Prose and melody
Alex Middleton finds that Britain is filled with sites and attractions that illuminate our literary and musical heritage, all just waiting for your group to discover.
It is often surprising just how much work in the fields of literature and music has come from the UK. In one afternoon in London alone your group can see the house where Handel composed his ‘Messiah’, the home where Dickens worked and visit one of the world’s oldest and largest libraries. A similar collection of attractions can be seen across the British Isles and offers your group the chance to discover more about the writers and composers who have so influenced our culture.
In the library
For centuries, libraries and museums have been collecting and storing printed works. Visiting groups can discover these for themselves and, with a knowledgeable guide or curator, learn more about the people who created them and the ages in which they lived.
The British Library, housed in a modernist building in London’s St Pancras, is one of the oldest and largest in the world. As well as a collection of texts dating back 2,300 years, since 1911 it has been collecting a copy of every written publication published in the UK. There are daily guided tours of the building, which take in areas such as the conservation department and GTOs can also arrange a private group tour with a curator based around a specific theme or subject.
Oxford University’s Bodleian Library has also been collecting copies of all works printed in the UK since 1911, as well as thousands of other texts ranging from the world’s earliest printed works to rare first editions. Groups can see the Library’s historic collections on a pre-booked guided tour, which can be designed around a specific theme such as Renaissance texts.
In Cambridge, meanwhile, the Fitzwilliam Museum also houses a collection of manuscripts, ranging from early medieval texts to first editions of Virginia Woolf. Groups can arrange a free guided tour of its permanent ‘Manuscripts and Printed Books Exhibition’, where many of the works are displayed.
The British canon
With sites relating to British literary figures, ranging from 8th century chroniclers to 20th century modernists, spread all across the country, groups looking to discover more about a specific writer are well served.
In the 7th and 8th centuries, the Venerable Bede wrote some of the earliest chronicles of England. Groups can discover more about Bede’s life and works at Bede’s World at Jarrow in Tyneside. The museum features recreations of the 8th century monastery buildings and farms that would have stood on the site and offers groups guided tours and discounts.
For groups who want to discover more about early literature, the Canterbury Tales visitor attraction in Kent recreates the 14th century stories of Geoffrey Chaucer with life-size models and tableaux. Entry is discounted for groups of more than 15 people.
Writing 200 years after Chaucer, William Shakespeare is perhaps the most famous of British literary figures. Groups who want to learn more about ‘the bard’ are offered discounts on entry to his Midlands Birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon, which is run by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
In London, groups can explore the world of the bard further at the Shakespeare’s Globe Exhibition, which offers group discounts and examines the staging of his works. Amongst the items on display are period costumes and props. When performances are not being held, groups can also book a guided tour of the recreated Globe Theatre.
In the 18th century, the poet William Wordsworth was one of the driving forces behind the era’s Romantic movement. Groups can learn more about his life and works at three of his former homes in Cumbria; Dove Cottage and Wordsworth Museum, Rydal Mount and Wordsworth House. All three have been restored to look as they would have appeared when Wordsworth lived in them in the 18th century and offer groups discounts on entry and pre-booked guided tours and talks.
The poet and author Robert Burns, who is widely regarded as Scotland’s national poet, also helped to spearhead the century’s Romantic Movement. Groups can learn more about him at three Scottish attractions; the Burns House in Dumfries, which is free to enter and exhibits several of his original manuscripts, the nearby Burns Centre, to which entrance is also free, and in Alloway in Ayrshire, the Burns Heritage Park, which offers group discounts on entry and contains the church where Burns’ father is buried, the small cottage where the poet was born and an original handwritten copy of Auld Lang Syne.
Another celebrated Scottish literary figure is the poet and author Sir Walter Scott. To learn more about Scott, your group can head to two destinations in the Scottish Borders. In Selkirk, the courthouse in which he sat as Sheriff is now a museum, which is free to enter, called Scott’s Courthouse. Not far from here is the baronial mansion, Abbotsford, where he lived. Groups receive a discount on entrance and a complementary guided tour.
For more on Scott and other Scottish literary figures, incuding Robert Burns and Robert Louis Stevenson, groups can visit the Writers’ Museum in Edinburgh where admission is free.
Moving back to England, groups looking to learn more about the novelist Jane Austen are offered discounts on entry to both the Jane Austen House Museum in Hampshire, the former home of the novelist, and the Jane Austen Centre in Bath, which examines the novelist’s relationship with the city. The Centre also organises an annual Jane Austen Festival.
Not long after Austen, in the mid-19th century, Charles Dickens chronicled and satirised Victorian life. For groups who want to discover more about the writer, his former London home in Bloomsbury is now the Charles Dickens Museum, housing original manuscripts, first editions and personal artefacts. Groups are offered discounts on entry and can pre-book guided tours and private viewings of its collection.
For more on Dickens, groups can also head to two Kentish attractions, both of which offer groups discounts on entry. At the Dickens House Museum, set within his former home in Broadstairs, which has been furnished to look as it would have in Dickens’ time, groups can see many of the writer’s personal belongings. Meanwhile, at the new Dickens World attraction in Chatham, you can see life size recreations of scenes from Dickens’ stories, such as Oliver Twist, learn more about Dickens and the era in which he wrote, and take a boat ride along an indoor stream where scenes and characters from the novel Great Expectations line the banks. You can also pre-book a group meal at the attraction’s Porters Restaurant.
Moving to Portsmouth in Hampshire, your group can see the house where the author was born and grew up, now the Charles Dickens Birthplace Museum. Discounts on entry are also offered to groups.
To learn more about three further icons of Victorian literature, Anne, Emily and Charlotte Bronte, groups can visit North Yorkshire’s Bronte Parsonage Museum in the village of Haworth. The Parsonage, which was where the sisters lived and worked, features exhibitions about their lives and offers groups discounts on entrance.
At the turn of the 20th century, Thomas Hardy romanticised the Brontes Victorian world. Near the Dorset town of Dorchester, groups can visit both the property in which he lived as a boy, Hardy’s Cottage, and Max Gate, the house he designed and built as a man. Both offer group discounts on entrance and guided tours.
George Bernard Shaw was also heavily influential in the early 20th century literary world. His former home, Shaw’s Corner in Hertfordshire is now open to the public and offers groups discounts on entrance, as well as pre-booked guided tours.
Also working at the beginning of the 20th century, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created one of the most enduring fictional characters of the age, Sherlock Holmes. At 221b Baker Street in London, groups can visit the Sherlock Holmes Museum, which offers group discounts on entry, or you can head to Portsmouth, where the City Museum and Records Office, which is free to enter, features a permanent Sherlock Holmes Exhibition, with 20,000 pieces of Holmes memorabilia.
The writer Rudyard Kipling also portrayed British life at the turn of the century. Groups can visit or pre-book a guided tour of his former home, Batemans, in the village of Etchingham in East Sussex, where groups receive a discount on entry and see a recreation of his study at the Grange Museum in Brighton, which also features an exhibition about his son, Jack, who died in the Great War. Entrance is free and groups can pre-book an introductory talk on the exhibit.
East Sussex was also the home to the early 20th century modernist writer, Virginia Woolf. Near the town of Lewes, your group can learn more about the writer at her former home, Monk’s House, where you can book a guided tour and receive discounted entry.
In the same era as Woolf, DH Lawrence’s works, including Lady Chatterley’s Lover, were causing a sensation. Groups can discover more about the writer at the DH Lawrence Heritage Centre at Eastwood in Nottinghamshire. This includes his former home, now the DH Lawrence Birthplace Museum, and the Durban House Museum, which further explores his early life. Entrance is free from Monday to Friday and at weekends groups receive a discount on admission.
The early 20th century also produced Agatha Christie, one of the world’s best selling authors. In Devon, groups can visit her former home, Greenway House, which offers groups discounts on entry and guided tours of the gardens she designed and also visit the nearby Torquay Museum, which features an Agatha Christie Gallery with costumes worn by David Suchet in the ITV adaptations of the Poirot stories. Groups receive a discount on entry and can pre-book a guided tour of the Gallery.
Living the music
According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), the organisation that represents the international music industry, Britons spend more on CDs and recorded music than any other people in the world. Unsurprisingly then, Britain has a wealth of musical heritage that your group can explore.
In London, you can learn more about the life of the composer Handel at the Handel House Museum. The House has been restored to its appearance in the Georgian period, when Handel lived and worked there. Groups receive a discount and a guided tour, as well as a live performance of one of his pieces.
Last year saw the 150th anniversary of the birth of one of Britain’s most famous composers, Sir Edward Elgar. At the Worcestershire house where he was born, now the Elgar Birthplace Museum, groups can see items including his original scores and letters, as well as an exhibition about his life. Reduced rates on entry are available for groups.
During the same era as Elgar, the pianist Harry Goodhart-Rendel inherited the stately home of Hatchlands in Surrey. These days the house is open to the public and features one of the largest collections of keyboard instruments in the world. Groups are also offered a discount on entry and can pre-book a guided tour of the property.
Meanwhile, in Middlesex, the former country house of William Gilbert, of Gilbert and Sullivan fame, is now the Grims Dyke Hotel. The Hotel features a yearly programme of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operettas in the grounds and groups can also order a cream tea to accompany the performance.
To learn more about the history of classical music, you can take your group to museums at three London-based institutions; the Royal Academy of Music Museum, which is free to enter, the Royal College of Music’s Museum of Instruments, where entrance is also free, and the Royal Military School of Music Museum, where there is a small charge on entrance. Groups can arrange guided tours at all three of the museums, which feature historic instruments and scores dating back several centuries.
To see a performance on historic instruments, groups can book a private visit at Finchcocks Musical Museum in Kent which features over 100 instruments, such as clavichords and harpsichords, 40 of which groups can see played by the museum’s resident musicians.
Moving into the world of popular music, Liverpool and the Beatles will forever be linked by popular culture. At the city’s Beatles Story attraction, your group can discover more about the four lads whose music so influenced a generation. The museum, which gives groups a discount on entry, features recorded interviews with members of the band, as well as memorabilia such as John Lennon’s round spectacles.
Whilst in Liverpool, groups can also see the two suburban houses, now in the care of The National Trust, where John Lennon and Paul McCartney grew up, both of which have been restored to their 1960s appearance. Mendips was once home to John Lennon and his family and at 20 Forthlin Road, the former home of Paul McCartney, your group can see an exhibition of early Beatles memorabilia. Groups are also offered discounts on admission to both properties.
Tall tales and flights of fancy
Around the UK, you and your group can rediscover the childrens’ writers who may have inspired your own childhood.
Beatrix Potter created and illustrated characters that are as popular today as they were in Victorian England. At her former home, Hill Top, and the nearby Beatrix Potter Gallery, in the Lake District, both of which offer group discounts and guided tours, groups can learn about her life and see many of her original hand-painted illustrations.
Another author, almost as popular with adults as with children, is Roald Dahl. In his former home-village of Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire, you can see where he worked at the Roald Dahl House, which is open on selected days of the year, and discover more about Dahl and his illustrator, Quentin Blake, at the Roald Dahl Museum, which offers group discounts on entry.
At Ashdown Forest in East Sussex, meanwhile, you can take your group to see sites such as Pooh Sticks Bridge, that inspired AA Milne, creator of Winnie the Pooh. Further information on sites and coach parking is available from the nearby Tourist Information Centre at East Grinstead.
Your group can also explore the world of Dahl and other childrens authors, such as Richmal Compton the creator of Just William, at the Seven Stories Museum in Newcastle. The Museum features yearly exhibitions on childrens’ writers and also offers discounts to groups.