What's New for 2012

1. Britain welcomes the Microlympics!

2. Stay in and around London at the time of the Olympics, for £7.50 a night!

3. Take another look at Trentham Gardens

4. Origin of the modern international Olympics is traced back to a Shropshire town

5. Cotswolds to celebrate a Queen’s quincentenary, in 2012

6. Walking is good for you ‐ and for British pubs!

7. New behind the scenes factory tour planned for Wedgwood in 2012

8. From Out of Africa to a new hotel in former colliery cottages, find a quirky place to stay

9. Major Arts Festival in The Cotswolds celebrates world famous colony of US artists

10. Royal Crown Derby marks the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee with a special exhibition

11. Staffordshire Hoard Set To Conquer The World

12. Make 2012 a murder mystery year to remember with Agatha Christie

13. Herefordshire announces a new venue for 2012 annual Food Festival

14. Falling Madly Deeply for Hadley

15. Stoke‐on‐Trent’s got the Olympics and Jubilee all sewn up

16. Derby QUAD is set to take flicks to the sticks in a 2012 Summer Film Festival

17. The Cotswolds – 400 years of the Olimpicks

18. Trains and boats and…a walk to see the home of The Queen of Crime

19. Welcome to “Britain’s Heritage Cities”

20. Top UK band and tourism office singing from the same song sheet

The Cotswolds

What’s New for 2012

Ian Weightman Media Services

Email: [email protected] Web: www.ianweightman.co.uk Twitter: @WeightmanPR

1. Britain welcomes the Microlympics! As part of the preparations for its 50th anniversary in 2013, Babbacombe Model Village in Torquay, on “The English Riviera”, plans to introduce many new features over the next couple of years ‐ including a Microlympics Stadium! The new stadium is due to be unveiled in 2012. However, the Model Village has to be a little bit careful in its design – and is avoiding the use of any Olympic branding, logos or imagery on its model. It’s the first time that the Model Village has ever been refused permission to reproduce a building in miniature. The Model Village Manager commented: “As Torquay was a major player last time the UK hosted the Olympics, we wanted to be a mini‐player this time!”. Despite the restrictions, the new Mircolympics development, with a multi‐sports stadium at its heart, is being built at a cost of around £50,000. Since opening in 1963, Babbacombe Model Village has remained one of the most popular and well‐known attractions in Devon. For further details, visit www.babbacombemodelvillage.co.uk. 2. Stay in and around London at the time of the Olympics, for £7.50 a night! The Camping and Caravanning Club will be offering several temporary event campsites during the summer of 2012. The Club will organise, administer and manage sites at Gravesend, Ebbsfleet, and Havering – with the latter two being just 10‐15 minutes from the Olympic village. The WaterWorks Nature Reserve and Golf Centre in Leyton, meanwhile, is believed to be the closest campsite to the Olympic Park. Pitches ‐ costing from £30 per night – will accommodate up to four people. To book any of these sites please visit www.2012camping.co.uk or www.campingandcaravanningclub.co.uk/2012camping. Limited press pitches will also be available. 3. Take another look at Trentham Gardens The gardens on the Trentham Estate, in Stoke‐on‐Trent, have not simply marked their seventh birthday recently. They have also “come of age”. Visitor numbers to the garden have risen each year with the garden now placed to join an elite collection of the countries finest and most visited garden attractions. Kew, The Eden Project, RHS Wisley and Wakehurst Place are now the only gardens in the UK with more visitors passing through their gates each year. Trentham’s dramatic resurrection was initially led by renowned garden designers and Chelsea gold‐medal winners Tom Stuart‐Smith and Piet Oudolf who, along with Michael Walker, have revitalised the Italianate grandeur with a stylish modern interpretation – to create one of the largest examples of contemporary naturalistic perennial planting in Europe. Stuart‐Smith and Oudolf, however, were simply the latest in a long line of renowned landscape designers and architects to be associated with the Estate and Gardens, once one of the Dukes of Sutherland’s Estates, who transformed it from a medieval monastery to grand country estate over decades of ownership from 1540 to 1979. The European Garden Heritage Network also recognised the achievements at Trentham last year when it bestowed one of its greatest honours on the gardens: “The 2010 European Award for Garden Restoration”. For further details visit www.trentham.co.uk/trentham‐gardens. 4. Origin of the modern international Olympics is traced back to a Shropshire town While gold medals will be handed out in London in 2012 for being "swifter, higher, stronger", there is a need to look to the history books ‐ and to the picturesque Shropshire market town of Much Wenlock, 150‐miles away ‐ to see who won the very first medals for hurdling, rifle shooting... and even 'tilting'. Shropshire is an unlikely place to find the origins of the modern international Olympic Games. Yet it was here, in 1850, that Dr William Penny Brookes first founded the Wenlock Olympian Society. Now, 160 years later Much Wenlock’s role has even provided the inspiration behind one of the 2012 London Olympic mascots unveiled in a blaze of global publicity. Dr Brookes’ Olympian Games included Greek Classical and country sports like running, quoits, football and cricket, but there was always a competition for ‘juveniles’ and a fun competition – once a 'blind wheelbarrow racing', and another year 'an old woman's race for a pound of tea'. A visitor to the 1890 Olympian Games was Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the acknowledged founder of the modern Olympic Games, who later wrote "and of the Olympic Games, which modern Greece has not yet revived, it is not a Greek to whom one is indebted, but rather Dr W. P. Brookes". And in 1994 ‐ as part of the 100th anniversary of the modern Olympic movement – the President of the IOC, Juan Antonio Samaranch came to Much Wenlock "because this is where the modern Olympics started". For full details, visit www.muchwenlock2012.com.

The Cotswolds What’s New for 2012

For further details on any of the stories featured here email…. [email protected]


5. Cotswolds to celebrate a Queen’s quincentenary in 2012 Sudeley Castle in The Cotswolds is planning to welcome the world to a very special Tudor‐themed Katherine Parr Festival, which coincides with the current Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 2012. At its heart will lie a very special Katherine Parr Exhibition featuring items from the Castle’s own collection, as well as several other pieces on loan from other national and historic collections. And a new DVD, featuring world famous historian Dr David Starkey will guide visitors around parts of the Castle never previously seen. Ticketed events will include the opportunity to enjoy afternoon tea with Lady Ashcombe and specially invited guests. Born in 1512, Queen Katherine Parr was the last of Henry VIII’s six wives. After the King’s death in 1547, Katherine married Lord Seymour of Sudeley and lived her last days, died and was buried at Sudeley Castle, in Winchcombe. Details of the Katherine Parr Festival can be found at www.sudeleycastle.co.uk and on www.cotswolds.com. 6. Walking is good for you ‐ and for British pubs! An innovative scheme in Shropshire, aimed at getting people who might not normally go walking to venture out onto the footpaths and country lanes of rural England, is also raising a glass to another British institution. The great British pub may be closing at a rate of around five a day, but Shropshire is now at the very forefront of a campaign to bring some economic benefit to the rural inns and other businesses in the area. The new walking trails all fall within the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and are branded together under the “Walking With Offa” umbrella. All 12 walks are circular, and start and finish at a nearby pub or village shop, where a new generation of walkers can find fantastic scenery, the great atmosphere of a country inn, as well as some genuine, locally sourced, value‐for‐money menus. The western reaches of the Shropshire Hills, in particular – along the borderlands with Wales ‐ are where many of the more remote country inns can be found, and near to where King Offa of Mercia built his world famous Dyke. Better still, the walks are all accessible both by public transport. For more details, visit www.shropshirehillsaonb.co.uk. 7. New behind the scenes factory tour planned for Wedgwood in 2012 Wedgwood is set to launch a brand new behind‐the‐scenes factory tour in 2012. This guided walking tour of the factory, taking up to 45 minutes, will give you a very special insight into the processes that go into creating the world renowned Wedgwood products available today. The factory tour is available from Monday to Thursday, March to October, and runs at specific times during the day. The same Wedgwood complex in Stoke‐on‐Trent also features the award winning Wedgwood Museum containing the full 250‐years history of the company; and the Craft Demonstration Area where visitors can meet and talk to the throwers, painters and gilders. Visitors can even “have a go” at throwing their own masterpiece under the watchful eyes of a Wedgwood master‐potter, which will then be sent to them after firing. The site is also home to the company’s famous Factory Shop and boutique lifestyle store. For more details, visit www.wedgwoodvisitorcentre.com. 8. From Out of Africa to a new hotel in former colliery cottages, find a quirky place to stay Fancy camping beneath the stars in African‐style safari tents? How about a bed for the night in a traditional terrace of former coal miners’ cottages? Or perhaps pitching the caravan in the heart of a former working colliery site? Thanks to some unusual accommodation options, you can do all that in real style….and all on the doorstep of some stunning English scenery. Escape the urban jungle and spend a night under canvas in Teversal Camping and Caravanning Club Site’s new luxurious Safari Tents, a touch of Africa on the borders of the Peak District. If safari tents aren't your style, how about spending a few nights in a terraced row of pit houses? At Palterton near Chesterfield, one of the more unusual uses for a former pit community has seen a traditional row of former colliery houses being sympathetically refurbished to create a three star hotel with a distinct twist (www.twinoakshotel.co.uk). And if you want to stay in a fabulous new Spanish influenced hotel, look no further than The Casa, in Chesterfield www.casahotels.co.uk, which has just been given the award for offering its guests the comfiest hotel beds in Britain!




9. Major Arts Festival in The Cotswolds celebrates world famous colony of US artists The biennial Broadway Arts Festival in The Cotswolds was inaugurated in 2010 as a celebration of the village’s artistic heritage and its enduring relationship with a world‐famous colony of American artists and writers who visited and worked here in the 19th century. In the late 19th century the flamboyant American artist, writer and soldier Frank Millet discovered the delights of Broadway and could not resist introducing them to his friends. Millet unfortunately perished in the Titanic disaster in 1912, but the legacy of those special relationships he created in Broadway is still very much alive today. Painters, actors, writers, their families and friends visited and worked here in the 19th century, including John Singer Sargent, William Morris, Francis Millet, Alfred Parsons, Henry James and JM Barrie. Many aspects of the village and surrounding countryside feature in world‐class exhibits including the Tate in London and the Metropolitan Museum, New York. The next Broadway Arts Festival, scheduled for June 9th‐17th, will focus on the work of John Singer Sargent and garden designer Alfred Parsons. For more details, visit: www.broadwayartsfestival.com. 10. Royal Crown Derby marks the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee with a special exhibition Royal Crown Derby, the company which has worked from its original site for more years than any other company in England, will be marking the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee with a special exhibition in 2012. “Royal Derby Exhibition – A history of the Queen and Derby” is the name given to the exhibition scheduled to take place from March 31st to June 30th, at the company’s Osmaston Road HQ in Derby. The Queen and Royal Family have long had an association with Derby and have visited the city many times. This exhibition will offer a snapshot of these visits, as well as Royal Crown Derby’s own, strong connections with the Royal Family. The Queen visited the works in the 1940s when she bestowed the Royal Warrant on the company. The exhibition will include a collection of all royal crown derby royal commemoratives since 1761; a history of the Royal Warrant; images of the Queen’s visit to Royal Crown Derby; a display of its Diamond Jubilee items; and a collection of Royal items that have been donated or used for Royal visits in Derby over the past 60 years. For more details, visit www.royalcrownderby.co.uk 11. Staffordshire Hoard Set To Conquer The World Already proving to be one of the most popular free exhibitions ever staged at The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery in The City of Stoke‐on‐Trent, the future of The Staffordshire Hoard also looks truly golden. The Hoard is the largest and most valuable find of Anglo‐Saxon treasure – ever! It features over 1,500 items, and was first discovered in July 2009 by metal detectorist Terry Herbert on private farmland in Staffordshire, with the written consent of the landowner. It was then valued by the Treasure Valuation Committee at the British Museum. But in addition to the permanent display at Stoke‐on‐Trent’s Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, a touring exhibition, along with more than 100 further artefacts, is about to go to Washington, USA, for a special display at the National Geographic Museum. One of their last displays was the Chinese Terracotta Army, the opening of which was attended by the President of the United States. The touring exhibition will then return to the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery in Stoke‐on‐Trent in 2012, when The Hoard will be displayed alongside yet more pieces, with additional interpretation, and interactive computer screens. For further details, visit www.staffordshirehoard.org.uk.

12. Make 2012 a murder mystery year to remember with Agatha Christie Visitors to The English Riviera can uncover more ways to follow in the footsteps of the world’s greatest crime fiction writer, Dame Agatha Christie, with a number of new initiatives launched by the English Riviera Tourism Company for 2012, and beyond. Fans of the famous author – as well as her best‐known sleuths, Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot – can turn detective to discover a host of Christie connections on the English Riviera in South Devon, throughout the year. Launched in 2011 the new ‘Agatha Christie Literary Trail’, for example, is based on the 20 special places that inspired her life and works. The biggest annual celebration is the Agatha Christie Festival, which takes place for the final time in September in 2012, before switching to the Spring in 2013. But your first clue to discovering more about Agatha Christie’s Riviera is to visit www.englishriviera.co.uk/agathachristie. One of Christie’s books, Dead Man’s Folly, which was set at Greenway, is to be filmed next year.




13. Herefordshire announces a new venue for 2012 annual Food Festival The 7th annual Herefordshire Food Festival will move to a new home in 2012. The focus for the Festival has always been on local produce. But organisers are promising an even greater emphasis on the simple, natural flavours which have helped to make Herefordshire one of the best examples of how a county can be defined by its local larder. Possibly known best of all for its apples, and its cider, Herefordshire has been able to establish one of the best annual food festivals in the country, and the 2012 event will mark the conclusion of the 14th annual 'Flavours of Herefordshire' awards scheme, which recognises and rewards the use‐and‐promotion of local produce. The scheme itself celebrates the close links which exist between Herefordshire's rural landscape and the food and drink which is on offer to its residents and visitors alike. Further details can be found at www.visitherefordshire.co.uk. 14. Falling Madly Deeply for Hadley Telford? Modern. Good for shopping. The commercial centre of one of the loveliest counties in Britain. But pretty soul‐less, really. Why go there? And, hey ‐ what did the Romans ever do for us!? Let’s start with the cradle of the Industrial Revolution. The birthplace of the modern international Olympic movement. Some of the best walks in the UK. And one of the most important Roman sites in Europe. And now, The Hadley Park Hotel. An independently run, luxurious country house, offering fine dining, and a get‐away‐from‐it‐all atmosphere within a fabulous Grade II‐listed 18th century house. Under new management, Hadley Park also has a fine pedigree. The history of the building itself has been painstakingly researched, and reflects the grandeur on offer to discerning 21st century visitors in search of seclusion, comfort, individual attention, and fine dining. For more details visit www.hadleypark.co.uk. 15. Stoke‐on‐Trent’s got the Olympics and Jubilee all sewn up It’s been said that Jan Constantine has “turned felt and blanket stitch into the new rock‐and‐roll”. Happy enough to laugh‐off such accolades, one thing Jan is nevertheless extremely proud of is the way in which, almost seven years ago, she started the process of “reclaiming” the Union flag – and being one of the first to turn it into the high‐fashion design icon that it is today. Her collections have become recognised the world over, and have also helped her to win an official licence to produce London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic merchandise ‐ not to mention the official Team GB cushion collection. Living and working in a small village a few miles outside of Stoke‐on‐Trent, the Constantine name is the latest in a long list of locally based designers and manufacturers who are helping to put The Potteries well and truly on the tourism map. Wedgwood, Emma Bridgewater and Jan Constantine are the ‘right’ people, designing the ‘right things’ at the ‘right’ time ‐ as Britain claims centre‐stage thanks to The Royal Wedding, the Diamond Jubilee and the London 2012 Games. For further information about “The Queen of Cushions”, check out her website www.janconstantine.com. For more details about Stoke‐on‐Trent and The Potteries, visit www.visitstoke.co.uk. 16. Derby QUAD is set to take flicks to the sticks in a 2012 Summer Film Festival A 2012 Derby QUAD Film Festival will feature movie classics, in classical settings, across the whole of Derbyshire. National Trust properties, stately homes, castles, and some of the best known estates in Britain are set to be transformed into outdoor entertainment venues throughout the summer of 2012, thanks to some state‐of‐the‐art equipment and a giant inflatable screen which has been used in the past in Venice, New York and Barcelona. That powerful combination of some outstanding locations and many of the UK’s best loved movies – some of which will be timed to coincide with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations – is likely to form one of the most innovative Film Festivals of the year. And movies such as Jane Eyre will be taken back to the places (Haddon Hall) where they were actually filmed. QUAD is the purpose built arts centre located within the heart of Derby, a city which has enjoyed a £2.2‐billion regeneration in recent years. For more details of the Derby QUAD Film Festival, visit www.derbyquad.co.uk.




17. The Cotswolds – 400 years of the Olimpicks Regarded by some as the origin of the modern Olympic Games, Robert Dover's inaugural Olimpicks were staged on a Cotswold hillside in 1612 "By Royal Approval" of King James I. And, despite a long and chequered history stretching over almost four centuries, they still survive to this day – providing a remarkable link between the Olympics of ancient Greece, and the Olympic Games of today. The extravagant event which he organised each year included swordplay, running and leaping, horse racing, spurning (similar to tossing the caber), and throwing the sledge (hammer). A highlight, however, has always been the contest for gold in shin‐kicking. Further details can be found at www.olimpickgames.co.uk 18. Trains and boats and…a walk to see the home of The Queen of Crime Dartmouth Steam Railway and Riverboat Company, which operates along the south Devon coastline, will be creating a new platform at Greenway Tunnel in 2012. This will provide easy access to Agatha Christie’s former holiday home and current National Trust property, Greenway House. The National Trust have confirmed that they are happy for passengers to enjoy the 15 minute woodland walk down to the Estate. The new stop on this popular steam train line means that visitors to the area can now let the train take the strain and carry them to the crime writer’s perfectly preserved hideaway. To see one of the best integrated transport systems in Britain, featuring trains, buses, ferries, river boats and walks, visit www.dartmouthrailriver.co.uk. 19. Welcome to “Britain’s Heritage Cities” Six great British cities are stepping‐up to the plate, to highlight their history, heritage, culture, attractions and events to US holiday‐makers through a new‐look website, www.heritagecities.com. Timed to coincide with the run‐up to the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the 2012 Olympic Games, the launch of Britain's Heritage Cities' new website now helps to put Bath, Carlisle, Chester, Oxford, Stratford‐upon‐Avon, and York in the shop window. Boasting 2,000 years of history, and royal connections, Britain’s Heritage Cities also now appeal to those in search of high‐end pastimes and pleasures: from world class theatre and award‐winning restaurants, to modern five star hotels and spas. More crucially, the site has also been linked to each of the individual cities' own websites. For more details, visit www.heritagecities.com. 20. Top UK band and tourism office singing from the same song sheet One of the hottest bands of the year. One of the coolest music videos of the summer. And one of the best ways ever of promoting a UK coastal resort! Breakthrough band Metronomy and The English Riviera Tourism Company have found a way of working together to showcase The English Riviera as the place to see, and be seen. Metronomy’s third album, ‘The English Riviera’, took the music press by storm. And the video for their third single off that album, entitled “The Bay”, was shot entirely on location on The English Riviera. The results can be seen on The English Riviera Tourism Company’s website simply by clicking on the Metronomy album cover, which is now on the home page banner (on the right hand side): www.englishriviera.co.uk. Speaking to NME magazine about the video, front man Joe Mount told the magazine, "I basically wanted to re‐do Will Smith's video for 'Miami', but in Torquay”. Metronomy were nominated for this year’s Mercury Award, and already have massive followings overseas – especially in Japan, France and the United States of America.




Documents

What's New for 2012