Choose A Language:

       

         

• Groups Homepage
• Things To Do
• Itinerary Ideas
• Educational Groups
• Tours and Talks
• Places To Visit
• New Develpoments
• Accommodation for Groups
• Venues for Groups
• Food & Drink
• Advice for Groups Visiting 'Constable Country'
• Top Tips

Heritage & Horticulture

10.00am Arrive in Colchester - Visit Colchester Information Centre
The friendly VIC team will help your group get the most out of the town. Take the opportunity to browse for mementoes of your visit to Britain's oldest recorded town.

10.30am Visit Colchester Castle Museum
This award-winning museum, contained within the largest Norman keep ever constructed, takes the visitor through 2000 years of Colchester's history. See some of the most important Roman and Celtic finds in Britain. Discover why Boudicea burnt the town to the ground, why Colchester was under siege during the English Civil War and what life was like in the Castle prisons. Younger visitors can try on togas or armour and touch real Roman pottery. A guided tour will enable your group to enter areas otherwise closed to visitors, such as the vaults of the Roman temple and the Castle roof, from which you can enjoy extensive views of the town.

12.30pm Stroll around Castle Park
Spend a few minutes before lunch enjoying the beauty of this award-winning ‘Green Flag' Victorian park. The spring and summer bedding displays are particularly magnificent, but the park has something to offer all year round. Traditional features include the bandstand, boating lake, café and cricket ground, and a sensory garden bringing the sights, scents and textures of a variety of flora closer to you.

1.00pm Choose one of the many town centre cafés, pubs and restaurants for lunch

2.00pm Drive to the Beth Chatto Gardens
Take a short coach trip to the nearby village of Elmstead Market, home to the internationally renowned Beth Chatto Gardens. Established in 1960, the 6 acres under cultivation include a gravel garden filled with drought loving plants and water and woodland gardens.

4.00pm Enjoy afternoon refreshment in the tearoom before the coach departs

Other gardens nearby include the traditional English estate of Marks Hall Gardens and Arboretum near Coggeshall where you can enjoy the ornamental lakes, 17th century walled garden and surrounding ancient woodland. Alternatively offer your group a chance to grow their own souvenir of Colchester with a visit to the town's rose-growing specialists, Cants of Colchester (01206 844008).