a classical experience tour offered by back-roads touring co., this tour takes english classical music as its theme

A CLASSICAL EXPERIENCE
English classical music is the theme of this tour
3 days / 2 nights - Wednesday to Friday

Free! When you sign up we’ll send you some Classical Music CDs featuring the music of the main composers we’ll discover on this tour!

We’ll admit it; this is another cunning ruse to get you, the typically curious and educated Back-Roader away from those obvious, commercial attractions that litter the well-trodden tourist path. By taking an imaginative and thematic approach to itinerary design, we discover an England just as beautiful and interesting as the better publicised ‘honey-pots’. Our theme tours, based around specific interests, naturally appeal to those who share that interest - but they also have a habit of creating new fans who perhaps never previously quite understood what the appeal was before! Above all, they are wonderful voyages of discovery to stimulate the mind and the senses alike and take you away from the tourist herd.

This particular tour takes English classical music as its theme. Each place we visit is worth the time in its own rite. Our theme, however, takes you to places you’d never perhaps have considered visiting, or even heard of! Classic scenery, classic tradition, classic history. Yes, it’s a real classic tour!

TENTATIVE ITINERARY	NIGHTSTOP
DAY ONE - Wednesday
Leaving London, with a musical soundtrack, of course, we are quickly in the Surrey countryside and at the country house of Hatchlands. We’ll quote its own web site description ‘built in the 1750s for Admiral Boscawen, hero of the Battle of Louisburg, the house contains the earliest recorded decorations in an English country house by Robert Adam – whose ceilings here appropriately feature nautical motifs. On display is the Cobbe Collection, the world's largest group of keyboard instruments, many associated with famous composers such as Purcell, J. C. Bach, Chopin, Mahler and Elgar. Hatchlands is set in a beautiful 174-hectare (430-acre) Repton Park, with a variety of waymarked walks offering vistas of open parkland and views of the house. The woodlands are a haven for wildlife and there is a stunning bluebell wood, which flowers in May.’ Worth our morning visit, we’d say! Next, we cross Royal Berkshire to Gloucester, stopping for lunch in a typical English country pub, before arriving at the Cotswolds village of Northleach. Here, in the midst of a quintessential, honey-coloured stone village, virtually unchanged since the 1500s, we find a fascinating collection of self-playing instruments, Barrel Pianos, Musical Boxes, Automata and Polyphons at the totally unique Keith Hardings World of Mechanical Music. Of course, remembering that our theme is merely a ruse to get us places, there’ll also be time to explore Northleach’s 14th century church, House of Correction, half-timbered buildings and timeless market square. You see, another place you’d probably never had come to but for the musical connection!	Cheltenham area
DAY TWO - Thursday
Today we explore a region few have heard of but which is fondly remembered by those who discover its charms. We are going to follow the Elgar Route, a 40 mile drive through the countryside between Worcester, Hereford and the Malvern Hills. Sir Edward Elgar was perhaps England’s best-known modern composer whose music now provides alternative ‘national anthems’ and is always at the climax of the famed Royal Albert Hall ‘Proms’ concerts. On this route you’re going to visit a number of sites connected with the great man, such as The Elgar Birthplace Museum, and also see fabulous ‘ black and white’ Tudor cottages set in breathtaking countryside, visit Royal Worcester porcelain factory outlet, the Civil War commandery of Charles II, tour a magnificent 12th century cathedral, seeing the tomb of 13th century King John and, hopefully, hear its choir and organ. Yes, it’s a day of complete ‘Pomp and Circumstance’! This evening (July departures only) we’ll attend a performance at the Cheltenham Musical Festival.	Cheltenham area
DAY THREE - Friday
We’ll begin our day at the museum house of one Gustav Holst. Who? Well, we’re willing to place a small wager that if you don’t recognise the name you’d recognise movements from his ‘Planet Suite’. As the birthplace museum is in Cheltenham, it affords us the opportunity of exploring England’s most complete, elegant Regency town. And the house itself is also a fine period home showing the upstairs downstairs way of life in times past, including a working Victorian kitchen and laundry, elegant Regency drawing room and charming Edwardian nursery. We know that the ladies will enjoy some classic shopping experiences here so we’ll ‘tarry awhile’ before heading back through a selection of Cotswolds villages including Down Ampney, birthplace of Ralph Vaughn Williams, arguably England’s greatest composer since Purcell. Our classical connection introduces us to All Saint's Church, built by the knights templar in around 1260 and evidence of this can still be found inside. There is an exhibit at the back of the church dedicated to the life and times of Down Ampney's most celebrated son. Williams is himself buried in the somewhat grander Westminster Abbey – giving an indication of his importance. Finally, our last visit of the day, before we reach central London, is the amazing Brentford Musical Museum. Here you’ll experience the fascinating world of automatic musical instruments, designed to provide music at the flick of a switch or at the turn of handle in the days before electronics and microphones. While you are at the museum, sounds from the past will fill the air - the sweet-toned musical box, the grandeur of the pipe organ, the subtle sounds of the concert pianist, the racy rhythms of ragtime. Whether the instruments graced the mansions of the wealthy, or were designed for more humble dwellings, their background is explained and you will see and hear them play automatically! In keeping with our ruse of introducing the less familiar, we’ll also show you the ‘Strand on the Green’, one of the Thames’s prettiest London suburbs. If you are extending your stay in London then here are some classical London touring suggestions with a classic theme that you can visit independently - the Handel House Museum, the Horniman Museum, the Royal Albert Hall and the Wigmore Hall.