21st December 2025

Dear Member,

It is with great pleasure that we write to you to introduce our 2026 programme of garden visits and tours for Gardens, Bath & Beyond. 

Before looking ahead, we would like to reflect briefly on our Christmas Luncheon, which took place just a couple of weeks ago. It was a thoroughly enjoyable occasion and, as ever, we were treated to fantastic food and excellent service. Our thanks go to Rosie and her team, who looked after us so well, and it was truly wonderful to see so many of you there and to spend time together in such a warm and convivial atmosphere.

Looking ahead to 2026, we are delighted to be offering another carefully planned year of day excursions and a residential holiday, all designed to be enjoyed at a relaxed pace, with comfortable travel, interesting gardens, and good company. As always, we have focused on creating a varied programme, combining much-loved favourites with new and inspiring visits.

Enclosed you will find details of our 2026 day excursions, which run from May through to September, along with information about our Residential Holiday to the Gardens of Hampshire in June 2026. Each trip has been thoughtfully planned to ensure enjoyable days out, with clear arrangements and plenty of time to explore.

Membership details are also enclosed. As in previous years, we have included boxes to indicate any other garden memberships you may hold; this information is purely to help us when planning future visits.

If you no longer wish to receive our mailings, please let us know. Likewise, if you have friends who may enjoy joining Gardens, Bath & Beyond, we would be very pleased to hear from you.

We very much hope you will find something in this year’s programme to tempt you, and we look forward to welcoming you on one or more of our garden visits during 2026.

With best wishes & a Merry Christmas!

Steve & the committee

Before we meet again as a committee in February, we would be grateful for your thoughts on two possible future ideas. At this stage, we are simply gauging interest and nothing is yet confirmed.

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🌸 Highgrove Gardens – Possible Visit (May 2026)

We are exploring the possibility of arranging a visit to Highgrove Gardens, one of the most sought-after garden visits in the country and a truly special opportunity.

• Group size: Maximum of 25 people

• Potential timing: May 2026

• Bookings (if successful): Would open in March

• Indicative cost: £99 per person, to include:

o Luxury coach travel

o Entrance to Highgrove Gardens

o Lunch

At this stage, we cannot guarantee that tickets will be available, as access to Highgrove is very limited. However, before making enquiries, we would like to understand whether there is sufficient interest among our members to pursue this opportunity.

If you would like us to explore this further, please let us know by the end of January.

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Looking Ahead – A Possible Ireland Tour (2027)

Some of you may remember a wonderful garden tour to Ireland around 20 years ago, organised by Valerie and Jim. Valerie has kindly shared the itinerary from that trip, and it prompted a discussion as to whether a similar overseas garden holiday might be something our members would enjoy again.

This would be a longer-term idea, possibly for 2027, and at this point we are simply interested to know whether there is any appetite for us to investigate such a trip further.

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📩 How to Respond

If you would like to express interest in either or both of the above ideas, please let us know by the end of January, either:

• By email, or

• By telephoning the office (for those who do not use email)

Your responses will help guide our discussions when we meet again as a committee in February.

Thank you, as always, for your support and for sharing your thoughts with us.

Dear Friends,

Firstly, my sincere apologies for the delay in getting this much-anticipated information to you — I know how eager many of you are to begin planning and booking. We've encountered a few unavoidable delays with certain venues taking longer than expected to confirm dates, but we were determined to have everything with you by May… and here we are.

One notable change to highlight is regarding our outing on Tuesday, 17th June. We had hoped to visit both Snowshill Manor and Rodmarton Manor on the same day. However, due to scheduling complications at Rodmarton (they were awaiting confirmation from another group), we have decided to proceed with just Snowshill Manor on this occasion.

This will now be one of our shorter and more relaxed days out. For National Trust members, the cost will be the coach fare only, and we will be leaving a little later than usual and returning at a comfortable hour. Rodmarton Manor is certainly not forgotten — we’ve already enquired about securing a date next June and hope to pair it with another interesting destination for a future visit.

Note from the Committee

As many of you will appreciate, arranging group visits requires a great deal of patience and perseverance — coordinating multiple venues, timings, and details often takes more time than one might expect. With that in mind, we would be delighted to welcome any volunteers who might have a little spare time and would enjoy helping with trip planning and coordination. Having extra support would also allow us to plan further ahead and share details with you earlier in the year.

At our recent committee meeting, Elizabeth announced her decision to step down as Chair after two wonderful years of service. Between Elizabeth and Hannah, the club was brought back from potential closure and given a renewed sense of purpose and direction. Bunny and I certainly couldn’t have managed without their energy and commitment.

We are pleased that Hannah will continue as Secretary and has kindly agreed to step into the role of Chair in the interim, until a new volunteer can be found. Bunny remains happy to manage our finances, and I’ll continue to support with the organisation of trips and holidays.

Ideally, we would love to find:

• A new Chair

• A volunteer to assist with trip planning, booking venues, leading excursions, and gathering suggestions.

If this might be of interest to you — or if you know someone suitable — please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me via email, or with any committee member, ahead of our next meeting on Tuesday, 12th August.

Looking Ahead

We always welcome ideas from members for future visits, particularly as we begin shaping plans for 2026. Rodmarton Manor remains on our list, and there’s been interest in returning to Bowood, which may well pair nicely. Any and all suggestions are warmly invited.

And finally, we are pleased to confirm that we have once again secured The Bathwick Boatman for our annual Christmas Luncheon — this year to be held on Thursday, 4th December. It’s become something of a cherished tradition, and I’m sure you’ll agree that Rosie and her team look after us so beautifully. Being right here in Bath, it’s a lovely spot to support year after year.

Booking Forms

You’ll find booking forms for all upcoming trips, with the exception of September, which we are still finalising. That form will be available a little later in the year — I didn’t wish to delay things any further.

We very much look forward to seeing many of you on our first outing of the season, on Wednesday, 22nd May.

With warmest regards,

Steve

Please click the link for the Newsletter

Dear Members,

It is with great pleasure that we write to you today to set out our plans for 2025

Membership details are attached. We have included boxes to tick to let us know what other memberships you may have; this is only for us to consider when we are organising future trips.

Please let us know if you would like to be removed from the mailing list. Likewise, if you know of anyone else who would like to hear from us, let us know.

Please find enclosed details for the five upcoming day excursions and the residential holiday for 2025. The booking form is available for the residential however we are just finalising the details and confirming the bookings for the day excursions so the booking details from them will follow. We do hope though we will get these to you in the next few weeks.

We look forward to seeing you soon.

Best wishes,

Hannah, Elizabeth, Bunny & Steve

Please click the link for the Newsletter

Dear Members,

It is with great pleasure that we inform you today that following our very successful early Christmas luncheon, Hannah and Elizabeth have come forward to organise a number of day excursions this year. Bunny has said he is happy to remain as treasurer and Steve is happy to continue supporting as before. Therefore this year we have arranged 2 trips so far, these will be the Malvern Show on May 12th and a shorter day visit to Jekka’s Herb garden just north of Bristol on June 6th. Preparations are also being made for a day visit in both August and September. We will conclude the year once again with a Christmas luncheon. 

We will not be asking for any subscriptions for this year however it is hoped that in 2024 we will be able to again run a series of day trips and also a residential holiday All being well we will ask members to sign up with a small membership fee for the year running January to December 2024. This sub will help keep the club going, paying for banking and any costs arising.

Please let us know if you would like to be removed from the mailing list. Likewise if you know of anyone else who would like to hear from us, let us know.

Please find enclosed details for the two upcoming trips. Jekka’s herb garden is small and therefore we are limited to just 30 visitors which will have to be on a first come first served basis. Details for the remaining trips will be sent out in due course.

We look forward to seeing you soon.

Best wishes,

Hannah, Elizabeth, Bunny & Steve

Details and menu. Please see atatched form

Norfolk Residential

It is fantastic so many of you have been able to join us for this delightful spring treat. We have a few more places available however our closing date will be Thursday 14th April. Anyone wishing to book at this stage please do call Steve first to check there is still a hotel room available. Balances would need to be paid in full on booking at this stage.

Details of the trip are here - 

Dear Members:

We hope you are all very well.

We are delighted to announce information regarding our three residential excursions we have planned for this coming year. Our apologies for the delay in getting this information to you, we have had a little struggle with hearing back from many of the gardens we wish to visit as they have been in hibernation over the winter. 

We have three fantastic holidays to tempt you with, our first being a trip to Norfolk which many of you had requested. We initially had this trip planned for 2021 then having to push back to this year as a fallout from the pandemic. Also originally planned for May 2020 we are finally able to visit Sussex with our base in vibrant Brighton. Finally, we have a new trip organised for August, we are returning to Yorkshire, this time based in Harrogate and will be visiting some very interesting gardens. Details of each of these excursions can be found by following the 'Residential Excursions' tab of the website.

We do hope to get the information out to you all for our Day Excursions which will also start in May, hopefully we will have this ready the first week in March, all being well. At this point we will also send out information for renewing membership with Gardens, Bath & Beyond. 

Please check our website www.gardensbathandbeyond.co.uk.  Completed application forms and payments can be made on-line by Bank Transfer and to Centurion Tours Ltd.  We will regularly update the individual pages of the website so everyone can keep in touch.

It will be a delight to welcome you all back onto our programme and for you all to get together again.   We hope you will join other old friends and new on one or each of the events and we welcome new members being introduced to our group.

Warmest wishes,

Steve, Bunny and Sue

(Steve Spiller, Bunny Harvey and Sue Carroll)