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Heritage
As well as the wonderful buildings listed in our Castles and Cathedrals and Palaces and Stately Homes pages, there are many must-see heritage sites which do not fit into these categories. The ones shown below are all well worth a visit and many have World Heritage status.
Don't forget, if you hire your motorhome through us we can design a tour for you and book your sites along the way. This booking service is completely FREE - just email us with what you'd like to see and we'll do the rest. Have a look at our Holidays page for other places to see and things to do while you are touring this wonderful island of ours.
Stonehenge
Hadrian's Wall
Ironbridge
Kew Gardens
Studley Park
City of Bath More coming soon
| Stonehenge, near Amesbury, England
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The great and ancient stone circle of Stonehenge is one of the wonders of the world. What visitors see today are the substantial remnants of the last in a sequence of such monuments erected between circa 3000BC and 1600BC. Each monument was a circular structure, aligned with the rising of the sun at the midsummer solstice.
There has always been intense debate over quite what purpose Stonehenge served. Certainly, it was the focal point in a landscape filled with prehistoric ceremonial structures. It also represented an enormous investment of labour and time. A huge effort and great organisation was needed to carry the stones tens, and sometimes hundreds, of miles by land and water and then to shape and raise them. Only a sophisticated society could have mustered so large a workforce and the design and construction skills necessary to produce Stonehenge and its surrounding monuments.
Stonehenge's orientation in relation to the rising and setting sun has always been one of its most remarkable features. Whether this was because its builders came from a sun-worshipping culture or because - as some scholars have asserted - the circle and its banks were part of a huge astronomical calendar, remains a mystery. What cannot be denied is the ingenuity of the builders of Stonehenge. With only very basic tools at their disposal, they shaped the stones and formed the mortises and tenons that linked uprights to lintels. Using antlers and bones, they dug the pits to hold the stones and made the banks and ditches that enclosed them.
More.
| Recommended campsite:
Stonehenge Touring Park
Distance to monument: 4 miles
Notes: Small, family-run park. Well maintained and recommended by reviewers
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| Hadrian's Wall, England | Back to top
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Hadrian's Wall is the most important monument built by the Romans in Britain. Internationally celebrated as a World Heritage Site, it is the best known frontier in the entire Roman Empire, and stands as a reminder of past glories of one of the worlds greatest civilisations. Being there still invokes a sense of standing at the edge of the world.
The Wall was built by order of the Emperor Hadrian, who came to Britain in AD 122. Over the next six years the army built a wall 80 Roman mile long (117km or 73 modern miles), some 5 metres (15 feet) high, east to west from Wallsend to Bowness.
Hadrian's Roman biographer says that the Wall was built 'to separate the Romans from the Barbarians'. By the early 400's, the empire had declined and Britain was abandoned.
The Wall became derelict and stones were re-used in local building and field walls. What we see today is all the more precious for being the last remains of such an incredible Roman structure.
More.
| Recommended campsite:
Haltwhistle ( C & CC site)
Distance to Wall: 4 miles
Notes: Haltwhistle Camping & Caravanning Club Site is in a clearing of Bellister wood, once the property of Bellister Castle Estate and now managed by the National Trust. Reviewers commented on lovely setting, quietness, cleanliness, and friendliness of wardens. |
| Ironbridge Gorge, Shropshire, England | Back to top
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The historic significance of the Ironbridge Gorge is that it was the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. The specific event which is generally regarded as "the spark which ignited the Industrial Revolution" occurred in 1709 when Abraham Darby pioneered the use of coke rather than charcoal in smelting iron.
In the late 18th century, Coalbrookdale had more furnaces and forges along two miles of riverbank than anywhere else in the world. The River Severn was Europe's busiest river. Philip de Loutherbourg's painting of the Bedlam Furnaces - Coalbrookdale by Night - captures the mix of hellish nightmare and awesome power of the Gorge at its peak and gives some idea of the heat and pollution that existed.
Iron had been made in the Gorge since the time of Henry VIII, thanks to the abundance of ore, timber for charcoal to smelt it and a navigable river. Darby's innovation of 1709 paved the way for the mass production of plentiful supplies of high quality iron. That new process was developed in the furnaces of Abraham Darby's Coalbrookdale Company, where, to this day, an iron foundry continues to operate.
Darby's grandson, Abraham Darby III, built the world's first iron bridge in 1779. Its dramatic position and design ensured instant public interest and it attracted many visitors from around the world. To this day, the Iron Bridge remains a symbol of the Industrial Revolution that is recognised across the world and it is also the focal point of the area's thriving tourism industry.
The Ironbridge Gorge is also famous for its porcelain and decorative tile industries. Jackfield, in its heyday, was a world centre of the decorative tile industry. Across the river, the Coalport company was one of the country's biggest porcelain manufacturers by the mid 19th century. China continued to be produced there until 1926, when the company transferred its activities to Stoke-on-Trent.
More.
| Recommended campsite:
Severn Gorge Park
Distance to Gorge: 2.9 miles
Notes: Severn Gorge Park is set on level ground and is almost completely surrounded by Tweedale Woods giving the feeling of a countryside setting. Popular with reviewers for cleanliness and friendliness. |
| Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, England | Back to top
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This historic garden is characterised by a number of elements that illustrate significant periods of garden design from the 18th to the 20th centuries. Since their creation in 1759, the gardens have made a significant and uninterrupted contribution to the study of plant diversity and economic botany. The gardens house botanic collections (conserved and living plants and archival material) that have been considerably enriched over the centuries.
The living plant collection at Kew is the largest and most comprehensive in the world, containing representatives of more than one in eight of all flowering plant species. Plants are included in the collection primarily for their scientific or educational value and many of them are actively used in research programmes. Many species within the living collection are endangered in their natural habitats and Kew is increasingly involved in conservation as threats to the world's vegetation escalate.
The herbarium contains a reference collection of over 7 million specimens of dried plants and fungi - the most comprehensive in the world. Botanists use these specimens, together with material from the living collection, to study plant characteristics in order to catalogue the diversity of the plant kingdom. Kew also has one of the world's foremost botanical libraries, containing over 120,000 books as well as journals, papers and illustrations, and an extensive archive.
Its World Heritage status acknowledges Kew's excellence as a world class cultural and heritage site, recognising the importance of Kew's historic landscapes and outstanding buildings as well as it important contribution to science and plant research.
More.
| Recommended campsite:
Chertsey C & CC Site
Distance to gardens: 16.9 miles
Notes: Chertsey is a beautiful, riverside Site, south west of the City of London, which was fully refurbished for 2004. A train ride away from the capital, it retains its rural atmosphere, with daily visits from foxes, squirrels and a host of river birds.
Reviewers commented on warm welcome, facilities, maintenance and (occasional) aircraft noise!
This site is a pleasant alternative for all London attractions (30-35 mins by train)
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| Fountains Abbey & Studley Royal Park, England | Back to top
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A striking landscape was created around the ruins of the Cistercian Fountains Abbey and Fountains Hall. The 18 th century landscaping, gardens and canal, the 19 th century plantations and vistas, and the neo-Gothic castle of Studley Royal Park, make this an outstanding site.
The Studley Royal Estate was inherited by John Aislabie in 1693 who devoted himself until his death in 1742 to creating the Water Gardens. His visionary scheme to transform what had been a wild, wooded valley was completed by his son William, who purchased the Fountains Abbey ruins in 1767 and landscaped the Seven Bridges Valley and Abbey grounds, with canals, parks and garden buildings.
Fountains Abbey, in Yorkshire, was founded in 1132 by thirteen monks of St. Mary's of York who were searching for an ideal of life in closer keeping with St. Benoit's teachings. The Abbey owes its success to its early affiliation with the Cistercian order. In the Thirteenth century it's land wealth grew to enormous proportions and, when the monastic community was broken up after 1530, Fountains was the richest abbey in the kingdom. These four centuries of prosperity are reflected in the magnitude of the ruins of the buildings, which constitute the largest monastic complex in the United Kingdom.
The Abbey buildings and over 500 acres (202ha) of land were sold by the Crown to Sir Richard Gresham, a merchant. The property was passed down through several generations of Sir Richard's family, finally being sold to Stephen Proctor who built Fountains Hall probably between 1598 and 1604.
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| Recommended campsite:
Woodhouse Farm
Distance to park: 2.6 miles
Notes: Set in woodland and meadows with its own Fishing lake. Onsite bar and restaurant as well as all the usual facilities. Very popular with reviewers.
"Great sized pitches with immaculate facilities."
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| City of Bath, England | Back to top
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Founded by the Romans as a thermal spa, Bath has been a place of pilgrimage for the hot waters ever since. In the 18th century, under George III, it developed into a fashionable resort city with innovative neoclassical Palladian buildings and influential urban design. The city blends harmoniously with the surrounding landscape which has heavily influenced its development throughout history, through topography, beauty and the availability of the limestone which gives Bath its building material and visual homogeneity.
The Springs, with their continuous flow of hot mineral water from the ground, are central to Bath's foundation and development . They yield over 1,200,000 litres of water daily at a temperature of more than 46°C and containing 43 kinds of minerals The Hot Springs have been a continued focus for the healing, worship and social interaction that has been such an important part of Bath's history and identity. They are still central to Bath's local, national and international identity and reputation.
It is this Roman and Georgian heritage and archaeology, its culture as a spa stretching back over two thousand years , innovative architecture and town-planning, and the harmony between the city and the landscape that makes Bath internationally important.
More.
| Recommended campsite:
Bath Marina & Caravan Park
Distance to city: 2 miles
Notes: "Good site, friendly welcome, spacious pitches, clean and acceptable toilet facilities. Handy location for Park and Ride into Bath City Centre or alternatively pleasant walk along river that takes about 45 mins." |
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