Did You Miss the New Forest Tour?
I took a coach party of people from the Leicester area on a "New Forest Tour" recently.
This was the 2006 "Autumn Colours Tour", designed to show the trees at their Autumnal best. Actually, it's not easy to get the timing right, especially with the seasons changing so much in recent years.
I had taken a party on a very successful "Epping Forest Tour" a year earlier.
This time, we stopped in the morning at Guildford Cathedral. I always make sure that the morning coffee stop is somewhere interesting, where there is something to look at as well as just getting refreshments, and this splendid modern cathedral with its excellent tearoom certainly fills the bill.
When we reached Hampshire and the New Forest, I made a brief stop at the Rufus Stone at Stoney Cross, so that the party could stretch their legs amongst the trees. This is the place where William II was killed by an arrow, said by some to have been an accident.
The first of the three stops was at Lyndhurst, where most of the party had a look at the impressive St. Michaels Church.
Then it was on to Lymington, where again St. Thomas Church was the main attraction.
Finally, we arrived at Christchurch just as the light was failing. We had had several unfortunate delays during the day, and we arrived to find that Christchurch Priory had just closed. But we were able to admire the architecture from the outside.
On the way back, we stopped at Cherwell Valley Services.
Next year, the Autumn Colours Tour will be "Forest of Dean Tour", during which we will make stops at Gloucester, Ross-on-Wye and Chepstow, with an additional brief stop at Tintern Abbey.
You can book for this as soon as you like.
Posted by colin on Wednesday 13th December, 2006 at 10:05am