This will be an entertaining day out for those who like to see a lot without walking too far. A Blue Badge guide will accompany us round the picture-postcard villages of Essex, with an afternoon at the Lodge Coaches headquarters including excursions in their vintage fleet of 1940s and 1950s coaches.
The Guildhall, Thaxted
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We begin in Thaxted – “the Queen of Essex”, according to Simon Jenkins, former chairman of the National Trust – with refreshments in an old coaching inn. The town was much admired by poet Sir John Betjeman and was home to composer Gustav Holst, who played the organ in the old wool church. From the church we weave past black-and-white Tudor houses and pretty colour-washed homes from the medieval to the Georgian period and thence to the beautifully wonky old Guildhall.
Back in the coach we can take in the gently rolling landscapes of rural Essex and the chocolate-box village of Finchingfield as we head south to the little-known Essex Rodings: eight villages full of old thatched cottages, timber-framed manor houses and farmhouses which form the largest group in the country to share a common name. The Rodings name comes from Saxon tribe the Hrodingas, who sailed up the Thames 1,500 years ago, turned right at Barking Creek and kept going until they found this remote and fertile landscape.
One of the Lodge family’s collection of vintage coaches
A ploughman’s lunch awaits us at the Lodge Garage in High Easter among the vintage vehicle collection and old coaching ephemera of the Lodge family, who are approaching their centenary in the coaching business. Some of the immaculately restored coaches have featured in television series, including The Crown. We will finish the day with a cup of tea and some cake and be ready to leave for home at 4.45pm.
♦ Cost: £60, including ploughman’s lunch, morning coffee and afternoon tea.
| Coach departure places and times (please note early start) |
|
| 8am | Brockham Middle Street near junction with Oakdene Road |
| 8.10am | Dorking outside Dorking Halls |
| 8.15am | Dorking opposite Waitrose |
| 8.20am | Dorking Knoll Road bus stop (on Horsham Road between Harrow Road East and Tower Hill Road) |
How to book
If you are comfortable with paying online, you can book your place(s) on the form below and receive acknowledgement by email; otherwise contact Sally Connett (01306 740596) to make reservations and arrange payment.
Booking
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