Old Mercia Tour (A Coach Trip in Derbyshire)
“Old Mercia Tour” is a Coach Tour devised and led by Blue Badge Guide Colin Crosby, of Colin Crosby Heritage Tours.
These excursions are a most enjoable way of soaking up some Local History.
This is one of the morning tours, which are very popular with people who do not want to be out all day.
The coach leaves St. Margarets Bus Station in Leicester at 9.30am, and is expected back about 2pm.
The format is that one stays on the coach almost all the time, while Colin gives a commentary, but about halfway round, usually around 11.30am, there is a stop, where coffee, tea, cakes etc can be bought. This is always somewhere nice and interesting – it could be a farm, or a garden centre, or a museum, or a craft centre, for example.
This tour is around the area on Leicestershire’s borders with Staffordshire and Derbyshire. This was the heart of the old Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia.
Among the towns and villages in the area are Breedon-on-the-Hill, whose ancient hilltop church contains important Anglo-Saxon sculptures; Melbourne, the birthplace of Thomas Cook; Repton, whose church contains a rare Anglo-Saxon crypt (others are at Hexham and Ripon) and was a pilgrimage centre after St. Wistan was buried there; and Tutbury, where the ruined castle was one of John of Gaunt’s homes (others were at Leicester, Kenilworth and the Savoy in London).
All this is in lovely East Midlands countryside, where the new National Forest is being established.
Dates, costs and where to meet
A place on 'Old Mercia Tour' costs £13.00 per person, or £13.00 if paying in advance. The coach trip begins at St. Margarets Bus Station, and is running on:
I'm sorry, but there are no plans to run this event at present.
If you would like to book a place on one of these dates, please telephone Colin on (0116) 2611576 or email him at colin@crosbyheritage.co.uk.