» » Reasons to be Cheerful: Part 9

Reasons to be Cheerful: Part 9

Your London Tours wants to encourage you to spend your vacation in the UK. But what can the UK offer that other countries can’t? In the latest instament of a blog series, we continue to list our all-time favourite places that can be visited in the UK.

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Welcome Back to Britain. This month, the West Midlands.

 

5 reasons to visit Stratford-Upon-Avon.

  • Shakespeare’s Birthplace: amazingly still standing, over 400 years on!
  • King Edward VI School: where the Bard learnt to read and write – superb tour.
  • Anne Hathaway’s Cottage: the thatched family home of Shakespeare’s wife.
  • Royal Shakespeare Theatre: the Bard’s legacy on the banks of the Avon.
  • Holy Trinity Church: a pilgrimage to Shakespeare’s tomb is a must.

 

5 reasons to visit Birmingham and the Black Country

  • Birmingham: city of the Industrial Revolution. More miles of canals than Venice.
  • Bourneville: Arts and Crafts model village built for Cadburys chocolate workers.
  • Wolverhampton: open cast coal mining gave region its nickname ‘Black Country.’
  • Dudley Canal: take a trip through the fossil-rich limestone underground tunnels.
  •  Walsall: town still famous for leather-making. Football club nicknamed ‘Saddlers’.

 

5 reasons to visit Warwickshire.

  • Warwick Castle: built late 11th century. Stronghold of the Earl of Warwick.
  • Warwick Cathedral: tombs of Earl of Warwick and Earl of Leicester.
  • Lord Leicester Hospital: medieval alms house. Often used as film location.
  • Kenilworth Castle: one of England’s finest castles. Subject of Walter Scott novel.
  • Dunchurch: Old Red Lion Inn: Gunpowder Plot conspirators met here in 1605.

 

5 reasons to visit Northamptonshire:

  • Althorp House: family home of the Spencers. Princess Diana’s burial place.
  • Holdenby House: historic mansion built for QE1 diplomat Christopher Hatton.
  • Rushton Triangular Lodge: Sir Thomas Tresham’s secret code house design.
  • Great Brington: picturesque village of thatched ironstone cottages.
  • Silverstone Museum: spiritual home of the British Grand Prix.

 

5 reasons to visit Leicestershire:

  • Ashby Castle: possibly the last medieval castle to be built in England.
  • Holy Trinity Church, Staunton Harold: the only Civil War-built Royalist church.
  • Calke Abbey: Grade I listed mansion: ‘an English country house in decline.’
  • Belvoir Castle: fantastically Gothic home of the Earl of Rutland.
  • St Mary & St Hardulph, Breedon on the Hill: Celtic, Anglo-Saxon & Norman.

Enticing

Your London Tours chief administrator Jo Bull said: “We cannot force anyone to spend their vacation in the UK, but we can entice them with these recommendations. We hope they will take them into account when making Your London Tours their first port of call for a trip to remember.”