Five reasons why historical guided tours make the perfect day out

Five reasons why historical guided tours made the perfect day out

1. Sightseeing with Cotswold Expeditions is exciting and interactive

We take our history seriously here at Cotswold Expeditions. We go way beyond the traditional and predictable Cotswold sightseeing experience. Where else would our visitors taste the apples brought to England by the Normans and which paved the way for the British Knight who invented Champagne?

All children are given a ‘house’ of a silk worm and told the deadly secret of a very hungry caterpillar. Visitors can pick and smell lavender as used by Roman soldiers in their First Aid Kits. Kids can help themselves to soft sheep’s wool off hedgerows - the wool trade made the Cotswolds wealthy in bygone years. One can even take home a sample of Cotswold stone complete with fossils, once geologically joined to the beaches of Florida, USA.

2. Stand on the very spot and feel where history was made

Major historical events took place throughout the Cotswolds. It’s chilling to stand in front of the former home of a Chipping Norton woman who sought a better life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in a nice little town called Salem. We’ll show you the Biblical verse which spelt death for witches.

It’s evocative to visit the Adlestrop church attended by Jane Austen. Perhaps the Sunday sermon that sent everyone else to sleep was how she wrote Mansfield Park as an antidote to boredom. You’ll stand on the exact spot where General George ‘Blood and Guts’ Patton paid a secret visit to his men heading for France on Operation Overlord in 1944. His reference to them as “Sons of Bitches” was expressed with affection.

You’ll discover if you have the gift to summon up ancient energy at the Stonehenge of the Cotswolds. And we’ll visit the Great Rollright house where Oppenheimer’s deadly secret was stolen and for which Vladmir Putin awarded a medal to the thief.

3. Discovering new facts enriches the imagination

The Cotswold may be an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, now known as The Cotswolds National Landscape.

But it has not been natural since the arrival of the busy, destructive, interfering human species. This National Landscape has been totally modified by humans. The hedgerows that cross-cross the Wolds were planted to keep sheep and cattle in one place so they could be shorn or eaten.

The corduroy ridge and furrow seen within Cotswold fields were created by the development of the plough hauled by oxen. This pushed the earth into ridges for crop cultivation, whilst also allowing the land to freely drain.

The dry-stone walls of the Cotswolds that are seen everywhere were dropped by giant ice sheets several miles thick. Humans gathered up the smaller stones to form field barriers. They have been here for over a thousand years, held together purely by gravity.

Larger stones were hauled into circles and became the architecture of a belief system that mystifies us still.

This is why our Cotswold historical guided tours are a real workout for the human imagination - unforgettable in every way.

4. Children react positively to true stories, well-told

Our Cotswold historical guided tours are THE most exciting Field Trip for children. The content is specially adapted and age appropriate. Children always ask the best questions. They can’t wait to get their hands dirty and are encouraged to see, taste and smell everything - including paddling up the famous and unusual Blockley Brook which doubles as a ‘secret’ public highway.

Firing the imagination of the young is always a pleasure and triggers a passion for history and the environment. They take all this knowledge learned on the adventure back to their classrooms, so teachers and parents have to raise their game. Much of our history revealed on the guided tour is found on the National Curriculum for England.

Cotswold historical guided tours also generate a big appetite, so it’s just as well that we have all this covered and fully included via our partner Pub venue, the 350-year-old Falkland Arms in Great Tew, Oxfordshire.

And we don’t forget that VIP member of your family, your dog. They get their own complimentary Dogs Dinner which always scores us a four-paw-rating.

5. Cotswold historical guided tours equals drama, shock and awe

We’ve spent years carrying out primary research into the hidden history of the Cotswolds. This material is often completely omitted from guidebooks and invisible to Google and Wikipedia.

It’s dramatic because our evidence comes from eye-witnesses, letters and diaries. Why is there a mysterious road in the middle of a field that leads nowhere at Batsford, Gloucestershire? What else did Hitler’s girlfriend have within her body apart from a .22 bullet in the head when she stayed at Wigginton, Oxfordshire?

How come Americans were involved in the execution of King Charles? Why did an English king betray his country, cost the lives of thousands and desert his throne for his American mistress?

Real history should be dramatic, Cotswold Expeditions promise that our guided tours feature shock and awe as part of an unforgettable day out for all the family.

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A Boy called Egg, chapter one

4 August 2023

It happened almost everyday and in all weathers. Of all the games they played, this was the best and the most exciting. The squadron queued ready for takeoff, their full-throated roars growing ever louder. One-by-one the brakes were released and the Lancs thundered down the tarmac, arms outstretched, flashing past the swings, over the hopscotch court and scattering squealing children in all directions. Aged nearly 5, Ian Weldon had become an ‘officer’ and a leader amongst his peer group. He had his own squadron of Lancasters at Monksdown Primary School, Norris Green, Liverpool. Ian was affectionately dubbed “ Egg” by his parents. He was a much-loved-only son who worshipped his father, Pilot Officer Faber Weldon. Like all children of serving officers in RAF Bomber Command, especially in Liverpool in 1943, young Ian was accorded an unspoken respect at his school, both amongst his friends and within his neighbourhood. Most people had experienced the city taking a hammering at the hands of the Luftwaffe between April 1940 and January 1942. Pilot Officer Faber Weldon, 57 Squadron RAF was personally repaying Nazi Germany for what they had been doing to his city. Ian’s father was a Navigator in 57 Squadron, flying in Lancasters out of RAF Scampton, Lincolnshire, a station they briefly shared with 617 Squadron, which was preparing and training for Operation Chastise. He would have seen the top-secret comings and goings of Lancasters with their Mid-Upper turrets removed and unusual modifications under the fuselage. One of the last streets to be hit by the Germans during the Liverpool Blitz took place on 10th January 1942, when the house of Alois Hitler Jr. in Upper Stanhope Street, Liverpool 8, was destroyed. Alois was the half-brother of Adolf Hitler. His house was a mere 3 miles from number 4 Forest Lawn, West Derby, Liverpool 12, home to Faber Ernest Frederick Weldon and his wife Bertha, originally from Brittas Bridge, Co. Wicklow, Ireland. Alois Hitler had also met and married an Irish woman, Bridget Dowling, and settled in Liverpool, but there the coincidences ended. Bertha and Faber had married in 1938. He was a former policeman, and it was whilst Bertha was expecting their longed-for child that their baby was simply referred to as “Egg”. Faber Weldon, aged 31 in 1943, was a giant of a man standing at over 6’ 3”. He may at one time have been the tallest policeman in Liverpool and was even more imposing as he stood atop his podium directing traffic at a busy Liverpool crossroads. He was the sort who would never have been able to squeeze with ease through an escape tunnel from a German prison camp, or pass himself off in disguise, if he ever got out. Working at his station in the Lancaster meant he sat close to his friend, 22-year-old Radio Operator, Sergeant Alan Haddow. It’s possible that this photograph, taken in the back garden of Faber’s house at 4 Forest Lawn, West Derby, Liverpool shows Alan, a single man, a Scot from Glasgow and son to Margaret C.L. Haddow of Thornliebank, Renfrewshire. Just one parent listed in the Runnymede Memorial next of kin records for Alan suggests that his mother Margaret may have been a widow. Perhaps the giant, much older Faber had become a father figure to Alan. The following photographs, all taken on the same roll of film, show a smiling family visit with Faber, Bertha, and Egg, here bursting with pride, happiness and excitement.

A Boy called Egg, chapter two

by websitebuilder • 1 August 2023

The boy called Egg never recovered from what his mother told him at school ‘going home time’ on Monday 5th April 1943. The trauma stalked Ian for the rest of his life. His mother never did find anyone else like her Fabe, as he had hoped and encouraged. Bertha remained a widow until her death, perhaps content with the philosophical motto of Faber’s RAF Squadron 57 - 'I change my body not my spirit'.