Bury St Edmunds Tour Guides announce new excursions off back of record-breaking year
A town’s tour guides have announced several new excursions off the back of a record-breaking year.
The Bury Tour Guides will combine their normal 11am tours with a range of others this year, including the ever-popular Masters of the Air trip and a new ‘For King and Country’ offering.
Last year, the group had 2,228 bookings from visitors locally, nationally and internationally, with marketing officer John Saunders saying their reputation now stretches abroad.
He said: “We are well-known locally and visitors across the UK and abroad have continually expressed positive reviews of our professionalism and knowledge.
“Our programme this year has been put together with other partner organisations and is an excellent example of how we all want to showcase the best of Bury.”
The Masters of the Air tour illustrates how Bury St Edmunds was affected in the Second World War and is back for another year. It includes a visit to the Observer Corps Operations Room at the Guildhall and already has more than 100 bookings.
‘For King and Country’ lasts 90 minutes and was designed in conjunction with Suffolk Archives. It draws on a unique set or records and relives the days of conscription in the First World War.
The tour guides said it will bring home the reality of what it meant for those who were called up and their families, as well as the tragedy that followed but also the ridiculous aspects of the system.
While only assistance dogs are allowed on standard tours, the dog-friendly versions will be repeated.
The Tour Guides have worked alongside the town’s rickshaw volunteers for an excursion for those who may not be able to undertake a full tour.
The 20-minute ‘Memories of Abbeygate Street’ event will help people reminisce and stimulate their memories of the thoroughfare once described as Bury’s Bond Street.
Another similar guided tour at a leisurely pace, ‘The Abbey by Rickshaw’, which lasts 60 minutes will run on some Sunday afternoons.
“Hopefully there is something for everybody in what we are providing but there is another very exciting tour that we are currently working on, details of which will soon be announced - it involves the tasting of food and drink, something dear to my heart,” John said.
