The Art & Craft of Birmingham & the Heart of England

Day 1 – Compton Verney

Board our private executive coach at your preferred pick up points – stop at a convenient property en route such as Compton Verney art gallery, a Grade 1 listed Robert Adam mansion with an outstanding collection of British, Neapolitan, Germanic and Chinese paintings – continue to the 4* Copthorne Hotel at Merry Hill, near Dudley.

Day 2 – Barber Institute of Fine Arts & Birmingham Botanical Gardens

Barber Institute of Fine Arts is home to a fine art collection by artists such as Monet, Manet, Renoir, Rubens, Rodin, and van Dyck – located close to Birmingham city centre, Birmingham Botanical Gardens has four glasshouses featuring the Tropical rainforest, the Sub-Tropical House with its stunning palms and tree ferns, the Mediterranean House with its citrus plants and bright conservatory-type blooms and the Arid House with desert climate and stunning cacti.

Day 3 – The Coffin Works, Winterbourne House and Garden & Harvington Hall

The Coffin Works explores the social history and cultural changes that have influenced a once highly prestigious Jewellery Quarter firm that produced some of the world’s finest coffin furniture, including the fittings for the funerals of Churchill, Chamberlain and the Queen Mother – Winterbourne House and Garden, one of the best surviving examples of an Edwardian Arts and Crafts suburban villa garden in Birmingham, was lovingly created by the homeowners, Margaret and John Nettlefold, using the books of Gertrude Jekyll as guides and inspiration – Harvington Hall, a moated, medieval and Elizabethan manor house where many of the rooms still have their original Elizabethan wall paintings, contains the finest series of priest hides in the country.

Day 4 – Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery & Aston Hall

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, established to both rival and link with the V&A in London, holds not only an important and complete collection of Pre-Raphaelite art with particular emphasis being given to the work of Edward Burne-Jones who was born in the city, but also the Staffordshire Hoard, the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork yet found – Aston Hall, one of Birmingham’s most treasured buildings, boasts sumptuous interiors from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, including the magnificent Long Gallery and a guided tour explores the role the Hall and its residents played in key moments in history, including the English Civil War.

Day 5 – Ragley Hall

Stop at a convenient property en route home such as Ragley Hall which was designed by Robert Hooke in 1680 and is one of England’s earliest Palladian houses and now the family home of the Marquess and Marchioness of Hertford.