“Keeping The Genius Alive” - William Morris
Tour 2012,
with Michele Hill

9th – 19th September 2012 SOLD OUT

23rd September – 3rd October 2012
15th – 25th September 2013

£1995.00 per person
based on two people sharing room
£350.00 per person
single room supplement

2013 prices
£2325.00 per person
based on two people sharing room
£395.00 per person
single room supplement

Booking Code

9th - 19th Sept 2012 -WM/12/01
23rd Sept - 3rd Oct 2012 - WM/12/02
15th - 25th Sept 2013 -WM/13/01

• Wightwick Manor and Gardens
• Kelmscott House, Emery Walker House
• Victoria & Albert Museum
• Birmingham Cathedral
• Rodmarton Manor
• Kelmscott Manor and Kelmscott Churchyard
• Red House
• Oxford University
• Broadway Tower
• The Faringdon Collection, Buscot Park
• St John the Baptist Church, Burford
• Chipping Campden and Broadway
• Church of All Saints, Selsley
• Burford Needlecraft Centre
• Talk by Denis Moriarty, NADFAS Lecturer
• Workshops with Michele Hill

Day 1

Arrive at the Dormy House Hotel, Broadway, Worcestershire (advice can be given on nearest airports, train stations etc), situated in the heart of the English Cotswolds. Once you have checked in, afternoon tea and cake will be available for all our guests. Settle into your rooms and then meet for an introduction by our guest tutor, Michele Hill and the tour director, Helen Bertram of Whitecroft Traditional Tours. Welcome dinner in the hotel.

Day 2

Today after breakfast in the hotel, we will visit Burford – a beautiful Cotswolds town – known as ‘The Gateway to the Cotswolds’ . St John the Baptist Church – where William Morris was moved to start the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Buildings after visiting Burford in 1876, is here for us to visit. Burford is also home to a treasure trove of embroidery and sewing in the Burford Needlecraft Centre. After an opportunity to visit all the galleries, specialist shops and typical English pubs and cafes, where you can take lunch, we will return to Broadway – the town that William Morris ‘discovered’ and where he encouraged his friends and colleagues to visit. Broadway is described as being the ‘Jewel of the Cotswolds’ situated on the western escarpment of these wonderful hills. The Gordon Russell Museum is here and you will have the opportunity of seeing some of his furniture designs. Dinner this evening will be in a delightful restaurant in the heart of Broadway.

Day 3

A short drive to Buscot Park – home of Lord Faringdon. A private tour of the house, which is now owned by the National Trust, will let us view the family collection of pictures, furniture, ceramics and objets d’art and the famous Burne-Jones series, ‘The Legend of the Briar Rose’ A lecture by Denis Moriarty, a distinguished NADFAS lecturer on ‘William Morris – The Arts and Crafts, Man and Message’ in the beautiful surroundings of a private theatre at Buscot Park, will put the life and work of William Morris into context.

Time for lunch on our own at Buscot Park, before we return to the hotel and enjoy an introductory afternoon workshop with Michele. Dinner this evening will be at the hotel.

Day 4

today we will head northwest and visit Wightwick Manor and Gardens – an outstanding example of late Victorian taste and craftsmanship. With interiors inspired by the ideals of the Arts & Crafts Movement, Wightwick provides an appropriate setting for a superb collection of William Morris textiles, wallpapers and furniture. Wightwick Manor also has a super Edwardian 17 acre Thomas Mawson Garden for us to enjoy. The newly re-instated Edwardian Kitchen Garden provides seasonal produce to the tearoom – where we will have the opportunity of having lunch, before making our way to the City of Birmingham. Our afternoon will be spent at the Art Gallery and their marvellous collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings before moving on to Birmingham Cathedral where we will have a special guided tour of the Cathedral and the wonderful Burne Jones windows. Dinner this evening will be at a restaurant in Birmingham, before returning to our hotel.

Day 5

A day full of William Morris – a visit to his final resting place in Kelmscott churchyard and to his Country Home – Kelmscott Manor where we will have a private guided tour and lunch here in the place he described as ‘the loveliest haunt of ancient peace’ and the village he described as ‘a heaven on earth’. We will have the opportunity to walk around the gardens which were a constant source of inspiration for Morris and are reflected in his textile and wallpaper designs. Returning to our hotel in Broadway for dinner.

Day 6

Breakfast in the hotel before our day in London. Kelmscott House – Morris’s home from 1878-96 – and now, in parts, a private home. The basement and coach house now serve as the headquarters for the William Morris Society. We will then take a short walk to 7 Hammersmith Terrace and the home of the printer, Emery Walker – a great friend and mentor to William Morris. It is the last authentic Arts and Crafts interior in Britain. We will then go to visit the collections at the Victoria & Albert Museum before leaving central London and head north back to our hotel. En route we will stop for dinner before arriving back in Broadway.

Day 7

A relaxing day in our hotel and our special workshop day with Michele – which will be inspired by William Morris and the inspiration Michele has used in her wonderful quilts and appliqué. Dinner this evening will be in the hotel.

Day 8

Leaving the delights of Broadway, we will return to London and visit the ‘must see’ venue of Red House – a property that was commissioned by William Morris and is a building of enormous international significance in the history of domestic architecture and garden design. Red House retains many of the original features and fixed items of furniture designed by Morris and Webb, as well as wall paintings and stained glass by Burne-Jones. Our journey back ‘home’ will take us via Oxford and we will visit the City as well as Exeter College where Morris studied from 1852 and met his friend, Edward Burne-Jones. We will have dinner in or around Oxford on our route back to Broadway.

Day 9

A day of Cotswold splendour today. We will visit the village of Bibury – described by Morris as ‘the most beautiful village in England’ Well photographed and instantly recognised are the cottages in the middle of the adjoining village – Arlington Row – low gabled weavers cottages sitting alongside the meandering river. We will have the opportunity of walking round this village and perhaps taking some coffee before we move along to Tetbury – a small market town set among the broader slopes of the southern Cotswolds – in earlier days one of the most important cloth market towns of south Gloucestershire. Tetbury is the closest town to the country home of HRH the Prince of Wales – Highgrove House. Time will be spent here looking around the town and experiencing the streets that radiate from the impressive market square. Plenty of time for lunch or shopping or just ‘people watching’.

Our final visit for the day is to the magnificent Rodmarton Manor – a Cotswold Arts & Crafts house – one of the last great country houses to be built in the traditional way and containing beautiful furniture, ironwork, china and needlework specially made for the house. We are fortunate to have a guided tour by one of the family who still live in the house. We return to the hotel for dinner.

Day 10

Today we will visit All Saints, Selsley – an Arts and Crafts Classic set in the Cotswolds. The stained glass for the windows of this church whose foundation stone was laid in 1861 are by Morris, Burne-Jones and Ford Maddox Brown. We will be able to take our time to see the magnificence of these windows in their rural setting.

Returning to the heart of the Cotswolds, we arrive in Chipping Campden –‘ a gilded masterpiece of limestone and craftsmaship’ Time for wandering, last minute shopping or lunch, before meeting at the Court Barn Museum – a museum of Craft and Design - for our guided ‘Arts & Crafts’ walk around Chipping Campden.

Tonight we will enjoy our final dinner together in the delightful surroundings of our beautiful hotel.

Day 11

We will enjoy breakfast together before we all leave the magnificent surroundings of the English Cotswolds and with our hearts and minds full of the inspiration of William Morris and his colleagues and how Michele Hill has interpreted this for us all in her workshops.

Included:

· Luxury accommodation
· Dinner, bed and breakfast, wine with dinner, 23 meals (as detailed in itinerary)
· Transportation
· Tutor (including all materials)
· Entry fees and guides
· All tips for hotel staff and restaurants
· Services of a Tour Director throughout

Not included:

All items of a personal nature ie bar bills, telephone calls, laundry, insurance, meals (other than those stated in the itinerary) and any gratuities other than those stated above are not included. Airfares, expenses for passports, visas are not included.

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