Historical Cumbria, Lancashire & the Lake District

Day 1 – Little Moreton Hall

Board our private executive coach at your preferred pick up points – visit a carefully selected National Trust property en route such as Little Moreton Hall in Cheshire, begun in 1504 and completed 100 years later and regarded as the finest example of a timber-framed moated house in the country – check in at the 4* Mercure Dunkenhalgh Hotel and Spa on the outskirts of Blackburn.

Day 2 – Skipton, Leeds Liverpool Canal & Gawthorpe Hall

Time at leisure to explore Skipton, known as ‘The Gateway to the Dales’ – 60 minute cruise on the Leeds Liverpool Canal to see Skipton and the surrounding countryside from a different perspective – the National Trust’s Gawthorpe Hall set in the heart of urban Lancashire contains fabulously opulent interiors created by Sir Charles Barry in the 19th century.

Day 3 – Lake Windermere cruise, Lakeside & Haverthwaite Steam Railway & Sizergh Castle and Gardens

One way cruise from Bowness to Lakeside affording us wonderful views of Lake Windermere and its shores – a journey on the Lakeside & Haverthwaite Steam Railway takes us through the Levan Valley, one of the Lake District’s most beautiful – the National Trust’s Sizergh Castle and Gardens is a medieval house extended in Elizabethan times and surrounded by beautiful grounds.

Day 4 – Guided tour of Pendle Witch Country, Clitheroe & Rufford Old Hall

A guided tour of Pendle Witch Country, famous for its grimly fiendish association with the Witches of Pendle and the famous witch trials in 1612 – visit the beautiful village of Downham, where ‘Whistle Down the Wind’, and ‘Born and Bred’ were filmed, and continue to the Pendle Heritage Centre and Museum, dedicated to the history and heritage of Pendle, and the story of the Pendle Witches – time at leisure for lunch in Clitheroe – the National Trust’s Rufford Old Hall, home to the Hesketh family for almost 500 years and one of Lancashire’s finest Tudor buildings, was built in the 1530’s.

Day 5 – Quarry Bank Mill and Styal Estate

The National Trust’s Quarry Bank Mill and Styal Estate near Wilmslow is a restored Georgian cotton mill telling the story of ‘King Cotton’ from a bale of raw cotton to finished cloth, and the original Apprentice House recreates the 1830s atmosphere of the lives of child workers.