Cultural tours

Again I have been reminded today how amazing the suppliers we work with are. I have just received an update from Alexandra Founder of The English Manner, about the busy summer she has had putting on cultural tours. It was so varied and interesting I thought I would share it with you all!

It’s been a busy summer for The English Manner and our cultural tours!

First off, a stunning private gardens tour incorporating Members’ Day of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show after visits to fabulous gardens in Regent’s Park and Highgate, and then on to the glorious designs of private homes and grounds in Dorset, Devon and the Cotswolds. A highlight was lunch with Lady Mary Keen at her home near Bath, the rarely open Plas Metaxu, and the medieval origins at Radcot.

Continuing the medieval theme, we welcomed friends from The National Society Colonial Dames VIIth Century from all over the USA for a tour exploring their ancestry to the Knights Templar and foundations of the Magna Carta. A private reception at the House of Lords, private visits to Middle Temple and the Templar church, then on to an exclusive private visit to Windsor Castle and St George’s Chapel to learn of the Garter Knights. From here guests enjoyed a private opening of the Mappa Mundi at Hereford Cathedral, lunch with the owners of some of our least known and finest historic ancestral homes – a view of the death shroud of Mary Queen of Scots, and a lesson in the Templars influences on the English landscape.

In July we had the pleasure of welcoming some delightful Japanese guests who were on a whistle stop tour of Devon. Warm weather ensured a great visit to the home of D’Oyly Carte impressarios at Coleton, and a stunning walled garden at the glass capital of Devon, Dartington Hall.

During the summer months we have had the pleasure of welcoming many individual guests for lots of London based activities, highlighting private openings at Buckingham Palace and visits to the Household Cavalry Museum, with lots of fattening English afternoon teas! We have met several business and leisure travel groups from China and given various lectures on British traditions and protocol, and we will be rounding off the season with a tour programme for our American guests on Queen Victoria and The Crown. It is 200 years since the birth of our much loved former monarch, and we will be celebrating with visits to Buckingham Palace, a private tour of her daughter’s Windsor home, and exclusive tours of Osborne House, Disraeli’s home and the estate of a former Lord Chamberlain, including dinner with a former Royal Chef.

2020 is already filling up; we have a fabulous repeat scheduled of The Crown tour programme in August, and what promises to be a spectacular tour exploring Norman Wales next September, where we will learn of the influences of the Norman invasion from Chester to St Davids and Pembroke to Skenfrith.