on frequent behind-the-scenes tours and events for serious enthusiasts. For regular punters there are also lots of special events through the year, including the famous ‘open cockpit days’ where you can sit at the controls of some machines. Also offers helicopter ‘air experience flights’ (posh name for a spin round Weston in a helicopter, but why not?) on certain days and educational activities for kids during the school hols.
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MUSEUMS & GALLERIES THE ARCHITECTURE CENTRE
Narrow Quay, Bristol, BS1 4QA. Zone A. Open Tue-Fri 11am-5pm, Sat-Sun 12noon-5pm, admission free. Ffi: 0117 922 1540, www.architecturecentre.co.uk • Set up to promote public understanding/enjoyment of architecture, there’s always something interesting going on here, with regularly changing exhibitions, workshops and talks, and plenty of food for thought about the spaces we live in. See website for events. ARNOLFINI
Narrow Quay, Bristol, BS1 4QA. Zone A. Galleries open Tue-Sun 10am-6pm, bookshop open Tue 11am-6pm, Wed-Sat 11am-8pm, Sun 11am-7pm, admission to galleries free; phone or see website for performances and other events. Ffi: 0117 917 2300, www.arnolfini.org. uk • A much-loved institution, the ’Fini is one of Britain’s leading centres for contemporary arts, with galleries and performance spaces and a cinema that tends to show art and avant garde movies. Also very trendy café/ bar, including outdoor tables which are very pleasant on about 30 days of the year. If you’re into art, graphics, design, movies and fashion, you’ll also find one of the very best bookshops in the south of England, and the perfect place for interesting thoughtful birthday cards and presents for the culture vulture in your life. ARNOS VALE CEMETERY
See Fun for Free section
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AT-BRISTOL
Anchor Sq, Harbourside, Bristol, BS1 5DB. Zone A. Open 10am-5pm Mon-Fri in term-time, 10am-6pm Sat, Sun, BHMs & during school holidays, Gift Aid admission: £12.50 adult/£8 ages 3-15/£10.50 conc/£35.50 family (2+2 or 1 adult + 3 children)/£33.50 (2 grandparents + 2 children or 1 grandparent + 3 children) . Ffi: 0845 345 1235, www. at-bristol.org.uk • One of the South West’s leading family attractions, and great fun it is, too. This is a hands-on science centre that encourages visitors to play with stuff in order to learn about scientific and technical principles all the way from engineering through to the human body. All About Us was last year’s big new addition, and focuses on the human body and has all sorts of amazing stuff, such as a human brain exhibit, or the “digestive run” and the very popular vein ray. Other zones look at flight, the natural world and motion and forces. There’s also the Planetarium with regular shows (small additional cost) telling you what you’ll see in the night sky, and the Animate-It section, made in partnership with Bristol’s Aardman Animations. Even if you’ve visited before, it’s always worth a return trip as there’s always something new to play with. There’s an extensive timetable of activities, talks and demonstrations, particularly things aimed at kids during school holiday times. We suspect the biggest hit of the year will be the Robo World Cup (20-25 Aug 2012), organised by Bristol Universities’ worldleading Bristol Robotics Laboratory, which will indeed feature robots playing football and performing other mechanical feats and demonstrating advanced artificial technology. Sounds well worth cancelling the family summer holiday for.
BATH’S OLD ORCHARD STREET THEATRE
12 Old Orchard St, Bath, BA1 1JU. Zone A. 2012 opening times and tour prices TBC - phone or check website: 01225 462233, www.oldtheatreroyal.com • A relatively new addition to the Bath tourist trail, and a building that packs a huge amount of fascinating history despite its nondescript exterior. In its time it was a theatre (Bath’s first Theatre Royal, in fact), then it was a Roman Catholic chapel. Since the 1860s it’s been home of one of England’s oldest provincial Masonic lodges. For the latter reason alone – the fabulously adorned Temple, not to mention the Masonic museum – it’s worth visiting, but the eerie vaults underneath are another big plus. Visits are by timed guided tour only. BATH POSTAL MUSEUM
27 Northgate St, Bath, BA1 1AJ. Zone A. Open Mon-Sat 11am-5pm, admission £3.50 adult/£3 senior, B&NES resident/£1.50 age 6-18, student/£10 family ticket giving unlimited visits for 12 months after purchase. Ffi: 01225 460333, www.bathpostalmuseum.org • Relocated a few years ago to underneath Bath’s main post office, this small but perfectly formed place should not be missed. The development of the city in the 1700s was intimately bound up with the development of the UK postal system, not least because any reduction in the psychological distance from London made Bath more attractive as a resort for the rich and powerful. Anyway, for its relatively small size, the museum and its accompanying electronic archive are of national importance. For visitors, though, it tells the story, via artefacts and interactives, of 4,000 years’ worth of communication, and, what’ll be more interesting for most, the human stories lurking beneath. The museum website gives you a good flavour of the electronic archive – click on ‘Digital Collection’. BLAISE CASTLE HOUSE MUSEUM
Henbury Rd, Henbury, Bristol, BS10 7QS. Zone A. Open Wed-Sun 10.30am-4pm (Sat & Sun only Nov 2012-Easter 2013), also open Tue July & Aug, admission free. Ffi: 0117 903 9818, www.bristol.gov.uk/museums • A handsome 18th-century mansion house that’s home to a wonderful museum of domestic life and social history in bygone Bristol. Displays include children’s toys and board games, cooking ranges, baths, toilets, wash-tubs, fireplaces and more. There’s also a small collection of historic costumes, and a grim re-creation of a late 19th/early 20th-century schoolroom, plus a gallery of 18th/19th-century paintings (also available for weddings). Given that it’s surrounded by the massive expanses of the Castle Estate (the “Castle” is actually a folly, which is very occasionally opened to the public) and the café and there’s a really good adventure playground nearby, this is easily one of the best free-of-charge family days out Bristol has to offer. History buffs, meanwhile, should wander over to the parish churchyard nearby and look for the grave of Scipio Africanus – it’s on the right-hand side of the path to the main door of the church. He died in the early 1700s, and this is the only known burial place in Bristol of an African slave.
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MUSEUMS & GALLERIES
Mmmmm! Science! Family fun at At-Bristol.
BRISTOL BLUE GLASS
Unit 7, Whitby Rd, Brislington, Bristol, BS4 3QF. Zone A. Open Mon-Sat 9am-5pm, Sun 10am-4pm, admission free. Ffi: 0117 972 0818, www.bristol-glass.co.uk • The world-famous Bristol Blue Glass has been made in the city since the 17th century, but in recent years the brand has undergone a major revival. Now you can visit the factory and its visitor centre, see the glass museum and watch it being made, then browse around the shop, which offers what it reckons is the largest selection of glass (blue and otherwise) in the South West. You can also get guided tours and demonstrations – and even have a go at it yourself – though these come at a charge. Fascinating place, well worth dropping in on if you’re passing. BRISTOL CITY MUSEUM & ART GALLERY
Queens Rd, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 1RL. Zone A. Open daily 10.30am-5pm (until 6pm Sat, Sun & BHMs), admission free. Ffi: 0117 922 3571, www.bristol.gov.uk/museums • Bristol’s main museum until M Shed came along, but still a wonderful place, with good collections on local geology, local prehistory, local and world wildlife, a bit of local history and a very good cross-section of paintings, with work by the famous 19th-century ‘Bristol School’ as well as more modern stuff by the likes of Richard Long and Beryl Cook. There’s also a large collection of stuffed animals, some of which are looking a bit frayed nowadays. Everyone’s favourite bit is the fascinating Egyptology collection, with mummies and everything. Bristolians tend to take this place for granted, but it’s extremely well run and has lots of regularly changing temporary exhibitions; if you’re in time, don’t miss the exhibition of drawings by Leonardo da Vinci, which runs until 10 June. Lots of events, activities and talks for folks of all ages, a restaurant/café and the souvenir shop has a good collection of local historical material. Treasure the place, lest cash-strapped councillors are tempted to restrict its hours or start charging admission. BRUNEL’S ss GREAT BRITAIN
Great Western Dockyard, Gas Ferry Rd, Bristol, BS1 6TY. Zone A. Open daily 10am-5.30pm (4.30pm in winter), admission £12.50 adult/£9.95 concs/£6.25 child/family discount tickets available at various rates, including
‘Grandparent Family’ and ‘Mini Family’. Tickets entitle holder to unlimited return visits for one year. Ffi: 0117 929 1843, www.ssgreatbritain.org • The world’s first great ocean liner and the forerunner of all modern ships, the ss Great Britain was designed and built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel in Bristol. Not only was she the first ocean-going ship with an iron hull, she was also the first big steamship to be driven by a screw propeller (rather than paddles). The most successful of Brunel’s ships, she led a long and thoroughly useful career, ending up as a storage hulk on the Falkland Islands before being brought home in 1970 to end up in the very dock in which she was built. Now, after decades of painstaking restoration and fundraising, she’s the centrepiece of a major visitor attraction that’s won all manner of awards. There’s a dehumidification chamber around her hull to stop it rusting away; the roof of this is made of glass and has a couple of inches of water on it, giving the impression that she’s afloat. On board, there are mannequins, sights, sounds and, yes, even smells (from lovely fresh bread to seasick vomit – we are not making this up) to tell the stories of people who travelled on her as you walk around with your personal audio-guide. Below decks you can also see the replicas of her vast Victorian engine. You can look all over her, from the ship’s galley to cramped cabins, the Promenade Deck and the sumptuous First Class Dining Saloon. There’s also a museum alongside giving you the chance to step back in time through the ship’s history and test your skills on giant interactives. The site also boasts the9spanking new Brunel Institute, which hosts lots of archive material relating to Brunel and ‘Archive in Five’ events three times each week where staff select engineering drawings, diaries and letters from the collection. The ship hosts loads of special living history events, ranging from the Victorian surgeon to frequent visits from Mr Brunel himself, plus vile Victorian behaviour from the Seven Dials Rapscallions re-creating the Victorian underworld. This year there’s a new soundscape in the First Class Dining Saloon, and a Victorian dressing-up and photographic studio. Check website for details. Anyway, if you’re a visitor, or have just moved here, you absolutely have to visit this one. Likewise if you’ve been living here forever but haven’t seen her lately. A must. THE BUILDING OF BATH COLLECTION
Countess of Huntingdon’s Chapel, The Vineyards, The Paragon, Bath, BA1 5NA. Zone A. Open Sat-Mon & BHMs 10.30am-5pm until autumn, admission £4 adult/£3.50 senior, student/£2 age 5-16. Ffi: 01225 333895, www. bath-preservation-trust.org.uk • Using models, maps, paintings, reconstructions and original materials, this looks at how Bath was planned and built between 1700-ish and 1800-ish. The centrepiece is a vast model of 18th-century Bath, but there are plenty of dead interesting asides and insights. A must for anyone with a serious interest in Bath’s social, as well as architectural, history, and of course essential if you happen to live in a Georgian house and want to know how it was put together, and indeed if you need some tips on how to stop it falling down.
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MUSEUMS & GALLERIES CHELTENHAM ART GALLERY & MUSEUM
Clarence St, Cheltenham, GL50 3JT. Zone D. • Very impressive museum for art-lovers. Too bad it’s closed for a major redevelopment this year, but is expected to reopen in early 2013. Meanwhile, they’ll be doing events and arty things at different places all over Cheltenham this year. See www.cheltenhammuseum.org.uk for details. COLERIDGE COTTAGE
35 Lime St, Nether Stowey, nr Bridgwater, Somerset, TA5 1NQ. Zone D. Open Thur-Mon 11am-5pm until 4 Nov, Gift Aid admission £5.50 adult/£2.75 child. Ffi: 01278 732662, www.nationaltrust.org.uk/coleridgecottage • This small, austere place is where Samuel Taylor Coleridge moved with wife Sara and son Hartley in 1797 when his fortunes were approaching destitution. It’s also where he got some of his best work done, including ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ and ‘Kubla Khan’. The small museum includes a fair bit of Coleridge memorabilia and very enthusiastic National Trust attendants. Might not be worth a trip from Bristol/Bath in itself (unless you’re a STC fan), but you can always combine it with some exploration of this beautiful part of west Somerset. CORINIUM MUSEUM
Park St, Cirencester, Glos, GL7 2BX. Zone D. Open Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun & BHMs 2-5pm, closes 4pm Nov-March, admission £4.80 adult/£4 senior/£3.20 student over 16/£2.40 ages 5-16.10 Ffi: 01285 655611, www.cotswold.gov.uk/go/museum • Corinium being the Roman name for Cirencester, which was one of the most important towns in Roman England. This is a very fine museum, reopened a few years back after a major refurb, and has won loads of awards. Though it looks at the whole history of the area, the star attractions are the exhibitions on Roman and Anglo-Saxon times and associated archaeological finds. Everyone’s favourite bit is probably the reconstructed heads of dead Anglo Saxons found at Lechlade. DEAN HERITAGE CENTRE
Camp Mill, Soudley, Glos, GL14 2U. Zone D. Open daily Mar-Oct 10am-5pm (closes 4pm Nov-Feb), Gift Aid admission £6 adult/£5 conc/£4.50 age 5-16/£23 family. Ffi: 01594 822170, www.deanheritagecentre.com • The Forest is Dean is a wonderful thing, but also very confusing if you want to explore its many attractions and leisure facilities but don’t know where to start. This is as good a place as any to begin, an old water mill which traces the story of the Forest from ancient times through medieval hunting, free-miners, the industrial revolution (they have a working beam-engine) and onwards. For serious historians of the area (or if you’re maybe hunting down ancestors from here), this place is the business, complete with local history library and research facilities. For everyone else, it’s a grand day out – lovely setting, very family friendly (they have a few animals, and visitors can even take a ferret for a walk), with BBQ/picnic area and loads of woodland walks and trails nearby. Give it a try.
SHEDLOADS OF FUN ● Bristol’s newest museum, M Shed opened last year amid loads of fanfare, and following a troubled gestation characterised by delays and rising costs. Most Bristol-based Venue readers will probably have been down there now to decide for themselves whether or not it was worth all the fuss. By now, we’re guessing that the verdict among most people will be a guarded of even emphatic “yes”. If all the happy and excitable kids running around when we visited recently on a Saturday morning are anything to go by, it’s a hit with the youngsters. The whole point of M Shed was to be a “museum of Bristol”. The City Museum is all very well, but its purpose was to bring some of the wonders of the wider world to Bristol, while the function of M Shed is to tell the story of Bristol and its people in all its glory and tragedy and (more often) everyday ordinariness. Arranged into four themed areas (creating, trading, challenging and celebrating), it’s not so much about displaying objects as using the objects to tell the stories of the people behind them. It won’t really give you a proper overall grasp of Bristol’s history from primeval slime to present, unless you spend all day here and look right hard, but it does manage to be both entertaining and enlightening. M Shed is open 10am-5pm Tue to Fri and on BHMs, admission is free, though there’s a rather fishy-looking sign by the door suggesting visitors each donate £2, though nobody inside labours the point. It does also have a programme of temporary exhibitions and there will often be a mandatory admission charge for these. So visit now, before financial pressures persuade the Council to charge admission to everything. And don’t think they haven’t already considered it.
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MUSEUMS & GALLERIES FASHION MUSEUM & ASSEMBLY ROOMS
Bennett St, Bath, BA1 2QH. Zone A. Open daily 10.30am5pm (closes 4pm Nov-Feb), admission £7.50 adult/£6.75 concs/£5.50 ages 6-16/£21 family; admission free for B&NES Council area residents with Discovery Card. Ffi: 01225 477785, www.fashionmuseum.co.uk • One of Bath’s A-list attractions, and understandably so. The permanent collection shows the history of fashionable dress from the last few hundred years, including a gallery of corsets and crinolines (you can even try some of them on), and a ‘Dress of the Year’ chosen especially by fashion experts for the museum every year since its foundation in 1963. There are regular special exhibitions, too. See panel for this year’s. Your ticket also gets you into the splendid Assembly Rooms (provided there aren’t any functions going on there), where the crème de la crème got together in days of yore for dancing, cardplaying, tea-drinking and marrying their children off. FRENCHAY VILLAGE MUSEUM
Begbrook Park, Frenchay, Bristol, BS16 1SZ. Zone A. Open Sat, Sun & BHMs 2-5pm, Wed 1-4pm, admission free, but donations welcome. Ffi: 0117 957 0942, www. frenchaymuseumarchives.co.uk • You might think it’s just a suburb of Bristol, but Frenchay is an old village with some really interesting history. This small but rather wonderful museum, run by local enthusiasts, tells the story of the Quakers, particularly the Fry family, and other aspects of the village’s history, taking in things like the founding of the Christian Socialist movement and, naturally, the story of Frenchay Hospital. Regular exhibitions, too. The website is also well worth a visit with loads of archived material. THE GEORGIAN HOUSE
7 Great George St, Clifton, Bristol, BS1 5RR. Zone A. Open Wed, Thur, Sat & Sun 7 April- 31 Oct (Tue-Sun in July & Aug), 10.30am-4pm, admission free. Ffi: 0117 921 1362, www.bristol.gov.uk/museums • In the 1790s, this was the home of merchant John Pinney, a man who made his pile in sugar from plantations in the West Indies worked by slave labour. At the time, this was a very prestigious address, up on the hill and away from the smells, noise and proles living around the docks. Among Pinney’s retinue was a young black man named Pero (now memorialised in the form of the distinctive horned bridge in the harbour). So the house has two functions – to show what a wealthy Bristol home of the 1790s would look like (including an amazing plunge-bath in the basement and the servants’ quarters), and to house exhibitions on sugar and slavery. It’s a huge space that rarely gets swamped with visitors, and well worth a look. GLENSIDE HOSPITAL MUSEUM
UWE Glenside Campus, Stapleton, Bristol, BS16 1DD. Zone A. Open Sat & Wed only 10am-12.30pm, admission free but donations welcome. Ffi: www.glensidemuseum. org.uk • Now part of the University of the West of England, this site was originally a lunatic asylum back in Victorian times, later becoming the famous Glenside Hospital, which pioneered various psychiatric and neurological treatments. Now in the former hospital
The sculpture garden, Nature in Art.
chapel there’s a museum with pictures, paintings and artefacts from Bristol’s psychiatric and learning disability hospitals and the Burden Institute, which to this day means Bristol is a world leader in treating neurological illnesses. A fascinating place, very well presented, and run by a hard-working and dedicated team of volunteers, so very deserving of a wee donation when you visit. GLOUCESTER WATERWAYS MUSEUM
See Trains, Boats & Planes section
HAYNES INTERNATIONAL MOTOR MUSEUM
Sparkford, nr Yeovil, Somerset, BA22 7LH. Zone D. Open daily 9.30am-5.30pm (6pm in school summer hols, closes 4.30pm Oct-Mar), admission £9.95 adult/£8.95 senior, disabled/£4.95 ages 4-15/£13.50 1 adult + 1 child/£29.95 family (2 adults + 3 children). Ffi: 01963 440804, www.haynesmotormuseum.com • The Yeovilbased firm that publishes all those manuals about how to take apart different types of car put some of the Haynes Manual fortune to good use building up this here collection of old vehicles (about 400, plus motorbikes), one of the finest in Europe. Now, obviously, this place is petrolhead heaven, what with all those Daimlers, Bentleys, Jags, Rollers and Aston Martins (there’s even a special ‘Red Room’ devoted entirely to red sports cars), but the real favourites with most visitors are the Cortinas, Morris 1100s and all the ordinary workaday cars that we, our parents and grandparents used to drive round in. Aside from the cars there’s lots of fun stuff for kids: play area, driving arcade games through the ages, a go-kart track and ‘Super Diggers’ – miniature JCBs with which you can dig holes and shift sand. Another favourite is the Penny Arcade. Not just for wannabe Clarksons, then. HERSCHEL MUSEUM OF ASTRONOMY
19 New King St, Bath, BA1 2BL. Zone A. Open Febmid-Dec Mon-Fri (NB closed Wed) 1-5pm, Sat, Sun & BHMs 11am-5pm, admission £5 adult/£4.50
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MUSEUMS & GALLERIES concs/£2.50 child/£12 family. Ffi: 01225 446865, www. bath-preservation-trust.org.uk • William Herschel was the 18th-century equivalent of a session musician. He was assisted by his sister Caroline, who worked as his housekeeper and was herself an accomplished musician. In their spare time, they looked at the stars… And discovered Uranus. This small museum, set in the house where this remarkable duo lived, is done out in appropriate period style. It tells you all about the Herschels’ lives and works, and features an auditorium (the Star Vault) where you can take a virtual-reality trip through the solar system. Plus regular family events, talks and exhibitions. Look out for the night-time stargazing events they organise, too. HOLBURNE MUSEUM OF ART
Great Pulteney St, Bath, BA2 4DB. Zone A. Open MonSat 10am-5pm, Sun 11am-5pm,admission to main museum free, admission to temporary exhibitions £6.50 adult/£5.50 concs. Ffi: 01225 388588, www.holburne. org • A truly grand and imposing building up the top of GP Street, and the essential museum of all things artistic and decorative from Bath’s golden Georgian age. It reopened last year following a major refurb, including the addition of an extension in the form of an enormous blue glass cube. The museum collection comprises loads of fantastic stuff, from Chinese porcelain through to paintings by the likes of Zoffany, Stubbs and, of course Gainsborough. It also has a big education/outreach programme. The temporary exhibitions are always worth a look, too. JANE AUSTEN CENTRE
40 Gay St, Bath, BA1 2NT. Zone A. 2012 opening times and prices TBC – phone or check website: 01225 443000, www.janeausten.co.uk • Jane Austen lived in Bath for five years in the early 1800s, and two of her novels – ‘Northanger Abbey’ and ‘Persuasion’ – are partly set here. There is a massive global Jane Austen industry, mostly appealing to ladies of a certain class and age, and if you’re going to have all these tourists passing through Bath, you might as well tap into the Austen dollar with a museum of her time here. The centre also runs walking tours of Austen’s Bath and helps to organise the annual Jane Austen Festival (14-22 Sept 2012). You can also visit the Regency Tea Rooms upstairs for Austen-themed refreshments. DR JENNER’S HOUSE
Berkeley, Glos, GL13 9BN. Zone B. Check website for open dates, admission £6 adult/£5 senior & student/£3.50 ages 5-15/£14 family (combined tickets giving entrance to Berkeley Castle are also available). Ffi: 01453 810631, www.jennermuseum.com • Edward Jenner pioneered smallpox vaccination, making him one of the single most important figures in medical history, but he spent most of his career as a simple country doctor, living at The Chantry, this here house in the shadow of Berkeley Castle. It’s well worth a look, as it’s not just about Jenner’s life and times, but also aims to promote a greater understanding of medical science. Visitors can look round the house and garden and see
the recently restored ‘Temple of Vaccinia’, the little thatched summerhouse in the garden where he used to vaccinate local people; this, folks, is the very spot where the modern science of immunology, which has saved countless millions of lives, was born. KINGSWOOD HERITAGE MUSEUM
Tower Lane, Warmley, Bristol, BS30 8XT. Zone A. Open Tue & Sun 2-5pm May-Sept & Spring & Summer Bank Holiday Sun & Mon 11am-5pm, with shorter hours in winter, admission £2 adult or £2.50 for museum & grounds tour which takes place on the second Sun of each month, BHM admission is £2.50, accompanied under-12s free. Ffi: 0117 960 5664, www. kingswoodmuseum.org.uk • One of the most interesting and undervalued museums in the region, done by the people for the people. It’s a huge, ramshackle building tracing Kingswood’s astonishingly rich industrial and social history from medieval bandits and 18th-century zinc smelting to the birth of Methodism and on to pin making, motorcycles (Kingswood was home to the Douglas firm), copper, shoes and more. Where else can you see a 1930s newsreel of the Kleeneze brush factory and then look at a typical working-class living room of the 1950s? If that’s not enough, go on a day when they’re offering guided tours of the amazing grotto and the acres of grounds out the back, originally the estates of the 18th-century Quaker industrialist who started it all. If you’ve not visited yet, you simply must. LITTLEDEAN JAIL
Littledean, nr Cinderford, Glos GL1 3NL. Zone C. Open Thur-Sun & BHMs 10am-5pm to end Oct, admission £7 adult/£5.95 senior/£4.95 age 8-16/£21 family/free for under 8s and over 100s. Ffi: 01594 826659 www. littledeanjail.com • Bills itself as “The Alcatraz of the Forest” and “the UK’s most infamous and politically incorrect ‘black museum’”, this former house of correction and courthouse is probably best described as a freakshow, and a means of displaying all the weird and downright disturbing stuff that owner Andy Jones has collected down the years. So there’s loads of true crime, murder and gangster memorabilia, Nazi and blackshirt stuff, freaks of nature and a special collection of memorabilia relating to the movie ‘Quadrophenia’, which obviously is one of Mr Jones’s favourite movies. The place has been well controversial down the years, and really isn’t for the squeamish or the easily offended. Everyone else will find it marvellously prurient, and will probably get off on the humour and showmanship of the place. A real one-off. M SHED
Princes Wharf, Wapping Rd, Bristol BS1 4RN. Zone A • See panel on p.36. MUSEUM OF BATH AT WORK
Julian Rd, Bath, BA1 2RH. Zone A. Open daily from 10.30am-5pm, last admission 4pm from 1 Apr-31 Oct, weekends only in winter, admission prices TBC, but 2011 prices were £5 adult/£3.50 child, senior, student/£12 family. Ffi: 01225 318348, www.bath-at-work.org.uk • This charming, slightly eccentric place is the perfect
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MUSEUMS & GALLERIES antidote to the surfeit of twee age-of-elegance stuff which is Bath’s main tourist selling-point. This museum traces Bath’s surprisingly rich heritage of inventiveness and hard work, from gas to stone-mining, construction, cabinet making, dockside-crane manufacture, cars, fuller’s earth and – oh yes! – Plasticine. Star exhibits include a Bath Chair originally shown at the Great Exhibition of 1851, a 1914 car and a copy of ‘Hound of the Baskervilles’ printed in Pitman Shorthand. Its centrepiece is the recreated premises of Victorian engineer JB Bowler, who made a small fortune selling what back then was called ‘aerated water’; fizzy drinks to thee and me. MUSEUM OF EAST ASIAN ART
12 Bennett St, Bath, BA1 2QJ. Zone A. Open Tue-Sat & BHMs 10am-5pm, Sun 12noon-5pm, closed Mon, admission £5 adult/£4 senior/£3.50 student & children aged 12+/£2 ages 6-12/£12 family. Ffi: 01225 464640, www.meaa.org.uk • A fabulous collection of art and crafts from China, Japan, Korea and south-east Asia, dating from around 5000BC to the present day. Though not huge, the museum does an excellent job of pointing up the trade and cultural links between east and west, and it has some artefacts of breathtaking beauty and complexity. Also boasts a lively programme of talks, workshops and an excellent range of fun activities for kids during school hols – phone or see website for details. The small gift shop has some lovely things. NATURE IN ART MUSEUM
Wallsworth Hall, Glos, GL2 9PA, two miles N of Gloucester on A38. Zone D. Open Tue-Sun & BHMs 10am5pm, admission £5.25 adult/£4.75 over-60s & ages 8-16/£15 family/under-8s free. Ffi: 01452 731422, www. nature-in-art.org.uk • A big grand old mansion filled with loads of artworks all on the theme of animals/ nature. There are some pretty famous names here, too, including Picasso, Dali, Scott, Combes, Shepherd and Audubon. It also has a big programme of art courses and school holiday events. Lots of regularly changing exhibitions and artists-in-residence. Everyone’s favourite bit is the garden, with loads of different sculptures in. We liked the whale’s tail best. NO.1 ROYAL CRESCENT
1 Royal Crescent, Bath, BA1 2LR. Zone A. Open Tue-Sun & BHMs 10.30am-5pm (closes 4pm in winter), admission £6.50 adult/£5 senior, student/£2.50 ages 5-16/£13 family. Ffi: 01225 428126, www.bath-preservation-trust.org.uk • If you’re interested in Bath’s Georgian heyday, then this magnificently restored town house is a must. Designed by John Wood the Younger in the 1760s, the Royal Crescent is now reckoned to be one of the finest examples of 18th-century urban architecture, and No 1 gives visitors the chance to look beyond the Palladian façade, with an elegant dining room, bustling kitchen and a whole series of other rooms laid out in exquisite Georgian style with authentic furniture, paintings, textiles and carpets. The meticulous restoration is most impressive, and guides bring each room to life with stories from the past. No. 1 is also the HQ of Bath Preservation Trust.
You name it, Oakham Treasures has got it.
THE WESTON-SUPER-MARE MUSEUM
Burlington St, Weston-super-Mare, BS23 1PR. Zone B. Open Mon-Sat 11am-4pm, admission £3.60 adult/£3.00 senior/£1.80 child. Ffi: 01934 621028, www.westonsuper-maretowncouncil.gov.uk/museum.aspx • Quite a neat little place, this, with everything from dolls and old pottery through to displays on the history of North Somerset/Weston from prehistoric times to the present. Includes a mock-up of a typical Weston house from 1900 and lots and lots of stuff about seaside holidays down the ages. OAKHAM TREASURES
Portbury Lane, Portbury, Bristol, BS20 7SP. Zone B. Open Tue-Sat 10am-5.30pm (last admission 3.30pm), closed Sun, Mon & Bank Holidays, admission £6.50 adult/£5.50 senior/£5 age 6-16/£15 family (2 adults + 3 children). Ffi: 01275 375236, www.oakhamtreasures.co.uk • A couple of massive farm barns which have been converted to house all the stuff collected down the years by farmer Keith Sherrell. He started out collecting tractors and farm machinery, but then branched out into altogether more interesting stuff. A stupendously vast quantity of old everyday household things. Nothing we say can prepare you for the massive assault on your eyeballs that you get from all the advertising signs and all the
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MUSEUMS & GALLERIES groceries, sweets, cakes, chocolate, tinned food, cleaning products, booze, fags, children’s toys… All displayed in old shop cabinets or on mahogany counters. Visit with as many generations of the family as possible to have a mass reminisce about Rinso and Woodbines and Fry’s Chocolate Cream and Babycham and Bile Beans and much, much more. There’s also lots of old farm machinery on show, too, though this is of more limited interest. RADSTOCK MUSEUM
Waterloo Rd, Radstock, BA3 3EP. Zone C. Open Tue-Fri, Sun & BHMs 2-5pm, Sat 11am-5pm, closed Dec & Jan, admission £5 adult/£2.50 child/£3.50 conc/£12 family. Ffi: 01761 437722, www.radstockmuseum.co.uk • A cut above your normal small town museum, much of this place focuses on the lives and times of those who
FUN WITH CLOTHES ON ● Bath’s very wonderful Fashion Museum is worth a look all on its own, but manages to lure in repeat visitors again and again each year with its well thought-out programme of temporary exhibitions. This year should be even better than usual with no less than three different shows going on in addition to the permanent collection. The big one for 2012 is, unsurprisingly. Olympic-themed; ‘Sport and Fashion’ looks at historic and modern sporting clothes and includes the suit that local lass Amy Williams wore when she won gold for racing along the ice on a tea-tray at the Vancouver winter Olympics. But there’s also some uncomfortablelooking Victorian gear, tennis dresses from the 1920s, some ancient swimming costumes and more. The ‘Sport’ show runs to the end of the year, as does ‘Glamour’, a glitzy look at evening wear from the last 100 years. The Assembly Rooms are actually technically owned by the National Trust, but the Fashion Museum has spilled out of its frock and into here this summer with a special Jubilee-themed exhibition (from 17 July to 2 Sept) of stage and film costumes worn by actors impersonating various monarchs down the years, including ‘The Queen’, ‘The Madness of King George’ and the rather racy and not really historically accurate ‘The Tudors’. Yes, Mum, they’ve got something from ‘The King’s Speech’ as well. Yes, that Colin Firth is a very nice man. That’s the Fashion Museum, then. Do it before the height of summer when the hordes will descend.
worked in the North Somerset Coalfields, once a hugely important local industry and now rapidly fading from living memory. Exhibitions show work at the coalface and life above ground in places like a recreated Co-Op shop and Victorian schoolroom. Also displays on leisure, sport, the local railways and other local industries. It’s only one of a handful of places around here that really home in on the lives of ordinary people, mostly done by dedicated volunteers determined to tell their community’s story. THE RED LODGE
Park Row, Bristol, BS1 5LJ. Zone A. Open Wed, Thur, Sat & Sun 7 April- 31 Oct (Tue-Sun in July & Aug), 10.30am4pm, admission free.. Ffi: 0117 921 1360, www.bristol.gov. uk/museums • This is one of those lovely little historic hangovers which you could easily miss – a Tudor house, right in the middle of the city. When it was first built, it was on the edge of the countryside, and it’s been used for all sorts of purposes since. Most famously, it was, for a while, a school for bad girls run by formidable Victorian social reformer and bossyboots Mary Carpenter. One of the rooms is dedicated to her work, though the real stars are the Great Oak Room (see if they still have the gruesomelooking display of fake Tudor food on the table) and the Elizabethan knot garden outside. If you live/work in central Bristol, you really ought to drop in sometime. ROMAN BATHS & PUMP ROOM
Entrance via Pump Room, Stall St, Bath. Zone A. Open daily 9am-5pm (until 9pm in July & Aug), 9.30am-4.30pm Nov-Feb, admission £12.25 adult (£12.50 in July & Aug)/£10.75 concs/£8 child/£35 family, combined ticket also giving admission to Fashion Museum £15.75 adult/£13.50 concs/£9.50 child/£45 family (2 adults + up to 4 children). Admission free for B&NES Council area residents with Discovery Card. Ffi: 01225 477785, www.romanbaths.co.uk • This is the one place in Bath nobody should miss, and the place does a superb job of explaining what it’s all about. The baths are the whole reason Bath is here in the first place, and while it might not be the best-preserved Roman site in Europe, it’s certainly the best interpreted that the Days Out Guide has ever been to. With the aid of your audio-guide (different versions available), you get taken through the remains and a selection of extraordinarily vivid finds (such as the votive offerings from people calling curses down on their enemies), and out into the open air and the magnificent Great Bath. It tells loads of stories of the people who once lived here, via artefacts, costumed interpreters and even video projections onto the walls, and it pulls it all off with enormous flair. It’s one of the few historic sites you come out of feeling as though you really do know more than when you went in. If you can stand the crowds, it’s especially nice to visit on one of the evenings in July or August when it stays open late and the baths are all lit up by torchlight, just as they would’ve been nearly 2,000 years ago. Woo! You can also imbibe a glass of your actual Bath water. It tastes bloody awful, mind. Admission also gets you into the 18th-century Pump Room, built for the wealthy visitors
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MUSEUMS & GALLERIES STEAM: MUSEUM OF THE GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY
See Trains, Boats & Planes section. THE TANK MUSEUM
Bovington, Dorset, BH20 6JG. Zone D. Open 10am-5pm daily, admission £12 adult/£9 concs/£7.50 age 5-16/£32 family/under-5s & serving members of HM Forces free. Ffi: 01929 405096, www.tankmuseum.co.uk • It’s a long way from Bristol/Bath, but where else in Britain will you see this much awesomeness under one roof? The best collection of armoured vehicles in the UK, if not the world, with about 300 tanks, self-propelled guns and other combat vehicles from over two dozen different countries in a large facility next to a working army camp. The star of the show is the WW2 German Tiger, the last working Tiger in the world. Check website when planning a visit to see if you can coincide with one of the many interesting events and demonstrations they host. The Roman Baths: does a superb job
during Bath’s second golden age. It’s now a restaurant and café, usually with a classical trio in residence, but if you prefer something a little less posh, the new Roman Baths Kitchen cafe is due to open in Abbey Churchyard in the spring/early summer of 2012. ROYAL WEST OF ENGLAND ACADEMY
THORNBURY & DISTRICT MUSEUM
Chapel St, Thornbury, BS35 2BJ. Zone B. Open Tue-Fri 1-4pm & Sat 10am-4pm, admission free (donations welcome). Ffi: 01454 857774, www.thornburymuseum. org.uk • Small community museum run by enthusiastic volunteers. Exhibits include part of a Roman coin hoard found by a local bloke digging a garden pond a few years back, as well as lots of other Roman artefacts. Also acts as a centre for local amateur historical researchers.
Queens Rd, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 1PX. Zone A. Open Mon-Sat 9.30am-5.30pm, Sun 11am-5pm, admission £5 adult/£3 concs/children free. Ffi: 0117 973 5129, www. rwa.org.uk • Housed in a fabulous listed building and home to one of only five Royal Academies of Art in the UK. Don’t imagine though that this place is all stuffy and establishment; it’s shown street art, too. There are two galleries – the newer one downstairs and the main one upstairs, which houses exhibitions that change every six weeks or so, but which is closed when it’s not exhibiting. Work on show usually tends to be very accessible – phone or check the website for details of current exhibitions, or read all about it in the Art pages of Venue magazine.
VICTORIA ART GALLERY
SOMERSET RURAL LIFE MUSEUM
WILTSHIRE HERITAGE MUSEUM
Abbey Farm, Chilkwell St, Glastonbury, Somerset, BA6 8DB. Zone C. Open Tue-Sat & BHMs 10am-5pm, admission free. Ffi: 01458 831197, tinyurl.com/2uk3qlw • Housed in a medieval barn that once belonged to Glastonbury Abbey, this place shows what life was like on the Somerset Levels in the 19th and early 20th centuries, much of it through displays on the life of 19th-century farm labourer John Hodges and his family. As well as displays on farming, there’s also info on peat cutting, withy growing (willow sticks for baskets and artist’s charcoal), and cheese and cider making. It has a very busy schedule of events through the year, particularly demonstrations of traditional crafts from the Levels, so if you’re planning to visit, phone ahead or see website to see what’s on. Or just visit Glastonbury anyhow and make it part of the itinerary.
Bridge St, Bath, BA2 4AT. Zone A. Open Tue-Sat 10am5pm, Sun 1.30-5pm, admission free but donations welcome. Ffi: 01225 477233, www.victoriagal.org.uk • Bath & North East Somerset’s biggest gallery has a very impressive collection of British and European paintings, from the 15th century to the present day. The permanent collection is not huge, but in terms of quality it punches well above its weight for a relatively small town’s municipal gallery, with works by big names including Turner, Gainsborough and Sickert. It also has two galleries for temporary exhibitions (look out for ‘Automata’ by Robert Race this summer; this could well be a big hit), and a busy programme of events, talks and workshops. 41 Long St, Devizes, Wilts, SN10 1NS. Zone B. Open MonSat 10am-5pm, Sun 12noon-4pm, Gift Aid admission £5.50 adult/£4.50 concs/under-16s free. Ffi: 01380 727369, www.wiltshireheritage.org.uk • Not your usual small town museum at all. Wiltshire is famously home to some of the most important ancient sites in the world, and this museum is home to some of the fabulous things that have been found at them. Galleries cover the Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman, Saxon, and Medieval periods (as well as more recent local history), though it bills itself as “home to the best Bronze Age archaeology in Britain”. If you’re into this stuff and are still in Wilts, see also the Salisbury & South Wiltshire Museum (www.salisburymuseum.org.uk) in Salisbury, where they have the remains of the famous ‘Amesbury Archer’.
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CHURCHES & CATHEDRALS Please note that most of the places listed here are active places of worship and may be closed to casual visitors if there are services in progress. Smaller churches, particularly in rural areas, are often locked in order to prevent theft and vandalism. Note also that it’s good manners to drop a few quid in the collection box for the preservation and upkeep of many of these places. Some cathedrals request an admission fee which, while technically voluntary, feels as though it’s compulsory. But fair dos; big medieval buildings cost a bomb to maintain, so the Days Out Guide’s advice is to cough up and smile. Extinct church buildings are covered in the Rocks & Ruins section of this guide.
Bath BATH ABBEY
City centre, BA1. Zone A. Generally open 9.30am-5.30pm Mon, 9am-5.30pm Tue-Sat, 1pm-2.30pm & 4.30pm5.30pm Sun, but sometimes closed for services – check website before visiting. Suggested donation of £2.50 adult/£1 child, student. Ffi: 01225 422462, www. bathabbey.org • While it’s smack in the middle of Bath, and close to all the city’s other heritage attractions, it’s easy to miss this place if you’re doing the whistle-stop tour, and that would be a shame, because this is one of the most beautiful churches in southern England. The original Anglo-Saxon abbey church was pulled down in Norman times, in favour of a much bigger place, which they then found they couldn’t afford, so it fell to bits. Building work on the present site started in 1499, but when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries it fell to ruin again, although it was restored in subsequent years. The abbey you see now is the last major Gothic church to have been built in England, so it represents the pinnacle of the art. This is a magnificent building, dignified and full of light. Side attractions include displays of ancient bits and pieces dug up from the site. And there’s not an inch of spare wall-space, as it’s absolutely plastered in memorial tablets to wealthy Bath residents. If you’re up to it, try one of the Tower Tours, where for £6 adult/£3 under-14, you can climb up 212 steps, see the tower and other hidden bits, and look down on Bath from a great height. These usually run from 10am to 4pm on the hour Mon-Sat (but not Sundays), with more tours added at peak summer times, and fewer in winter.
Bristol BRISTOL CATHEDRAL
College Green, BS1 5TB. Zone A. Usually open daily from 8am until after evensong, which starts 5.15pm Mon-Fri and 3.30pm Sat & Sun. See website for details of public guided tours, concerts and recitals and other events. Ffi: www.bristol-cathedral.co.uk • Originally a 12th-century abbey church, this place was closed down during the dissolution of the monasteries and opened again in 1542 when Bristol got its own bishop. Interesting bits include the Elder Lady Chapel with medieval animal carvings, the Saxon carving of the Harrowing of Hell near the entrance to the Chapter House and lots of interesting roof-bosses
in the north transept, including a depiction of the murder of King Edward II. Bristol’s ecclesiastical history is rich and complex, but for various reasons the cathedral was never very wealthy. Consequently, most of the church you see nowadays dates from the 18th and 19th centuries and is not as “interesting” architecturally as many other cathedrals in old cities. On the other hand, it has a nice feel if you’re of a religious nature as it wears its history lightly in favour of being an active church (services here are apparently getting very popular indeed). It also means there are some nice features from more recent times, such as Victorian memorials and a very moving sequence of stained-glass windows commemorating Bristol’s civil and military services of the Second World War. Of all the churches round here, this is the one which most makes the Days Out Guide want to pretend to believe in God. CHRIST CHURCH WITH ST EWEN & ST GEORGE
Broad St, BS1 2EJ. Zone A. Ffi: www.christchurchcitybristol. org • Or, to give it its full name, Christ Church With St Ewen, All Saints & St George. Much loved locally on account of the ‘quarter jacks’ (the little figures on the clock outside, who strike their bells every quarter of an hour). It’s well worth looking inside, too. A glorious, bright, airy and frightfully elaborate church guaranteed to turn the head of the most hardened atheist. It was built in the 1790s for the great and good of the town, and it still exudes Anglican self-confidence of the sort they don’t do any more. CLIFTON CATHEDRAL
Pembroke Rd, Clifton, BS8 3BX. Zone A. Ffi: www. cliftoncathedral.org.uk • Slightly off the heritage trail, but very rewarding indeed if you’re into religious history and architecture. The Roman Catholic cathedral of SS Peter and Paul opened in 1973, one of a wave of grand, modern RC buildings that went up at the time. Liverpool RC cathedral is more famous, but this is up there with it and is now widely regarded as an architectural classic of its kind. THE LORD MAYOR’S CHAPEL
College Green, BS1 5TB. Zone A • The only church in England owned and run by a local council and still holding regular services. Originally part of a medieval monastery and hospital for the sick and poor, it’s very elaborate inside, featuring several extremely ornate memorials and tombs to the great and good who once ruled Bristol. See noticeboard outside for details of opening times (and services), or just nip in for a look when you’re walking past. THE NEW ROOM
The Horsefair, Broadmead, BS1 2JE. Zone A. Open MonSat 10am-4pm all year, admission free but donations welcome. Ffi: 0117 926 4740, www.newroombristol. org.uk • Part-museum, part-church, this is where John Wesley set up the first Methodist chapel in 1739. So, sitting rather incongruously in the middle of Broadmead, is pretty much the cradle of Methodism, which has 75 million adherents worldwide nowadays, and it all started with one man preaching in the open air to the poor of
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CHURCHES & CATHEDRALS Bristol and Kingswood. Wesley set up this place not long after, where, as well as holding services, there was a schoolroom and a dispensary for the poor. You can look round the chapel, see displays on the history of Methodism and look over JW’s living quarters (and also where his brother Charles, composer of hymns, stayed for a while), or hang out in the Broadmead Courtyard garden, a little haven of peace. Admission to The New Room is free, but groups can also pay for tours with expert guides – phone or see website for details. You can also book tours of Charles Wesley’s house on Charles Street (opposite the bus station), which isn’t normally open to the public, via the New Room. ST JOHN THE BAPTIST
Broad St, BS1 2EZ. Zone A. Open Mon-Thur 11am-2pm. Ffi: 0117 929 1766, tinyurl.com/6pq72oz • You know the little ancient archway thing between Broad Street and Nelson Street? See the spire over it? That’s part of this here church, the only remaining church built into Bristol’s city walls and traditionally a place where travellers prayed for a safe journey before setting off. It’s a really interesting, quite austere place, and with a spooky vaulted crypt underneath. A must-see, especially if you live/work in the middle of town and can just nip in. Complete your visit with a trip to the church graveyard, which is a couple of hundred yards away down Tailors Court, a lane next to Horts pub in Broad Street. You can’t go into the graveyard, but you can stare through the railings, and will find Tailors Court itself a bizarre and fascinating little alleyway. ST MARY REDCLIFFE
Redcliffe Way, BS1 6RA. Zone A. Usually open to public Mon-Sat 9am-5pm, Sun 8am-7.30pm. Ffi: www. stmaryredcliffe.co.uk • It dates back to medieval times, and benefited enormously from vast donations from the merchant classes. Elizabeth I famously called the place “The fairest, goodliest parish church in all of England”, though there’s not a shred of evidence she ever said anything of the sort. It was also here that 18th-century boy-genius Thomas Chatterton grew up, acquiring his taste for forgery by reading the church’s medieval documents. All these and many more historical resonances make it worth a visit; there’s the piece of whalebone Cabot’s meant to have brought back from Newfoundland, the memorial to the church cat in the graveyard or the lump of tram-rail embedded in the grass by a WW2 air raid. An absolute historic treasure which has more history than Bristol Cathedral, and which, like Bath Abbey, might look all grimy and gothic on the outside, but is startlingly beautiful on the inside. You might want to try a service here; the place is famed for its choral and organ music, and there are also regular concerts and recitals. Check website for dates. ST STEPHENS
St Stephen’s St, BS1 1EQ. Zone A. Usually open to the public Mon-Fri 9.30am-3pm. Ffi: www.saint-stephens. com • Another place rich in local lore and mystery. With its distinctive square tower, this was once right on the quayside, and so has lots of old shipping and merchant connections. Lots of office workers will also
know it because of its picturesque “garden” (actually the graveyard) and its popular café. Look at the stained glass on the West Window, bearing the arms of the Society of Merchant Venturers and of the Antient Society of St Stephens Ringers. Some folk will tell you the latter are a sinister elite inner circle of the Merchant Venturers, while others will tell you they’re merely a bunch of rich blokes who donate money to good causes and occasionally have a dinner. We couldn’t possibly comment.
Elsewhere GLOUCESTER CATHEDRAL
Gloucester, GL1 2LX. Zone D. Generally open 7.30am-6pm, recommended visiting times Sun are 11.45am-2.45pm if not attending a service. Requested donation of £5 per adult visitor. Ffi: 01452 528095, www.gloucestercathedral. org.uk • The original abbey was built in early Norman times on the site of an even earlier Anglo-Saxon monastic foundation. Much of the present building, though, was
PRIORY ARRANGEMENTS ● The oldest building in Bristol, fact fans, is St James Priory, near the Bearpit and round the back of the bus station, and the oldest part of it (the nave) dates back to the 1100s. It was part of a Benedictine monastery and the story goes that when Earl Robert of Gloucester, the Norman thug who basically owned Bristol, was building Bristol castle with stones shipped in from Normandy, every tenth stone was donated to the monks for their church. The place has a very rich history. Until the early 19th century there was a massive annual fair here where traders came from all over Europe to sell their wares and everyone got stinking drunk and had lots of fights and sex. It was banned by the council in the end, ostensibly over fears of cholera being spread by the crowds, but probably also because the corrupt council of rich men were terrified of any gatherings of large numbers of proles after the 1831 riots. Nowadays it’s run by the Roman Catholics, with a longstanding drug and alcohol recovery service. The old place was last year re-opened following a major restoration and refurb programme. It has a café, and the church, which retains many of its medieval features, is usually open from 10am to 5pm Mon-Sat. Even if you don’t do God or history, it’s a wonderfully tranquil space right in the middle of the city’s noise. Take a look next time you’re passing.
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CHURCHES & CATHEDRALS restored in the 19th century. Nonetheless, it’s pretty spectacular, and has a lot of history to show off, including the tomb of King Edward II. There are a number of tours and exhibitions on offer at extra cost, and it’s definitely worth shelling out the extra for the 260-step climb up the tower to see the medieval bell and the views over Gloucester and surrounding countryside. Part of ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ was filmed here, you know. MALMESBURY ABBEY
Malmesbury, Wilts, SN16 9BA. Zone C. Usually open daily 10am-5pm (10am-4pm in winter), suggested donation of £2 per person. Ffi: www.malmesburyabbey.com • A big church nestling in the ruins of a much bigger church and all in the middle of a very pleasant old Wiltshire market town (which would be pleasanter without cars, same old story). The abbey was founded in Anglo-Saxon times by St Aldhelm, one of the most attractive figures in West Country history, who evangelised the pagan masses by acting as your original Ton-Up Vicar, clowning, singing and telling jokes. For almost 1,000 years this was one of the most important religious buildings in the south of England. When Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries, the abbey spent the next 350 years gradually falling to pieces, even though it was still being used as the parish church. Twentieth-century restoration work stopped the rot, but there’s always plenty of work needs doing, so cough up when you visit. Don’t miss the exhibition of ancient documents and books upstairs, and, in the graveyard outside, look for the last resting place of Hannah Twynnoy, the only Malmesbury resident to have been mauled to death by a tiger. SALISBURY CATHEDRAL
Salisbury, Wilts. Zone D. Usually open daily 7.15am6.15pm (7.15pm 8 June-31 Aug) Mon-Sat, noon-4pm Sun, 2012 requested donation not confirmed, but last year was £5.50 adult/£4.50 senior, student/£3 ages 5-17/£13 family; requested donation including Tower Tour was £8.50 adult/£6.50 child, concs/£25 family. Ffi: 01722 555120, www.salisburycathedral.org.uk • Salisbury and Wells are the two essential stops on the region’s churchy tourism circuit, but Salisbury is the daddy. This is one of the greatest cathedrals in Europe, partly because it was almost all built in one go in the 13th century and has had very few bits added on since. The interior of the building is astonishing. Added attractions include guided tours of the tower (332 steps up a spiral staircase, extra charge) and England’s oldest working clock. In a special exhibition in the Chapter House you can see one of only four remaining copies of Magna Carta. Wonderful place, well worth the hefty admission donation because it takes immense amounts of money to maintain. If you want to make a long day of it, combine with a visit to Mompesson House (which is actually within the cathedral close) and/ or Stonehenge. WELLS CATHEDRAL
Wells. Zone B. Usually open daily 7am-7pm (closes 6pm Oct-Mar), requested donation of £6 adult/£4 senior/£3 child, student. Ffi: 01749 674483, www.wellscathedral.org.
uk • No other religious building in the area matches this magnificent and imposing medieval cathedral, steeped in history. While you’re about it, take a good wander around the outside. See the Vicars Close, for instance, which claims to be the oldest residential street in Europe with all its original buildings still standing intact. You might also want to take a look at the Bishop’s Palace and Gardens (open daily 10.30am-6pm May-Oct, shorter hours in winter, though gardens open all year, Gift Aid admission £7 adult/£6 age 60+/£5 conc/£3 age 5-18/£17 family. Ffi: 01749 678691, www.bishopspalacewells.co.uk). The Palace tends to get overlooked but it’s well worth it: a 13th-century building complete with moat and some very nice gardens. SMALLER CHURCHES
Aren’t old churches brilliant? Graves, memorials, statues and carvings will get you closer to the real people who once lived in any given community than guidebooks and histories can usually do. Or maybe you’re just into that architecture or ecclesiastical history thing. Either way, we’ve not got enough room to list all the places around here that are worth a look. For this, you need help. For books, Simon Jenkins’ England’s Thousand Best Churches (Penguin Books) is pretty good, though if you can get hold of it, The Shell Guide to English Parish Churches by Robert Harbison (1992) is the Days Out Guide’s reference of choice. If you prefer your day-tripping to have a romantic conservative flavour, you need dear old Arthur Mee’s The King’s England series; these countyby-county guides were compiled in the mid-20th century and so are mostly completely out-of-date, but they’re very good on every old parish church in the land, and most of them won’t have changed that much. There’s also a brilliant website (www.churchcrawler. co.uk) put together by an enthusiast that offers a good guide to Bristol churches. Destination Bristol, the local tourist office, also publish a leaflet called Sacred Bristol, outlining some local church highlights. If you can’t get hold of a copy, download from visitbristol.co.uk/site/ sacred-bristol If you are a regular churchgoer, or fancy giving it a try, the satirical/thoughtful Christian webzine Ship of Fools has a brilliant Mystery Worshipper feature where anonymous volunteers try out different church services and review them. There’s plenty from round here. See www.ship-of-fools.com/mystery/uk.html Finally, there’s The Churches Conservation Trust, which looks after hundreds of old Anglican churches around the country that are no longer used for regular worship. Many of these places are of great architectural or historic interest, and lots of them are hidden away in pleasant or obscure bits of countryside. Some are open to the public all the time and some can only be visited by getting in touch with a keyholder. They maintain dozens of them in Somerset, Glos and Wilts, and a few in Bristol – some of which are available for private hire and functions. Find out more at www.visitchurches.org.uk or look out for their county leaflets in your local tourist office. Punt them a few quid; preserving old churches as storehouses of local memory is a damn fine cause. And they’re all such nice people.
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TOWNS & VILLAGES Gloucestershire BIBURY
The Cotswolds are full of chocolate-box pretty villages, and this is one of the nicest, which of course means the place is crawling with daytrippers on sunny days, and even rainy ones. William Morris himself described this as his ideal of the perfect English village, with quaint old stone cottages and a stream running through the middle with trout in it. Best admired on a rainy day as this keeps the visitors away and brings the trout to the surface. BOURTON-ON-THE-WATER
Great big sprawling powerhouse of fun in the middle of the Cotswolds, which appears to have sprung up on the theory that several carloads of visitors will include children who won’t be content to admire the scenery and end the day with a nice cream tea. So Bourton has, among other things, the Birdland Park & Gardens (see Animals & Nature section) and loads of other attractions we’ve not had the space to list in this guide, including a model railway, the Fundays Playbarn, a model village (it’s a 1/100th scale model of Bourton, which of course includes a 1/1000th scale model of the model village!), a perfumery, the Cotswold Motor Museum & Toy Collection (www.csmaclubretreats.co.uk/museum) and the wonderful Dragonfly Maze, designed by Kit Williams. CHELTENHAM
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‘Nam is either one of the most civilised towns in England or one of the most snooty, depending on your PoV. This, after all, is a town which boasts a public school calling itself a “ladies’ college” with no apparent sense of irony. (Lara Croft™ was educated here, you know!) The old middle part of town is well posh, growing up in Regency times as a spa resort where the upper crust went to take the waters. These days, it’s very pleasant to wander round – it has some extremely impressive parks and the Art Gallery & Museum is very good (though closed for refurb this year). Cheltenham is also home to the Holst Birthplace Museum, the house where composer Gustav Holst was born in 1874, which has been restored to a late Victorian/Edwardian condition (www.holstmuseum.org. uk). Actually, the thing about Gloucestershire and the Cotswolds is that in the 19th and early 20th centuries they were home to a number of composers. The Days Out Guide loves them all, and will one year get round to making a list of pieces you should use as the soundtrack for driving/cycling round here. GLOUCESTER
It’s a bit of an irony that the county town of one of the wealthiest and most scenic counties in Britain is so shabby and run-down. Gloucester was always a working place, once a busy port and manufacturing centre, but that’s now long gone. The wealth of the world no longer comes into the docks, and the grubby pedestrian precinct in the middle is one of the most depressing in England. Nonetheless this is a proud and ancient town with a load of fascinating history, most of it involving real people rather than toffs. The medieval cathedral is the closest the place gets to glamorous
history and it really is well worth a visit. The docks have long since stopped being a working port, but they’re home to the Gloucester Waterways Museum (see Trains, Boats & Planes section) and the excellent Soldiers of Gloucestershire Museum (see www.glosters.org.uk). The Waterways Museum runs regular boat trips along the Sharpness Canal in summer. Again, this is of industrial, rather than scenic interest. TETBURY
The biggest town in the proximity of a lot of royal and aristocratic residences, so wear your Sunday best and tug that forelock. Nice pubs and some truly fabulous delis and food shops. Pack the cool box and take out a second mortgage if you’re passing this way. Interesting and very imposing church as well; see how rich this place got nearly 1,000 years ago on wool.
YES, YOU, TOO, CAN GET IN TO OXFORD! ● Oxfordshire. It’s only a little bit further on from Gloucestershire, and has some of the nicest (and poshest) villages in all of England. Maybe you want to try the lovely village of Burford (recently voted the sixth most desirable place to live in Europe by Forbes magazine), or maybe bomb down the road from there to Chipping Norton, where David Cameron hangs out with his chums Rebekah Brooks and Jeremy Clarkson. Say hello from us. And then there’s Oxford itself. There is never a good time to visit Oxford. In the winter it’s overrun by Chinese tourists, in term time it’s full of bloody students, and in summer it’s full of Europeans, Brits and Americans who love it here in your little old Englandshire. So you might as well make a weekend break of it in the summer when the weather might be nice. There are some wonderful pubs and restaurants, and when you’ve finished admiring all the ancient colleges and ruminating on gilded youth and such, there’s the very wonderful Ashmolean Museum, the very wonderful Bodleian Library, Modern Art Oxford and more. Oh, and that famous house with the shark going through the roof is at number 2 New High Street, Headington. It’s not just something daft, but was installed as a protest about nuclear weapons. Not a lot of people know that.
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TOWNS & VILLAGES Somerset BURNHAM-ON-SEA
Windblown seaside resort that’s seen better days and which now mostly seems to function as a commuter dormitory for Bristol, as well as a location for the thousands upon thousands of caravans that constitute a weekend retreat for (mostly) folks from the Midlands. That said, the town has a lot of that shabby charisma you get from old seaside towns that have seen better days. CHEDDAR
Famous for cheese (though don’t expect to find a massive industry or a cheese factory) and for the amazing Gorge and caves. A fair bit of the local economy is geared to catering for day-trippers staying at nearby seaside resorts, so although it’s not near the water, it has a lot of the feel of a seaside town to it. Well, it has a lot of sweet shops and souvenir shops. Cheddar is a good starting-point for anyone wanting to explore the Mendips, whether by car, bike, or foot. See the Mendip Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty website at www.mendiphillsaonb.org.uk for ideas. Sooner or later everyone should visit the nearby Velvet Bottom (on account of its bizarre landscape of ancient lead workings, and not just because it sounds like a brand of Japanese toilet paper). CLEVEDON
Weston’s smaller and more upmarket relative became a resort in Victorian times, but then so did every other seaside town in the land. Clevedon’s central area retains a lot of character and charm and has a civically active population. Not many other places can boast of achievements like the fabulous restored pier, or of supporting the wonderful Curzon Cinema, the oldest still-functioning, purpose-built cinema in the world. Some interesting little shops, pleasant cafes, a breezy seafront and that wonderful pier (www.clevedonpier. com) all make Clevedon a viable outing from Bristol/ Bath and a good Sunday hangover cure. There are also pleasant coastal walks both to the north and south of the seafront that are worth exploring. Alf Lord Tennyson and W Makepiece Thackeray both hung out here in their time, you know. DULVERTON
The ‘Gateway to Exmoor’, they do say. Charming little village with a stream running through the middle, nestling in some lovely green countryside. Nice little museum of local life. It also boasts a truly wonderful tea shop and an astonishingly good secondhand bookshop. While you’re about it, the Dulverton National Park Centre is a neat little museum of local life, and has lots of useful history and visitor info for Exmoor. The Days Out Guide would like to live here, but can’t afford it. DUNSTER
See Dunster Castle, get the West Somerset Railway to Minehead, and wander around the ancient village with
its trademark medieval yarn market. Go on a weekday to avoid the crowds. Dunster’s also a good jumping-off point for adventures on Exmoor. If you have the time, money and inclination, exmoorwildlifesafaris.co.uk do Land Rover-borne exploration of the hidden and obscure bits of Exmoor, looking at ponies and deer and stuff, going from Dunster and Dulverton. The Days Out Guide did it on a very rainy day and got the impression it’d be dead good in the sunshine. GLASTONBURY
Considering its reputation and its vast amount history and legend, Glastonbury is surprisingly small and unshowy. Nothing more than a little market town, really. But there’s loads to explore – climb the Tor, visit the Chalice Well and the Somerset Rural Life Museum and, of course, the ruins of the Abbey. You’d be a complete deadhead not to get something out of visiting a town that was a spiritual centre to our pagan ancestors and went on to become the cradle of English Christianity. It’s also possible to argue that this is the cradle of the English nation itself – with the legend of Arthur and the fact that it was a few miles from here where King Alfred gathered “the men of Somerset all” to defeat the Danes. While it’s still an important centre of Christian pilgrimage, it’s the New Age crowd who tend to be more visible, with several hippy shops and a couple of cafés. From here, you might then want to go on to Street – see below. MELLS
Easily one of the most 9 beautiful old villages in England. There’s a highly regarded gastro-pub (the Talbot Inn) and the place is particularly rich in First World War resonances. The church has a beautiful memorial to the last male member of the Horner family, who was killed in WW1, and Siegfried Sassoon is buried in the churchyard. The Horners’ fortunes were founded by one John Horner, who grabbed the local manor when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries – hence the nursery rhyme about Little Jack Horner pulling himself a plum. A walk from here to nearby Great Elm is very lovely. PRIDDY
Gorgeous Mendip village with some fabulous pubs and an excellent starting/finishing point for walking adventures. Also home to the hugely popular Priddy Folk Festival and the famous Priddy Sheep Fair, which has been going continuously since 1348. STREET
Compare and contrast with Glastonbury, its nearest neighbour. If Glasto is all spiritual, Street is its polar opposite. For centuries the town was dominated by the shoe industry run by the Clark family, who were Quakers and very paternalistic and conscientious employers. You can find out all about it from the Shoe Museum (admission free) in the High Street. The town is now utterly dominated by Clarks Shopping Village, set up on the old factory site. It’s fairly tacky, obviously, but well worth a look if you’re in the neighbourhood and are looking for competitively-priced clothing and footwear. Oh yes.
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TOWNS & VILLAGES TAUNTON
The capital of Somerset used to be your classic English county town – proud, slightly snooty and with bags of tradition and character. Well, the internal combustion engine, several complicated traffic schemes and umpteen new housing and industrial estates have put paid to that. You also want to think twice about going into town on a Saturday night, specially if the Royal Marines are in, but there are still a few shops, pubs and cafés where you can catch glimpses of its former glory. It’s also home to the Museum of Somerset in Taunton Castle, which is free to get into and which also includes the Somerset Military Museum. WELLS
The fact that it’s dominated by the cathedral and Bishop’s Palace mustn’t put you off exploring the rest of this pleasant town (technically a city) perched on the edge of the Mendips. It’s good for foodie pubs, even better for tea-shops and has a nice old-fashioned feel to it. The thriving main street is full of real shops, while Wed and Sat are market days, when you can buy all manner of exotic things. Visiting Wells is like visiting the 1950s. Also, ‘Hot Fuzz’ was filmed here. WESTON-SUPER-MARE
Back in your parents’ or grandparents’ time it was a glamorous and even rather racy place, and even though it’s no longer the go-to seaside resort of days gone by, Weston is still greatly loved by Bristolians (and Westonians, one assumes) and a10 lot has been spent nicing it up. The large, airy prom looks a whole lot better now than it did 10 years ago. It’s a grand day out and you can get there easily by train or bus. The main attraction, of course, is the Grand Pier (www.grandpier.co.uk), which was destroyed by fire in 2008, but has since been rebuilt and given a serious overhaul in the process. Open every day, except Christmas Day, the revamped pier now bills itself as an “indoor theme park” and boasts attractions ranging from theme park rides, Edwardian-style tea rooms and a 4D cinema to trad seaside favourites like dodgems, gokarts and arcade games. You can even get married in the Pavilion at the end, should you so wish. Besides, if you can’t get off on eating candy floss and playing the penny falls once in a while, you have no soul.
Wiltshire BRADFORD ON AVON
Nice little town with loads of history (don’t miss the bridge or the tiny Anglo-Saxon church) and quite a lot of quaint little arty/crafty shops. Good stopping-off/ starting-off point for adventures into the surrounding countryside. All the pubs are brilliant. CASTLE COMBE
Best known as the home of the racing circuit (www. castlecombecircuit.co.uk) where you can go and play with some fantastic toys for big boys. The thing is, though, the village is to-die-for. Nearby Lacock is the loveliest village
Lacock: steeped in history
in the West, but Castle Combe runs it damn close, so it’s well worth stopping at for a wander through if you’re passing. LACOCK
Home of the National Trust’s Lacock Abbey and the Fox Talbot Museum of photography, but if you don’t fancy paying to visit them, just wander this film-set-perfect village frozen in time – the whole place was acquired wholesale by the NT in 1944. Of course it gets rammed in the high season, and even on sunny weekdays in the spring tends to be overrun by coachloads of foreign schoolkids. MALMESBURY
Despite almost being ruined by bloody cars, Malmesbury is still a very attractive small town. There’s the half-ruined, half-occupied Abbey, the Abbey House Gardens, a lovely water meadow and a high street full of real shops, and a goodly selection of ancient-looking pubs. The place does make a bit of a fetish of its huge amount of history, but you can’t blame it because there’s so much of it, and a lot of it’s pretty weird. SALISBURY
Like every one of those great English county towns of yore, it’s suffered unsympathetic development and stupid road schemes, but the town centre is OK to wander around, there’s a tolerable riverside walk with ducks and stuff, and the cathedral is spectacular. The National Trustrun Mompesson House is elegant (play croquet on the lawn on some weekends in season) and there’s all manner of interesting smaller places to see, from the Wilton Carpet factory to the Wardrobe military museum.
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TOURS & GUIDED WALKS NB For boat and train tours, see the Trains, Boats & Planes section.
Bath BIZARRE BATH
Runs every night 28 March-27 Oct, meet 8pm at Huntsman Inn, North Parade Passage, £8 adult/£5 student. No need to pre-book. Ffi: 01225 335124, www. bizarrebath.co.uk • Everyone should do this! It’s not actually a guided tour of Bath’s historic highlights at all, but a 90-minute outdoor comedy performance, with added walking. If your guides Noel Britten and/or JJ don’t have you in stitches, then your English obviously isn’t up to scratch. Not designed for children, but not unsuitable for them either. Older kids will love it. CITY SIGHTSEEING BATH
Buses depart from High St, nr Abbey Churchyard, in peak season every 15-20 mins from 9.30am daily until 5.30/6pm-ish, £12.50 adult/£10.50 senior, student/£7 age 5-15/£28.50 family. Ffi: 01225 330444, www.citysightseeing.com • Worth a punt, even if you’re a Bath native because if you’ve never explored your home town from the top deck of a bus, you’ve only seen half the old place. Your ticket price actually gets you two tours. There’s your basic City Tour, which in 50 minutes does the Roman Baths, Abbey, Assembly Rooms and such. Then there’s the Bath Skyline Tour (45 mins), which takes in Claverton Down, the Uni and Prior Park Landscape Garden. A very pleasant and informative outing. GHOST WALKS OF BATH
Thur, Fri & Sat all year round, starts from near Garrick’s Head pub, St John’s Place (next to Theatre Royal), 8pm, £7 adult/£5 child, senior, student. No need to pre-book, unless you’re coming in a group of 10 or more. Ffi: 01225 350512, www.ghostwalksofbath.co.uk • Probably Bath’s most celebrated guided tour, lasting about two hours and taking in the city’s extraordinary wealth of spooky stories. If you’re around later in the year, book a place on their famous Halloween Night Walk, but do it early as they always sell out well in advance. JANE AUSTEN TOURS
Every Sat & Sun (also BHMs) leaving Abbey Churchyard 11am (also 4pm Fri & Sat in July & Aug), £6 adult/£5 concs. Ffi: 01225 443000, www.janeausten.co.uk • Ninety-minute walking tour organised by the Jane Austen Centre, taking in all the places of Austenian interest in the central part of the city. No need to pre-book. MAYOR’S CORPS OF HONORARY GUIDES
Meet Abbey Churchyard, outside Roman Baths, daily 10.30am, also 2pm daily except Sat, also 7pm Tue & Fri from May-Sept, free. Ffi: www.bathguides.org.uk • Excellent crash-course in Bath’s history. Approx two-hour walk around the centre of the city takes us from ancient and medieval times, through the 18th-century golden age and onwards, all free of charge. You can also book a tour for groups of 12 or more by emailing (at least four weeks in advance) mayor’s_parlour@bathnes.gov.uk or tel 01225 477411.
Bristol BRISTOL MUSEUMS SERVICE
Ffi: www.bristol.gov.uk/museums • Runs a small programme of walks over the summer months, most of them aimed at adults wanting to find out more about local history. Numbers are limited, and they should be booked in advances. For details, visit website or get a leaflet from your local library or tourist information centre. BRISTOL UNIVERSITY
Ffi: www.bris.ac.uk/events • Bristol University runs a huge programme of events through the year – lectures, music recitals and indeed guided walks, plus tours of its various facilities and buildings. While places on most of these events will need advance booking, the majority of them are completely free. Whatever tickles your brain, Bristol Uni has it, and it is completely possible to live a life of intellectual indulgence for nowt. Take a look at the events page on the website – chances are that you’ll find several things that’ll really interest you. BRISTOL & SOUTH WEST TOUR GUIDES
Ffi: 0117 968 4638, www.bristolwalks.co.uk • Run their well-established ‘Bristol Highlights’ walks every Saturday through the season from April to the end of Sept. Meet 11am at the Tourist Information Centre, Canons Road, price £5, under-12s free, no need to book in advance. The guides also do other local tours which can be booked by arrangement. These include Medieval Bristol (which is dead interesting), Bristol’s wine trade, the Clifton Suspension Bridge and more. CITY SIGHTSEEING BRISTOL
Ffi: 09006 711 2191 (NB calls charged 50p per minute plus network extras), www.bristolvisitor.co.uk • Much-loved local institution, heaped with praise and award nominations, and due to carry its 400,000th passenger sometime in 2012. There are circular open-top bus tours of the city taking in the Centre, At-Bristol, Temple Meads, St Mary Redcliffe, the ss Great Britain, Clifton and the Zoo, and you can hop off at any point, then get back on again later. You can buy tickets that are valid for one, two or three days, or a Bus & Boat combo ticket which means you can use the Ferry Boat Co. as well. Tours run from 10am-4pm daily from AprilSept (weekends only in March & Oct) every 45 minutes or so, with more frequent services in school holidays, and all feature live commentary telling you about places of interest. All tickets will also get you discounted fares on the Bristol Ferry Boat Co and the Bristol Packet, as well as discounts at various other attractions and local eating/ drinking places. Modern children who don’t get to go on a bus very often, especially a bus without a roof, will adore it. Pack a picnic and you’ve got a fabulous and relatively inexpensive weekday adventure during the school holidays. Timetable details and prices vary, so see website for details. HAUNTED & HIDDEN BRISTOL
Departs 8pm most Fridays throughout the year from outside Bristol Cathedral, College Green – advance booking essential, £5 adult/£4 concs/£3 child. Ffi & booking: 07766 258407, www.hauntedandhiddenbristol.com • Very popular
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TOURS & GUIDED WALKS walk taking in some of Bristol’s most haunted buildings, as well as a few famous TV and movie locations and some celebrity tales. Private tours can also be booked. The same firm also offers open-top bus tours of Bristol locations connected with music, film and telly, though these ‘Rock ‘n’ Reel’ tours need to be booked in groups. See www. rocknreelbristol.co.uk PIRATE WALK
Every Sat & Sun 2pm, also group bookings by appointment, meet by the black beetle sculpture, Millennium Sq, £7.50 adult/£3.50 child/£15 family. Ffi: 07950 566483, www. piratewalks.com • Yarr! Bristol’s colourful seafaring heritage brought to life by the irrepressible Pirate Pete with a tour of the city’s pirate haunts; Bristol does indeed have a rich and complex history of pirately deeds, but Pete’s emphasis is very much on entertainment. All good, clean, wholesome and very bloodthirsty family fun. Phone to check availability on the day you want to do it. WALKING BRISTOL
Meet Sat 11am, Royal Marriott Hotel, College Green, Bristol, BS1 5TA, free. Ffi: walkingbristol.com • Free three-hour tour of the city’s highlights, with a half-hour stop at St Nick’s Market for a Pieminister pie. Runs most Saturdays, but check via website to confirm. This is a new one this year, so we’ve not had any feedback yet, but a free tour and a Pieminister pie (which one assumes is not free) sounds pretty good to us.
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DO IT YOURSELF… There are plenty of tours you don’t need a guide for, and the nearest Tourist Information Centre or website will have plenty of them, some of them free. Bristol Tourist Information Centre and some local bookshops should have copies of the venerable Bristol Heritage Trail (RRP £2.95), a walk around town which fills you in on a lot of the highways and byways of the Bristol story. The TI Centre and maybe some other places should also have the Bristol Slave Trade Trail (RRP £2.95). Compiled in 1998, its authors include Madge Dresser, Bristol’s leading historical expert on the trade. The same places might also have copies of the Bristol Harbour Heritage Trail compiled in 2009 for the 200th anniversary of the Floating Harbour. This wonderful (free!) booklet has five walks looking at different aspects of the harbour. If you can’t get hold of one of the booklets, no worries; it’s all online on a website. Go to www. bristolfloatingharbour.org.uk for downloadable harbour walks. It also has nature trails around the docks and Brandon Hill. For the star-struck, there’s Bath’s Movie Map which points out notable film and telly locations in the Georgian City. Almost all of them costume dramas, of course. Download a PDF at tinyurl.com/ylkkrkw The Bath tourist office website also has a tour of Jane Austen’s Bath in MP3 format at http://visitbath.co.uk/ janeausten/audio-tour Download it to your MP3, put your best crinoline on, and away you go. VisitBath also have a Bath World Heritage Site audio tour taking you round the city’s highlights. This is downloadable at tinyurl. com/77r6xlu Please note that both the Jane Austen and
Heritage Site tours require you to register and give some personal details, which some will find irritating. The Bristol tourism website at www.visitbristol.co.uk has five free MP3 tours to download, namely Bristol Quayside Adventure, The Brunel Mile & City Docks, The Bristol Heritage Walk, The Bristol Churches Trail, The Slave Trade Trail and the newest addition, a Bristol Literary Trail. To download these go to tinyurl.com/bristol-mp3-tours There are a couple of excellent walks done in 2006 for Brunel’s 200th birthday: one on Brunel’s Dockside and one on Victorian Bristol. These are downloadable as PDFs or Word docs from www.bristolreads.com/tours.htm Off the conventional tourist track, Bristol East Side Traders, which promotes business and regeneration in the inner city, has two circular MP3 guided walks, one of Easton and one of St Pauls, with information on historic buildings and events, plus interviews with residents and music and poetry from local artists. Download from www.visiteastside. co.uk/walk/
APPS THE WAY TO DO IT ● A number of smartphone app guided tours are now starting to become available, though probably fewer than you expected. Most, of course, are designed just for the iPhone, but by this time next year there’ll probably be loads for other platforms, too. A quick search of the Android Market down the last few weeks suggests the numbers are starting to grow; there’s an Android tour of Banksy’s Bristol, for instance, which is also available on iPhone. We’ve not done it, but the reviews look positive. But for now, how about: Bristol: The Blitz and the City We Lost is an iPhone tour of central Bristol looking at the Blitz and post-war development, price £1.79 and a work of towering genius because the Days Out Guide wrote it. See tinyurl.com/756dfwk Bristol University walking tour is aimed at students, their mummies and daddies and visitors alike, showing you round the uni and interesting places close by. You can also get it in MP3 or printout map. See www.bristol.ac.uk/university/visit/ walking-tour.html The Jane Austen Tour of Bath is dead good. Includes period music, a bit of storytelling and drama and mystery thrown in. iPhone only, mind, price £2.99. See tinyurl.com/bwfkxld Bristol Official City Guide is a free iPhone app, a sort of virtual tourist brochure, but still quite useful. See tinyurl.com/74s76ht A Time Traveller’s Guide to Bristol is an astonishing look at Bristol down the ages using old and new pictures and movie footage, but again, it’s only for iPhone. But it is free. See tinyurl. com/3tclauk And for the web version see www. atimetravellersguide.com
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ACTIVE OUTINGS So there’s a birthday circled on the kitchen calendar and you need a suitably celebratory shindig to do the occasion justice? And you’d like the birthday girl/boy/ mum/dad’s ticker to tick a little quicker? You’ve come to the right place! Whether it’s racing huskies, flying falcons, Segway rallying, caving through waterfalls, scaling climbing nets or zipping 80m through the air, these here offerings promise red letter days that’ll put the colour in their cheeks, a smile on their face and memories lasting decades made on very special days.
Activity Centres, Caving and Climbing ACTIVE EXMOOR
FfI: www.activeexmoor.com • Exmoor National Park covers 267 square miles of beautiful countryside from North Devon to West Somerset, all of it within easy reach of Bristol and Bath. Active Exmoor’s website and newsletter are the perfect guide to a huge range of activities across the national park, from gentle walks taking in spectacular scenery to more energetic pursuits such as surfing, mountain biking and white water rafting. ADVENTUROUS ACTIVITY COMPANY
Ffi: 0117 925 3188, www.adventurousactivitycompany. co.uk • Specialise in custom-designed activity trips for up to 150 people. Their Bristol Adventure Days see you canoeing in the docks, climbing/abseiling in Avon Gorge and mountain biking at Ashton Court, while their Bristol Urban Challenge is a city-based treasure hunt.
Caving at Rock UK Summit Centre.
and abilities. Over 150 routes plus a soft-floored bouldering area. Trips run to Avon Gorge and various outdoor locations. NICAS – National Indoor Climbing Achievement Scheme – initiative allows climbers aged 10-18 to monitor their progress. CASTLE QUARRY ACTIVITY CENTRE
Tytherington, South Glos. Ffi: 01454 411474, www. castlequarry.org.uk • Geronimo! An 80m aerial runway is among the attractions (which also include indoor climbing, archery, shooting, canoeing and caving) at this activity centre in a stunning natural setting. CATTLE COUNTRY ADVENTURE PARK
Lyncombe Drive, Churchill, Somerset. Ffi: 01934 852335, www.avonski.co.uk • Multi-activity centre offering everything from dry-slope skiing, snowboarding and tobogganing to mountain boarding, power kiting, archery and air rifles. Can also arrange climbing.
Berkeley Heath Farm, Berkeley, Glos. Ffi: 01453 810510, www.cattlecountry.co.uk • Four-legged attractions include cattle, Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs and wallabies with bottle-feeding of some animals offered at certain times during the year. Nippers looking to scale the heights get their own mock-up of Berkeley Castle complete with 40ft zip wire and a similarly high climbing net billed as the UK’s largest.
BHP INSPIRING EVENTS
THE CLIMBING ACADEMY
AVON SKI AND ACTION CENTRE
The Old Stables, Box Hedge Farm, Coalpit Heath, Bristol. Ffi: 0808 197 1254, www.bhpinspiringevents. co.uk • Specialises in team-building and development packages for individuals, stags and hens and corporate groups, including quad biking, archery, helicopter flights and a high ropes course. Hen cottage weekends come with pampering spa treatments and cocktail making; studio packages see you record a CD. BLACK MOUNTAIN ACTIVITIES
Three Cocks, nr Hay on Wye, Powys. Ffi: 01497 847897, www.blackmountain.co.uk • Climbing, abseiling, caving, kayaking, raft building, gorge scrambling, white water rafting, clay pigeon shooting, paintballing, archery and team building in the Black Mountains. BRISTOL CLIMBING CENTRE
St Werburghs Church, Mina Rd, Bristol. Ffi: 0117 941 3489, www.undercover-rock.com • Renowned centre offering indoor climbing suitable for all ages
Charlton St, Bristol. Ffi: 0117 907 2956, www. theclimbingacademy.com • Opened in 2008 and offering over 750sq m of climbing wall (complete with more than 200 regularly changing problems). Impressive bouldering provision plus onsite facilities including changing room, showers, lockers and a CCTVprotected bicycle shed. GLOUCESTER SKI & SNOWBOARD CENTRE
Robinswood Hill, Gloucester. Ffi: 01452 501438, www. gloucesterski.com • Tutorial and recreational snow sport for all, from age six upwards, at one of the country’s largest outdoor ski slopes. Fun park includes a quarter pipe. MENDIP OUTDOOR PURSUITS
The Warehouse, Silver St, Congresbury, North Somerset. Ffi: 01934 834877, www.mendipoutdoorpursuits.co.uk • Tailor-made adventure activities for groups and individuals, including caving, abseiling, raft building,
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ACTIVE OUTINGS BRISTOL TRAILS GROUP
Ffi: 07712 650857, www.bristoltrailsgroup.com • Friendly group repairing and maintaining local mountain bike trails – an excellent way to get involved and meet fellow off-roaders. Get down and dirty digging twice monthly at busier times of the year. BRITISH TRUST FOR CONSERVATION VOLUNTEERS
Create Centre, Smeaton Rd, Bristol. Ffi: 0117 929 1624, www.btcv.org/avon • Keep fit and help the environment simultaneously. BTCV’s midweek and weekend groups are a perfect ethical work-out, involving anything from woodland clearing to drystone walling and tree planting. Also offers level I and II courses for 16-18 year-olds and adults.
Motorsport CASTLE COMBE RACING CIRCUIT
Castle Combe Circuit, Chippenham. Ffi: 01249 782929/782417, www.castlecombecircuit.co.uk • Make like the numerous F1 legends who’ve driven here with an awesome Formula Ford racing car drive or get gritty action at the rally school. Motorcycle and car track days, too; bring your own. DRIVE TECH AT CASTLE COMBE
Castle Combe Circuit, Chippenham, Wilts. Ffi: 01249 783010, www.drivetechltd.co.uk • Public and corporate Land Rover off-roading, skidpan driving and (adults and junior) karting.
8 Mush! Run a husky team at Artic Quest.
kayaking, open canoeing, assault courses, climbing, archery, hill walking and orienteering. ROCK UK SUMMIT CENTRE
The Old Drift Mine, Trelewis, Treharris, Glamorgan. Ffi: 01443 710090, www.rockuk.org • Former drift mine that’s home to 18m climbing walls offering over 180 climbing routes plus bouldering facilities and an excellent manmade caving system complete with waterfall. Onsite accommodation.
Conservation & Volunteering AVON WILDLIFE TRUST
32 Jacobs Wells Rd, Bristol. Ffi: 0117 917 7270, www. avonwildlifetrust.org.uk • Regular Wednesday and Sunday conservation events at the Trust’s 35 reserves across the former Avon area plus grassland restoration on Tuesdays helping farmers restore old hedgerows etc. BRISTOL CONSERVATION VOLUNTEERS
Ffi: 0117 942 3688 • Manual nature conservation work (woodland work, fencing, ditch-digging etc) and related activities (open days, guided walks) on nature reserves and farms.
MENDIPS RACEWAY
Warrens Hill Rd, Shipham, Cheddar, Somerset. Ffi: 01963 220028, www.mendipsraceway.com • There’s thunder in them thar hills! Opened in 1969 and bringing hearty, stock car and banger racing to excited spectators ever since. Niche attractions in a packed calendar include limo, hearse, Reliant Robin and caravan races. SEGWAY EVENTS
Ffi: www.segwayevents.co.uk • The Segway experience comes to Days Out’s pages for the first time. Several weekends from late April onwards will see these fascinating personal transporters brought to a circuit at the National Diving Activity Centre near Chepstow. If you’re over 134cm tall, get in touch and give one a go.
Horse riding BARTON END STABLES
Barton End, Nailsworth, Glos. Ffi: 01453 834915, www. bartonendstables.co.uk • Rated by DO’s researchers for a top equine experience. Over 40 horses (plus riding simulator ‘Charlie’) on hand for giddy-up enjoyment across two all-weather floodlit schools, a showjumping area and mini cross country course. Hacking ranges from 30 minutes to four hours via 15 routes.
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ACTIVE OUTINGS Paintballing HAMBURGER HILL
Common Wood, Pensford, nr Bristol. Ffi: 0845 260 3993, www.hamburgerhill.co.uk/www.paintballbristol.co.uk • One of Venueland’s leading paintball locations, with 14 (count ’em) zones and even a downed Sikorsky adding to the authentic action.
Watersports COTSWOLD WATER PARK
An area of 40 square miles within Glos and Wilts, north of Swindon and south of Cirencester. Ffi: 01793 752413, www.waterpark.org • This huge expanse of outdoor fun extends over more than 150 lakes connected by pathways, bridleways and cycleways. The park’s numerous activities include diving, sailing, waterskiing, windsurfing and good old-fashioned paddling. while its Gateway Centre, an information centre off the Swindon-Cirencester A419, is housed in a sustainable oak building with the South West’s largest photovoltaic roof. It’s heated and cooled by the lake’s energy and is home to one of only two mammoth skulls ever found in England!
Miscellaneous THE AMAZING HEDGE PUZZLE
wonder of working with these inspirational, irresistible animals (there are six here) via the chance to run your own husky team. Campfire included. Ages six upwards, one punter said, “Thank you so much for a brilliant birthday morning, we really enjoyed ourselves and the huskies are beautiful.” Mush! BRISTOL ICE RINK
Frogmore St, Bristol. Ffi: 0117 929 2148, www.jnll.co.uk • Ice skating seven days a week until 10.30pm, perfect for work dos and parties. GO APE!
Mallards Pike Lane, Forest of Dean, Glos. Ffi: 0845 643 9215, www.goape.co.uk • Explore beautiful woodland and lakeside scenery while the little (and big) kids run amok on Tarzan swings, rope bridges, zip slides and more, all at 40ft above the forest floor. PHOENIX LEISURE
Ffi: www.phoenixleisure.co.uk • And now for something completely different! This innovative events company offers a range of traditional field and country sports making for a wilfully out there day out for workmates, family or any band of like-minded merrymakers. Duck herding, sheep herding and axe throwing are among the extraordinarily diverse pursuits staged, with locations arranged at punters’ convenience.
Symonds Yat West, Herefordshire. Ffi: 01600 890360, www.mazes.co.uk • Over 1km of hedge makes the maze here utterly ace. Other attractions include a maze museum, butterfly zoo, miniature golf and a wellstocked puzzle shop. Bring a picnic and make a day of it. Online booking offer.
RAPTORCARE
ARCTIC QUEST
Ffi: 01872 263692, www.treasuretrails.co.uk • Download or receive in the post a treasure trail making for an engaging pursuit for all the family. Over 900 trails offered nationally with around 25-30 per county.
Croft Farm, Bredon’s Hardwicke, Bredon, Tewkesbury, Glos. Ffi: 07968 794758, www.arcticquest.co.uk • Husky riding! In Gloucestershire! Experience the unalloyed
Ffi: 01454 294258, www.raptorcare.co.uk • South9 Gloucestershire-based falconer Tony Bryant and his impressive raptors educate, engage and amaze young and old alike. TREASURE TRAILS
Fulfil your ambition to herd ducks with Phoenix Leisure.
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FURTHER AFIELD DORSET
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Dorset. It looks near enough on the map, don’t it? Ha! Look at the map again. Look at the roads. In the south-west peninsula, it’s easy enough to drive west to east and vice versa, but north-south is harder. That’s why Dorset seems psychologically further away from Bristol or Bath than Cornwall does. There’s one way round it, and that’s to take the train. The so-called Heart of Wessex line runs from Bristol via Bath, all the way to Weymouth. It’s one of the nicest rail journeys in the south of England, with several stops en route if you want to get off for some walking or exploring (find more at www.heartofwessex.org.uk – there are several guided walks through the season), and it ends up in a nice, big, proper old seaside town with lots of fun for all the family. If you’re going in the car, Dorset has loads to offer. Nice little roads and some interesting little towns. Try Sherborne, a rather posh place with an old-fashioned ‘county town’ feel and a fascinating abbey, plus a castle built by Sir Walter Raleigh. Or Dorchester – you’ve got to do Dorchester if you’re into Thomas Hardy novels (nice Hardy section in the county museum). Dorchester is also home to little museums with fake ancient Egyptian stuff and fake Chinese terracotta warriors, which are expensive to get into and hugely (and quite inexplicably) popular. Halfway between Sherborne and Dorchester is Cerne Abbas, home of the well-endowed ancient gentleman carved into a nearby hillside. It’s obviously worth stopping, although be warned that your photographs will always be disappointing unless you hire a helicopter. (BTW, they do say that couples who want to have a baby should shag by moonlight within the boundaries of the giant cock, but we couldn’t possibly comment. If lots of people are trying this during the same full moons, then we’re getting awful close to dogging. And what if people congress with the wrong partner in the dark? It doesn’t bear thinking about.) While there, don’t miss the village of Cerne Abbas itself, which is also very lovely. Poole is good, too – a big unpretentious seaside resort. From Poole you can get to Brownsea Island, where BadenPowell started off that boy-scouting thing. Brownsea Island was the site of the first-ever scout camp in history. The National Trust owns the island and it’s one of the few remaining habitats in the south of England for red squirrels, though if you do actually see any, you should feel quite lucky. The other thing you shouldn’t miss about Dorset is Chesil Beach, which is the name for the rocky-topebbly beach that constitutes most of its coastline. You can’t build sandcastles, but a lot of it is very quiet and unspoiled. CORNWALL
Every summer the little narrow roads and country
Durdle Door on Dorset’s very lovely coast.
lanes are crammed full of grockles and surfers and camper vans and lycra-clad loons on bikes and drunken hoorays and drunken chavs (depending on location) fornicating and puking on the beach… Cornwall is too damn popular, so visit in term-time. Apart from beaches and seafood and pubs, you visit Cornwall for the gardens and plants. Kernow, with its own noticeably different climate to the rest of us, has some of the finest and most interesting gardens in England. Think Lanhydrock, Trelissick, Trerice and Cotehele (all National Trust) and the legendary Lost Gardens of Heligan (www.heligan. com) and the equally amazing Trebah Gardens (www.trebah-garden.co.uk). Also, though it’s actually just over the border in Devon, one of the Days Out Guide’s favourite gardens is at Hartland Abbey (www.hartlandabbey.com), next to the very lovely rugged coast at Hartland Point, which offers some excellent walking. The most famous greenery in Cornwall these days is at the Eden Project (www.edenproject.com) – like the beaches, this shouldn’t be visited on sunny days during the peak holiday season. It can get horribly hot in those big greenhouse thingies. And (see Wales section) the National Botanic Garden of Wales is nicer, easier to get to and less crowded. But yes, OK, Cornwall is brilliant provided you’re not in a car and can find a corner of it to yourself. DEVON
Devon is wonderful. All of it. Apart from Ilfracombe. Ilfracombe could be lovely, but it’s tacky. Plymouth has a reputation as a rough old place, and doubtless there are parts of it which could do with some serious love. On the other hand, the old central parts of town have undergone a huge transformation in recent years, especially around the old waterfront area. There’s marinas, bars, restaurants, and some fascinating little shops and old streets to explore,
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FURTHER AFIELD particularly around the Barbican area. Last year we spent two hours in a wonderful shop that specialises in selling weird old junk, from furniture to military uniforms. Plymouth has lots of things for the daytripper; lots of history, particularly of the naval kind, and then there’s the National Marine Aquarium (www.national-aquarium.co.uk). There are some beautiful seaside towns on the north and south coasts, and what people tend to forget is that most of them have a wonderfully oldfashioned feel, as though you’ve just arrived here on your holidays by steam train sometime in the 1950s. And yeah, actually, you do wonder why anyone in their right mind would want to spend a week in some crowded Spanish resort when they could be in Dartmouth, Sidmouth, Torbay, Lynton/Lynmouth or Salcombe instead. Assuming the sun’s out, of course. Possibly the loveliest place in all of Devon though is Clovelly, a former fishing village a few miles south-west of Westward Ho! Clovelly remains car-free and all of the buildings in the village are repaired using only traditional materials. The cliffs which surround the village are draped in woodland which make them ideal for wildlife watching. Inland, there is, of course, Exeter, a place which would be perfect if it wasn’t for its redeveloped post-war city centre, but which many people will tell you is a wonderful place with loads of history and culture. And moors. Anyone completely stuck for a day-long countryside adventure from Bristol/Bath should simply point the vehicle at Exmoor and see what happens. HAMPSHIRE
Like Dorset, Hants is further away than it looks, and it’s the sort of place that attracts visitors and residents who enjoy being in traffic jams. But there Dickens’s Birthplace, Portsmouth
are plenty of places which are a very pleasant day out from round these parts. There’s the New Forest, for instance; narrower roads and more Bank Holiday crowds than the F. of Dean, but loads to see and do, from tree-related activities to sports and stately homes. See www.thenewforest.co.uk Towns? Well there’s Southampton, a fine old town, though not usually thought of as a tourist destination, unlike, say, Winchester, the county town, the ancient capital of the kingdom of Wessex, with its cathedral and castle and lots of old bits to admire. Definitely worth a visit, as indeed is Portsmouth. Like its naval sister Plymouth, Pompey isn’t nearly as crap as it used to be, although obviously if you want to find yourself a fight on Saturday night, you still can. A great deal of money and thought’s gone into regenerating many of the old bits to turn the place into “England’s leading waterfront attraction”. As a day out from BristolandBath, or a long weekend, it’s a serious prospect, with the added bonus that rail links are easy. It’s also supposed to be one of the most cycle-friendly towns in the UK, with the advantage over Bristol of being less hilly. There’s HMS Victory to see, as well as HMS Warrior, the remains of the Mary Rose and lots more in the Historic Dockyard. There is the rather fetching Spinnaker Tower, the Royal Marines Museum, Charles Dickens’s birthplace, the new shopping centre at Gunwharf Quays, the big wide seafront at Southsea and much else. Sadly, the Genesis Expo, Britain’s only creationist 9 museum, is currently closed. HEREFORDSHIRE
The most rural county in England, fact fans. Hereford itself is OK (interesting cathedral, home to the famous Mappa Mundi medieval map, big fight every Saturday night), and it’s worth investigating for its walking, cycling and fishing. Go over to the Welsh borders, and you’ll find Hay-on-Wye, which is the best thing of all in Herefordshire, or maybe it’s in Wales (we’ve never been able to discover where, precisely, the border is here). Hay, as everyone knows, is full of secondhand bookshops of all shapes and sizes, some of them with a bit of everything, and some of them tending to specialise in particular genres, such as crime or sci-fi. Of course, since books are what Hay is famous for, you can expect to find lots of literary treasures, but don’t expect anything in the way of bargains. What tends not to be appreciated by those who’ve never been is what a pleasant, unspoiled little town it is, set in some great walking country and complete with some fabulous pubs. If you are in Hay, try also nipping across the border to nearby Knighton to visit the Spaceguard Centre (Llanshay Lane, Knighton, Powys, LD7 1LW, www.spaceguarduk.com/spaceguard) , a fascinating and slightly eccentric little astronomical research facility out in the middle of nowhere that aims to enthuse visitors with the wonders of the universe, but also scare you half to death that we’re not doing enough to protect the planet from being destroyed by asteroids and comets.
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WALES
8
Get to the old Severn Bridge or the M4 Second Severn Crossing, pay your bridge toll (£6 per car in 2012, more if it’s a bigger vehicle, and free if you’re coming back the other way), and once you’re past a long and narrow stretch of dangerously fast or completely congested motorway, you are in God’s Own Country. You English have some kind of problem or blind spot with Wales. You’ll happily cram yourselves into Devon or Cornwall as soon as the sun peeps through the clouds, spend a considerable part of your weekend in a traffic jam or crowded seaside resort, crammed up too intimately with hordes of snobby mountain bikers, puking teenagers and legions of grockles (or “emmets” as the Cornish call them, which is Cornish for “ants”, which tells you everything you need to know about tourism in Cornwall). (BTW, please don’t lodge any official complaints here. The Days Out Guide loves Cornwall dearly and would happily live there if it wasn’t for all the bloody grockles/ emmets.) It doesn’t have to be like this. Go to Wales instead. Wales has some of the most unspoiled countryside in Britain, much of it almost completely empty, not to mention some beautiful beaches. There are some places where the roads are so clear you feel you might be in an old-school car advert. (Not everywhere, mind. That M4 is no joke, and in Pembrokeshire the fun-loving locals have installed a roundabout every 200 yards, presumably as part of some long-forgotten job creation scheme.) There are small towns and villages where nothing has happened in 100 years, though of course Cardiff has a great buzz to it, and Swansea is full of wonderful surprises. If you’ve not done it yet, you need to discover Wales for yourself. Here’s a few recommends to be going on with. For everything else, see www.visitwales.co.uk Get it right and you’ll never go to Cornwall on a Bank Holiday ever again. BIG PIT: NATIONAL COAL MUSEUM
Blaenafon, Torfaen, NP4 9XP. Zone D. Open daily 9.30am4.30pm, underground tours 10am-3pm, admission free. Ffi: 01495 790311, www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/bigpit • Easily one of the best visitor attractions in the UK, and with all sorts of awards to prove it AND it’s completely free! It’s the national museum of an industry that was once hugely important in Wales and which is now all but gone, housed in an actual former coal mine. The above-ground exhibitions and displays are superb, but of course it’s the underground tours that are the real draw. These are often conducted by actual ex-miners and run frequently each day; wheelchair users can go down too if you book in advance. The nearby town of Blaenavon is a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of its importance in the history of the industrial revolution, and if you’re into this, you should at least visit the Ironworks and/or the Pontypool & Blaenavon Railway. For more see www.worldheritage-blaenavon.org.uk CAERLEON
Nr Newport, Gwent, South Wales. Zone D • Just across the Bridge from Bristol is one of the most extraordinary little towns in all of Britain, and the thing is, few folk on
this side of the water even know about it. In 75AD this became the base of the Legio II Augusta, one of just three legions that the evil Roman Empire used to hold down the province of Britannia. The legion was once commanded by the guy who later became the emperor Vespasian. All around the town you can see the remains of Roman settlement, including the barracks complex, a vast amphitheatre, plus a couple of museums to tell you all about it. The ruins are publicly accessible at all times, while the Roman Legionary Museum (www.museumwales. ac.uk/en/roman) is open Mon-Sat 10am-5pm and Sun 2-5pm, admission free. The town itself merits an explore, too: a charming little place with a very old-fashioned feel to it. It’s home to a large number of artists and craftspeople, many of whom deal in Welsh/Celtic-themed stuff. CALDICOT CASTLE & COUNTRY PARK
Caldicot, Monmouthshire, NP26 4HU. Zone C. Open daily 11am-5pm from 1 Apr to 31 Oct, admission £3.95 adult/£2.60 child, senior, student, disabled (enabler gets in free)/£12.60 family. Ffi: 01291 420241, www. caldicotcastle.co.uk • Nice no-brainer of a day out, just a short run over the water, and great if you have kids. The castle is mostly ruins, dating back to the middle ages, but it was partly restored/rebuilt in the 19th century (see also Cardiff Castle and Castell Coch). Look around the place, clamber onto the battlements to survey the surrounding countryside. There are lots of castley-type activities for kids, a dressing-up bit and other exhibitions. The grounds are OK, too. Hosts living history and re-enactment events through the summer; see website for details. CARDIFF CASTLE
Cardiff, CF10 3RB. Zone D. Open daily 9am-6pm (shorter hours in winter), admission £11 adult/£9.50 senior, student/£8.50 age 5-16, Premium Tour tickets with 40-minute guided tour of additional sections is £14 adult/£12 senior, student/£10.50 age 5-16. Ffi: 0292 087 8100, www.cardiffcastle.com • One of several good reasons for visiting Cardiff. The castle also has extensive grounds to wander and a really good programme of family-friendly events through the summer with Roman soldiers, medieval jousting (the big one this year is the Medieval Melee, on 18-19 August) etc – check website for dates and details. The castle also boasts a museum of Welsh soldiering called Firing Line to which admission is included in your castle ticket. And then there’s the castle itself; Wales is of course chock-full of castles, and most visitors will probably find themselves less impressed by the medieval bits than by the lavish Victorian Gothic interiors. That’s something you find with a lot of Welsh castles; the Victorians had this real medieval fetish thing going on, and those rich enough to indulge their fantasies bought castles and turned them into sort of fairy-tale places. In the case of Cardiff, it was the unbelievably wealthy Marquesses of Bute, who more or less owned all Cardiff back in the day. If you’re into this pre-Raphaelite and Victorian cod-medieval décor thing (and why not?) then the other must-see in the vicinity is the astonishing Castell Coch, on the outskirts of Cardiff (see tinyurl. com/7ohtvfy).
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WALES
World-class attraction: National Botanic Garden of Wales.
THE CENTRE FOR ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY
Machynlleth, Powys, SY20 9AZ. Zone D. Open 10am5.30pm in season (closes 4pm in winter), admission £8.50 adult/£7.50 conc/£4 ages 5-15, adult & conc prices £1 less in winter, 50% discount if you produce Arriva ticket showing you travelled to Machynlleth by train, £1 off entry ticket if you arrive by bus, bike or on foot. Ffi: 01654 705950, www.cat.org.uk • A bit of a trip from Bristol/ Bath, but worth a mention as it’s widely regarded as Britain’s ultimate green theme park. Lots of displays on eco-homes, renewable energy, organic growing, waste management and sustainable living, and could well provide you with lots of ideas for saving the planet (and money), though if you have children the best bit is easily the water-powered funicular railway at the entrance. The real plus is that it’s in some of the most beautiful countryside in the world (popular with walkers and mountain bikers if you want to make a long weekend of it) and it’s close to a little town which, despite its unpronounceable name, is gorgeous. CHEPSTOW CASTLE
Chepstow, Monmouthshire, NP16 5EY. Zone C. Open daily 9.30am-5pm (6pm July & Aug) to 31 Oct, shorter hours in winter, admission £4 adult/£3.60 concs/£11.60 family, disabled and companion free. Ffi: cadw.wales.gov.uk • Just a wee hop over the Bridge gets you to the oldest Norman stone fortification in Britain, boasting the oldest castle doors in Europe. Aside from looking over the impressive fortifications, there’s a lot of fun in the castle’s postmedieval history; in the 18th century it was regarded as your archetypal “romantic ruin”, and then there was the bloke who dug up loads of it because he was convinced he’d find secret documents proving Shakespeare was a fraud. What you probably want to do, though, is make this part of a day’s outing to Chepstow itself, a pleasant little market town in the Wye Valley, with a few quaint bits, including the famous cast iron road bridge dating back to the industrial revolution.
NATIONAL BOTANIC GARDEN OF WALES
Llanarthne, Carmarthenshire, SA32 8HG. Zone D. Open daily 10am-6pm (10am-4.30pm Oct-Mar), admission £8.50 adult/£7 senior/£4.50 ages 5-16/£21 family. Ffi: 01558 667148/9, www.gardenofwales.org.uk • The Eden Project is all well and fine, but it may be over-hyped and it’s certainly overcrowded, unless you visit on a wet Tuesday in January during 9 a Black Death pandemic. This place is more interesting, the crowds are smaller and it’s quicker and easier to get to than anywhere in Cornwall. Once an aristocratic estate, it’s now a visitor attraction and scientific research centre. There are several different gardens organised along various themes, from the dinky Japanese Garden to the very impressive double walled garden and Tropical Glasshouse. The centrepiece, though, is the Great Glasshouse, designed by Norman Foster and reputedly the largest single-span glasshouse in the world, housing a world-class collection of plants from Mediterranean climates. All this and 560 acres of wandering and water gardens and not too many other people. A superb day out. NATIONAL MUSEUM CARDIFF
Cathays Park, Cardiff CF10 3NP. Zone D. Open 10am5pm Tues-Sun & most BHMs, admission free. Ffi: 0292 039 7951, www.museumwales.ac.uk • There are two big reasons to visit Cardiff; the castle is one and this is t’other. It’s, like, the principal museum of a whole, like, country, so there’s lots of important stuff here. Essentially, though, it’s a lot like a scaled-up version of Bristol City Museum. There’s a big and impressive art collection, organised chronologically and of course with lots of emphasis on Welsh subjects and Welsh artists where they’ve got them. The other side of the place, though, is brilliant; all about the country’s natural history, the story of evolution and of the earliest peoples of Wales from Stone Age to medieval times. There’s also a great bit where kids can get to muck around with museum objects and find out more about archaeology and stuff.
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WALES ST FAGANS NATIONAL HISTORY MUSEUM
St Fagans, Cardiff, CF5 6XB. Zone D. Open daily 10am-5pm, admission free. Ffi: 0292 057 3500, www. museumwales.ac.uk/en/stfagans • This is the best free day out within easy drive of Bristol. We’ll say that again. Best free day out within easy drive of Bristol. It’s a museum of buildings. Not interiors, or displays on architecture or furniture, but an actual collection of buildings. It stands in 100 acres of parkland in the grounds of St Fagans Castle, and over the last 50 years more than 40 buildings from different periods of Welsh history have been recreated or in many cases moved here brick for brick from somewhere else and rebuilt. The result is astonishing, a sort of theme park of Welsh history as lived by ordinary people, the more so since you can go into nearly all of them and find them furnished and decorated in the appropriate period style. There’s a Celtic village, houses, a farm, schoolhouse, Unitarian chapel and even a post-WW2 pre-fab bungalow (which was probably made in Bristol). FWIW the Days Out Guide’s favourite bit is the Oakdale Working Men’s Institute, brought from the Valleys and rebuilt here. It is a stunning monument to the times when working-class solidarity could achieve almost anything, rather than our modern individualistic times when we expect big business or the government to do everything for us. OK, I’ll get off the soapbox now. But seriously, you must go here.
Towns and beaches Cardiff, the capital, with all the cultural 10 and shopping facilities that entails, is fairly compact and is easily (and quite cheaply) reachable by train. There’s the Castle (see above) and, in the redeveloped Bay area, Tecniquest (www.techniquest.org), a science fun/education place like At-Bristol. There’s also the spectacular Wales Millennium Centre (wmc.org.uk), a world-class performance venue with a broad mix of highbrow and populist entertainment. Cardiff’s equivalent of London’s Brighton or Bristol’s Weston is Barry Island, an old-skool resort which will be familiar to fans of ‘Gavin & Stacey’ off the telly. One of the big pulls here is the Barry Island Pleasure Park, which we’ve not been to, but are told is aboveaverage tacky fun. Swansea has an undeserved reputation for being dreary and run-down; this is simply not true. There are loads of big parks, plenty of fresh air and lots of intellectual life (Swansea Uni is pleasingly shabby and has a dead good museum of Egyptian stuff – see www.egypt. swansea.ac.uk). Of course you also have to do the pilgrim thing here if you have the slightest regard for Dylan Thomas. The new-ish National Waterfront Museum there is excellent. Swansea Bay boasts some very fine restaurants indeed, not to mention the stupendously wonderful Verdi’s ice-cream parlour (verdis-cafe.co.uk) which is worth the trip all on its own and is the only icecream venue officially endorsed by the Days Out Guide unless someone else gives me money. At the very end of Swansea Bay is The Mumbles with its old-fashioned seaside pier, which is tacky, but great fun. Just beyond Swansea is some of the best seaside in
Britain on the beautiful Gower Peninsula (see www. explore-gower.co.uk) and its wonderful beaches. Go further, to Pembrokeshire say, and you’ve got all the surf and beauty of Cornwall with loads fewer people. Here is also where you find Tenby, a wonderful cramped little town with warrens of streets and alleyways. If you’re here, take a boat trip out to Caldey Island (www. caldey-island.co.uk), which is run by Cistercian monks. Head into mid-Wales and Cardigan Bay (OK, we’re probably into more than just a day out, here) and you stand a snowball’s chance of finding beaches that are virtually empty. Our favourite bits here are the downmarket resort of Borth with its vast, beautiful beach, and the quaint little seaside village of New Quay; you can often spot dolphins and porpoises in the sea, or you can pay for a boat trip to get closer to them. Cardigan Bay is also where you find Aberystwyth, an old-school seaside town that’s still a popular family holiday destination because it’s clean, tidy, bright ‘n’ airy and has loads of beach. Be sure to have a go on the Cliff Railway and have a cuppa at the café at the top. Inland, get beyond the heavily populated Cardiff/ Swansea area, and you’re into some breathtaking countryside. Get yourself a copy of the latest ‘Rough Guide to Wales’ or find stuff on the web but some of our favourite Wales places include… Llanthony Valley & Priory, Gwent Ruined monastery with a spooky feel to it, and some bizarre history which you might choose to explore. There’s also a hotel and restaurant on the priory site which you might fancy for a short break (www.llanthonyprioryhotel.co.uk). If you have a taste for danger, take the B4423 from here to Hay-on-Wye; it’s a really narrow road which goes through some spectacular hill and mountain scenery, and where you’re likely to see the odd vehicle or two that’s fallen off. If you survive the trip, go secondhand book shopping in Hay. Lampeter is in the middle of nowhere in Ceredigion and it has a university. It’s quaint and lovely, although every time the Days Out Guide goes here we get a desperate sense of ennui and existential despair as it’s so dead. But maybe that’s just me. Llandrindod Wells is a beautiful old spa town in Powys, and home to an annual Victorian Festival in summer when all the townsfolk dress up in period costume and go a bit silly. Llanwyrtyd Wells also in Powys claims to be the smallest town in Britain and is indeed very small and very picturesque, but it’s mostly famous for hosting bizarre annual sporting contests such as the manversus-horse race and, of course, bog-snorkelling. For this and more see www.green-events.co.uk Brecon is what you imagine county towns like Taunton would have looked like in about 1960, and is set in the middle of some truly spectacular countryside. Can get a bit lively on a Saturday night, mind, due to a toxic combination of farm boys down from the hills and squaddies in from the local barracks. Monmouth What was once a sleepy old town with bags of character is now 70% car park, but has some lovely old streets.
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THEME PARKS ALTON TOWERS
Alton, Staffs, ST10 4DB, open daily 10am, 2012 season starts from 24 Mar, closed during winter (Nov-Feb), closing times vary according to season, for admission see website (discounts for online booking). Ffi: 0870 520 4060, www. altontowers.com • Probably Britain’s best-known theme park, with lots of legendary rides. New for 2012 are Ice Age – the 4D Experience and a thrill/scare ride called Nemesis Sub Terra.
TA8 2QY. Zone C. Opening times vary – see website. Admission free, visitors pay for individual rides: wristband giving unlimited rides for one day £19.99 for people over 1.2m/£9.99 for visitors between 0.8m and 1.2m. Ffi: 01278 751595 www.funcitybrean.co.uk • This place isn’t exactly Alton Towers, but there are lots of fairground rides and a few white-knuckle adventures too. New this year is Sooty’s TV Studio, featuring actual sets and props used to make the children’s favourite glove puppet show.
CHESSINGTON WORLD OF ADVENTURES
LEGOLAND
Chessington, Surrey, KT9 2NE, open daily 10am-5pm (later hours at peak times), 2012 season begins on 23 Mar and ends 5 Nov, for admission see website; discounts for advance booking. Ffi & booking: 0870 999 0045, www.chessington. co.uk • Loads of good, clean, tacky fun. Splits into themed lands, the zoo and the sea life centre, with loads of scary and not-so-scary rides. COMBE MARTIN WILDLIFE & DINOSAUR PARK
Combe Martin, Ilfracombe, Devon, EX3 0NG, open daily from 10am throughout the season until Nov, last admission 3pm, admission £13.50 adult/£9.50 ages 3-15/£10 seniors. Group & school party discounts available. Ffi: 01271 882486, www.dinosaur-park.com • Lots of birds, animals, rides and a butterfly house, and a resident wolf pack. The real stars of the place, though, are probably the animatronic dinosaurs. CREALY GREAT ADVENTURE PARKS
Tredinnick, Wadebridge, Cornwall, PL27 7RA. Ffi: 01841 540 276 www.crealy.co.uk/cornwall & Sidmouth Road, Exeter, Devon, EX5 1DR. Ffi: 01395 233 200 www.crealy.co.uk/devon Check websites for opening times and prices (prices vary according to time of year and your height) • Two theme parks run by the same firm, and very good they both are. There’s the usual rides, farm animals and stuff, but where they really win is with the outdoor activities. Perfect for families with kids under 12-ish. DIGGERLAND
Verbeer Manor, Cullompton, Devon, EX15 2PE, open 10am5pm every Sat, Sun & BHM until 31 Oct & daily during school holidays, admission £17 ages anyone over 90cm tall under 64/£8.50 over-64/free for anyone under 90cm tall. Admission includes unlimited rides and drives on all building-site diggers and dumpers, but not coin-operated activities. NB height restrictions apply to all rides. See website for details of discounts & family tickets. Ffi: 0870 034 4437, www. diggerland.com • The place where you can get to ride on JCBs, dumper trucks, quad bikes, mini tractors and loads more – even robots. Boy heaven, or what? Lots of theme park rides, too. There are also branches in Co Durham and in Kent. DRAYTON MANOR THEME PARK
Tamworth, Staffs, B78 3TW, open daily from 9.30am (closing times vary) to 2 Nov, 2012 admission TBC – phone or see website. Ffi: 0844 472 1950, www.draytonmanor.co.uk • Almost 300 acres of parkland with loads of big, scary rides, including the notorious G-Force rollercoaster. FUN CITY
Brean Leisure Park, Coast Rd, Brean Sands, Somerset,
Windsor Park, Windsor, Berks, SL4 4AY, open 10am-5pm on most days, with extended hours during school hols (phone or see website to check), 2012 season starts 1 Apr and ends in Nov, admission £43.20 adult 1-day/£34.20 child, senior 1-day/£64.80 adult 2-day/£51.30 child, senior 2-day/ under-3s go free. Discounts available for booking online, check website for details. Ffi: 0870 504 0404, www.legoland. co.uk • Everyone’s favourite, with a huge range of rides and adventures. The central attraction is Miniland – new this year is the Star Wars Miniland Experience, involving 1.5 million Lego bricks re-creating ‘Star Wars’ scenes. Our bet is that the Atlantis Submarine Adventure – you travel through an underwater Lego world in a submarine! – probably trumps everything else. LONGLEAT
Nr Warminster, Wilts, BA12 7NW, Safari Park & attractions open for the new season daily from 31 Mar-4 Nov, Passport ticket to all attractions £27.50 adult/£19.50 age 3-14 yrs/£22 senior. Book online to save 9 5%. Ffi: 01985 844400, www. longleat.co.uk • The Safari Park is great fun, ’specially since those monkeys really do vandalise a lot of cars. They’ve done a lot of work on the old place in recent years, and the ‘Jungle Kingdom’ is probably the second biggest reason for visiting. There are loads of other things – Adventure Castle, Postman Pat Village, the brilliant hedge maze, Old Joe’s Mine. And the house itself. You might want to plan two visits to cover everything; the Passport ticket gives you one go on all attractions at any time, so you can always come back a second time at no extra charge. OAKWOOD
Canaston Bridge, Narberth, Pembrokeshire, SA67 8DE, opening times & days vary, but open daily 10am-6pm in school summer hols – check website for other times, admission £21 age 13 & over/£15 age 3-12/£15 senior/£66 family of 4. Ffi: 01834 861889, www.oakwoodthemepark. co.uk • White-knuckle heaven. Don’t worry though: there are plenty of (slightly) more sedate fun rides as well. THORPE PARK
Chertsey, Surrey, KT16 8PN, open from 10am-5pm, with longer opening hours during busy season (school holidays & summer), 2012 season from 15 Mar-5 Nov, admission £42 adult/£31.20 children under-12/£124.80 family ticket (2 adults, 2 children). Discounts for advance or online booking. Ffi: 0870 444 4466, www.thorpepark.co.uk • England’s leading attraction for serious adrenaline junkies. SAW – The Ride, “the world’s first horror movie-themed rollercoaster”, claims to be the scariest in the world. New for 2012 is The Swarm, which will be the tallest winged rollercoaster in Europe.
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BEACHES Let’s go to the beach! you say. And why not? Well, one reason why not is that you’ll have to travel a little if you’re after a good one. Here’s just a handful of suggestions:
Somerset
bacchanal capital of Britain when the GCSEs are finished. Lovely big beaches (Fistral is the one for surfies). If the teenage drunkenness and loutishness of some of the resort’s other visitors gets too much, head for Crantock beach or, just to the north of Newquay, Watergate Bay.
BURNHAM ON-SEA
BUDE
Broad, long sandy beach with the famous lighthouse on stilts at the northern end. The waters are grey/brown and uninviting (it’s river silt, not sewage) and people and vehicles get stuck in the treacherous mudflats every year, sometimes with tragic results. The beach gets nicer and clearer further north at Berrow and then you get to Brean Sands which can get crowded in summer. KILVE
KYNANCE COVE
A few miles to the north of Lizard Point and considered by many to be the most beautiful place in all Cornwall. White sand, turquoise water and green and red serpentine rocks, plus towering cliffs and rocky arches.
Fascinating place on a relatively remote part of the north Somerset coast that’s part of a Site of Special Scientific Interest on account of its interesting rock formations. Better still, it’s a fossil hunter’s paradise. Kids will love it. Nearby Blue Anchor Bay is more of the same, and the name shouldn’t give you the idea that it’s a lovely sandy holiday resort.
LIZARD POINT
SEVERN BEACH
SHELL BEACH
Does not have a beach. WESTON-SUPER-MARE
8
Lovely big broad sandy beach and a nice old seaside town. Popular with surfers, but also very family-friendly.
Does have a beach. A big beach. With donkeys. And a revamped Grand Pier.
Dorset LULWORTH
Nice, old-school resort on the so-called ‘Jurassic Coast’, with sandy beaches and fabulous coastal walks. Take a look at the famous Lulworth Cove, and at the remarkable Durdle Door nearby. Gets popular in summer. POOLE
Surprisingly big old seaside town with very long coastal frontage and which famously now boasts some of the most expensive properties in the world. Nothing pretentious about the three-mile Sandbanks beach though. It’s big, clean and good for all the family. Can get very busy in summer, mind. STUDLAND
On the Isle of Purbeck. Three fantastic beaches. Popular with bird-watchers. Also some interesting WW2 defences. Be careful not to miss the ferry home.
The most southerly point on mainland Britain, fact fans. There’s dramatic cliff-top walks, and if you’re into history, it was here that Marconi set up his first radio station. It’s still there and visitable. See www.lizardwireless.org
Devon Aka Barricane Beach, near the broad sandy beach at Woolacombe on the north coast, is the place if you’re looking for seashells. CROYDE
Some say it has the best surf in Devon; Croyde Bay has a beautiful beach and a friendly little village. There are many places to eat and hire beachy, surfy things. WESTWARD HO!
Three miles of lovely sandy beach with rock pools at the west end. Hell, Devon north and south has loads of brilliant beaches we could mention, but obviously we need to mention this one as it’s the only place in Britain with an exclamation mark in is name.
Wales OXWICH
A stunning wide sweep of sand situated in one of the Gower’s most beautiful areas – the richness of flora and fauna is illustrated by the excellent (and adjacent) nature reserve. Good, shallow bathing and excellent walks. RHOSSILI BAY
Technically it’s a beach, but it’s actually about 20 miles long and is just a big load of shingle. There are a number of relatively quiet places you can stop off along the beach to wonder at the geology or take a bracing dip in the sea.
The Gower again… Gigantic, three-mile, west-facing stretch of sand from the famous Worm’s Head to the south to Burry Holms on the other side of Llangennith at its north end. Interesting wrecks get exposed at low tide and, for beachcombers, interesting flotsam and jetsam get washed up. Ever-popular with surfers and families alike.
Cornwall
THREE CLIFFS
CHESIL BEACH
NEWQUAY
The surfing capital of Britain. Also becomes the teenage
Yes, this is also the Gower. Three Cliffs is gorgeous: at low tide you can reach the diminutive Pobbles beach to the east. Great for walking and exploring, but not swimming.
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FUN FOR FREE ARNOS VALE CEMETERY
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Bath Rd, Bristol, BS4 3EW. Zone A. Open Mar-Sept MonSat 9am-5pm, Sun & BHMs 10am-5pm, closing 4.30pm in winter, no vehicle access within 30 mins of closing time. Ffi: 0117 971 9117, www.arnosvale.org.uk • The biggest and most interesting burial place in the area by a long shot – an amazing 45 acres of tranquil, open space in the middle of the city. Opened in 1839, it’s a huge necropolis filled with Victorian memorials with a wealth of fascinating stories behind them (well, under them really). Go visit, get the guidebook (we know the author. He’s awfully good.) and spot saintly orphanage-founder George Muller, the Wills fags dynasty’s memorial, public health pioneer William Budd or reformer of bad girls Mary Carpenter. Probably the best-known memorial is the ornate one of Raja Rammohun Roy, the Indian philosopher who’s emerged in recent years as a symbol of modern multicultural Bristol. There’s also a big, dignified and very moving memorial to the dead of the First World War. The cemetery’s now run by a trust and in 2010 emerged from a major restoration and conservation project. A lot of the vegetation has been cleared back, the buildings have been restored, the pathways improved and you can even go underground and see the historic crematorium. There are information panels, trails across the site, indoor exhibitions including films, a gift shop and café. Family activities run every school holiday, plus a quirky programme of other events throughout the year. Tours run every Saturday from February to November and if you can get a bunch of friends together you can book a private tour. Even if the history leaves you cold, you may love its unique and unusual flora and fauna. A major local asset that deserves all our support, so although it’s free to get into, do put a few quid in the collection box if you can or buy some stuff from their shop. They’re also very keen to get you involved as a volunteer, or sign up as an Arnos Vale Angel (£25) or Guardian Angel (£60). You can even buy your own burial or crem plot, as it remains a working cemetery. BLAGDON VISITOR CENTRE
Blagdon Lake, N Somerset. Zone B. Open every Sun from May 6 to Aug 26, 2pm-5pm, admission free. Ffi: 0117 953 6470 (office hours), tinyurl.com/yze7xev • A chance to go behind the scenes at Bristol Water and see what goes into keeping the H2O coming through your taps. Open days allow visitors to see the giant Victorian beam-engine pumps and interactive displays plus lots of info on the importance of water conservation. The grounds outside are very pleasant, with a Discovery Wood nature trail and trout farm where you can feed the fish. Excellent cheapo Sunday family outing. BRISTOL BLUE GLASS
See Museums, Galleries & Exhibitions section CREATE CENTRE
Smeaton Rd, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, BS1 6XN. Zone A. Open Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, also occasional Sats (Ecohome Mon-Fri 12noon-3pm, also 10am-3.30pm first Sat of month), admission free. Ffi: 0117 925 0505, www. createbristol.org • “Bristol’s unique centre for sustainable development” is housed in a huge great former dockside warehouse and is home to about two dozen different
The kid’s all right: Bath City Farm.
environmental organisations. Features regular exhibitions and events on environmental issues, including advice sessions on greening your home (and/or saving money), plus an art gallery and a caff. The star of the show is the experimental Ecohome, showing off all the different things you can do to make your house more planetfriendly. They’re not mad keen on you visiting by car and actually it’s a quite pleasant walk from the docks along by the New Cut. The other half of the building is taken up by the Bristol Record Office (www.bristol.gov.uk/recordof fice) which is generally open 9.30am-4.30pm Tue-Fri and 10am-4pm on the first two Sats of each month and 9.30am-7pm on the first two Thurs of the month. The BRO is home to over 10 miles of shelves of historic records from Bristol’s past. Admission is free and there are regular historical or art exhibitions. CITY FARMS
There are a number of city or community farms around Bristol and Bath, offering urban types a look at the ins and outs of farming and food production. They’re a great hour or two out of the house, especially if you have smaller children in tow. The main ones are: Bath City Farm Twerton Hill, Whiteway, Bath, BA2 1NW. Zone A. Open 9am-5pm daily. Ffi: 01225 481269, www.bathcityfarm.org.uk • At 36 acres, this is one of the biggest city farms in the UK. Set up in the 1990s, it boasts an award-winning play team as well the usual chickens, goats, sheep, pigs and cows and shop selling locally produced food. Lawrence Weston Community Farm Saltmarsh Drive, Lawrence Weston, Bristol, BS11 0NF. Zone A. Open TueSun &BHMs 9.30am-4.30pm. Ffi: 0117 938 1128, www. lwfarm.org.uk • Small but vibrant little community farm with farm animals, plus smaller petting animals. Soft play area for under-5s and picnic area. Volunteer staff serving tea, coffee and cakes from time to time. Plants, manure, eggs and some produce on sale.
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FUN FOR FREE St Werburghs City Farm Watercress Rd, St Werburghs, Bristol, BS2 9JY. Zone A. Open daily 9am-5pm (4pm winter, café closed Tue). Ffi: 0117 942 8241, www. swcityfarm.org.uk • Much-loved part of the community with all the usual – goats, pigs, sheep etc – plus produce sales, adventure playground and community garden. Runs kids’ activities and clubs. Award-winning café as well, though note it’s closed Tuesdays. Windmill Hill City Farm Philip St, Bedminster, Bristol, BS3 4EA. Zone A. Open Tue-Sun 9am-5pm (4pm in winter), shop opens 10am, cafe open Tue-Sat 10am-4pm & Sun 10am-3pm. Ffi: 0117 963 3252, www. windmillhillcityfarm.org.uk • This place is an important and much-loved part of the community, with community gardens, environment trails, adventure playground, cafe and shop selling produce from the city farm. Also organises lots of community activities and courses. MUSEUMS
Many municipal museums offer free admission. In Bristol, this means the City Museum and Art Gallery, Georgian House, Blaise Castle House Museum, The Red Lodge and, of course, M Shed. Bristol’s museums are efficiently and enthusiastically run, and the City Museum and M Shed have events and exhibitions that you’d be crazy not to take advantage of regularly. See Museums, Galleries & Exhibitions section for full details. While getting in to all Bristol museums should remain free for the conceivable future, M Shed will charge for admission for special exhibitions and one-off events. There are other museums which are free, but request a donation, such as the Glenside Hospital Museum; see Museums, Galleries & Exhibitions. And don’t forget all those big lovely museums in Wales with free admission, including Big Pit and St Fagans – see Wales section. In Bath & North East Somerset, the Victoria Art Gallery offers free admission. If you’re a B&NES resident, get a Discovery Card. This gets you into the Roman Baths and Fashion Museum for free and entitles you to discount admission rates to other local heritage attractions. They’re available free of charge from the Roman Baths and Assembly Rooms in Bath (take along proof of residency, such as a utility bill, and proof of identity, such as a driving licence or passport). Further details and downloadable application form are also available on the B&NES website – see tinyurl.com/2vrdr2y
TAX BREAKS... The Conditional Exemption Incentive is a tax wheeze that allows you to get into the homes of big-shots or aristocrats who don’t really want you there at all; and lots of other places. People who own land, buildings, works of art etc that HM Revenue and Customs decide are of national heritage or scientific interest get exempted from inheritance and/or capital gains tax on condition that the owners look after them and make them available for the public. So the taxman has a searchable database of these ‘tax-exempt heritage assets’ online. Go to www.hmrc. gov.uk/heritage Some of these places are already open to the public on a regular basis, while access to others is more restricted.
URBAN AND SEMI-URBAN OUTDOORS You’ll already know that Bristol and Bath have loads of parks and open spaces, but do you really know quite how many of them there are (clue: loads!) and how much goes on in them? You need to make friends with your local park, and then explore some of the spaces further afield. A good starting point is the relevant Bristol City Council web page www.bristol.gov.uk/parks and the B&NES one at tinyurl.com/888gcmo Every Bristol resident should explore Purdown and Stoke Park (see panel on p.64). Have you been up Royate Hill or wandered around Willsbridge Mill? Or the Greenhill Plantation and Kings Weston Hill? Most of these are big spaces, with plenty of room for the kids/ dog to have a good run. To track down your nearest open spaces (and find out how they’re managed), see www. bristolparksforum.org.uk There are plenty of great places to go for a rural or semi-rural adventure in Bristol and Bath. Leigh Woods, just over the Suspension Bridge in Bristol, and the magnificent Bath Skyline Walk are both run by the National Trust, who host occasional family events there. Then there’s Frome Valley Walkway and Oldbury Court Estate. For more on this, visit www.fromewalkway.org.uk The River Avon Trail, is a route taking you through lots of places of wildlife/heritage interest. It runs along the Avon, from Pulteney Weir in Bath, through the wooded valleys and water meadows of South Gloucestershire, through some former industrial areas of Bristol and on to the Bristol Channel at Pill. Visit www. riveravontrail.org.uk for more. Then there’s the dear old Bristol-Bath Railway Path, which regular users take for granted, but which always amazes everyone coming to it for the first time. It’s a path, along a disused railway line, linking Bristol and Bath, and with lots of sculptures and interesting bits to see on the way. Tends to be thought of as a cycle path, but you’re perfectly free to walk some/all of it, too. A word to the wise, mind; there are certain stretches of it in East Bristol where you shouldn’t travel alone in the dark. It’s perfectly fine in the daylight, mind. More at www. bristolbathrailwaypath.org.uk
RURAL OUTDOORS – ROUND THESE PARTS OK, just a few suggestions... The Kennet & Avon Canal runs all the way from Bristol to Reading. Lovingly restored by enthusiasts in recent decades, it’s popular with walkers, cyclists and people who get their jollies driving canal boats. The best-walked stretch round these parts is probably the one between Bath and Bradford on Avon and beyond (don’t miss the Dundas Aqueduct!), on account of the pleasant countryside, lovely pubs and the genteel exchange of abuse between walkers and self-righteous oafs on mountain bikes. For more, see www.visitkanda.com
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FUN FOR FREE For more canalside fun, do the Gloucester-Sharpness Canal, a wide waterway running parallel to the Severn for a lot of the way and with pleasant wide paths and lots of wildlife. You can walk/bike it from Sharpness itself, though Frampton-on-Severn might prove a better starting point, since it’s a lovely village. The canal also has a rich heritage of industrial archaeology, and you can find out more about some of this from the Friends of the Purton Hulks – see www.friendsofpurton.org.uk The Mendips are on the doorstep. The area is hugely popular with walkers, not just because of all the natural and historical interest, but also because most of the pubs are marvellous. If you’ve never explored the bizarre lead-mining landscape around Velvet Bottom, the spooky Dolebury Warren or the environs of the to-die-for village of Priddy, you really ought to start soon. One of the our favourite Mendip places is Goblin Combe; get to Cleeve along the A370 from Bristol to Weston-super-Mare, turn into Cleeve Hill Road next
BRISTOL’S NEWEST PARK ● Bristol City Council earlier this year took charge of a huge open space to the east of the city in a move which it hopes (funding permitting) will turn it into a major leisure amenity in years to come. Stoke Park, on the eastern edge of the city next to the M32, is, like Ashton Court, a former aristocratic estate. While local residents have used it and loved it for years, it’s not so well known elsewhere in Bristol. The 140-acre site was formally transferred to Bristol City Council in January from its former owners (property developers and South Glos Council, basically) after years of legal wrangling. The park was originally designed by landscaper Thomas Wright in the 1750s and 1760s. It includes a Grade II-listed tomb and includes two ornamental lakes and woodlands attracting a range of wildlife. The site also includes the landmark Purdown transmitter tower. The former estate mansion, the distinctive yellow-painted Dower House, is now split into private flats. It borders the Frome Valley and the Stapleton conservation area, giving walkers and cyclists potential access to a very large stretch of almostrural environment within Bristol’s boundaries. Obviously the bloody M32 rumbling by a lot of it means it’s not as tranquil as some places, but it’s very nice in parts, and rewards exploration with some interesting bits, including old WW2 gun emplacements near the base of the Purdown tower.
to the Lord Nelson pub in the middle of the village. There is a car park a wee bit up the road, which is also your starting point for walks through the splendid combe. Loads of woods, interesting rock formations and some rare flora. Small children can be induced to join an expedition here with the possibility of meeting goblins (local legend) and the definite prospect of seeing aeroplanes as they arrive and depart from Bedminster International airport nearby. Not at all suitable for wheelchairs and pushchairs as there’s a lot of steps. Some fabulous views up the top. See www. mendiphillsaonb.org.uk for more Mendip adventure ideas, including downloadable walking routes. The National Trust have loads of suggested walking routes on and around their massive landholdings online for both local adventures and further away ones. They now get hundreds of thousands of downloads a year on these, with some of the most popular being in the South West (the most popular round these parts, by miles, is the Bath Skyline Walk). Get yours at www.nationaltrust. org.uk/walks Meanwhile, if you don’t have a car or just prefer walking, Bristol City Council have some very good country city and country walking routes. You’ll find a stupendous amount of useful information and fun ideas at www. bristol.gov.uk/page/walking If you’re really serious about rural walking, join the Ramblers Association. The Bristol branch (www. bristolramblers.org.uk) is particularly active, organising walks of all shapes and sizes both at weekends and during the week. It’s a great way of discovering the countryside and making new friends while you’re at it. There’s also a Bath branch (www.bathra.org.uk), and www. avon-ramblers.org.uk covers the whole of the former county of Avon. If it’s plant and animal life you’re looking for, then the Avon Wildlife Trust (www.avonwildlifetrust.org.uk) runs a number of nature reserves in the area – some very big, some compact and bijou. Not all of these will want people coming through on bikes, mind.
ON YER BIKE Every hardened cyclist knows that Bristol is home to Sustrans, the very wonderful people behind the National Cycle Network. Find out more about Sustrans’ car-free or car-lite cycle routes at www.sustrans.org.uk If you’d like to get out on your bike more, but don’t feel too sure of yourself, or are looking for some moral support in getting other members of the family (or even your workmates!) on their bikes, then check out Life Cycle, a Bristol-based charity who promote cycling. They even run adult cycling lessons, so now even complete cycling virgins have no excuse! Ffi: www.lifecycleuk.org.uk The Cyclists’ Touring Club (or CTC as it prefers to be known nowadays) is a national organisation for cyclists that also gets involved in campaigning issues. There are local branches with lots of rides in the diary. The website also has bags of information on possible routes to explore. Ffi: www.ctc.org.uk Every cyclist and would-be cyclist also needs to take a look at Better by Bike, one of the legacies of
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FUN FOR FREE Bristol’s controversial Cycling City programme. This was a wheeze to get more of us going round on bikes, and it’s produced a load of material to that effect. The website – www.betterbybike.info – claims to be “the most comprehensive cycling website for Bristol, Bath, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire” and we won’t argue. Aside from practical advice for rookie and advanced cyclists alike, the site has loads of maps and suggested routes for commuting and leisure cycling, and the best directory of places to go off-road mountain biking round these parts. A must if you’re on two wheels.
RURAL OUTDOORS – A BIT FURTHER AWAY Further afield, there are a number of areas that can be relied on to offer good walking/cycling, such as... Exmoor See www.visit-exmoor.info and/or visit the Exmoor Visitor Centres at Dunster or Dulverton. The West Country is also well provided for car-free routes. If you’re in Devon, Dorset or Cornwall, you’ll find that the South West Coastal Path provides enough fresh air and scenery for a decade’s worth of brilliant summer days out. All the detail, including maps, walks, pubs accommodation etc is at www. southwestcoastalpath.co.uk Wessex famously boasts lots of white horses carved into the sides of its chalk hills. Most people tend to believe that these are very ancient in origin, but most are really no more than three or four hundred years old. The one truly ancient one in southern England is the spectacular Uffington White Horse, in Oxfordshire, which archaeologists reckon is about 3,000 years old. There are at least 13 white horses in Wiltshire, of which eight are still visible. Some people make a point of visiting them all to collect the set. See wiltshirewhitehorses.org.uk If white horses carved into the chalk don’t do it for you, there’s always the WW1 regimental badges carved into the chalk at Fovant, also in Wiltshire. www. fovantbadges.com The region has two ancient routes begging to be walked. Offa’s Dyke Path, which runs from Chepstow along the borders to Prestatyn in N Wales through some very beautiful, mostly unspoiled country. See www. nationaltrail.co.uk/offasdyke Less well-known but in some ways more interesting is The Ridgeway, which runs from Overton Hill near Avebury in Wiltshire for almost 90 miles until it gets to some place in Buckinghamshire. This is the oldest road in Britain; it’s been in use since Neolithic times. Naturally it passes through, or close to, many ancient sites, including Avebury itself and the Uffington White Horse. More at www.nationaltrail.co.uk/ Ridgeway The Cotswold Way runs for 100 miles from Bath to Chipping Campden along the Cotswold Edge and it takes you via rolling hills, chocolate-box villages and lovely views of the Forest of Dean, the Welsh hills and distant church spires. It’s all good. From Bath it goes via Lansdown Hill (site of a famous Civil War battle) to Old Sodbury, then Hawkesbury Upton (with the Beaufort
Arms pub), Wotton-under-Edge (look out for the Tyndale Monument), Dursley, Nympsfield (close to the bloody amazing Woodchester Mansion), Stroud, Painswick (stop and look at the amazing baroque graveyard at the church, or go on to the Painswick Rococo Garden), Brockworth (see the hill where they have the annual cheese-rolling insanity contest, or don’t have it because of elf ‘n’ safety), Cranham (Gustav Holst lived in a cottage here for a while), Leckhampton, Cheltenham, Cleeve Hill (highest point in Glos, lovely views), Winchcombe, the ruins of Hailes Abbey (National Trust owned; small admission charge), Stanway and Broadway (you must see the enchanting Broadway Tower folly; www. broadwaytower.co.uk) before ending up at Chipping Campden, a picturesque little market town that’ll have you looking through estate agents’ windows. CC is famously home to the annual (early summer) Olympick (sic) games with traditional Cotswold sports, including shin-kicking. See the official Cotswold way website at www.nationaltrail.co.uk/Cotswold/ The Forest of Dean is vast green area for playing in, on foot and on bike. For many people, the problem is that the forest seems so big that they don’t know where to begin. Well, there’s always the Dean Heritage Centre at Soudley, near Cinderford (note there’s an admission charge). The Forest of Dean tourism website at www. forestofdean.gov.uk is a good intro, but if you’re just after a very pleasant and undemanding introduction to some of its delights, try walking the Forest of Dean Sculpture Trail (www.forestofdean-sculpture.org.uk) near Cinderford – this is completely free, though there’s a charge for parking at the Beechenhurst Lodge site, which has a café, adventure playground and nice big green area for barbecues and cricket games. Other Deaney mustsees include Symonds Yat rock and the village of St Briavels, home of the forest’s historic free miners. The Quantock Hills are brilliant. They’re over in the less-populated end of Somerset and lots of tourists pass ’em by without stopping as they head for the betterknown delights of Exmoor. But the Quantocks offer a lot in the way of walking, biking and scenery, as well as frequent outbreaks of strangeness and historical spookiness. Best beauty spots would probably include Holford, Bicknoller and the area around Fyne Court near Bridgwater. Fyne Court, the official Quantock Hills Visitors Centre (National Trust-run, free admission), is a big old house that was once home to Somerset’s own Dr Frankenstein. See also www.quantockonline.co.uk for other Quantocky ideas. As this guide went to press, the clueless Somerset County Council was set to sell off loads of the Quantock area, but if the sale goes ahead it should all remain accessible. It’s the law. There’s also the Blackdown Hills straddling the Somerset/Devon border. See www.blackdownhillsaonb.org.uk For slightly more adventurous walking and cycling, Natural England have a very good database of country walks at www.naturalengland.org.uk Then there’s the Forestry Commission. They run the famous Westonbirt Arboretum (see Animals & Nature section) but are also responsible for forests and woodlands around the country. Plenty of suggestions for woody walks on their website at www.forestry.gov.uk
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FURTHER INFORMATION Tourist information Bath Tourism & Conference Bureau is at Abbey Chambers, Abbey Church Yard, Bath. Ffi: 0906 711 2000 (calls charged at 50p per min), while Bristol Tourist Information Centre is at E-Shed, 1 Canons Rd, Harbourside. Ffi: 0906 711 2191 (calls charged at 50p per min). Both have vast quantities of free leaflets from various visitor attractions. Also loads of (not free) books on local history and heritage. Check both out for walking leaflets, too. Bristol Access Guide 2012, produced by Bristol City Council, is a guide to the city centre and most of the city’s main visitor attractions for people with disabilities. Also includes a few pubs, cafés, restaurants and shops in the central area. Download (PDF) at tinyurl.com/7ddmohs Print copies also available from the Tourist Information Centre or contact the council on 0117 922 2329 or email equalities.team@bristol. gov.uk
Books Your local library, bookshop or indeed Amazon will have loads of local interest books, and it’s hard to know where to begin. There’s not enough space to mention everything here, but, in no particular order, we’d mention... The Naked Guide to Bristol (£9.95) and its companion The Naked Guide to Bath (£6.95) are street-level guides, with useful and/or interesting info and walking tours. Both are extremely well up on local history, plus shops, pubs, restaurants and nightlife. If you’re into cider, then the excellent Naked Guide to Cider by James Russell is the definitive lowdown on the west country’s traditional method of suicide. For these, and lots of other local titles, see www.tangentbooks.co.uk Freedom Guides publish the ‘Titch-Hiker’s Guide to Bristol’. Written mostly by mums with information from other mums, it’s essential for anyone with children under 5. Ffi: www.freedomguide.co.uk The National Gardens Scheme persuades people to open up their gardens to the public and charge punters admission, which then goes to charity. To find out which gardens are opening when, you need to get hold of this year’s edition of the NGS’s famous Yellow Book, which is in all good bookshops now or can be ordered online from www.ngs.org.uk It lists over 3,600 gardens to visit across the UK and costs £9.99. Nigel Vile is the area’s most prolific author of books on local walks. Walks involving pubs, walks with kids… etc, etc. You should find a selection of his works in any local bookshop or library. Anything he does is good. Countryside Books is a Berkshire-based firm which brings out loads of books on nature, history, heritage and walks for places all over England, and their site is always worth looking at. The site also includes downloadable walks, for a small fee. See www. countrysidebooks.co.uk There are plenty of books which will help you get more out of your local cityscape. For instance, Bristol’s
100 Best Buildings by Mike Jenner (words) and Stephen Morris (pics) (Redcliffe Press, 2010, £16.95) is a real treat, written by a hugely authoritative architect and historian. Bristol Curiosities by Julian Lea-Jones (Birlinn, 2007, £9.99) and Bath Curiosities (Birlinn, 2006, £8.99) are your first stop for the quirks and oddities, and both are enormous fun. Finally, Public Sculpture Of Bristol by Douglas Merritt and Francis Greenacre (Liverpool University Press, 2010, £30) is an awesome labour of love, the definitive guide to pretty much all the statues, sculptures and artworks around Bristol. Everyone with the faintest interest in Bristol’s history should own a copy of this wonderful book. You also need your local Pevsner Guide – see panel on p.68. Bristol Publishers… There are several firms operating locally, managing to make an honest living bringing out local books for local people, from the grand old Redcliffe Press to hip young newcomers like Naked Guides. The firms all co-operate as an umbrella group, and if you look at their website, you will find loads more books with local leisure ideas. See www. bristolpublishers.co.uk And don’t forget the Rough Guides. There are loads of these, and we can’t fault the information in any of the ones we’ve used. At the very least, every home should have a copy of the Rough Guide to England. See www.roughguides.com
Online The official tourist websites for Bristol and Bath are at www.visitbristol.co.uk and www.visitbath.co.uk respectively. Both are good, well-maintained sites with general info on accommodation and touristy things. Both also have basic info on major public events. For slightly further afield, try tapping in www. visitwiltshire.co.uk or www.visitsomerset.co.uk (etc – you get the idea) for more suggestions for adventures, accommodation etc. The National Trust For your complete guide to all the National Trust properties in your area and everywhere else. Awesome amounts of detail about the facilities at each place, including disabled access and dates of special events. The Trust also has free iPhone and Android phone apps telling all about your nearest NT attractions. All this, plus loads of downloadable walks and loads else at www.nationaltrust.org.uk English Heritage looks after a lot of the country’s ancient sites and, generally, ruins from only slightly more recent centuries. The website details all their sites, including times, prices and dates of special events. Many of the bigger places, such as Old Sarum (see Rocks & Ruins section), host major living history events over the summer season, but EH is also responsible for loads of sites that are no more than things in fields in the middle of nowhere and which’ll cost you nowt to visit. They’re all detailed on the website, or, if you prefer, there’s an EH mobile app that’ll tell you everything you need. Ffi: www.englishheritage.org.uk For tree-related stuff here and further afield there’s conservation charity The Woodland Trust, whose
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website has lots of gen on woods, forests and walking; the really good thing here is to tap in a location, e.g. ‘Bristol’ or ‘Bath’ or a postcode, and it’ll come back at ya with shedloads of local woodlands you didn’t even know existed. See www.woodlandtrust.org.uk Natural England is the quango looking after the country’s, well, nature. Their website being all about nature, you kind of get the feeling that they don’t really want you to visit anything at all really, but it does contain loads of info on nature reserves, national parks, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Sites of Special Scientific Interest and all that. Once you get past the technical stuff about nature management, you’ve got a comprehensive guide to all these interesting places. If you’re into flora and/or fauna, or just pleasant countryside and walking, this is a very good place to start. www.naturalengland.org.uk About Bristol has been around since before most people in Britain even knew what the internet was (no, seriously), but is still one of the very best introductions to local history and architecture in the form of a series of virtual tours. Print out and have yourself an urban adventure. Ffi: www.about-bristol. co.uk Church Crawler Pretty much the complete history of Bristol’s Anglican and RC churches. Ffi: www. churchcrawler.co.uk Great British Gardens is probably currently the best general guide to gardens to visit around the country, click on the map and see where you might want to go. Ffi: www.greatbritishgardens.co.uk/
Transport If you don’t have a car, don’t want the hassle of owning one, but could use one from time to time, for outings for example, check out the City Car Club, a car-sharing firm with a presence in both Bristol and Bath. Zipcar formerly known as StreetCar, now operate in central Bristol too. See zipcar.co.uk First, everyone’s least favourite local bus firm, can take you to lots of places, and if you look carefully you’ll find a wide range of fares and ticket options, some of which are cheaper than you’d expect. If, for example, you’re planning on more than one bus journey in a day you’ll probably find that a FirstDay ticket which gets you unlimited travel is damn good value. The only thing you have to watch out for here is which zones you intend to travel in and what’s covered by your ticket, but the basic £4 ticket (as of March 2012) will get you all around Bristol and a bit beyond. First really only rip off commuters; everyone else should investigate their other options, including the combined bus and rail offers. South Gloucestershire Bus runs a couple of services in South Gloucestershire and Bristol, see www. southgloucestershirebus.co.uk Likewise the company’s subsidiary Wessex Connect – see wessexconnect. com The same firm operates the Wessex Red service (formerly known as Ulink) in partnership with Bristol Uni and UWE. While this is primarily for staff and students, the public can use these services, too. Most
routes are in north and east Bristol and so aren’t much cop for rural adventures, but they’re great for Bristol and are generally faster, and with lower fares, than First. See www.wessexred.co.uk Trains For general info, see www.firstgreatwestern. co.uk The Bristol Streets website at www.bristolstreets. co.uk is very useful, and has potential to be even better. Basically, you pick a neighbourhood, and it comes back to you with lots of detail on all the transport options. Take a look at it. Next Bus Bristol is also very useful, if you don’t already know about it. Tell it which stop you want and it’ll tell you when the next one will be along, in actual real time as opposed to what it says on the timetable. See travelplus.acislive.com/ For journey-planning locally or nationally using public transport, Traveline usually comes up with the best answers. See www.traveline.info
GOOD OLD NIK ● Nikolaus Pevsner (190283) was a German Jewish art historian who ended up in Britain as a refugee from the Nazis. Britain’s gain was Pevsner’s influential and hugely authoritative series of guidebooks to the architecture of England. Your original Pevsners are a bit dated now, but fear not; the Pevsner brand is still going strong, with each of the books gradually being fully updated. Last year saw the publication of a spanking new edition of the Somerset: North and Bristol Pevsner guide, painstakingly researched over several years by Bristol historian Andrew Foyle. This one covers Bristol, Bath, Frome, Wells, Weston super-Mare, Clevedon and all parts in between. At thirty five quid, it’s not exactly cheap, but you do get 800 pages crammed with information on every building in the area of any conceivable architectural or historical interest – and that includes buildings in what you might consider the most unprepossessing suburbs. Obviously it mentions all manner of buildings that have arrived since the original, but it also covers those missed out the first time. Old Nikolaus, for instance, didn’t consider industrial buildings to be of any consequence in his time, but the new editions cover all that and more, and all in the inimitable style of pithy technical summary mixed with judgmental comments. Ffi: www.pevsner.co.uk
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INDEX
Numbers in bold refer to display ads Numbers in light refer to listings or panels
A A TIME TRAVELLER’S GUIDE TO BRISTOL 50 ABBEY HOUSE GARDENS 8 ABERYSTWYTH 58 ABOUT BRISTOL 68 ACTIVE EXMOOR 51 ACTON COURT 8 ADVENTUROUS ACTIVITY COMPANY 51 ALEXANDER KEILLER MUSEUM & BARN GALLERY 17 ALTON TOWERS 59 AMAZING HEDGE PUZZLE 53 AMERICAN MUSEUM & GARDENS 8, 15 ANIMAL FARM ADVENTURE PARK 23 ARCHITECTURE CENTRE 34 ARCTIC QUEST 53 ARNOLFINI 34 ARNOS VALE CEMETERY 34, 62 ASHTON COURT MINIATURE STEAM RAILWAY 28 AT-BRISTOL 34, 37 AVEBURY MANOR 8, 17 AVEBURY STONE CIRCLE 17 AVON SKI AND ACTION CENTRE 51 AVON VALLEY ADVENTURE AND WILDLIFE PARK 23 AVON VALLEY RAILWAY 28 AVON WILDLIFE TRUST 52, 64
BREAN DOWN 20 BREAN SANDS 60 BRECON 58 BRISTOL & SOUTH WEST TOUR GUIDES 49 BRISTOL ACCESS GUIDE 2012 67 BRISTOL AERO COLLECTION 33 BRISTOL AQUARIUM 23, 27 BRISTOL BLUE GLASS 35, 62 BRISTOL CATHEDRAL 43 BRISTOL CHANNEL CRUISES 30 BRISTOL CHURCHES TRAIL 50 BRISTOL CITY MUSEUM & ART GALLERY 35, 65 BRISTOL CLIMBING CENTRE 51 BRISTOL CONSERVATION VOLUNTEERS 52 BRISTOL CURIOSITIES 67 BRISTOL FERRY BOAT CO 30 BRISTOL HARBOUR HERITAGE TRAIL 50 BRISTOL HARBOUR RAILWAY 28 BRISTOL HERITAGE TRAIL 50 BRISTOL HERITAGE WALK 50 BRISTOL ICE RINK 53 BRISTOL LITERARY TRAIL 50 BRISTOL MUSEUMS SERVICE 49 BRISTOL OFFICIAL CITY B GUIDE 50 BANWELL BONE CAVES & BRISTOL PACKET 32 TOWER 17 BRISTOL PUBLISHERS 67 BARRINGTON COURT 8 BRISTOL QUAYSIDE BARRY ISLAND 58 ADVENTURE 50 BARTON END STABLES 52 BRISTOL SLAVE TRADE TRAIL BATH ABBEY 43 50 BATH BOATING STATION 30 BRISTOL STREETS 68 BATH CITY FARM 62 BRISTOL TOURIST INFORMATION CENTRE 67 BATH CURIOSITIES 67 BATH POSTAL MUSEUM 21, 34 BRISTOL TRAILS GROUP 52 BRISTOL UNIVERSITY 49, 50 BATH SKYLINE WALK 63 BRISTOL UNIVERSITY BOTANIC BATH TOURISM & GARDEN 9 CONFERENCE BUREAU 67 BRISTOL WHEEL 28 BATH’S MOVIE MAP 50 BRISTOL ZOO GARDENS 23 BATH’S OLD ORCHARD BRISTOL: THE BLITZ AND THE STREET THEATRE 34 CITY WE LOST 50 BECKFORD’S TOWER & BRISTOL’S 100 BEST MUSEUM 8 BUILDINGS 67 BERKELEY CASTLE 9 BRISTOL-BATH RAILWAY BERROW 60 PATH 63 BETTER BY BIKE 64 BRITISH TRUST FOR BHP INSPIRING EVENTS 51 CONSERVATION VOLUNTEERS BIBURY 46 52 BICKNOLLER 66 BROADWAY TOWER 9 BIG PIT: NATIONAL COAL BROKERSWOOD COUNTRY MUSEUM 56 PARK & WOODLAND RAILWAY BIRD AND DEER PARK, 10 PRINKNASH 23 BROWNSEA ISLAND 54 BIRDLAND PARK AND BRUNEL MILE & CITY DOCKS GARDENS 23 50 BIZARRE BATH 49 BLACK MOUNTAIN ACTIVITIES BRUNEL’S DOCKSIDE 50 BRUNEL’S SS GREAT BRITAIN 51 32, 35, 71 BLACKDOWN HILLS 66 BLAGDON VISITOR CENTRE 62 BUDE 60 BUILDING OF BATH BLAISE CASTLE HOUSE COLLECTION 35 MUSEUM 34, 63 BURNHAM-ON-SEA 47, 60 BLUE ANCHOR BAY 60 BORTH 58 BOURTON-ON-THE-WATER 46 C CAERLEON 56 BOWOOD 9 CALDEY ISLAND 58 BRADFORD ON AVON 48, 63
CALDICOT CASTLE & COUNTRY PARK 56 CARDIFF 58 CARDIFF CASTLE 56 CARDIGAN BAY 58 CASTLE COMBE 48 CASTLE COMBE RACING CIRCUIT 52 CASTLE QUARRY ACTIVITY CENTRE 51 CATTLE COUNTRY ADVENTURE PARK 51 CENTRE FOR ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY 57 CERNE ABBAS 54 CHEDDAR 47 CHEDDAR GORGE AND CAVES 17 CHEDWORTH ROMAN VILLA 17 CHELTENHAM 46 CHELTENHAM ART GALLERY & MUSEUM 36 CHEPSTOW CASTLE 57 CHESIL BEACH 54, 60 CHESSINGTON WORLD OF ADVENTURES 59 CHOLDERTON CHARLIE’S RARE BREEDS FARM 24 CHRIST CHURCH WITH ST EWEN & ST GEORGE 43 CHURCH CRAWLER 68 CHURCHCRAWLER.CO.UK 45 CHURCHES CONSERVATION TRUST 45 CITY CAR CLUB 68 CITY FARMS 24, 62 CITY MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY 63 CITY SIGHTSEEING BATH 49 CITY SIGHTSEEING BRISTOL 7, 49 CLEARWELL CAVES 18, 21 CLEEVE ABBEY 18 CLEVEDON 47 CLEVEDON COURT 10 CLIFTON CATHEDRAL 43 CLIFTON OBSERVATORY & CAVES 18 CLIMBING ACADEMY 51 CLOVELLY 55 COLERIDGE COTTAGE 36 COMBE MARTIN WILDLIFE & DINOSAUR PARK 59 CONDITIONAL EXEMPTION INCENTIVE 63 CORINIUM MUSEUM 36 CORNWALL 54 CORSHAM COURT 10 COTEHELE 54 COTSWOLD FARM PARK 24 COTSWOLD WATER PARK 53 COTSWOLD WAY 66 COTSWOLD WILDLIFE PARK 24 COUNTRYSIDE BOOKS 67 COURT FARM COUNTRY PARK 24 COURTS GARDEN 10 CREALY GREAT ADVENTURE PARKS 59 CREATE CENTRE 62 CROYDE 60 CTC 64
DEAN HERITAGE CENTRE 36, 66 DEVON 54 DIGGERLAND 59 DISCOVERY CARD 63 DOLEBURY WARREN 64 DORCHESTER 54 DORSET 54 DR JENNER’S HOUSE 39 DRAYTON MANOR THEME PARK 59 DRIVE TECH AT CASTLE COMBE 52 DULVERTON 47 DUNDAS AQUEDUCT 63 DUNSTER 47 DUNSTER CASTLE 10 DYRHAM PARK 12 E EAST SOMERSET RAILWAY 28 EASTON 50 EDEN PROJECT 54 ENGLAND’S THOUSAND BEST CHURCHES 45 ENGLISH HERITAGE 67 EXETER 55 EXMOOR 55, 66 F FARLEIGH HUNGERFORD CASTLE 18 FARRINGTON’S 15, 24 FASHION MUSEUM & ASSEMBLY ROOMS 2, 38, 41, 63 FERNE ANIMAL SANCTUARY 25 FIRST 68 FLEET AIR ARM MUSEUM 31, 33 FOREST OF DEAN 66 FOREST OF DEAN SCULPTURE TRAIL 66 FORESTRY COMMISSION 66 FRAMPTON-ON-SEVERN 64 FREEDOM GUIDES 67 FRENCHAY VILLAGE MUSEUM 38 FROME VALLEY WALKWAY 63 FUN CITY 59 FYNE COURT 66
G GEORGIAN HOUSE 38, 63 GHOST WALKS OF BATH 49 GLASTONBURY 47 GLASTONBURY ABBEY 18 GLENSIDE HOSPITAL MUSEUM 38, 63 GLOUCESTER 46 GLOUCESTER CATHEDRAL 44 GLOUCESTER SKI & SNOWBOARD CENTRE 51 GLOUCESTER WATERWAYS MUSEUM 32, 38 GLOUCESTER-SHARPNESS CANAL 64 GLOUCESTERSHIRE WARWICKSHIRE RAILWAY 28 GO APE! 53 GOBLIN COMBE 64 GOODRICH CASTLE 19 GOWER PENINSULA 58 GREAT BRITISH GARDENS D 68 DARTMOUTH 55 DEAN FOREST RAILWAY 28, 31 GREENHILL PLANTATION 63
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INDEX CONT. H HAILES ABBEY 19 HAMBURGER HILL 53 HAMPSHIRE 55 HANHAM COURT GARDENS 12 HARTLAND ABBEY 54 HAUNTED & HIDDEN BRISTOL 49 HAYNES INTERNATIONAL MOTOR MUSEUM 38 HAY-ON-WYE 55 HEART OF WESSEX LINE 29, 54 HELICOPTER MUSEUM 33 HEREFORD 55 HEREFORDSHIRE 55 HERSCHEL MUSEUM OF ASTRONOMY 38 HESTERCOMBE GARDENS 12 HIDCOTE MANOR GARDEN 12 HOLBURNE MUSEUM OF ART 39 HOLFORD 66 HOLLY HEDGE ANIMAL SANCTUARY 25 HORSEWORLD 25 J JANE AUSTEN CENTRE 37, 39 JANE AUSTEN TOURS 49, 50 JANE AUSTEN’S BATH 50
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K KELMSCOTT MANOR 12 KENNET & AVON CANAL 63 KILVE 60 KILVER COURT GARDENS 12 KINGS WESTON HILL 63 KINGS WESTON ROMAN VILLA 19 KINGSWOOD HERITAGE MUSEUM 39 KYNANCE COVE 60 L LACOCK 48 LACOCK ABBEY & FOX TALBOT MUSEUM 13 LAMPETER 58 LANHYDROCK 54 LAWRENCE WESTON COMMUNITY FARM 62 LEGOLAND 59 LEIGH WOODS 63 LIFE CYCLE 64 LITTLEDEAN JAIL 39 LIZARD POINT 60 LLANDRINDOD WELLS 58 LLANTHONY VALLEY & PRIORY 58 LLANWYRTYD WELLS 58 LODGE PARK & SHERBORNE ESTATE 13 LONGLEAT 25, 59 LORD MAYOR’S CHAPEL 43 LOST GARDENS OF HELIGAN 54 LULWORTH 60 LYNTON/LYNMOUTH 55 LYTES CARY MANOR 13 M M SHED 36, 39, 63, 65 MALMESBURY ABBEY 45
MATTHEW CRUISES 32 MAYOR’S CORPS OF HONORARY GUIDES 49 MELLS 47 MENDIP OUTDOOR PURSUITS 51 MENDIPS 64 MENDIPS RACEWAY 52 MONMOUTH 58 MONTACUTE HOUSE 13 MUCHELNEY ABBEY 19 MUMBLES 58 MUSEUM OF BATH AT WORK 39 MUSEUM OF EAST ASIAN ART 21, 40 MYSTERY WORSHIPPER 45 N NAKED GUIDE TO BATH 67 NAKED GUIDE TO BRISTOL 67 NAKED GUIDE TO CIDER 67 NATIONAL BOTANIC GARDEN OF WALES 57 NATIONAL GARDENS SCHEME 67 NATIONAL MARINE AQUARIUM 55 NATIONAL MUSEUM CARDIFF 57 NATIONAL TRUST 64, 67 NATIONAL WATERFRONT MUSEUM 58 NATURAL ENGLAND 66, 68 NATURE IN ART MUSEUM 40 NEW FOREST 55 NEW QUAY 58 NEW ROOM 43 NEWARK PARK 13 NEWQUAY 60 NEXT BUS BRISTOL 68 NIGEL VILE 67 NO. 7 BOATS 32 NO.1 ROYAL CRESCENT 21, 40 NOAH’S ARK ZOO FARM 25 NUNNEY CASTLE 19 O OAKHAM TREASURES 40 OAKWOOD 59 OFFA’S DYKE PATH 66 OLD DOWN COUNTRY PARK 25 OLD SARUM 20 OLD WARDOUR CASTLE 20 OLDBURY COURT ESTATE 63 OXFORDSHIRE 46 OXWICH 60 P PAINSWICK ROCOCO GARDEN 14 PATHFINDER TOURS 30 PETO GARDEN 14 PHOENIX LEISURE 53 PIRATE WALK 50 PLYMOUTH 54 POOLE 54, 60 PORTSMOUTH 55 PORTSMOUTH HISTORIC DOCKYARD 55 PRIDDY 47, 64 PRIOR PARK LANDSCAPE GARDEN 14
PUBLIC SCULPTURE OF BRISTOL 67 PULTENEY CRUISERS 32 PURDOWN AND STOKE PARK 63 PUXTON PARK 25 PUZZLE WOOD 25 Q QUANTOCK HILLS 66 R RADSTOCK MUSEUM 41 RAILWAY TOURING COMPANY 29 RAMBLERS ASSOCIATION 64 RAPTORCARE 53 RED LODGE 41, 63 RHOSSILI BAY 60 RIDGEWAY 66 RIVER AVON TRAIL 63 ROCK UK SUMMIT CENTRE 52 RODMARTON MANOR 14 ROMAN BATHS & PUMP ROOM 7, 22, 41, 63 ROUGH GUIDES 67 ROYAL MARINES MUSEUM 55 ROYAL WEST OF ENGLAND ACADEMY 42 ROYATE HILL 63 S SALCOMBE 55 SALISBURY 48 SALISBURY CATHEDRAL 45 SANDBANKS 60 SEAQUARIUM 25 SEGWAY EVENTS 52 SEVERN BEACH 60 SEVERN BEACH LINE 29 SHELL BEACH 60 SHELL GUIDE TO ENGLISH PARISH CHURCHES 45 SHERBORNE 54 SIDMOUTH 55 SNOWSHILL MANOR 14 SOMERSET RURAL LIFE MUSEUM 42 SOUTH GLOUCESTERSHIRE BUS 68 SOUTH WEST COASTAL PATH 66 SOUTHAMPTON 55 SPACEGUARD CENTRE 55 SPINNAKER TOWER 55 ST BRIAVELS 66 ST FAGANS NATIONAL HISTORY MUSEUM 58 ST JAMES PRIORY 44 ST JOHN THE BAPTIST 44 ST MARY REDCLIFFE 44 ST PAULS 50 ST STEPHENS 44 ST WERBURGHS CITY FARM 63 STEAM: MUSEUM OF THE GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY 29, 42 STEEP HOLM 32 STOKE PARK 64 STONEHENGE 22 STOURHEAD GARDEN & HOUSE 14, 61 STREET 47
STUDLAND 60 SUDELEY CASTLE 16 SUSTRANS 64 SWANSEA 58 SWANSEA BAY 58 SYMONDS YAT 66 T TANK MUSEUM 42 TAUNTON 48 TENBY 58 TETBURY 46 THORNBURY & DISTRICT MUSEUM 42 THORPE PARK 59 THREE CLIFFS 60 TINTERN ABBEY 22 TORBAY 55 TORBAY EXPRESS 29 TRAVELINE 68 TREASURE TRAILS 53 TREBAH GARDENS 54 TRELISSICK 54 TRERICE 54 TROPIQUARIA ZOO 26 TYNTESFIELD 10, 11, 16 V VELVET BOTTOM 64 VERDI’S 58 VICTORIA ART GALLERY 42, 63 VICTORIAN BRISTOL 50 W WALKING BRISTOL 50 WELLS 48 WELLS CATHEDRAL 45 WESSEX CONNECT 68 WESSEX RED 68 WEST SOMERSET RAILWAY 30 WESTBURY COURT GARDEN 16 WESTONBIRT ARBORETUM 16, 26 WESTON-SUPER-MARE 48, 60 WESTON-SUPER-MARE GRAND PIER 4, 5, 48, 72 WESTON-SUPER-MARE MUSEUM 40 WESTWARD HO! 60 WEYMOUTH 54 WHITE HORSES 66 WILDFOWL AND WETLANDS TRUST 26 WILLSBRIDGE MILL 63 WILTON HOUSE 16 WILTSHIRE HERITAGE MUSEUM 42 WINCHESTER 55 WINDMILL HILL CITY FARM 63 WOODCHESTER MANSION 16 WOODLAND TRUST 67 WOOKEY HOLE CAVES & PAPER MILL 22 WORLD HERITAGE SITE 50 Y YELLOW BOOK 67 Z ZIPCAR 68
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