Welcome to Ambassador Tours

Hand Bells

Hand Bells Bell Ringing and Change Ringing originated in England, and a tour focused on Bell Towers and Bells can be a fascinating experience. Visits to foundries and a bell foundry museum are combined with tours of bell towers as you tour England and Scotland. Your tour can focus on the history of bell ringing or on performance - or both!

Consider these two suggested possibilities for your bell choir.

Tour #1 “England’s Bells and Towers”

London

Visit Hampton Court, the home of King Henry VIII
Tour Whitechapel Bell Foundry
Enjoy a panoramic London sightseeing tour.
Free time to enjoy all the optional activities London has to offer.

Winchester

Attend church at Winchester Cathedral and participate in a demonstration and workshop with the Winchester Band of Bellringers.
Free time for shopping and sightseeing in the historic town.

Crafting Bells Teighmouth

Enjoy a performance of English “off table” style handbell ringing by the Narmony 400 Bell ringing Team.
Participate in a hands-on “off table” workshop
Visit the Devon town of Buckfastleigh and tour Buckfast Abbey.
Travel on the South Devon Valley Railway to Totnes.
Travel to the scenic seaside village of Clovelly on the north Devon coast, crossing through the Dartmoor National Park.
Enjoy a Devon Cream tea in the garden of Castle Drogo.

The Wye Valley, Wales, and Hereford

Travel through the beautiful Wye Valley of South Wales, stopping at the ruins of Tintern Abbey.
Visit the covered market and Cathedral during your lunch stop in Hereford.

Chester and Liverpool

Learn the history of Chester on a professional guided walking tour.
Participate in a workshop
Visit the Cathedral Church of Christ, Liverpool, and it’s massi e bell tower which contains the heaviest ringing peal of bells in the world (cast by Whitechapel Bell Foundtry in the 1930s).
Farewell dinner on your last evening in Great Britain.

Tour #2 “England and Scotland Bells and Belfries”

London Street London

Visit Windsor Castle, principal home of Queen Elizabeth.
Tour Whitechapel Bell Foundry.
Climb the stairs to see “Big Ben”.
Enjoy a panoramic London sightseeing tour.
Free time to enjoy all the optional activities London has to offer.

Oxford

Enjoy a guided walking tour.
Workshop with the Oxford Diocesan Guild of Church Bell Ringers.

Stratford-upon-Avon

Visit Shakespeare’s Birthplace.
Free time for lunch and shopping.

Beverley

Enjoy a performance of English style “off table” ringing by the Beverley Town Ringers.
Participate in a workshop.
Visit the seaside fishing port of Whitby and tour St. Hilda’s Abbey.
Seek out the haunts made famous by Bram Stoker on a guided “in Search of Cracula” walking tour.
Visit the historic city of York and the magnificent Minster.

Edinburgh and Dunblane, Scotland

Participate in a seminar at Dunblane Cathedral, featuring guest lecturers and work shop leaders from Scotland and England.
Stirling Castle and the Church of the Holy Rude.
Enjoy a guided panoramic tour of Edinburgh.
Free time for independent shopping and sightseeing in Edinburgh.
Gala farewell dinner for the last evening in Great Britain.

Whitechapel

Bell Foundry

Four hundred years ago, the sign of the three bells – the stamp of Robert Mot, master founder – proclaimed a bell’s origin as the Whitechapel Bell foundry. The foundry has been in continuous business since the reign of Elizabeth I, concentrating solely on the manufacture of bells and their associated fittings. At 9’0” diameter, 7’6” high, and weighing in at more than 13 tons, the hour bell of the Great Clock of Westminster – known worldwide as “Big Ben” – is the most famous bell ever cast at Whitechapel.

Also cast by Whitechapel Bell Foundry, the Liberty Bell is recorded to have come ashore in Pennsylvania in good order in September of 1752. A report dated March 1753 states that after hanging; it became cracked at the very first stroke.

Ambassador Tours

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