Bath: History
Topics of historical interest
Topics of historical interest
Discover some of England’s oldest secrets and prettiest hidden treasures. This tour offers you more than just sightseeing: the stunning locations, amazing food, history, stories and conversations make each tour unique. Travelling in a small group of eight guests or fewer, , get beneath the surface and discover real, authentic, quintessential England. This full-day Stonehenge and Secret Somerset tour combines a visit to one of the most iconic ancient structures in the world with a journey into 'secret Somerset', where you'll discover fascinating places and hear amazing stories that you simply will not see on the usual tourist trail or with any other tour.
Your tour starts in a comfortable, air-conditioned vehicle departing Bath at around 9am. Next you can enjoy coffee at a unique and stunning location on the way to Stonehenge.
Once you arrive at Stonehenge, you get to skip the ticket queues and the audio-guides that most visitors to Stonehenge encounter, and enjoy a personal, interactive tour of the stones.
Departing Stonegenge, you escape the crowds and delve deep into 'Secret Somerset', a land of stunning countryside, hidden villages and quaint cottages. You enjoy lunch at a carefully selected award-winning traditional English Inn that oozes character and serves superb locally-sourced fare. You can also sample local beverages such as locally made and world renowned Somerset cider.
After lunch you will explore some stunning villages - places few other tourists will ever see or even hear about. You will admire archetypal English cottages and hear some of the unique stories that make these places special, enjoying countryside that has inspired writers such as Hardy and Austen and artists such as Turner and Constable.
You will finish the afternoon (if there's time) with the opportunity to enjoy a hidden walled garden and the chance to enjoy (optional) tea and cake in very special location before returning to Bath.
Henry Liddell, the Dean of Christ Church College from the 1850s to 1891, had a duaghter in 1852 he named Alice Pleasance Liddell. The Liddell family struck up a friendship with a mathematics professor named Charles Dodgson, who would regale the Liddell sisters with elaborate fantasy tales on their boating trips down Oxford's rivers. Little Alice begged Dodgson to write some of them down, and he did, using the pename Lewis Carroll, casting a precocious seven-year old girl named "Allice" as the protagonist, and eventually publishing Alice in Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass and What Alice Found There.