Category: News

Check out my Dark Chester tour via the new Kayak Chester travel guide

My Dark Chester tour resumes this week after a winter break.

I’m back with new ideas, fresh takes on Chester folk tales and plenty of fire-and-brimstone dark-tourism heritage from my historic home city.

I’m also up for new collaborations and editorial coverage, including being featured in the new Chester guide from travel search engine, Kayak.

Look out for news and updates over the weeks to come.

Meanwhile, read the Kayak Chester Travel Guide here.

Follow @darkchestertour on Instagram

Liked this? Then read Dark Chester runs special spooky tours for the Chester Heritage Festival.

A weekend away at a stately pile fit for a Prime Minister in North Wales

He was a four-time British prime minister and dominant figure of the Victorian era.

Clashing regularly in Parliament with his arch-rival Disraeli, he was described by Queen Victoria as a “half-mad firebrand”.

But a weekend visit to his ancestral estate in North Wales reveals his lesser-known passions for literature and collecting axes.

Away from Parliament, it seems, William Ewart Gladstone was a voracious reader and loved nothing more than chopping wood in the grounds of his stately pile.

Modern artworks

A new holiday let on his family estate in the village of Hawarden, located near the Chester border, draws back the curtain on the starched image of one of our greatest statesmen.

The West End, located within the western wing of 19th-century Hawarden Castle, has five stylish bedrooms and grand communal areas, blending the modernity of Yoko Ono and Damian Hirst artworks with Georgian-era furniture.

The meticulous home-from-home touches, such as Max Richter albums and coffee-table tomes about David Hockney and Johnny Marr’s guitars, have been curated by Charlie Gladstone, the great-great grandson of the Liverpool-born former PM, whose family still lives in the adjoining house.

Guests have exclusive access to the time-capsule Temple of Peace, Gladstone’s private library, and bespoke experiences, such as dinner cooked by the estate’s head chef, or a yoga session in the sprawling grounds.

A private woodland glade comes with an al-fresco wood-fired oven and hot tub.

After settling into our rural retreat with a hamper of goodies from the nearby Hawarden Estate Farm Shop, we set out against a wintery landscape to explore the walking trails, leading through the estate grounds to the village.

We pass the Walled Garden School with its regular programme of talks and classes, a group absorbed in Indian Head Massage as we stroll by, then emerge into a thriving rural village.

It boasts a clutch of restored estate cottages, a village store and a cosy local pub, the Glynne Arms, for pints of local ale and a slap-up supper of fish pie and sticky toffee pudding.

A pair of axes glimmer above the open hearth, a reminder that everything in Hawarden nods to Gladstone’s legacy.

“We think of him as rather rigid, but he must have been very charismatic to command huge crowds at public lectures,” says the Revd Dr Andrea Russell, Warden of Gladstone’s Library situated at the top of the high street.

The UK’s only Prime Ministerial Library was founded in the late 19th century as a memorial to Gladstone’s vision as a place “for the pursuit of divine learning”.

An elderly Gladstone is said to have delivered his books to the original building by wheelbarrow, aided only by a manservant.

The pin-drop-quiet Reading Room, dating from 1902, still has a collection of his personal volumes, the pages annotated furiously with his notes.

“I was a Disraeli fan but, since moving here, I’ve come to respect Gladstone’s vision for educational reform,” adds Revd Andrea, “as a man ahead of his time.”

Castle ruins

Back at the West End, we settle down for an evening of vintage vinyl and book browsing before an open fire, breaking off occasionally to look more closely at the artworks, notably Chris Levine’s Stoned, a Stonehenge standing stone glinting with diamond dust in the hallway.

Morning reveals another attraction: the ruins of the 13th-century Marcher castle in the grounds. It’s still privately owned by the family and best enjoyed from a bay-window seat with coffee and sourdough toast.

Gladstone died in 1898 and buried in Westminster Abbey but his heart remained in North Wales with his books and penchant for amateur forestry.

A winter-warmer break at the family home could be the ultimate romantic gesture for Valentine’s Day, or maybe inspire some Victorian-values thinking.

Either way, we came away from a weekend of reading, unwinding and logs on the fire having glimpsed something new — a wry smile on the lips of the ‘Grand Old Man’ in the faded photographs.

More from www.hawardenestateholidays.co.uk.

Why a Peak District village is the UK’s best place for the real Christmas spirit

A festive, pre-Christmas break in the heart of the Peak District National Park.

I was on assignment for Telegraph Travel to find the real spirit of Christmas away from the tacky gifts and gimmicky light shows.

Here’s a taster of the text:

Castleton’s tight-knit community grew from the building of Peveril Castle, one of England’s earliest Norman fortresses.

Henry II added the keep in 1176 and it became popular with visiting dignitaries as a hunting lodge, hub of the Royal Forest of the Peak.

The imposing ruins still loom over the community, albeit today under custody of English Heritage.

Below it, Peak Cavern boasts the largest natural cave entrance in the UK with evidence of its rope-making heritage still visible.

When Lord Byron visited Derbyshire in the early 1800s, he proclaimed:

“There are things in Derbyshire as noble as Greece or Switzerland.”

Queen Victoria was less effusive, however, despite last-minute efforts by locals to disguise signs for Peak Cavern’s better-known local name — the Devil’s Arse [pictured above].

Read the full story via Telegraph Travel, The Peak District village that does Christmas better than anywhere else.

More information from Visit Peak District and Derbyshire.

How to spent a winter-warmer weekend in Wrexham, North Wales

A winter weekend in Wrexham.

I was on assignment for the iNewspaper travel section as part of its Winter Weekend series.

The North Wales city is an unlikely hot ticket for a UK city break in 2024 — and not just for football fans.

Here’s a taster of the text:

A former industrial town in North Wales isn’t the obvious winter warmer — but Wrexham is having a moment.

When the actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney bought the local football club in 2020 [pictured above], it was a story worthy of a Hollywood epic for the third oldest football club in the world, dating from 1864.

Wrexham first made its name during the Industrial Revolution for its mining but, after a sprinkling of tinsel-town stardust, the industrial-heritage sites are now visitor attractions, independent businesses are reviving closed-down shops and match days draw new-found fans from across the pond.

Wrexham was granted city status in 2022 after narrowly losing out to Bradford to host the UK City of Culture 2025.

The new Football Museum for Wales is coming to the former Wrexham Museum (now closed) in 2026 and Wrexham is bidding for City of Culture 2029.

Read the whole story: The spirited North Wales city that is more than its football club.

More information from This Is Wrexham.