A passion for tradition and impressing guests inspired one man to transform a run-down country house and desolate landscape.
Guided Tour
Guided Tour
What is it?
A guided tour is the practice of an individual leading a group of people around a point of interest and giving them information about it, which can cover topics such as religious significance, cultural history and how it relates to other locations and events in history.
What does it involve?
Attending a guided tour basically just involves paying attention! All the work is done for you in finding out the facts and presenting them in an interesting manner; the role of the participant just calls for a level of interest in your surroundings and an eagerness to learn!
Why do it and what are the benefits?
Tour guides can be extremely educational - physically interacting with the place while learning about its history will provide a different kind of academic experience to the classroom by giving the students something more tangible to focus on.
What equipment do we need?
You shouldn't need any equipment for a guided tour, but check beforehand to make sure; some tours involve their participants even further by getting them to write down their own thoughts, or make drawings - so you may need to ensure students have something to write on!
Who is it suitable for?
Guided Tours are suitable for pretty much anybody if you pick the right one - smaller children will find it harder to focus on more complex subjects and will need more visual aids, but if they are engaged correctly they will have a great time! Likewise, teenage students will get bored if the subject isn't engaging enough, so make sure to choose the tour appropriate for the age and interests of the group.
Costs?
Around £20 or less per person, but it can vary greatly depending on the location of the tour - for example, a minibus tour around a park will cost more than a short walk around a country manor! Make sure to shop around to get an idea of the prices in your area.
Issues/Things to think about? (unsuitable for age groups, medical conditions etc)
A guided tour should be suitable for all ages, but students with condtions such has ADHD may have trouble focusing for an extended period of time - make sure to be aware of the specific needs of your group.
How do we include?
Many guided tours have disabled access for those with limited physical movement, but it would be wise to doublecheck beforehand. Those who are deaf and blind can also be included in guided tours but may need more specialist staff - again, you will need to check with the specific establishments.
Doing it abroad?
There are points of public interest all around the world, so wherever you can find something well known chances are there will be a guided tour available! Foreign tours may be conducted in another language though, so make sure to confirm the specifications of the tour before booking it.
Main website:
This website gives a good overview of places where you can go for a tour guide, but you're best looking at the specific areas around you to find out details!
Venues with this Activity
Ruin of a 14th-century Carthusian priory
Set amid woodland in North Yorkshire, this unusual monastery is the best preserved Carthusian priory in Britain.
Mount Grace Priory is the perfect tourist attraction for a relaxing and peaceful day out. Discover how the monks lived 600 years in the reconstructed monk’s cell and herb plot.
The Society was incorporated as a City Livery Company in 1617. Its Hall (dating from 1668-72), archives and artefacts also record and reflect its activities as a major centre for manufacturing and retailing drugs (1671-1922), founder of Chelsea Physic Garden in 1673 and medical examining and licensing body from 1815.
The Icelandic Phallological Museum is probably the only museum in the world to contain a collection of phallic specimens belonging to all the various types of mammal found in a single country. Phallology is an ancient science which, until recent years, has received very little attention in Iceland, except as a borderline field of study in other academic discipl
Pure Quality – Pure Eco – Pure Ingredients
Purity Brewing Company is an award winning craft brewery established in 2005.
When Purity Brewing Company set out the mission was simple: brew great beer without prejudice, with a conscience and with a consistency and an attention to detail, which is second to none.
A journey of real science through 19th Century Physics
A guide around the packed shelves of our museum va laser pointer, demonstrating some of the more interesting instruments. Featuring the development of the Electro-static generator, the Wimshurst Machine and the accessories that could be used with it.
The Chelsea Physic Garden was founded in 1673 by the Society of Apothecaries to study the therapeutic properties of plants. In addition there are many rare plants and a rock garden dating from 1773. New for 2014: enlarged and re-modelled Garden of Medicinal Plants, displaying their past, present and future usage.
Impressive working 18th-century watermill
Follow this amazing survival story of a mill that was almost demolished, then saved by the local villagers and restored to working order to carry on the tradition of milling on this site for over 1,000 years.
Enjoy a unique experience that offers a remarkable insight into the work and outlook of one of Britain’s most important twentieth century artists - Barbara Hepworth - renowned for her sculpture. The museum is housed in Hepworth's former studio and gardens in St Ives, giving visitors the opportunity to see her sculptures in their natural habitat.
Since 1928, most members of the Royal Family, except for sovereigns and their consorts, have been interred here. Among those interred here are three of Queen VIctoria's children (Princess Helena, 1846–1923; Prince Arthur, 1850–1942; Princess Louise, 1848–1939) as well as one former monarch (Edward VIII, 1894–1972, later the Duke of Windsor) and his wife Wallis Simpson.
13th-century stone barn
Great Barn in Great Coxwell village is the sole surviving part of a thriving 13th-century grange that once provided vital income to Beaulieu Abbey.
Built from Cotswold rubble-stone walling, the barn is an impressive reminder of the skills of the Gothic carpenters and the wealth of the great monastic orders.
The rural retreat of T. E. Lawrence
'I've a hut in a wood near camp wherein I spend my spare evenings' - the words of the legendary Lawrence of Arabia, about Clouds Hill.
An outstanding display of English medieval carpentry, this mighty timber-framed barn is the largest cruck structure in Britain.
Built for Pershore Abbey in about 1325, it is over 42 metres (140 feet) long, with 18 cruck blades each made from a single oak tree.
There were once other farm buildings and houses, and the abbot himself is known to have sometimes resided here.
The home of one of the most remarkable men of the 20th century
Nuffield Place reveals the surprisingly down-to-earth lives of Lord Nuffield, founder of the Morris Motor Company, and his wife. Their home and personal possessions are just as they left them, the decor and furnishings intact.
16th-century half-timbered dovecote
The last remnant of a former medieval monastic grange, this curious crooked dovecote sits prettily in the Worcestershire countryside.
Surviving virtually unaltered since the late 16th century, the picturesque dovecote, retains many of its nesting boxes and original features.
A Unique Opportunity to Walk Down the Famous Cobbles
Take a tour behind the scenes of the world famous Quay Street set. Studio guides will share fascinating facts and stories from over fifty years of filming at the site, before the production moved to its new home at MediaCityUK.
Schools
The purpose of the Cromwell Museum is to interpret Oliver Cromwell's life and legacy through portraits, documents and objects associated with Cromwell. Impressively impartial!
Pallant House Gallery is home to one of the best collections of Modern British art in the UK, with works by Henry Moore, Walter Sickert, Ben Nicholson, Eduardo Paolozzi and Peter Blake.
Glyndebourne is an English country house, the site of an opera house that, since 1934, has been the venue for the annual summer Glyndebourne Festival Opera.
Make an occasion of visiting Glyndebourne and come for the whole afternoon: you can explore the grounds, visit our Archive and Gallery or have a picnic on the lawn.
The Glyndebourne Gardens and Lake
The Museum of Eton Life tells the story of the foundation of the College in 1440 and provides a glimpse into the world of the Eton schoolboy past and present.
Prior’s Hall Barn is one of the finest surviving medieval barns in the east of England. Its wood is tree-ring dated to the mid-15th century. It boasts a breathtaking aisled interior and crown post roof, the product of some 400 oaks.
The remains of a 13th century hexagonal castle, birthplace in 1367 of the future King Henry IV, with adjacent earthworks.
Bolingbroke Castle was one of three castles built by Ranulf de Blundeville, Earl of Chester and Lincoln, in the 1220s after his return from the Crusades (the others being Beeston Castle, Cheshire, and Chartley, Staffordshire).
Situated just 10 miles away from prehistoric Stonehenge is a medieval fortress. Built in the late 11th century, today only ruins and earthworks remain.
The vast and immensely impressive ruins of a palatial medieval manor house arranged round a pair of courtyards, with a huge undercrofted Great Hall and a defensible High Tower 22 metres (72 feet) tall.
The 14th-century gatehouse of the nearby Cistercian abbey, the second wealthiest monastery in Lancashire, beside the River Calder. The first floor was probably a chapel.
Whalley Abbey, second richest of Lancashire’s monasteries, was founded in 1296, when the monks of Stanlaw moved there from their flood-prone site on the Cheshire shore of the River Mersey near Ellesmere Port.
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