Btcv Handbook Footpaths To Peace
WELLY AND WINNIE BREAKS If mucking about in your wellies in wetlands and woodlands, digging footpaths, clearing bogs, or drystone walling sounds like a better bet than Christmas at home, the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers (BTCV) has a number of outdoor projects demanding plenty of both attention and volunteers. An ancient woodland in Wiltshire needs coppicing to encourage the return of birds, butterflies and flora, and with Avebury down the road, you're near enough to the spirits of times gone. You can work among the stags and deer in Richmond Park creating a nature trail and footpaths for people with special needs, or help to save the habitat of our most famous bear - Winnie the Pooh - over New Year at Ashdown Forest in East Sussex, which, as well as being the inspiration for AA Milne's books, is also the home of many other endangered creatures. Meals and accommodation are provided on BTCV's Natural Breaks, but volunteers are expected to make their own way there, and contribute between pounds 33 and pounds 60 a week. British Trust For Conservation Volunteers 02 FESTIVE FOLLIES On its own rocky islet off Alderney and cut off from the mainland at high tide, Fort Clonque was once part of the fortifications against the French. The Charity Landmark Trust, is seeking 11 holidaymakers who can afford a total of pounds 1,447 for the week.
The Greenwood Community Woodland Handbook is packed with information for groups who are, or want to be involved in woodlands and green space. This handbook is the most detailed reference available on hedge laying. Footpaths: A Practical Handbook £12.95 Agate, E. The Urban Handbook. The Conservation Volunteers (TCV) is a community volunteering charity that works to create healthier and happier communities for everyone through environmental.
Footpaths To Peace
Accommodation is simple but not spartan, and there's a large dining room for communal feasting. It's almost as remote on Lundy Island where the Trust offers several properties for rent, though there is a shop and a tavern where there's usually a Christmas celebration. Government House can take up to six people for pounds 605 a week. Big and Little St John's are a pair of single-storey cottages added to an existing barn, The Trust admits that they're not handsome, but they're sheltered and have great views. Sleeping three and two respectively, they cost pounds 337 and pounds 260 for the week.
The Landmark Trust 25. The Trust's handbook costs pounds 8.50 refundable against bookings ACTIVE BREAKS Couch potatoes who feel like a change should send for a list of Acorn Activities' Christmas and New Year breaks that are based around Herefordshire and the Welsh borders. TV and turkey are replaced by rafting, gorge walking, abseiling and climbing on its 23 to 26 December break at Builth Wells, though participants will be entitled to a full-scale Christmas lunch and comfortable accommodation at the Penserrig Gardens Hotel. The price is pounds 250. A slightly less energetic version is based at the Castle Pool Hotel in Hereford, with a possible visit to a carol service, a meander along the River Wye, a murder-mystery evening, laser clay-pigeon shoot, quad-bike riding and pony trekking - mercifully fortified by a champagne reception on Christmas Eve, hot mince pies and mulled wine, and a Christmas lunch.
The inclusive cost is pounds 375. Acorn Activities 83 TEN-MILE HIGH CLUB Britain's most expensive Christmas feast is at twice the speed of sound and 50,000ft high - on a Concorde Supersonic Christmas lunch - for pounds 545. In fact there's a bit of cheating. The flight is too short for the banquet so half of it is served on the ground. But you do get a Concorde Supersonic Certificate. Goodwood Travel 36 RENT A HOSTEL On the Youth Hostel Association's Rent-a-Hostel scheme, families can take over entire youth hostels, coming and going as they please, and staying in some unique, often historic, buildings.
In rural Leicestershire, Copt Oak hostel can sleep up to 20 in this former village school house, recently modernised with full heating as well as a wood-burner, and a well-equipped kitchen. The total cost for the four- night break is pounds 420. Further north in County Durham, Baldersdale is a converted farmhouse surrounded by the countryside of Bernard Castle. It can take 46 persons, some in nine-bedded dormitories, but the price is less than pounds 10 per person for four nights, pounds 430 in all. For those who prefer to keep away from the kitchen stove and sink, the YHA also offers three nights full-board festive breaks in 16 country locations, including the Lake District and north Wales, and several city hostels.
A stay at Gradbach Mill in the Derbyshire Peak District costs pounds 89 per adult, pounds 69 for under-18s. Three nights full board at the Manchester Hostel (pounds 69 for adults, pounds 59 for under 18s), includes a tour of Manchester United Football Club, and discounts to other attractions. Copt Oak, Leicestershire (YHA) 94; Baldersdale, Co Durham (YHA) 50; YHA Festive Breaks 47 ROOM AT THE INN In Britain there are more and more rooms at the inn as hotels of all shapes and sizes jump on the festive bandwagon; country breaks and capital breaks, traditional breaks and themed breaks (eating your turkey and mince pies in Twenties dress at a Roaring Twenties party in Warwickshire; a murder-mystery evening in Belgravia; a Highland Fling in Ceilidh in Irvine; Victorian Parlour Games in Yorkshire). The common denominator is that prices at Christmas and New Year will soar. In mitigation, Dukes Hotel in London's St James suggests that on its three-night Christmas at the Races breaks, which include transport to Kempton Park in time for the 12.30 George VI Stakes, you might win back the pounds 550 you've forked out for its Christmas Special, which includes champagne, racing lunch and gala dinner. In the capital, Claridge's Christmas extras on its four-day programme are discreet - Christmas concerts, a chauffeur-driven car on Christmas Eve to help with last-minute shopping, all at a mere pounds 160 per person per night, or pounds 225 in a single room. The Ritz ends its 90th birthday celebrations with a three-night Christmas finale for pounds 650.
Country Christmas celebrations come laden with mulled wine and visits to the local hunt, handbell ringers, falconry displays and Midnight Mass at the local village church. The Forte Group offers three different types of Christmas Break; the Traditional Christmas with carol singers and pantomime; Family Christmas with visits from Santa and children's activities; and the Peace and Quiet version where you do what you want.
The three-night breaks cost from around pounds 200. If you want to retreat deep into the country, then Congham Hall in Norfolk (three days for pounds 450) is handy for breezy coastal walks, wildlife reserves and visits to stately homes, and the Sandringham Estate, where the royals have their Christmas celebrations, is nearby. Dedicated royal watchers, however, can do even better at Heritage House, the mock-Tudor semi in Wembley, where landlady Margaret Tyler, owner of 4,000 items of royal memorabilia and 1,400 books, plus a model of the Queen you can practice curtsying to, lays on a right royal Christmas. It's pounds 150 each for four days (half-price for children), with turkey off royal platters, royal videos, listening to the Queen's speech, of course, and afternoon tea with the family - royal cut outs.
After Christmas, perhaps the only New Year package you'll be able to stomach is at Champney's, the health resort in Tring, Hertfordshire, where stays include a fitness assessment, a healthy- eating programme, massages, a choice of over 100 revitalising spa treatments and 40 activities ranging from Hydro Fitness in the pool to Tai Chi. The cost is pounds 360 for two nights.
Hotels: Dukes Hotel 0171 491 4840; Claridge's Hotel 0171 629 8860; The Ritz 0171 493 8181; Congham Hall 50; Heritage House 0181 904 2452; Champney's 51. How to disable your ad blocker for independent.co.uk Adblock / Adblock Plus. Click the Adblock/Adblock Plus icon, which is to the right of your address bar.
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