A very very special theatre. Children of all ages will love the shows.read more

A new Metal Festival in the Midlands you say? And only £38 for a ticket for 3 days including…read morecamping? Plus the aural delights of Morgue Orgy,Flayed Disciple,Kremated,Anihilated,Shrapnel and 15 others? Sign me up my good man!! So only 2 weeks after Bloodstock we found ourselves driving south again to get our Thrash on. Beermageddon is held at the Stoke Prior Sports and Country Club (Posher than it sounds) in the village of er,Stoke Prior,just outside Bromsgrove in the W Midlands. It's only a small Festival mainly catering for the smaller or unsigned Metal bands,which is great for me as i'm a bit of a champion of the smaller acts. The Fest only holds a few hundred people,which makes it seem more like a 3 day party with friends than a Festival,which is great. The bands played inside the venue and we all camped on the playing fields just outside,we were camped and parked (yes you can park next to your tent) less than 100 yards from the club,meaning a very short stagger to and fro,which is always handy. The calibre of bands on offer this year were top notch as far as my tastes go (they were all from the more extreme end of the Metal spectrum) and the attendees were all awesome,some really good friends were made and contacts gathered,and because pretty much all the bands were small they were all camping too and not an ego in sight!! Jim Beerman,the organiser ,knows how to put on a Festival,and you can be pretty damn sure that we will be back to get battered,bruised,baked and blasted next year.....\,,/.....

For two days in early September, after the summer tourists have gone home and before the students…read moreget back, the people of Oxford celebrate. I'm not quite sure what we celebrate but it is great fun. I no longer go on rides that swing you high in the air or turn you upside down but if you are young enough to enjoy that sort of thing then there is something special about catching glimpses of secret court-yards, quadrangles and lawns behind the yellow walls of the colleges just before you are flung upside down again or hurled towards the ground. For the more sedentary of us there are more traditional rides such as the wonderful merry-go-round and helter skelter. Or you can just wander around enjoying the sights, sounds (and it can be very noisy), smells and tastes (sugar cane as well as candy floss last year) Rumour has it that the rides are longer in the afternoon before it gets busy. If you aren't going to the fair then be warned that all the buses that normally go along St Giles are diverted for 2 days and the road is closed to traffic.

Evolved from a 17th-century parish wake, St Giles fair is a yearly spectacle in the centre of…read moreOxford. Every September excitement grows as bigger and better rides are added to the substantial collection of fairground attractions. Our Oxford teams love this annual event.

Ragley Hall has been, since 1680, a beautiful example of Palladian architecture…read more(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palladian_architecture) . It has gorgeous state rooms and halls, beautiful gardens, and even a playground for the kids. There are some other features of particular interest, like the Ragley working farm, sawmill, butchery, and stables building with a collection of carriages. Worth a look is the Jerwood Foundation Sculpture Trail, in which you can stumble across Fernando Casasempere's 'Under the Forest', Harry Everington's 'Crusader', Antony Gormley's 'Insider', Sokari Douglas Camp's 'Man on Man' and Elisabeth Frink's 'Walking Man'. There's a café by the lake, if you fancy a bite.

Ragley Hall is well worth a visit. There are acres of playground, perfect for a picnic and a family…read moreday out. For the children there is a kids zone, adventure playground with a 3d maze, trampoline and climbing frames which leaves you time to admire the Hall and the beautiful gardens. There is a peaceful picnic area by the lake where you may even have the chance to see a few peacocks roaming around.

Bulldog Bash 2009 - didn't manage to get in to see the event itself, but why should that minor…read moredetail stop a Qype review? Reason was that £55 entrance fee too steep - (OK, this would be a very fair price for a weekend of head banging - Motorhead thrown in for the ultimate bleeding eardrum experience - boozing and V twin harmonic earmashing, but the price is OTT for a quick nose around just to clock up some Qype points) - did give it a go to get in cheaper for a quick mooch but the tattoed (but friendly) gatekeepers not impressed - reckoned they wouldn't see me for the next 2 days. No good arguments worked - even offered to leave them with the Brompton as colateral - they just laughed and said it had no engine and was worth nothing - huh. So, make do with watching the biking cavalcade arriving - amazing - from all over Britain and Europe - all sorts of bikes and trikes - some weird, some menacing, some normal, some so shiny and pearlescent, should wear welders goggles to look at them direct on - a fantastic sight and sound - don't need to be a biker to appreciate all that. A perfect location too - middle of nowhere - an old airfield - even sounds like squadrans of B52 bombers coming in to land. Downside - a lot of fuss made by the local fuzz - even stopping pedal cyclists from following legitimate National Sustrans cycle paths for no clear reason other than seemingly to show their authority. Speaking to the locals round Stratford, general comments were that police appear to be out of touch with the community that supports them. How to get to the Bash? Bike it, obviously. Or, if at all worried by your carbon footprint (tyreprint?) then a return train from Birmingham Moor Street is around £8.50 - a great price for a direct journey to Stratford, just about 1 every hour, on the half hour - take a bike (bicycle, not your Harley Chopper, silly) on for nothing with plenty of room in the special carriages - or hire a bike in Stratford for the day. Cruise around the town on pedal power, head down to the river front, have an early breakfast or perhaps make a massive decision to choose whether to have a Costa or a Nero Americano with hot milk - tough one - maybe take it down to the barge front and sit watching the people, ducks and swans in the early morning sunshine before the crowds arrive - nice. Follow the river bank on the theatre side where it's possible, towards the hauntingly beautiful riverside graveyard of the Holy Trinity Church, to best appreciate the georgeous tree lined river views. Then back round to the 'Stratford Greenway' ( http://www.sustrans.org.uk/sustrans-near-you/midlands/easy-rides-in-the-midlands/stratford-greenway ). This was a railtrack and is now a perfect, easy cycle highway into the countryside south of Stratford - wonderful country and river views and meeting lots of friendly walking and cycling folk, just like you and me of course. There are even 2 railway carriage cafes along the route to provide essential refreshments and bike hire if required ( http://www.stratfordbikehire.com/index.php?id=50 ). And, what do you know - this path takes you directly towards Long Marston airfield and the Bash, where the story started. Not very far - gentle, flat, cycle ride - just do note that due to possible obstructive policing, you might be forced to take a more dangerous road detour to reach the entrance to the airfield. Retrace steps (pedal backwards maybe) to get back to Stratford or shoot along the heavily trafficked B4632 (quicker but probably not recommended on bicycle http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&rlz=1C1CHMB_en-GB... (http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&rlz=1C1CHMB_en-GBGB335GB339&ei=Wrh8SvCSLoeG-Qa7_qg5&resnum=0&q=long%20marston&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl) ). Fantastic day out - highly recommeded. Hope this is useful.

Nice National Trust house with lovely garden and a house full of collectables that would appeal to…read moresome visitors but not others. Good tea room, interesting orchard, and really nice model village. A pity that access to the house was on timed entry.

Snowshill Manor, located near Broadway, is a National Trust property which has lovely Arts & Crafts…read morestyle gardens and an amazing museum to tour in the home of Charles Paget Wade. The home was once owned by Henry VIII's wife Katharine Parr. The main part of the house dates from the 1500s and extensions have been added over the centuries. Mr. Wade spent a lifetime collecting items from all over the world. They range from Oriental curiousities, bicycles, toys, moving vehicles, furniture and so much more. There are 22,000 items to view and a 2000 piece costume collection. It can be very overwhelming in some of the rooms due to the mass of items to look at! The day I was there, one of the out-buildings had a show of the various kinds of English apples. The site has various special events during the year. A fascinating place to visit! http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-snowshillmanor

This is an annual event. We went yesterday and it was a lovely atmosphere. It is held on actual…read moreallotments. Very reminiscent of country fetes that used to be held in someone's (huge) village garden. Was worth being stuck in traffic forever on our 1 1/2 hour journey there. Huw Lloyd-Langton (formerly of Hawkwind) kindly donated his time again, and this was who we went to see really. The Assassins of Science also did a 40 min set with Huw joining them in some numbers. The Elder Stubbs Festival is a highlight of the Cowley calendar, bringing together allotment holders, members of the Elder Stubbs Garden Group, artists, musicians craftspeople and the public at large from all over the local area in a celebration of work and talents. Two stages allow for musical and poetic expression, and many stalls throughout the site represent local organisations involved in social and environmental work. Fresh vegetables, plants and homemade jams and pickles are available if you get there fast enough, and refreshments are also sold on site. Book stalls, plants, face painting, organic produce amongst others. Hot veggie food and meat stuff. Families. Twisted tree sculptures. Arts, crafts, poetry. The Elder Stubbs Festival began as a small event (2000+ visitors each year now) thirteen years ago as a joint venture between Elder Stubbs and RESTORE as an attempt to generate community support for projects. This proved a great success, and the large amounts of publicity generated have meant it has become a fixture in local life, raising money for RESTORE and the profile of both organisations. There is now strong competition to play on both stages! One of a funniest highlights was the fly past by The RED BARROWS! Team members running round the site in a line pushing red wheelbarrows. Elder Stubbs Festival is special: animals for petting, magicians, belly dancers, bagpipers, weavers, martial artists, poets and rock stars standing shoulder to shoulder amongst flowers, sculptures and vegetables. Set on the Elder Stubbs allotment site, there was a diverse array of attractions from performing arts and workshops to stalls, speakers, children's activities and the vegetable show, as well as a wide choice of foods. Around 50 different stallholders use the festival as a forum to share information about local groups and organisations, sell home-made goods, run an activity or vend an assortment of world cuisines. All proceeds are to charity (£1 entrance fee. Bit of info/history: Elder Stubbs Charity is the proud owner and manager of Elder Stubbs Allotments, at Rymers Lane in Cowley, Oxford. The site is a leading example of the successful reinvention of allotment management, and provides a working model for the involvement of disparate members of the local community in city land use. It provides over 100 allotments for local residents. In addition it has diversified by letting tenancies to other charities with similar aims to itself. Notable amongst these are The Porch Steppin' Stone project which cultivates an area of land to grow the organic vegetables used at its day-centre to provide meals for the long-term unemployed, and the Elder Stubbs Garden Group, part of RESTORE, which cultivates 2 acres as an organic market-garden and orchard run as an horticultural therapy project for people recovering from mental illness. Elder Stubbs Allotments were an award to the poor of Cowley under the Inclosure Act of 1852 in compensation for the enclosure and subsequent loss of their Common on Shotover. 150 years later the charity still provides over 100 allotments for local residents. In addition it has diversified by letting tenancies to other charities with similar aims to itself. Really worth a look next year for something different.

I wish Id known about this earlier definately would have gone,will check it out for next year,thanxread more

Don't do it - crap place.read more

We didn't know about The Model Village when we visited Bourton-on-the-Water, and it ended up being…read moreone of the most memorable parts about our recent visit. We both agreed we could have spent more time than we had here, because there really is SO MUCH to look at! The Model Village is, apparently, the only grade II listed model village in the country; it's a one-ninth scale of the actual village (...and, there's a model village WITHIN the model village, too) and features incredible craftsmanship. Every detail is so thoughtfully remembered and recreated: music playing from within the church, the five bridges, an actual running water feature, and all the many, different species of trees. The attention to detail (opening signs on windows, tiny animals in barns, little breads at the bakery) is incredible. Charming and well-maintained, this model village gave us a richer appreciation of Bourton-on-the-water itself!

I find the concept of making a model village of a village that includes its own model village to be…read moredarling. The craftsmanship is really nice, and there's a lot of attention to detail for the buildings. It was fun to walk around and admire all the different details, including the model of the model because the model IS a part of the town. This doesn't take too long to do, but on a nice day, it's a cheap price and a unique place to visit.