Insight Guides England

Insight Guides

• Publisher: Insight
• Print ISBN: 9781780059372
• eBook ISBN: 9781786716668
• Edition: 4
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Travel

England's wealth of history and culture will fascinate any visitor. Be inspired to visit by the new edition of Insight Guide England, a comprehensive full-colour guide to this rich and varied country. Inside Insight Guide England: A fully-overhauled edition by our expert regional authors. Stunning, specially-commissioned new photography that brings this scenic country and its people to life. Highlights of the country's top attractions, including its ancient monuments, castles, stately homes and world-class museums in our Best of England. Descriptive region-by-region accounts cover the whole country from its dynamic capital London to the beauty of the West Country and the Lake District, and the historic cities of Oxford, Bath and York. Detailed, high-quality maps throughout will help you get around and travel tips give you all the essential information for planning a memorable trip.

About Insight Guides: Insight Guides has over 40 years' experience of publishing high-quality, visual travel guides. We produce around 400 full-colour print guide books and maps as well as picture-packed eBooks to meet different travellers' needs. Insight Guides' unique combination of beautiful travel photography and focus on history and culture together create a unique visual reference and planning tool to inspire your next adventure.

'Insight Guides has spawned many imitators but is still the best of its type.' - Wanderlust Magazine

The West Country

A tour around England’s southwestern corner offers a wide variety of scenery, architecture and activities, and the best climate in the country in which to enjoy them.

Main Attractions

Bristol

Wells Cathedral

Dartmoor

Bodmin

Eden Project

St Michael’s Mount

St Ives

Tintagel Castle

The West Country is many things to many people. For some it’s the bleak moorlands of Bodmin, Dartmoor and Exmoor; for others it is quaint fishing villages and artists’ colonies, or the gardens for which Cornwall is famous. It is an area steeped in legend – the land of King Arthur, Camelot and the Holy Grail; history here takes on a romantic quality, with facts obscured by time, and fictions embellished with tales of piracy, smuggling and shipwrecks. Yet its rugged coastline – and bright summer weather – have also made it Britain’s most popular holiday destination.

The tour starts at Bath 1 [map] (for more information, click here), then goes 8 miles (13km) east to the former mill town of Bradford-on-Avon 2 [map], which is focused around its picturesque main bridge, and has one of the best Saxon churches in the country – St Laurence’s, founded in 700.

Polperro, Cornwall.

Lydia Evans/Apa Publications

Bristol to Exeter

After this, go northwest of Bath on the A4 to Bristol 3 [map], a major port since the time of the Phoenicians and in the 18th and 19th centuries an important gateway to the British Empire. Bristol became wealthy on the back of this colonial trade – though it’s important to remember that a significant component of the import-export business model at that time was the slave trade between West Africa and the Americas.

The north coast of Exmoor National Park.

Lydia Evans/Apa Publications

Bristol’s trading port moved several miles downstream from the city (to Avonmouth Docks and Royal Portbury Dock) during the 20th century. The old docks have now been redeveloped, and attractions and museums have moved in. At-Bristol (www.at-bristol.org.uk; daily Mon–Fri 10am–5pm, Sat–Sun and daily in school holidays 10am–6pm) is an interactive science museum geared to children. Nearby, the Watershed is an arts venue with cinemas, events space and a bar on the Floating Harbour. Further round the dock you can visit the SS Great Britain (www.ssgreatbritain.org; daily 10am–5.30pm, winter until 4.30pm). Designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806–59), the ship represents Bristol’s heyday as a shipbuilding centre, a theme explored further in the associated Dockyard Museum (same hours as ship). Also situated on the dockside is MShed (www.bristolmuseums.org.uk/m-shed; Tue–Fri 10am–5pm, Sat–Sun 10am–6pm; free). This museum, housed within a 1950s transit shed, charts the history of the city and its people.

Steep cliffs at Porthcurno.

Lydia Evans/Apa Publications

Fact File

The gateways to the West Country are Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Plymouth and Newquay.

By rail Trains leave from London Paddington for all the above destinations. Journey times: about 2 hours to Bath and Bristol; 2 hours 30 minutes to Exeter; 3 hours 30 minutes to Plymouth. For all rail information, tel: [phone].

By coach National Express coaches from London Victoria are slower, but cheaper. For information, twww.nationalexpress.co.uk.

By car Bath and Bristol are easily accessible from London via the M4, Exeter via the M5, fed from London by the M4, from the north by the M6, Plymouth via the M5/A38.

By air Flybe operate flights to Newquay from London Gatwick and Manchester among other places; www.flybe.com.

Best museum Tate Gallery, St Ives, www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-st-ives.

Walking trails Information on guided walks around Dartmoor, www.dartmoor.gov.uk or www.moorlandguides.co.uk.

Tourist Information Exeter, tel: [phone]; Plymouth, tel: [phone]; Penzance, tel: [phone]; Torquay, tel: [phone].

In the city centre, uphill from the waterfront, is the Cathedral, founded in 1140 (www.bristol-cathedral.co.uk; Mon–Fri 8am–5pm, Sat–Sun until 3.15pm; donations welcome). From here, Park Street rises to Bristol University, the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery (tel: [phone]; Mon–Fri 10am–5pm, Sat–Sun until 6pm; free), and Clifton Village, where Brunel’s Suspension Bridge spans the Avon Gorge. Brunel is generally credited as Britain’s greatest civil engineer, and was also responsible for the Great Western Railway, a series of steamships, and numerous bridges and tunnels.

Tip

Admission to Gough’s Caves includes entrance to the nearby Cox’s Cave, where the Crystal Quest presents a subterranean battle between good and evil, where mortal heroes battle it out with foul creatures from the underworld. The story is based on ancient beliefs that have inspired Greek epics and Norse sagas, and children usually love it.

From Bristol take the A38 towards Cheddar Gorge 4 [map], at 3 miles (5km) long the biggest gorge in England, carved out of karst limestone by the River Yeo. Gough’s Caves (www.cheddargorge.co.uk; July–Aug daily 10am–5pm, Sept–June 10.30am–5pm) were discovered by local resident Richard Gough in 1890, and 13 years later the skeleton of the 9,000-year-old Cheddar Man was found here. A walkway leads through a series of stalactite-encrusted chambers. The Cheddar Gorge Cheese Company (www.cheddargorgecheeseco.co.uk; daily from 10am, closing times vary), in the lower gorge, has a viewing gallery where yo...

Table of contents

• How To Use This E-Book
• England’s Top 10 Attractions
• Editor’s Choice
• Introduction: This England
• The English Character
• Decisive Dates
• Conquest and Conflict
• From Elizabeth to Empire
• Modern Times
• Insight: Stately Homes
• Theatre
• Painting the Landscape
• Food and Drink
• Insight: English Cheeses
• Walking in England
• Sporting Passions
• The Royal Family
• Introduction: Introduction
• Central London
• The City and Southwark
• Kensington and Chelsea
• Day Trips Along the Thames
• The Thames Valley
• Insight: The English Season
• Oxford
• The Cotswolds
• Shakespeare Country
• Cambridge
• East Anglia
• Canterbury and the Southeast
• Brighton and the Downs
• Insight: The English Garden
• Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset
• Bath
• The West Country
• Hereford and the Welsh Borders
• Derby to the East Coast
• Insight: Howzat!
• The Peak District
• The Northwest
• The Lake District
• York
• Yorkshire
• The Northeast
• Transport
• A-Z: A Handy Summary of Practical Information
• Further Reading