Travelling by private executive coach from our designated pick-up points, we stay four nights on a half-board basis at the three-star Best Western Forest Hills hotel on the outskirts of Frodsham.
RHS Garden Bridgewater
What we will see
• Packwood House
• Anderton Boat Lift visitor centre & cruise
• Guided walking tour of Chester
• Pontcysyllte Aqueduct cruise
• Llangollen
• Erddig
• RHS Garden Bridgewater
• Dunham Massey
• Behind-the-scenes tour at the Royal Shakespeare Company
Itinerary
Day 1 En route to our hotel we visit the National Trust’s Packwood House. Originating in the 15th century but later falling into disrepair, this house was restored in the 1920s and 1930s by Graham Baron Ash and offers a wonderful insight into the taste, rich decoration and way of life of a wealthy connoisseur in the period between the wars.
We then check in at the Forest Hills hotel. Located in a countryside setting, facilities at the hotel include a restaurant, bar, indoor swimming pool, gymnasium, steam room and sauna. All rooms are en suite and feature television, telephone, hairdryer, and tea and coffee making facilities.
Day 2 Our Blue Badge guide meets us at our hotel this morning and accompanies us throughout the day. This morning we visit the Anderton Boat Lift visitor centre. The boat lift was built by Edwin Clark in 1875 to lift cargo boats the 50ft from the River Weaver to the Trent & Mersey Canal. Whilst at the visitor centre, we enjoy a memorable included boat excursion which takes us along the River Weaver and through the Anderton Boat Lift. This afternoon we enjoy an included guided walking tour of Chester with our Blue Badge guide, taking in sights such as the city walls, the Cathedral and the unique 13th-century ‘Rows’.
Day 3 With our Blue Badge guide this morning we enjoy an included canal boat excursion across the famous Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, built by Thomas Telford between 1795 and 1805. We then enjoy some time at leisure for lunch in Llangollen. We continue to the National Trust’s Erddig property, one of the most fascinating houses in Britain, with an evocative range of outbuildings and state rooms displaying most of their original 18th and 19th century furnishings.
Day 4 Our Blue Badge guide meets us at our hotel this morning and accompanies us throughout the day. This morning we visit the RHS Garden Bridgewater, so named after the nearby canal. A stunning new 156-acre garden, RHS Garden Bridgewater is being created in the heart of the North-west by bringing back to life the lost historic grounds at Worsley New Hall in Salford. This is one of the largest gardening projects in Europe, designed mainly by Tom Stuart Smith. In 2019 at the Chelsea show his garden highlighted the main features for Bridgewater’s future.
The RHS tells us: “Bridgewater includes one of the largest walled gardens in the UK.” There are many areas to discover here, kitchen, paradise and Chinese gardens, restored Victorian greenhouses and much more. Worsley New Hall was built for the Earl of Ellesmere in the 1840s, survived a fire and was visited by Queen Victoria and King Edward VII. It served as a Red Cross hospital during the 1914-18 war and was a training ground of the Lancashire Fusiliers in the Second World War. This grand Gothic-style mansion, designed by Edward Blore, was demolished in the 1940s, with its gardens gradually disappearing. Then along came the RHS.
We visit the National Trust’s Dunham Massey this afternoon, an elegant Georgian mansion with a sumptuous Edwardian interior filled with a fire collection of paintings, furniture and Huguenot silver.
Day 5 After checking out of our hotel and before returning home we enjoy an included behind-the-scenes tour at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford upon Avon. During our tour we discover the origins of the RSC and the theatres in Stratford and learn about a production in more depth. Taking carefully selected comfort stops en route, we return back to our original pick-up points.
Cost
£729 plus £36 insurance (including Covid cover). Single room supplement £69.
To book
Contact organiser Ianthe Cox: email ianthecox72@gmail.com or telephone 01737 843105.