Colin Crosby Heritage Tours

Weekend in Yorkshire

My wife Anne and I recently attended one of the weekends organised by the Group Travel Organisers` Association (GTOA).

We have been on a number of these before, and they are always enjoyable as well as interesting.

This time, the weekend was based in Bradford. We stayed for two nights at the Cedar Court Hotel.

On the Friday afternoon, we were able to chat to representatives of some of the tourism attractions in the area.

On the Saturday, as usual, there was a series of visits by coach. First, we went to the splendid Newby Hall at the village of Skelton, and were given a short tour of this very fine Queen Anne house, before being given time to look at the gardens.

From there, we went to Ripley Castle, where again we were shown around, even being shown the priest`s hole that was uncovered during renovation work.

The next stop was Harlow Carr, one of the excellent gardens run by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). Harlow Carr is on the outskirts of Harrogate.

And the last part of the tour was the National Media Museum in Bradford. A fascinating place, covering many different aspects of the media. I was personally thrilled to see some of the models created by the great Ray Harryhausen for his films.

In the evening we dressed for dinner, and on the Sunday morning attended a branch meeting.

Once again it was an excellent weekend.