Bridge & the Charming Cotswolds

Make your own way to the hotel where you will enjoy a welcome drink with dinner. This is followed by evening bridge.

Join us for a morning bridge session. The afternoon is free to enjoy your surroundings! Why not take a stroll through the Charlecote Park, you may even spot the deer.

After breakfast, we travel by coach to Sudeley Castle.

Situated in the Cotswold countryside, Sudeley Castle & Gardens offers 1,000 years of royal history and is home to Lady Ashcombe and the Dent-Brocklehurst family. Today, Sudeley Castle remains the only private castle in England to have a queen buried within the grounds - Queen Katherine Parr, the last and surviving wife of King Henry VIII, who lived and died in the castle.

 Henry himself, Anne Boleyn, Lady Jane Grey, Queen Elizabeth I and Richard III have all played a part in Sudeley’s story. King Charles I found refuge here during the Civil War, when his nephew Prince Rupert established headquarters at the Castle. Following its ‘slighting’ on Cromwell’s orders at the end of the Civil War, Sudeley lay neglected and derelict for nearly 200 years.

 Then in 1837, Sudeley was rescued by the wealthy Worcester glove-makers, brothers John and William Dent, who began an ambitious restoration programme, which was continued by their nephew, John Coucher Dent, when he inherited the castle in 1855. His wife, Emma Brocklehurst, threw herself enthusiastically into Sudeley’s restoration, at the same time forging strong links with the nearby town of Winchcombe. It is the results of Emma’s dedication that are so evident in the gardens and exhibitions at Sudeley today.  

Sudeley Castle & Gardens is now the home of Elizabeth, Lady Ashcombe, and her son, daughter and their families. The family is committed to the continued preservation of the castle, its treasures and the ongoing restoration and regeneration of the gardens. We enjoy plenty of free time to explore the Castle and beautiful Gardens this morning, before boarding the coach and heading to the station at Cheltenham Race course to board the Gloucestershire & Warwickshire Railway.

We sit back and relax as we enjoy an afternoon journey to Broadway, where our coach will be waiting to return us to the hotel, where we have dinner followed by evening bridge.

This morning our EBU director will give an interesting seminar. Join us for an afternoon bridge session, followed by dinner and evening bridge.

After a leisurely breakfast, it is time to depart the hotel for your journey home.