OUR NEXT RESIDENTIAL TRIP

The Historic Houses and Gardens of Devon and Cornwall

Departing 5th May 2025 

Now Booking

This wonderful 5 day tour includes some of the most beautiful houses and world-renowned gardens of Devon and Cornwall. We will be visiting Lanhydrock and Pencarrow Houses and will have private guided tours of the Eden Project and the Lost Gardens of Heligan.  Our luxury coach departs from Potten End/Berkhamsted. We will be based in a 4* hotel with half board in Plymouth. 

Full details can be found in the brochure in the Documents section under the Our Society drop down, or from Barbara Mitchell on 077714 721364

The English Versailles.

This visit is now fully booked

The Abbey is a place that's touched the lives of kings, queens, statesmen and soldiers, poets, priests, heroes and villains since 960AD. Westminster Abbey has been the coronation church since 1066 and is the resting place of more than 3,000 great Britons.

Excellent and interesting local visit.

One of England's stately homes, just 40 miles north west of London, set in over 90 acres of gardens and parkland designed by a contemporary of Capability Brown, located within the Vale of Aylesbury and on the edge of the Chilterns, an area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The National Trust-owned Grade 1 listed Jacobean and Georgian house provides all that is best in country house hospitality and service. We look forward to welcoming you to Hartwell House soon.

Hartwell House is one of the three Historic House Hotels of the National Trust.

Just the right size for an ADFAS visit. Not too large, with nice gardens good café, and enough seriously good artworks.

Kenwood House, is on the edge of Hampstead Heath, and was probably first built in the early 17th century. Between 1764 and 1779. Robert Adam transformed it into a neoclassical villa for William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, the Lord Chief Justice, and the interiors include some of Adam’s finest surviving schemes. Kenwood is now home to the 1st Earl of Iveagh’s renowned collection of Old Master and British paintings. (i.e., the Earl of Iveagh is of the Guinness family)

The Iveagh Bequest Act of 1929 stipulated that Kenwood should be open free of charge to the public

At the entrance we booked a “Spotlight Talk” which was to be given by one of the guides.

Kenwood sits in 112 acres of parkland in Hampstead Heath and includes beautiful sculptures. In contrast to the natural heathland, the park around Kenwood is a designed landscape created by Humphry Repton.

Architect Robert Adam extended the house and designed many of the rooms including the claimed star attraction Great Library. The house has many wonderful paintings, artefacts, and jewellery.

Most interesting were works by Rubens Turner, Reynolds, and Gainsborough, but there were many others by Romney, Cuyp, Vermeer, and Hals to name a few.

There is also a painting of the Old London Bridge, painted in 1630, by the little-known Dutch artist Claude de Jongh (c.1603–1663). It is considered his masterpiece.

The talks which happened at the end of our tour were about the reasons for and methodology of two portraits by Gainsborough and Reynolds. Very interesting.

This 'once in a generation' exhition will show 22 of Cezanne's paintings for the first time in Britain.

This visit includes a lecture and exhibtion entrance at the Tate Modern. 

Price is £33 plus transport (details to be finalised)

If you are interested in this visit please ring Barbara Mitchell on 01442 875683

A minimum of 20 people is required.

Our next day trip is to Hatfield House, the home of the Cecil family for over 400 years. We will have a guided tour round the house. There will be free time to visit the splendid gardens and the crafts in the Stable Yard. Travel is by coach departing Gadebridge Park and Ride at 10.00am. Cost is £35 per person and numbers are limited.

Please ring Barbara Mitchell on 01442 875683 for more details. 

We are planning a lecture and visit to the exhibition at the Tate Britain on Thursday 3rd February 2022. We will be travelling independently and meeting at the Tate at 10.45 for 11.00 lecture.

Cost is £28 (Tate members £12 and Arts Club £21) 

If you are interested call Barbara Mitchell on 01442 875683

Payments to reserve a place  to be made by 10th January 2022

Tutankhamun was the last of the Egyptian Kings to rule at the end of the 18th Dynasty (1336—1327 BC) and he was only 9 years old when he ascended the throne. He ruled for ten years dying at the age of 19. His tomb was hidden until 1922 when Howard Carter chiselled through the doorway and revealed all the artifacts and treasures intended to accompany Tutankhamun into the Afterlife. We were treated to a dazzling array of 150 objects of great beauty: jewellery, golden statues, inlaid furniture and beautifully decorated pots. There was so much gold it was over powering!

This exhibition was the last chance to see these artifacts before they would go into a new museum in Cairo and the objects would not come out on tour again.

We took a half day trip to see Waddesdon at Christmas. Unfortunately, it rained heavily which somewhat curtailed our exploration of the outdoor Christmas market. We had a cafe style lunch in an atmospheric Indian tent in the grounds which was furnished with fur rugs on the benches.

At 2.15 pm we entered the house to be surrounded by decorated trees of various themes including small sheep! We entered the White Drawing Room where the  festive table had been laid on a theme of the carol “ I saw three ships come sailing by”. Along the centre of the table were exhibited the 3 famous 1762 Sevres vases in the shape of ships actually used for Pot -Pourri.  They were stunning in “blue celeste ground” featuring open work and piercing.

Another room featured a fantastic ceiling pendant made entirely of white plates, cups and cutlery!

At 4pm the outside illuminations were switched on and we enjoyed a sheltered glass of gluvein whilst viewing the tableax projected on to the front of the house.

We enjoyed a private tour round the Wernher Collection which is housed in the Ranger’s House in Greenwich. The diamond magnate Julius Wernher amassed over 700 works of Art, which form one of the largest private collections of the 1900’s. We were treated to Italian ceramics, bronze sculptures, Renaissance paintings, and French furniture. A highlight was the painting Madonna of the Pomegranate.

After lunch in the under croft of the Old Royal Naval College we had a tour of the Old Hall Painted Ceiling which had recently been refurbished at a cost of £ 8.5 million. Painted by Sir James Thornhill finishing in 1726, the detail was fantastic.

We were encouraged to lie down on the banquettes in the centre of the room to appreciate the 200 figures fully! This ceiling is considered to be a Baroque masterpiece and is known as Britain’s “Sistine Chapel”.