Saturday 21 February
9.00am (c) from Northwich Memorial Hall
Other pick-up points available - details and booking conditions here.
£15.00 - click here to book online.
We spend the day in Manchester exploring 3 galleries.
The Whitworth Art Gallery opens on 14 February following a £15m refurbishment. The gallery has been extended into the park, with new exhibition spaces and greatly
enhanced visitor facilities. The extended display areas reach into the
landscape, with new and recently acquired sculpture on display in the
gallery grounds and in a new art garden and orchard designed by
painterly garden designer Sarah Price.
The Whitworth programme will open with a major solo exhibition from one
of Britain’s most acclaimed contemporary artists, Cornelia Parker whose
work invites viewers to witness the transformation of ordinary objects
into something compelling and extraordinary. This extensive presentation
will feature a wide range of work made during Parker’s career,
including her signature piece Cold Dark Matter; An Exploded View (1991), a garden shed blown up and then displayed around a light bulb.
Celebrating the recent major gift by The Karpidas Foundation of 90 contemporary works of art to the Whitworth, this exhibition features a selection of those works, indicating the artistic vision and breadth of the Foundation. British and North American artists are featured, with many highly regarded names - Laure Prouvost, Dorothy Cross, Nathan Coley, Anna Barriball and Gillian Wearing, as well as Keith Coventry, Gary Hume, Dexter Dalwood and Michael Craig Martin.
The Manchester City Art Gallery has 3 special exhibitions in addition to the permanent collection.
Captured around the world, fashioned in Manchester: internationally
renowned and Manchester-based media and textile artist Andrea Zapp
reveals her first luxury womenswear collection. Working with scenes and
photography from her global travels, Zapp has used urban views, rural
panoramas, miniature scenarios and objects of culture and curiosity to
create a visual portfolio which forms the essence of each stunning
hand-made silk dress.
Adrian Sumner will be with us to help understand the exhibitions.
Sheffield - City of Steel
Saturday 21 March
8.30am (b) from Northwich Memorial Hall
Other pick-up points available - details and booking conditions here.
£20.00 - click here to book online.
The Millennium Gallery is Sheffield’s premier destination for art, craft and design. Here you can see some of Sheffield’s unique heritage, including the metalwork which made the city world famous, alongside
contemporary art and design exhibitions.Current exhibitions include Picturing Sheffield, examining the relationship between views of the city and the people who lived there, as well as highlights from the metalwork collection, the collections of John Ruskin, and The Illustrated Aviary, showing work by John James Audubon, Edward Lear and John Gould.Adjacent is the impressive multi award-winning Winter Garden, one of the largest temperate glasshouses to be built in the UK during the last hundred years, creating a stunning green world with more than 2,500 plants from around the world.
On the edge of the City is Weston Park Museum, which traces the history of Sheffield from prehistoric to present time. The special exhibition is Traces of Empire: Decoration and Design in Roman Britain. 
Other Sheffield attractions include the National Emergency Services Museum, The Cathedral Church of St Peter and St Paul, The Peace Gardens and of course, the world famous Crucible Theatre!
Adrian Sumner will be with us to help understand the exhibitions.
Sheffield City map here.
Lincoln and the Magna Carta
Saturday 11 April
8.00am (a) from Northwich Memorial Hall
Other pick-up points available - details and booking conditions here.
£24.00 - click here to book online.
This year marks the 800th anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta by King John at Runnymede on 15 June 1215. Four original copies of the Magna Carta survive - 2 in the British Library, 1 in Salisbury Cathedral, and 1 in Lincoln Castle. The Lincoln copy has been on tour for the past 2 years, including to the USA, whilst a new £22m visitor centre was prepared in Lincoln Castle. The castle re-opens on 1 April 2015.As well as the new Magna Carta displays, the Castle Walls and Prison have been extensively refurbished, and a new Heritage Skills Centre opened.
Lincoln Cathedral was for almost 300 years the tallest building in
the world. Yet, in spite of its size, it is filled with intricate detail. Funny
carvings include not just the Imp, but the cat and mouse and so many other
little details that brightened the masons’ days. In Lincoln Cathedral the architects of the gothic style perhaps
reached the pinnacle of their art. Everywhere you look there is the
most intricate detail, walls, roofs elaborated by the finest carving.
Standing almost in the shadow of Lincoln cathedral, with sweeping views
over the ancient city and the countryside beyond, the medieval bishops’
palace was once among the most important buildings in the country. The
administrative centre of the largest diocese in medieval England,
stretching from the Humber to the Thames, its architecture reflected
enormous power and wealth.The Museum of Lincolnshire Life’s rich and varied social history collection reflects and celebrates the culture of Lincolnshire and its people from 1750 to the present day. Exhibits illustrate commercial, domestic, agricultural, industrial and community life.
As the home to an authentic World War One tank named “Flirt”, the museum also houses interactive galleries of the Royal Lincolnshire Regiment, which have won prestigious national awards.
The temporary exhibition is (detail) which features the work of 118 international artists, including David Reed, Fiona Rae, Daniel Sturgis, Neal Rock, Pavel Büchler, Shirley Kaneda and Julie Heffernan, who have each selected a close-up from one of their paintings. These details are printed and displayed together to give both a tantalising glimpse into each artwork, and create a huge collage of images.
Lincoln City map here.
Caernarfon and Llanberis Railway
Sunday 10 May
8.30am (b) from Northwich Memorial Hall
Other pick-up points available - details and booking conditions here.
£22.00 - click here to book online.
The site of this great castle wasn’t chosen by accident. It had previously been the location of a Norman motte and bailey castle and before that a Roman fort stood nearby. The lure of water and easy access to the sea made the banks of the River Seiont an ideal spot for Edward’s monster in masonry. Edward wasn’t one to miss on an opportunity to tighten his grip even further on the native population. The birth of his son, the first English Prince of Wales, in the castle in 1284, was a perfect device to stamp his supremacy. In 1969 the current Prince of Wales, HRH Prince Charles’s investiture took place here.
On the outskirts of the town is Segontium, the remains of the Roman fort that was built to defend the Roman Empire against rebellious tribes. Segontium was later plundered to provide stone for Edward I's castle at Caernarfon.
We then take a trip on the Llanberis Lake Railway, a 1 ft 11 ¹⁄₂ in narrow gauge heritage railway. The little steam engines take us on a five-mile return journey alongside Lake Padarn, right in the heart of Snowdonia. The journey takes us past the 13th century Dolbadarn
Castle, across possibly Britain's shortest river and past Llanberis'
twin lakes. From Llanberis the train runs non-stop through the Padarn
Country Park, joining the 1845 slate railway route to run along the
shores of Lake Padarn to Penllyn, and giving stunning views of Snowdon,
the highest peak Wales.Click to add to your
Click here to download pdf of the Spring Tours Flyer.
