the home front tour, 4-day tour of the north-country in the years 1939 to 1945 offered by back-roads touring co.

You think of war, you think of battlefields. You think of the ‘Front’. But what about the ‘Home Front’? What kind of life did people live during those dark days between 1939 and 1945 when the World was engulfed in conflict? How was the war fought on the Home Front?

Those years are starting to drift into the realms of ‘history’ as time inexorably rolls on. Our stimulating 4-day tour concentrates on some quite amazing reminders of the period that are being preserved in the North Country of England and Wales. You will experience the drama of a subterranean air raid shelter, see a

prisoner of war camp, see how the vital Atlantic Convoys were protected from the U Boats and discover what every day life was like.

These tours are specifically designed to interest those who want to learn more of our chosen topic and also those who will have a broader interest covering scenic beauty, wider history and timeless tradition. So, like all of our special theme tours, our subject also offers us an excuse to get to places you’d perhaps not normally consider going but which will surprise and delight you when discovered.

TENTATIVE ITINERARY	NIGHTSTOP
DAY ONE
We leave Manchester and drive to the North Wales Coast, and the seaside resort of Llandudno. In seaside towns along the coast ‘evacuee’ children were sent for temporary adoption to escape the blitz that was turning the great cities of Liverpool and Manchester into brick rubble. Here you’ll meet locals who were either evacuees, or who sheltered and protected them. A highlight of our visit will be the unique ‘Home Front’ museum with the largest private collection of its kind in the UK of artefacts illustrating everyday life in the region. There are also sections on the ‘Bomb Wardens’ and medical services. and, depending on your age, this is either a sobering trip down memory lane, or a fascinating insight into how our forbears coped. While in the area, we’ll also see the site of the camp where Great War Canadian soldiers mutinied and rioted while waiting for embarkation home, and local army museums. For those who might not find our theme so absorbing, there’ll be a visit to the magnificent Bodnant Gardens and a walking tour of the fashionable Victorian resort of Llandudno.	North country
DAY TWO
With today’s transport Merseyside is just a short ride away. We’ll spend today exploring aspects of what war did to places like Liverpool and Birkenhead. Highlights today include the Western Approaches Museum where the battle for the Atlantic was directed, and the Northern Maritime Museum at the rebuilt Albert Dock. You’ll also meet locals who remember the blitz and who have their own incredible stories to tell, including the man who as a 13-year old was first at the site of a downed USAF ‘Liberator’ in which all crew were lost.	North country
DAY THREE
We take one of the most stunning scenic drives in the UK this morning, across the Lancashire and Yorkshire Dales and across the Pennines. This mountain range is known as the backbone of England. It is simply stunning. Amazingly, many visitors miss it by travelling from North to South, from and to Scotland. One site we'll see relevant to our theme is the reservoir where bomber pilots practised delivering the ‘bouncing bomb’ that was designed to destroy German dams. This afternoon we have a choice. Those following the theme will visit an original Prisoner of War Camp built in 1942. Here you’ll find reconstructed scenes using movement, lighting, sound, smells, even smoke machines to transport you back in time, to make you feel that you are there taking part in history. You can also try the Prisoners' Canteen, Officers' Mess Tearooms or enjoy a drink in the Garrison Cinema Bar. It’s a unique experience! For those who prefer an older history, you’ll be visiting Rievaulx, the first Cistercian Abbey to be founded in the North of England and that became one of the most powerful monasteries in Europe. The atmospheric ruins were once home to the greatest spiritual writer of the Medieval Ages, St Aelred, who described it as everywhere peace, everywhere serenity, and a freedom from the tumult of the world. It is quite impossible in words to do justice to the beauty here and it makes a fitting contrast to the images of conflict the others are seeing.	North country
DAY FOUR
We depart our pretty Yorkshire overnight location, driving to Greater Manchester. Here, in terms of our theme, we’ve a treasure trove to rummage through! First, to Rochdale, home of the iconic Gracie Fields whose songs, perhaps more than anything else, evoke that 1940s spirit. Here we visit the Fire Brigade museum where, amongst other fascinating artefacts, we find a recreated WW2 blitz scene. Then to Stockport. Not somewhere one would instantly think of as a tourist magnet! However, here in this typical Lancashire cotton town we find a perfectly preserved air raid shelter/bunker. Here, in a labyrinth of tunnels under part of the town centre we find how up to 7000 people a night survived through the dark days of the Blitz. Varied exhibitions include the work of the civilian services, entertainment of the era and a reconstructed ‘Anderson’ shelter. We’ll complete our day, and our tour, at the Northern Imperial War Museum in Manchester where, fittingly in a most contemporary award winning museum, we’ll see the largest collection of artefacts from our theme. Yes, this has been perhaps an unusual way to tour parts of Britain’s North country but it’s going to give you months and months of reflection and inexhaustible dinner party conversation! This tour links with London departure ‘In Search of Winston Churchill’ Message to people from the North West - if you know of places you think we should visit as part of this tour, please let us know. We’d also love to hear from anybody who has memories of the period and who’d like to meet our overseas visitors, joining us for dinner to give them first hand accounts of life on the Home Front.	Manchester