Visits
We organise several visits each year to various places, some National Trust properties, others not. Our first post-lockdown visit to Attingham Park (left) was particularly popular. We were able to raise about £1500 to help the National Trust's activities.​
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The cost of the visit includes coach transport. The pick up points are either the Bentley Heath Community Hall in Widney Lane, Dorridge or Solihull Railway Station. Parking is available in the multi-storey car park (fee payable).
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Admission to non-National Trust properties is included in the cost, but please note that if you are not a National Trust member, you will have to pay the entry fee for Trust properties on arrival.​
Bookings for our visits are reviewed about 4 weeks before the departure date, at which point, the visit will be cancelled if numbers have not reached a certain minimum. So please try to make your booking before then – a date has been listed for each visit. We do appreciate that for some, it may be difficult to do this, so please do not worry, as we usually can accommodate a few late bookings.
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Our coach operators do have at least one wheelchair-accessible coach. If you would like to come on one of our trips and need to travel in a wheelchair, please contact us as soon as possible and we will see if can reserve it.
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Where a visit includes a meal, please advise us of any dietary requirements you may have when you book.
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We are now accepting payment by bank transfer. For the details please see the Members Only page.
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If you are interested in joining one of our trips, or have a general enquiry about them, please send us a message using this contact form.​
Wednesday 13 May, 2026
Kelmscott Manor (not NT)​
Kelmscott Manor was the summer home of William Morris: designer, writer and political activist. He called the house “heaven on earth”.
We will have a guided tour and discover more about William and May Morris and their wider Arts & Crafts circle: Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones and Philip Webb.
On the way to Kelmscott we will stop for 1 hour at Lechlade Garden Centre for a late breakfast, early lunch or just coffee, all of which is not available at Kelmscott on the day we visit. After our guided tour we will however gather for a cream tea in the Tearoom. There will be time then to visit the beautiful grounds and gardens. There is a gift shop.
Next door to the car park is St George’s Church, the burial place of William, Jane, Jenny and May Morris. The Thames Path is also just a few minutes away.
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Please book as soon as possible, preferably by 13th April.
Cost: £50
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Wednesday, 15 July, 2026
Erddig (NT)
Joshua Edisbury, High Sheriff of Denbighshire, started to build Erddig in 1684 but by 1709 was bankrupt. John Mellor a successful London lawyer bought Erddig, added wings to the north and south and furnished it with superb furniture and fabrics. With no children, on his death in 1733 the house passed to his nephew Simon Yorke. The house was then lived in by the Yorke family for nearly 250 years until it was passed to the National Trust in 1973. The Yorke family was very close to their servants, commemorating them with portraits and poems. They hardly threw anything away so with around 30,000 objects in the collection there is much history to see about the lives of both family and servants. By the 1920s the estate was in financial trouble and in the 1940s coal was being mined from beneath the house causing serious subsidence. Following transfer of ownership in 1973 the NT began a 4 year period of restoration of the house and 18th century Grade 1 listed walled garden and Erddig opened to the public in 1977.
Please try to book by 17th June
Cost: £36.00
Tuesday, 18 August, 2026
St Fagans National Museum of (Welsh) History, Cardiff
This hugely popular museum on the outskirts of Cardiff comprises over 40 historic buildings from around Wales that have been painstakingly dismantled and re-erected on this site in the grounds of St Fagans Castle. One of the most popular and well-respected museums in the country, the buildings range from dwellings from all eras (from Iron Age roundhouses to prefabs), through shops, workshops (some with working demonstrations), and places of worship, even a Victoria urinal, covering all aspects of Welsh historical life. St Fagans Castle itself is a Grade I listed 16th Century mansion and open to the public like almost every other building on the site.
Please try to book by 21st July
Cost: £35.00
Thursday, 10 September, 2026
Belton House (NT)
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Sometimes described as the ‘perfect’ English country house estate, Belton was built in the late 17th by ‘Young Sir John Brownlow and has been home to the family for nearly 300 years. Generations of the family have commissioned the finest designers and craftsmen of their age to shape today’s estate.
The house contains impressive art, silver and porcelain, as well as a world- renowned library. There are formal gardens of Dutch and Italian design together with a deer park to be explored at your leisure.
The Stables Café offers the opportunity for hot meals and snacks as well as the Joinery ice cream parlour and the Muddy Hands Kiosk for quick bites. Wheelchairs available to be booked in advance.
Please try to book by 13th August
Cost: TBA