54404LWE
Oxford walking tour with TM
Christ Church College and Cathedral visit & lunch
Windsor Castle visit
- Entrances are paid by voucher for both visits
- Check in advance for special events, closed areas of sites etc.
Especially times of Christchurch Cathedral. (Opens at 1400 on Sundays)
- If possible, find/make copies of Oxford city map for group.
- Windsor closed on Tuesday/Wednesday. St George’s Chapel closed Sunday. You are not allowed to guide within the castle precincts.
- There are lots of places for lunch in Oxford.
En Route to Oxford
Take A3400 south. 8 miles outside Oxford, you drive through Woodstock. (Royal Associations since Saxon times) and the entrance (the Triumphal Arch) to Blenheim Palace on right. Architect – Sir John Vanburgh. Built for John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough. A gift from Queen Anne and a “grateful nation” after the Battle of Blenheim. The only Palace built in England not designed specifically for Royal use. Landscape Park by Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown.
Oxford
Set down and pick up in St Giles/Beaumont St. and arrange time/place for departure. If you decide on the Martyrs Memorial impress on group that they will be making their own way back to the coach from Christchurch so to pay attention to route and find bearings, and they need to be on time. Otherwise make a meeting spot on Cornmarket and walk to the coach as a group.
Conduct your walking tour, starting at the Martyrs Memorial and finishing at Christchurch. Make sure they know the location of the meeting point. Carfax tower corner is useful.
Oxford College Visit
Christchurch – in recent years this has become tricky to incorporate easily into Oxford walking tour. Despite what is outlined in this guide, depending on booked timeslot you may be required to go straight to Christchurch and then do walking tour afterwards.
Ticket office is the thatched barn on the opposite side of the Broad Walk in Christ Church Meadows. Groups are to be taken to the grassed area to the side of this building to collect multi-media guides.
The introduction on the audio guide can be listened to prior to entering through the archway of the New Buildings of Christchurch college. It is then numbered taking in the Dining Hall, Tom Quad, Peckwater Quad before doubling back to see the Cathedral and exit through the same archway you entered. At this point you return multi media guides.
Toilets – some are still open just off the Cloisters as you exit the cathedral, but the main ones now located in Ticket Office/Shop Barn.
Larger groups may be split over different entrance times. Annoyingly not always the subsequent time slot. You may need to remain outside to make sure people are not disorientated for the rest of their time in Oxford at the end of their visit.
New College – If the office decides Christchurch is not feasible as an option, New College has been used as an alternative. Less rigid than Christchurch, larger groups may still need to split into sub groups but that will only be a short wait for those standing on New College Lane. Chapel, Cloisters (Harry Potter filming location) Dining Hall and part of the old medieval wall of Oxford in the gardens of the college. There are toilets but not well signed, people should ask if necessary.
If visiting Christchurch booked time MUST be adhered to.
Oxford – Facilities/places of interest/shopping
Oxford Tourist Office, Broad Street, 01865 656430
www.oxfordcity.co.uk
Toilets At the back of the Covered Market on Cornmarket & within Christchurch College.
Cash-points & Bureau de change ATMs: Carfax, Cornmarket, Marks and Spencer on Queen Street.
Covered market (closed Sundays) places to eat, craft, souvenir shops, toilets at back of building.
St Mary’s Church: Worth climbing the tower for a small fee. 360 degree views of the dreaming spires. The café is also excellent.
Windsor
Runnymede option if London to Windsor:
Travel via Runnymede on way into Windsor. Take M4 then M25 West. Leave M25 at Exit 13.
Point out (all on the left):
Commonwealth Air Force Memorial (white building on the hill) – commemorates 20,000 pilots (Poles, French and American Eagle Squadron) who died during WW2.
White pavilion with a green roof – given by The American Bar Association in the 1950s. This is the site of the sealing of the Magna Carta (1215).
John F Kennedy Memorial through the trees and halfway up the hill, a white memorial stone.
Windsor
Set down group in the coach park. Ensure pax are aware of meeting point, time for departure and that they know they will be returning on their own. Restrooms are located in the corner by the shops in the coach park. If in doubt of Windsor layout then refer to the town map near staircase.
Walk group through coach park, up the spiral staircase (lift if needed), through the railway station to the High Street. The castle is straight ahead. Cross the road. The ticket office is on the right. Lead group into the ticket office (the group’s entrance is the door on the right). They wait in the Groups area while you exchange voucher for wristbands, no longer individual tickets. There are airport style security checks at this point. Admission includes audio guides which can be collected from the Old Exhibition room near the Round Tower. Entrance to The State Apartments, Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House and St George’s Chapel. (Chapel always closed on a Sunday.) Good idea to visit the Dolls’ House first, as queues are often long. A Guard Change ceremony takes place on alternate days at 11am, weather permitting. Toilets and gift shops within the Castle precincts, Unicorn Café in the Undercroft next to Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House.
As you depart Windsor, follow the signs for the M4. Eton College will be on the right before joining the M4 East.
On this particular day, you may want to try for a longer visit to Windsor. You could leave Windsor a little later, but make sure you leave plenty of time in London for hotel check-in and dinner.
Stratford
If day is in reverse (over-night in Stratford). For groups staying in central Stratford, dinner will be at the hotel or a local restaurant. For groups staying out of town (e.g. in Warwick), dinner will be at a restaurant in Stratford so the Hotel check-in will most likely be at the end of the evening.
