| aug2026 Heart of England apr2026 Northern Highlands & Orkney dec 2025 Thursford Xmas Spectacular may2025 Scotland 2024 France |
2027 Annual holiday - Brecon Beacons 06-11may2027
If interested, please contact Excursions - Mary Tricker
2026 Valkenburg Xmas Market 29nov-02dec
If interested, please contact Excursions - Mary Tricker
Short break to the Heart of England - August 2026
We left Alton in the cool of morning of August 6th, 2026, to see if the Heart of England was as brown as East Hampshire. It was. The harvesting was almost complete and some fields ploughed up.
We reached Coventry's Cathedrals at lunch time to find they are just as dramatically different as they were when they were constructed in 1962. The new Cathedral of Saint Michael is separate from the old Cathedral, but on one site, which means you can see each from the other. Graham Sutherland's tapestry of " Christ in Glory" can be seen from the ruined Cathedral and Christ looks out from the tapestry, through the huge West end glass screen, which is engraved with John Hutton's figures of saints and angels, towards the ruined remains of the war. This reminds us that peace and reconciliation is the theme here. Not that there was much peace in the new Cathedral. The whole west end was devoted to drumming, in which visitors were invited to join. The acoustics are really good; there was no escape.
We travelled on to our hotel, Sysonby Knoll, where we were very well looked after for our four nights.
Friday was a visit to James Taylor's Bell Foundry, the largest working Bell Foundry in the country, employing 30 skilled staff. It is a large red brick Victorian purpose-built manufacturing site still used for its original purpose. It is now surrounded by modern houses and flats, not labourers’ back-to-back dwellings. It makes and looks after most of Britain's bells, carillons, clappers and headstocks. It produced the "Great Paul Bell "for Saint Paul's Cathedral in 1881. The main foundry room has furnaces and molten metal, bells, soil floors. It is dirty, noisy, and absolutely as it was in the past. It must also be a Health and Safety Nightmare. A unique experience.
By contrast, the afternoon was spent at the new Richard the Third Centre and Museum, in Leicester. It has been built over the car park where his bones were found and is across the road from the Cathedral (where there was a rehearsal for a Beatles Concert). There is information about Richard, and you can see where the bones were found, but he is now interred in the Cathedral.
Saturday was Althorp House, the home of the Spencer family and where Princess Diana is buried. This house was built in 1788 and the Elizabethan glass from their earlier house is in the Chapel window. Over the years they have sold off treasures to maintain the house. They still own 13,000 acres, and Spencer House, overlooking Green Park in London. Diana is buried on an island in a small lake in the grounds. It has a Doric Temple with her head in relief on it, and her dates. There is very little else about Diana. Apparently, there was an exhibition after she died, including her wedding dress, but it was closed in 2013, due to concerns about commercial exploitation.
Sunday was garden visits, first to Geoff Hamilton's Garden in Rutland, not far from a very low Rutland Water. There are 38 small gardens to see, which are varied and interesting, though suffering from the extreme heat, as were we. On to Oakham for lunch and then the Leicester University Botanic Gardens, where the temperature was over 30 degrees and we sought shade. It is a large collection of unusual trees, including a sapling from the Sycamore Gap tree on Hadrian's Wall.
We returned to our hotel for our final meal. The amazing roast lamb which was as succulent and tender as it could be, not to mention the blackcurrant sorbet with the melon was very welcome
Home on Monday via Charlecote Park, an Elizabethan House with a Victorian makeover and a large collection of carriages. A brief look at Woodstock and then home to the brown, brown grass of Alton. Many thanks to Steve Mitchell for the holiday, Mary for her constant counting of the sheep, and, not least, our very patient, friendly and competent driver Paul.
2026 holiday - The Northern Highlands & Orkneys - 22-29 April 2026
2025 Christmas break - Thursford Christmas Spectacular - 14-16dec2025
On Sunday 14th December a group of 39 Alton u3a members set off for Norfolk.
Stopping at Cambridge en route for lunch and a wander, we then resumed our journey to Dunston Hall hotel where we stayed for 2 nights.
The Thursford Spectacular Show was more than amazing. It is Europe’s biggest show with a talented cast of 130 top quality singers, dancers and musicians, attracting 135,000 visitors a year, largely down to word-of-mouth recommendations.
On our return journey we stopped at Blickling Hall, a National Trust property. The current building is mainly Jacobean, and it was beautifully decorated out for Christmas with lots of knitted mice hidden for the children to find.
We arrived back in Alton in the early evening, having had a most enjoyable couple of days away.
Mary Tricker (Group leader)
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2025 holiday - Scotland - 9-15may2025 - click to view report
