Happy New Year


I hope you had a wonderful Christmas, a positive start to the New Year and enjoyed a well-earned rest!

2011 was an extremely busy year for us. Not only did we move office, join ABTA, the STF & LOtC but more importantly we had the chance to work with so many excellent groups. So it will come as no surprise that, after such a positive year, we are really looking forward to 2012 and both the fresh challenges and new opportunities it will bring.

As you begin to plan for the 12 months ahead and your mind turns to organising activities for your students, I wanted to share with you a few ideas for new activities and new sights that you might want to include in your next tour.

Best Wishes
Ian Coyne
Commercial Manager

CPD visits

CPD Visits

With an eye on the future you will be interested to know that a few places remain on 2012 Teachers' CPD visits, the dates of which are below. 

Going by the feedback we’ve received from teachers who have travelled with us on these visits, they have proved to be not only highly enjoyable but more particularly an excellent developmental opportunity, which has helped considerably with preparing material for classroom based teaching. 

For more information on these visits contact us either by email ian.coyne@angliatours.co.uk or telephone on 01376 574130. 

Berlin Unterwelten

Berlin Unterwelten
Photo: Berliner Unterwelten e.V./Stefan Gier

With so much to see above ground when visiting Berlin, you can be forgiven for thinking the only reason for going beneath street level is to catch the U-bahn to your next stop. But if that’s the case you really will miss out on an amazing experience. The ‘Berlin Underworlds Association’ has been exploring the history of the city’s underground since 1997. Their primary aim is to explore and document the city's underground architecture before making it accessible to the public. Their headquarters in an air raid shelter within the Gesundbrunnen subway station from where they run a series of fascinating tours.

The ‘Dark Worlds’ tour takes you into the heart of ‘Bunker B’ which provided a refuge for hundreds of Berliners from Allied air raids. Even now it is possible to get a sense of how uncomfortable it must have been for the hundreds who were packed into this space.

For students of the Cold War it has to be the ‘Subways, Bunkers, Cold War’ tour which includes a visit to the“Blochplatz” civil defence shelter before moving on to a 'modern' bunker, intended to protect the citizens of West Berlin in case of a full-blown nuclear war.

If you would like to know more about these tours or would like to include one in your visit to Berlin contact us either by email info@angliatours.co.uk or telephone on 01376 574130.

Living History

Living History

Looking to build on the popularity of our WWI Living History days, for 2012 Anglia is launching a range of new Living History events, all of which are delivered in school and support directly either KS3 or GCSE specifications. The programme includes:

Roman Britain: A Roman soldier stationed on Hadrian’s Wall gives an account of life in a wall garrison.

The Norman Invasion: One of King Harald’s Huscarls recalls the battles of 1066

Crispin’s Day: An English archer tells how Henry Vs small army defeated the French at Agincourt

The Home Front: A member of the Home Guard talks about life in Britain during WWII

Each Living History day is led by an experienced Anglia guide skilled in communicating with students. So if you are looking to build on the experience of a battlefield tour or for an alternative way to bring History to life in a manner which is both informed and entertaining then contact us either by email info@angliatours.co.uk or telephone on 01376 574130.

Memorial Museum

Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917

 

This year the Memorial Museum Passchendaele will open to the public, both a new exhibition building focusing on the 1917 Battle of Passchendaele and their excellent open-air ‘Trench-Experience’.

With an introductory presentation based around the themes ‘Artillery’, ‘Engineering’ and ‘Air Battle’ supported with a scale model of the Passchendaele battlefield, the new building will house an exhibition that looks at the impact the landscape had on the course of the Great War, the contribution made by the Commonwealth nations and how the conflict helped to form their national identities. Visitors enter the new museum building from the current dugout which has been extended to include five new rooms with a typical air and evacuation shaft. From here they will move to a chronological collection of six different types of trenches, set out over 125 metres.

The four German and two British sections will enable visitors to see trench evolution from the first, basic models with planks and wickerwork to the well-advanced trench systems with corrugated iron and reverse A-frames. Five of the six trenches will include original non-concreted shelters saved from places where they were under threat and all from types that are no longer to be found anywhere on the Western Front.

At the end of the circuit, the visitor continues underground, back to the basement of the château, through a tunnel in the same concrete frame as the extension of the dugout-experience: the ‘Gallery of Remembrance’. This gallery will have a contemporary design and will show how the ‘Great War’ lives on today, in cemeteries, memorials, ‘iron harvest’, archaeological finds and war landscapes. The gallery should also stimulate visits to the area itself.

If you would like to know more about our battlefield tours or would like to include a visit to this museum in your visit please contact us either by email info@angliatours.co.uk or telephone on 01376 574130.

Schools History Brochure 2012-13

Schools History Brochure 2012-13

With only the finishing touches left to make, our 2012-13 Schools History brochure will be ready to go to press by the end of this month. As you will have come to expect the brochure will contain full details on all our current tours and will include suggested ideas for new places to visit and new sites to include in your itinerary.

As you are on our mailing list your copy should be waiting for you on your desk when you return after Half Term. If you would like an extra copy for a friend or colleague please contact me either by email at ian.coyne@angliatours.co.uk or telephone on 01376 574130. Alternatively, very shortly, a PDF copy will be available to download from our website www.angliatours.co.uk

Anglia Guides Head-up Film Projects

Guides Film Project

Six of Anglia’s well-known guides have been busy this year working with Battlefield History TV (BHTV) presenting no less than four full length DVDs on the Waterloo Campaign and the great decisive battle of 1815. Mike Peters recalled that ‘what attracted us most to the project was that unlike most film productions we were respected as historians and only given the most basic of scripts and the producers relied on our knowledge of the battle.’ ‘Being out on the battlefield describing the action was quite similar to guiding’ said Andrew Duff ‘but it took a while to get used to talking to the camera rather than an audience complete with reactions’.

Director Tim Saunders told us that ‘Using experienced Anglia battlefield guides was a very good move. They took us to forgotten spots on the battlefield where the action actually took place and having performers who knew how best to tell the tales and put over the salient points in a succinct and engaging manner made all the difference.’ The producers also made use of some excellent maps drawn by graphic designer and Anglia battlefield guide Frank Toogood.

Following the success of our guide’s participation in the Waterloo Collection, we are pleased to be able to say that another six guides are currently working with BHTV on a five part series on the Arnhem Campaign.