Special Interest Tours

Waterway Study Tour and English Country Gardens

In April or May each year we run a weekend tour looking at canals and rivers of the UK, usually focussing on one of the major restoration projects. These tours are assisted by local canal societies or IWA branches who kindly provide tour guides or guest speakers.

In June each year, we offer a guided tour visiting some carefully chosen gardens which are often privately owned and therefore seldom open to view.

Canal Study Tour - KENTISH WATERWAYS

Friday 30 April - Monday 03 May 2010

£298 per person
(with a £54 supplement for sole occupancy)

We have been running tours looking at waterways under restoration for three decades. It has been our privilege to visit almost every restoration project in Britain. In 2010 we are pleased to offer, for the first time, this look at a canal that once linked the rivers Thames & Medway. It reduced the 47-mile route around the Isle of Grain to just 7 miles. More than that, we plan to give a flavour of the rich maritime history of the Medway towns.

Our visit to Kent is easy to join by car, our hotel is close to the M2 motorway. Alternatively, rail travel to Kent has undergone the most major changes in 40 years. Not only is it possible to travel to the Medway from the traditional London terminals south of the Thames but also by new highspeed trains which will speed you from London St Pancras direct to Strood Station to join the Friday afternoon programme (higher fares apply to highspeed services). All trains via Gravesend pass through the famous Higham/ Strood Tunnel!

The Itinerary
FRIDAY: Guests joining at the hotel will leave by coach at 13:15 for an over-view of the Medway Valley by train and coach. Passengers travelling by rail are asked to use a service providing adequate connection time at Strood, for instance:-

St Pancras International 12:52
Strood 13:28

The Medway Valley Line closely follows the river almost to Beltring providing views of the navigation that cannot be seen by road. We join the 14:05 service from Strood. A break of journey will be made in Yalding at the confluence of the rivers Teise and Beult to inspect the rebuilt Hampstead Lock and the old medieval bridge crossing the weir stream. We then join a service one hour later to Tonbridge arriving at 15:55. Here we will visit the Big Bridge, the limit of navigation for all but the smallest of craft before re-joining the coach to return to the hotel by 17:45.

After dinner, we will have a talk on the Thames & Medway Canal by the Association Chairman, Brian Macknish. The Environment Agency has indicated that they will also attend and give a short presentation.

SATURDAY: We leave the hotel by coach at 09:00 and drive to Gravesend, where we will be met by members of the Thames & Medway Canal Association who will no doubt refer to the Albion Parade Regeneration Project. A brief inspection of the facilities for boaters and recent developments at the basin will be made. From here we will continue alongside the industrial area, which currently blocks the path of the canal extending eastward from the basin. After a short distance, our coach is able to follow the canal for ½ mile toward open countryside. Here we commence a guided walk of 2 miles alongside the canal and the adjacent marshland and RSPB area. Anyone preferring to avoid this walk can remain on the coach, which will retrieve the group. Two further pauses will be made at points of interest on the canal including a granite obelisk erected in 1829 as a boundary stone and Higham where the waterway emerged from a grand tunnel that later became a railway tunnel. We then drive to the Strood end of the tunnel where the entrance gates from the tidal Medway can still be seen. Lunch and light refreshments will be available on a cash basis at the Riverside Tavern.

In the afternoon, we drive to Chatham to board a special 2½ hour sailing on PS Kingswear Castle. This coal-fired paddle steamer was built in 1924 by Philip & Son of Dartmouth where she sailed up and down the River Dart with sister ships Totnes Castle & Compton Castle until the 1960’s. Following withdrawal in 1965, Kingswear Castle was purchased by the Paddle Steamer Preservation Society in 1967. She has cruised the Medway since 1985. Our cruise will proceed upstream to Rochester Bridge before turning down river to Darnet Ness and back to Chatham. We return to the hotel by 18:00.

SUNDAY: We leave the hotel by coach at 09:00 for the short drive to Allington Lock where subject to the pedestrian river crossing being open, it will be possible to inspect the rebuilt lock and slipway marking the commencement of the non-tidal reaches. At 10:00, we will board MV Allington Belle for a 2-hour cruise that will take us past Allington Castle, the Millennium River Park and the Archbishop’s Palace in Maidstone and onward to Farleigh Lock where the vessel will turn and bring us back to the Malta Inn at Allington. In the afternoon, our coach will take us to Chatham Historic Dockyard, which celebrated its 25th anniversary as an award-winning maritime heritage attraction in 2009. The 80-acre site brings alive some 400 years of maritime history and visitors discover how Drake, Pepys, Nelson, Brunel and Dickens together with thousands of dockyard workers and sailors all played a part in Chatham’s story. Anyone wishing to opt out of the dockyard visit can be set down in Rochester to enjoy the Sweeps Festival. The day ends back at the hotel by 17:45.

MONDAY: Our final day commences at 09:15 with a drive to Tenterden to join a steam-hauled train on the Kent & East Sussex Railway. The round trip of 10½ miles each way takes us through the Kentish Weald to a station within sight of Bodiam Castle in East Sussex. Our visit will be during the May Gala Weekend with an intensive service. On our return to Tenterden Town Station, there will be time for mid-day refreshments and a visit to the excellent Col. Stephens Railway Museum tracing the career and achievements of the railway’s eccentric but brilliant engineer. The return coach journey to the hotel will be completed by about 15:30 and passengers can also be set down at Rochester or Strood stations by about 16:00.

EXTEND YOUR STAY:
With so much to see and do in Kent, why not extend your stay for an extra night or two at the hotel? The nights of Thursday 29th April and Monday 3rd May can be booked through us at the special rate of £48 per person per night sharing a room, and £66 per night for sole occupancy. These rates include both dinner and breakfast. To whet your appetite for places to see, we suggest -
www.visitkent.co.uk
www.kentattractions.co.uk

Bus route 101 passes the hotel and links Maidstone with Chatham www.the101.co.uk

The Thames & Medway Canal was first proposed in 1778 as a safe route for military vessels between the dockyards of Woolwich and Chatham. Construction was started in 1800. It was built to take 60-ton Thames sailing barges and opened in 1824, linking Gravesend and Chatham. Higham/Strood Tunnel was the second longest in Britain at 3913 yards with an internal width of 35 feet including a 6 foot towpath and an amazing 37 feet high including the water depth of 6 – 8 feet.

For more information and to book a place on this tour, please contact us to request our Canal Study Weekend Brochure.

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GARDENS OF CHESHIRE
Friday 11 - Monday 14 June 2010
4 days from £369

We are pleased to offer our Gardens Tour, again under the expert leadership of Mrs Patricia Liechti-Clarke, renowned garden designer, lecturer and plantswoman.

Price Includes: Coach Travel, 3 nights dinner, room and breakfast and admissions

NOT Included: Single room supplement - £60, Mid-day lunches, Holiday Insurance.

Your Itinerary:
FRIDAY: We head to Bridgemere for our first visit to Bridgemere Garden World which covers 140 acres and is known as the largest gardening centre in the world, including their award-winning themed gardens shown over 6 acres. Lunch will be taken here before our afternoon visit to Alma Villa, Shavington. This is a well-stocked garden for year round interest incorporating a bog garden, water features, a lavender hedge and many varieties of shrubs, perennials, mature fruit trees and an abundance of pots and hanging baskets. We then continue to the Manor House Hotel situated in Alsager, our base for 3 nights.

SATURDAY: Our first visit today is to Bluebell Cottage Gardens, Dutton. This 1.5 acre garden is packed with thousands of rare and familiar hardy herbaceous perennials, shrubs and trees. Our second visit of the day is to Arley Hall Gardens, Arley, offering 5 separate gardens featuring exotic trees, flowering shrubs, a large collection of rhododendrons and azaleas. After lunch, our final visit of the day is The Old Hough, Warmington, where extensive lawns, long flower borders and a large lily pond surround a gracious farmhouse with over 250 metres of climber covered walls including many roses and the spectacular hedge with tropaeolum speciosum.

SUNDAY: The Well House, Tilston is our first stop of the day. A 2-acre garden with a variety of plants, a natural stream flowing through and a new wild flower meadow. Our next visit is to Cholmondeley Castle Gardens, Malpas, renowned for its romantically landscaped gardens, azaleas, rhododendrons, flowering shrubs, rare trees and water gardens. After lunch we make our last visit of the day to Weeping Ash, Glazebury, a garden of all-year interest where broad sweeps of colour lend elegance to the sweeping gardens. The lawns are framed with an eclectic mix of foliage, flowers and the herbaceous perennials overspill the boundaries. A visit to the adjacent garden centre is both recommended and owned by Mr John Bent from Weeping Ash.

MONDAY: We depart from our hotel and make our first stop at One House Nursery & Gardens, Rainow. A 1/2-acre garden created around the nursery with a wide variety of plants displayed in woodland and open settings with ponds, perennial borders, rockeries, sculptures and arbours. A short walk away is the historic Walled Garden, recently transformed with a productive vegetable and fruit garden. An orchard planted with traditional fruit trees is grazed by friendly Kune Kune pigs. Our final visit is to Trentham Gardens Estate, Trentham, incorporating an Italian Garden - made up of Upper and Lower flower gardens. From an historic layout providing bright blocks of coloured bedding and shrubs to an iconic contemporary display of interweaving drifts of herbaceous perennials with a viewing platform to see all.

Your Hotel
The Manor House Hotel
Audley Road, Alsager, Staffordshire ST7 2QQ
Tel: 01270 884000

A modern hotel situated in peaceful and tranquil surroundings on the Cheshire/Staffordshire border countryside with an award-winning restaurant. All rooms are en-suite. A Best Western hotel


The main joining points are: AMERSHAM, BEACONSFIELD & Handy Cross for HIGH WYCOMBE.