Colin Crosby Heritage Tours

Essex Villages Tour

I led one of my popular Coach Tours recently into Essex, the land of my birth.

It was the "Essex Villages Tour", and certainly demonstrated that this is indeed the real Old England that you knew must exist somewhere, but were never quite sure where.

Leaving St. Margarets Bus Station in Leicester as usual, we made our way South Eastwards until we got to Great Shelford, where we stopped at Scotsdales Garden Centre for coffee.

Our first stop proper was at the charming little town of Thaxted, where Gustav Holst was the organist and wrote "The Planets".

Then it was on to Finchingfield, the most photographed village in England, where the green and duckpond are complemented on rising ground by church, cottages and windmill.

A short stop was made at Borley. This was where England`s most haunted house, the Rectory, stood before being burned down in the 1930s.

And then it was Dunmow, home of the famous Dunmow Flitch.

In between, we went through many highly picturesque villages, and I was able to point out local building styles.

On the way home, we made a stop at Cambridge Services.

It was a very successful day.