We have 2 guided tours booked at Strathfield Saye (https://wellington.co.uk/stratfield-saye-house/) on the 18th August 2025 for 10 people on each tour. The first tour is at 10:15 – 11:30 and the second is at 11:15 – 12:30. The property is only open at Easter and during August so it quite difficult to get to visit as the tickets are quite sought after.

The guided tour(s) will include access to the house to view the fascinating collection of paintings and furniture and see the wonderful Wellington Exhibition featuring his magnificent funeral carriage and charting his military and political life. Also included is access to visit the grounds of Stratfield Saye House and explore Copenhagen’s Oak Tree and Grave, the House Kitchen Garden and the Pleasure Grounds. The cost for this tour is £12.00.

There is no organised lunch on this trip but after the tour members are free to find somewhere to eat, there is a small café on the site which only has limited food but I can recommend the Wellington Farm Shop Cafe (https://wellingtonfarmshop.co.uk/cafe/) which is 2.7 miles from Strathfield Saye. I will send out further details on this to all the people who are coming on the trip at a later date.

If you wish to come on this trip, please advise as soon as possible as the trip is restricted to 20 persons on 2 separate tours and it will be on a first come, first served basis. This is a self-drive trip so please let me know if you require a lift. No money should be paid just now but I will send the successful applicants’ details of how to pay by BACS at a later date.

If you have any questions on this trip, please contact Kevin Barter at kevin.barter2@ntlworld.com or 07974 111551

15 members met up at the historic Wilton House a few miles outside of Salisbury on Monday 23^rd June 2025. We had booked for the 12:00 guided tour so we gathered in the café prior to the start for a coffee. Our guide gave us an outline of the house’s history and how the family had owned the estate for more than 450 years. Wilton House was originally an abbey, which after the Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries was given to William Herbert, 1^st Earl of Pembroke whose family still live there, the current incumbent being the 18^th, Earl.

As we progressed around the house, we walked down a number of corridors lined by statues that seemed familiar as they have been used in many films over the last 30 years. The house has had additions and remodelling by both Han Holbein and Inigo Jones and is a very impressive Grade 1 listed structure. Internally the house has a set of very impressive State Rooms. The Cube and the Double Cube room are the most spectacular as they are 30ft and 60ft long respectively, both 30ft wide and high. Both rooms are full of artwork that was either painted by Van Dyck when he was in residence (one portrait of the then Pembroke family covering one wall 30 ft wall). The house also displays art works by a number of other famous artists including Han Holbein, Rubens and Breughel. The rooms are packed with spectacular furniture all created for the house and the ceilings are painted with beautiful frescoes. One bookcase by Chippendale is alleged to be valued  at £20 – £30 million!

On completion of the tour of the house we returned to the Café for an excellent lunch and then spent a couple of hours walking in the gardens alongside the River Nadder and visiting the Old Riding School where the current Earl displays his collection of cars, old and new. The river has a Palladian bridge which became the template for many similar bridges to be built in other large houses in the UK.

Feedback from the members attending was overwhelmingly positive with remarks like I never realised that the art and house would be of that quality so near to where we live. After spending the best part of 5 hours we headed for home after a most enjoyable day.

Kevin Barter

A total of 12 Questers joined our annual trip to the seaside this year as 3 cancelled at short notice. The weather was very nice and we all did a bomb-burst and went our separate ways.  The current Mrs Duncan took me to an Amusement arcade which didn’t amuse me in the least as I lost all my money playing the 2p tipping point machine. To be fair, we had saved up our pennies over the winter so we must have spent around £3 in total (a lot of money for us Jocks!)

We dined in one of Bournemouth’s finest restaurants (Spoons), the food was quite good really. I’d like to publicly thanks the passengers for returning to the bus on time for our journey back to Andover and also Robert who got us there and got us back safely – thank you.  I enclose a bad photo (the only one from Bournemouth which I didn’t take!”

Pete