Oldbury Tours

It’s all about the sun!
It has been a while since I have written anything on Facebook, February was pretty quiet I suppose. But things, along with the weather, are starting to warm up again and last Thursday (21st March) I had a brilliant day which deserves a mention.
The day started the day before which I know sounds strange but I had arranged to meet a young American family at Chippenham rail station to bring them to their AirBnB in Calne, my home town. Meeting them off th...
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I heard on the radio this morning that today is considered to be the psychologically lowest day of the calendar year; the good folk of Britain wallowing in mid-winter moody blues and post-Chrismatic financial stress. However, it was a chilly but beautiful morning on the stunning North Wessex Downs and I had the rather cheering thought that we are already a month past the shortest day: plenty of reasons to be happy if you ask me
Just to remind myself of how long ago the shorte...
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It was fantastic to be at the launch of 'The Great West Way' in Bath last night. England's first designated tourist route runs between London and Bristol, 125 miles of the finest experiences England has to offer. You can travel by train along the Great Western Railway, canal boat along the Kennet and Avon Canal or by road along the A4, the historic route of the famous stage coaches. You can also walk or cycle the towpath along the canal which I can highly recommend. I walked ...it from Reading to Bath a few years ago and it is a wonderful way to see the countryside linking these two historic towns. The concept of a route is to encourage people to spend a little more time in the area which of course you can travel in either direction between Bristol and London. Local businesses, including Oldbury Tours, have linked up to bring you inspiring ideas for how you can spend a few days getting to know this extraordinarily beautiful and historic part of the UK. My role will be to pick people up from various points along the route and take them out for a day or two to savour the wonders of Wiltshire or the meandering lanes and picture-perfect villages of the Cotswolds: oldburytours.co.uk Last night's drinks and canapes were served by the side of the torch lit Roman Baths before we went upstairs for a superb three course meal. I met some lovely people and it feels like we are at the start of a fascinating journey in more ways than one! Have a look at the new website here: https://www.greatwestway.co.uk/
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Stonehenge Winter Solstice Sunrise special offer
22nd December- £45 per person (not including lunch). Pick ups from Calne town centre and from Bath outside The Abbey Hotel - see below for their amazing special offer.
On the Saturday before Christmas a very different celebration will take place at Stonehenge and you can take part in it.
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Wow - what a summer!
Autumn is upon us, there is a chill in the air and it is time to reflect on a wonderful summer. Tours continue of course throughout the autumn and winter but I thought I would just briefly look back and remember a few moments. During the all too short summer months I met a lot of really lovely new people, spent many delightful days touring my area, helped on an important archaeological dig in a UNESCO World Heritage site and, to cap it all, the weather wa...
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Summer Special Offers for two
Oldbury Tours has linked up with two of our favourite accommodation providers near Avebury in Wiltshire to give you the option of a two or three night get away in the wonderful west of England. The following offers are based on two people sharing.
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A day to remember touring Medieval England
Not everything in south west England is very, very old; some things are just very old. At Oldbury Tours we do specialise in the ancient Wiltshire sites of Stonehenge and Avebury and their surroundings but there are occasions when more recent history is the order of the day. So it was a few weeks ago.
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A day touring medieval sites in south west England

Springtime in Wiltshire - all smiles come rain or shine.
Let’s face it if you pick random days in early Spring to walk around Wiltshire in the UK you are unlikely to have unbroken sunshine. So it was this April. On some days we had a palate of greys for our surrounds on others sunlit yellows and greens under clear blue skies. We had some rain, a cold wind and those days where occasionally a hot sun breaks through the covering cloud leaving you unsure whether to shed a layer o...
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A White Christmas Present
The Spring Equinox at Stonehenge
My alarm was set for 03:45 but by 03:30 I was wide awake. It was a combination of excitement and worry that the roads were going to be passable. You see it had snowed heavily during the night and snow and rural England are not a good mix. We just don’t have the resources to cope with it as it only happens rarely.
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When I saw that English Heritage were going to experiment with raising a stone at Stonehenge it was something I was very keen to witness if not participate in. Perhaps unexpectedly the event last weekend was billed not so much as a study of the processes required for erecting the stone but to demonstrate how an apparently mundane action could attract people from far and wide.
Archaeologists now believe that the purpose of travelling to the area in 2500 BC to take part in cere...
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Mud and glorious views.
I was away for most of January so tales of tours are a bit few and far between.
Sunday 29th however, a grey drizzly day, is one that deserves mention because it brought my first French guests: two families who were meeting at Stonehenge and then, after a couple of hours with me, heading for lunch at the incomparable Red Lion in East Chisenbury. Having been away I hadn’t realised just how much rain had fallen in the UK. At times like this I could do wi...
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Happy Christmas from Silbury Hill!

Happy Solstice everyone. I couldn’t make it for sunset this year but hopefully it looked like it did three years ago when I snapped this.

Less than two weeks to go until the winter solstice when the sun sets directly behind Stonehenge and it was looking good today. Read more at oldburytours.co.uk and oldburytours.co.uk/articles/stonehenge