Concierge History Tours' Jonathan Sayers and William Thomson of Ask William spoke to Oxfordshire's JackFM
Bespoke History/Sightseeing guided tours
around the rural surroundings of Oxfordshire
in a chauffeur-driven classic Rolls-Royce or bentley
Lasting three hours, this tour departs at 9.30am from Oxford or your Cotswolds location and returning at 12.30pm, or a 1.30pm departure returning at 4.30pm. We will visit destinations like Rousham Gardens, Waddesdon Manor, Blenheim Palace, Downton Abbey locations (Bampton, Cogges Farm and Swinbrook ), and Henley upon Thames. You can have morning coffee or afternoon tea at Henley upon Thames, Burford, Bibury,
Bourton on the Water, or at the Slaughters. This is a bespoke service, so enquire for further details and possibilities. The tour is for a maximum of three people.
Visiting Hampton Court Palace, built by Cardinal Wolsey, Lord Chancellor to Henry VIII, who unable to arrange a divorce for Henry to marry Ann Boleyn, lost his power and in order to placate his master, he ‘voluntarily’ gave up this palace. See the Chapel where Henry was told of the infidelity of his young queen, Katherine Howard, the corridor haunted by her screams as she tried to beg for her life. You will also see the structure of the King’s Council, the Great Hall where Henry dined and the great kitchens, and the formal gardens and Maze. We will have tea at the Phyllis Court Club in Henley.
Visit the designer Bicester Village outlet using your discount card, and/or Sulgrave Manor, ancestral home of George Washington, or Waddesdon Manor, the sumptuous French chateau of Lord Rothschild and/or Stowe House, ducal palace of the Dukes of Buckingham, and their famous gardens. Nearby is the Bletchley Park exhibition about ‘Enigma’, that helped defeat the Nazis, or visit Canons Ashby, rebuilt from a ‘dissolved’ Henrician Tudor monastery. Drive a tank cross country and crush a car at Tanks-a-lot, or fly in a Tiger Moth biplane (both need pre-arranged notice and come at an extra cost).
We drive to the ‘chocolate box’ village of Bibury with its streams and ponds before venturing to Bourton On The Water for antiques and cream tea or luncheon. We then visit Blenheim Palace, built by John Churchill, the great English general of the Marlborough Wars – this is where his descendant, Winston Churchill, was born. We also visit the grave of Churchill, the greatest Englishman, the man who ‘gave England its roar!’ in World War Two and cemented the ‘Special Relationship’ between the greatest English speaking peoples. Add a visit to Highgrove Gardens (personal home of King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla) for a supplement of £74. Add a visit to Castle Combe and Bradford on Avon for a supplement of £75.
After an hour’s drive from Oxford we visit the birthplace of Shakespeare, England’s greatest writer and poet, at Stratford upon Avon. Next on our route are the cottage where Anne Hathaway, the Bard's wife, resided, the Royal Shakespeare Company’s purpose-built theatre, and various other places of note in this world-famous literary town. For all you ‘culture vultures’, this itinerary can be combined with the fascinating automaton museum in Compton Verney or Warwick Castle for a view of a medieval castle which has been fully restored and is a great historical resource.
These bespoke tours would be suitable for businesses that want to reward valued customers or successful sales teams. The tours would commence with a pick-up from a chosen location followed by a visit to the Oxford Artisan Distillery where they will be given a private tour. Lunch at the Bear at Woodstock or the Randolph would be next, followed by a visit and tour of Napton Cidery and/or the Hook Norton Brewery before drop-off at the pick-up location. This would be valid all year round. Please note that the cost of tours at the distillery, cidery, and brewery are not included in the price.
We visit TV and film locations from Downton Abbey and Morse in the picturesque Cotswolds countryside. We then travel through the iconic English villages tracing the impact of the Medieval Wool Trade wealth on the creation of churches and other religious sites and the eventual dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII and its effect on Tudor life and politics, which eventually led to the English Civil War, the Protectorate, and Restoration between 1644-1660. We will visit the battlefield sites of Edgehill and Stow in the Wold, the first and last battles of the First English Civil War.
Other bespoke services negotiable, just ask >>
All tours are in English.
Price per day subject to the itinerary chosen. Maximum party size: four persons.
The above prices are on the basis of pick-up from Oxford. Pick-up from London, Bath, etc., would incur a financial supplement.
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