Weston Park, the 17th Century ancestral home of the Earls of Bradford with around 1,000 acres of gardens and parklands, restored its former Granary last year, which opened as an art gallery and farm shop selling locally sourced produce. From spring 2010 a new 60-seater restaurant, the Granary Bar & Grill, will also be opening in the old malting house with an open plan kitchen and split-level seating area with views over Church Pool and the estate cottages. The menu will feature freshly prepared dishes using the region’s finest produce with emphasis on ‘easy eating’ in a relaxed and welcoming atmosphere.
Monthly Archives: March 2010
New, improved search across UKseries
Filed under Accommodation, Miscellaneous
We’ve been working hard on the search facilities on the UKseries sites and are proud to announce that the first stage of this work has been completed and is now live. If you take the UKhotel.com search page as an example, you will find that now visitors can make searches based on hotel classification, price per night, and proximity to airports, motorway junctions, postcodes and towns or cities. This, in conjunction with the price comparison facility we already provided, has made searching for the right hotel at the best possible price easier than ever before.
Illuminating Hadrian’s Wall
Filed under Attractions, Events
Illuminating Hadrian’s Wall took place at the weekend, to signal the 1600th anniversary of the Roman leaving Britain, and to mark the beginning of British Tourism Week which starts today. The event saw the illumination of beacons across the whole length of Hadrian’s Wall, starting at Wallsend in North-East England before making its way across to Cumbria. The following video shows footage of the illumination making its way across the country from Housesteads Fort to Steel Rigg.
Today sees the start of British Tourism Week
Filed under Events
British Tourism Week kicks off today. Running 15th-21st March 2010, and now in its fourth year, the week attempts to increase awareness of the tourism industry in Britain through a full programme of events. To see the calendar, click here.
Hatch a plan this Easter… choc into the Chocolate Boutique Hotel
Filed under Accommodation, Eating & Drinking
If you have a passion for chocolate, why not choc into chocolate-preneur Gerry Wilton’s chic and unique Chocolate Boutique Hotel this Easter for a weekend of heavenly indulgence! As you step into the world’s first chocolate themed hotel you can scoop up handfuls of milk, dark and white chocolate buttons before being shown to a cosy room decorated in chocolatey hues where you can dip fresh strawberries into a cascading chocolate fountain. If you want to lift your spirits still further, head to the Chocolate Bar where you can down decadent chocolate martinis or perhaps a chockywockyminty ‘chocktail’ or two before nestling into one of the hotel’s 13 chic chocolate themed bedrooms, such as the Aztec, Maya or Montezuma.
And as each room comes with its own complimentary selection of heavenly handmade chocolates, you can indulge yourself while watching chocolate themed videos or DVDs such as Chocolat or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. You’ll even find a sachet of chocolate face mask in the bathroom.
After a night of sweet dreams and chocolate pancakes for breakfast you can take part in a chocolate workshop under the guidance of a trained chocolatier, who will whip you through the fundamentals of making delicious Belgian truffles by hand. You’ll end up with around 40 truffles that you can pop into an Easter egg or special chocolate boxes, wrap in cellophane, tie with ribbons and take home to share with the rest of the family.
Prices start at £120 per night for a double room, while the chocolate making workshop costs £100 for two.
Cadbury Easter egg trails in Scotland
Filed under Attractions, Events
National Trust of Scotland properties including Hill House, Holmwood House, David Livingstone Centre and Greenbank Garden. Join in the family fun this year as you follow the trail, collect the clues, solve the puzzle and win a Cadbury Easter egg! For details of all properties involved visit this link.
Gloucestershire cheese-rolling off the menu
Filed under Attractions, Events
The quirky Gloucestershire cheese-rolling event which has grown from a few hundred followers to an estimated 15,000 attendees last year has had to be cancelled due to safety concerns. In recent times the event – which dates back hundreds of years and involves groups of people chasing a 7lb Double Gloucester cheese down a hill – has attracted publicity on both a national and international level. It is hoped that numbers can be reduced somehow and that the event will resume in May 2011.
Illuminating Hadrian’s Wall
Filed under Attractions, Events
If you’re not doing anything tomorrow, how about heading to Hadrian’s Wall? In the evening Illuminating Hadrian’s Wall will create a spectacular line of light stretching the whole length of the wall, to mark the eve of British Tourism Week. The wall will be lit at Segedunum Roman Fort at Wallsend in the North East and from there will make its way westwards towards Cumbria, where a ‘Welcoming the Light’ event will take place. This year also marks the 1600th anniversary of the end of the Roman empire in Britain.
A new, high-speed rail network for Britain
Filed under Transport
The government has set out its plans for a new, high-speed rail network for Britain. It’s claimed that the new 250mph rail link will slash journey times between cities. It will cost an estimated £30 billion and create 10,000 jobs. Travel from London to Birmingham will be cut from 1 hour 24 minutes to just 49 minutes and, north of Birmingham, the network will fork towards Manchester and Liverpool and on to Scotland, and to Sheffield, Leeds and Newcastle-upon-Tyne. London to Glasgow or Edinburgh would take just three and a half hours, an hour faster than it currently takes.
The most musical city in the UK? Have a guess…
Filed under Miscellaneous
Apparently, it’s Bristol. Research by the PRS (Performing Right Society) found that the city that produced such bands as Massive Attack and Portishead had the highest number of professional and amateur musicians once population size was taken into account. Cardiff, Wakefield, Glasgow and Cheltenham made up the rest of the top 5. London, which produces the most, didn’t feature in the top 20 because of its high population. Here’s the top 20 according to PRS:
1. Bristol
2. Cardiff
3. Wakefield
4. Glasgow
5. Cheltenham
6. Edinburgh
7. Manchester
8. Paisley
9. Doncaster
10. Londonderry
11. Halifax
12. Sunderland
13. Swindon
14. Blackpool
15. Wigan
16. Brighton
17. Leicester
18. Liverpool
19. Wolverhampton
20. Stoke
