WALKIE TALKIE

THERE ARE STORIES TO BE TOLD, LANDSCAPES TO EXPLAIN – WHAT DAY OUT CAN’T BE IMPROVED IN THE COMPANY OF A TOUR GUIDE, ASKS JULIAN OWEN

To most people walking past – if they glanced at them at all – they are nothing but a small clump of eroded stones. To a select few, these stones comprise the sole remaining trace of the castle around which the city of Bristol was first settled. And while a greater number of passers-by will perhaps speculate about the small hollow behind the rusting grill near the harbour, only a privileged minority will recognise the entrance to a honeycomb of red sandstone caves, and know that they have variously housed a hermit, smugglers ( probably), goods to be exchanged for African slaves, and a

good few Bristolians seeking shelter from the Blitz.

Such is the transformative experience of a guided tour around your hometown. Or anywhere, come to that. Sometimes it means seeing the familiar in a revealing light; at others, opening the door to a whole new world, as your correspondent discovered at Gloucester Cathedral. If the building is all airiness and grace on the surface, below stairs lies an architectural antonym: a claustrophobic catacomb of archways and tunnels, which, explains the tour guide, form the earliest parts of the building. They have been variously used for prayer, funerals and, in turbulent times, as a place to hide treasure.

“A guided tour means... seeing the familiar in a revealing light, opening the door to a new world”

Aside from becoming a go-to film location – for productions including

Sherlock, Wolf Hall, Dr Who, and Harry Potter – Gloucester Cathedral is best known as the final resting place of King Edward II, assassinated at nearby Berkeley Castle after being involuntarily turned into a red hot poker cosy. Or was he? Another day, another tour, and a guide is showing me the room in which the unfortunate sovereign was dispatched: “If you’re trying to quietly do away with the head of state,” she wonders, “would you not plump for a murderous method less likely to wake half the county?”

That guide may have questioned the historical, but hometown tours can offer fresh perspective on the personal. Bristol centre’s finest oasis of quietude, Brandon Hill, has a place in our modern family history as the spot where, seven years ago, my wife and I picnicked on our first date. I can still see us there now. A guided tour later, I can also picture centuries-worth of washerwomen hanging out their laundry. And I know that, in 1915, just yards from where we feasted on life précis and Pringles, fresh-faced troops from the Gloucestershire Regiment practised digging trenches before departing for the Western Front.

Later that day, we sat by the mouth of the harbour. Later still, we’d learn that the adjacent lock had been widened by Brunel to allow the exit of the biggest steamship ever built. So it is that real memories of a magical day in 2012 are transposed with the imagined view from the same point in 1843, when the SS Great Britain sailed out of its birthplace and into the record books; the sense of place is glorious.

Now, if you’d like to step this way – can you hear me at the back? – we have plenty more guided tour tales to tell...

BEHIND THE SCENES

Some guided tours have greater import than others. Sure, you could have a grand time in Belfast checking out such excellent recommendations as the Crown Liquor Saloon, or botanic gardens, but how much more revealing the trip if you also take in ‘A History of Terror’, the Belfast walk shedding light on the effects of the Troubles on the city between 1971 and 1998? Partly to better understand recent history but, at least as importantly, to appreciate the subsequent reconciliation and regeneration. While Belfast is an acute example, there isn’t a visit to anywhere that can’t be enhanced by a little guiding light: Manchester’s Free Trade Hall, for example, is more spectacular still when you picture Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kenny on its steps, delivering rousing calls for emancipation to massed crowds in 1905; ditto all the other stops on the Pankhursts’ Suffragette City tour.

Interesting fact: Christabel’s sister, Sylvia, claimed that, after Pankhurst and Kenny were arrested and taken to Strangeways, prospective local MP, Winston Churchill, arrived to pay their fines; the governor refused him.

GHOST TOURS

Even if you think paranormal sightings are just illusions looking for an exciting explanation, the nation’s ubiquitous ghost tours have plenty to commend them.

In Nottingham, for example, while you may not actually hear the cries of the little girl supposedly haunting the caves beneath Ye Olde Salutation Inn, descending into the city’s eerie and extraordinarily vast subterranean network is a real thrill in itself.

Edinburgh’s equivalent, meanwhile, takes in such notable history as the witch trial of 1597, when suspected witch Christian Stewart was interrogated by James VI of Scotland himself. Interesting fact: A year after questioning Stewart, the soon-to-be James I of England and Ireland wrote a book exploring black magic and endorsing witch hunting. The book, ‘Daemonologie’ was a major influence on Shakespeare when he wrote Macbeth, say scholars, the Weird Sisters in particular.

A guide to guides You might think a role with a catchphrase of “Follow me” would require a licence. Not so. Closest equivalent are the badges awarded by the Institute of Tourist Guiding: white for guiding at a specific site or on a fixed route; green for guided walks and tours of a specified town or area; and blue for the whole shebang, including coach tours. What is essentially an informal kitemark system rather pales compared to Japan, where guides face fines of up to 500,000 yen (roughly £3,500), if caught imparting info without first sitting exams and becoming formally certified.

CATHEDRALS

You can’t possibly miss Wells Cathedral’s towering west front, surely the most spectacular in Christendom. Details are a different matter. Without a guide, you’d do well to spot the charming 13th century carving of a toothache sufferer in the south transept, or orchard raiders being beaten by a farmer. Pick any cathedral, any day, and you’ll likely find at least one tour within the hour. Less formally, churches can be a source of spontaneous tours, led by proud locals, brim full of knowledge just waiting to overflow. Complimenting a flower-tending parishioner on Hawkesbury’s glorious 12th century church once led your correspondent to being shown a copious hidden room in its tower – a priest hole of rare luxury. Interesting fact: Wells Cathedral’s clockwork-tastic astronomical clock dates from 1392: note how the sun revolves around the Earth; it would be more than a century before Copernicus proposed we were not the centre of the universe.

THE GREAT OUTDOORS

It isn’t only the built environment that can be enhanced by a little passing of knowledge. Thus, while an Ordnance Survey map will describe the arc of the strangely familiar bend in the river, it will take a guide on the Constable Country Ramble saying “... and that’s where the horse-drawn cart stood” to make you realise it’s the view from ‘The Hay Wain’. Similarly, while New Forest heathland is famed for its adders, Insight Activities’ guided snake walks will maximise your chances of actually seeing one slither across your path. Interesting fact: When first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1821, Constable’s masterpiece, ‘The Hay Wain’ failed to find a buyer.

GUIDELESS TOURS

Like online bank services and supermarket self-checkouts, tour guiding no longer requires the human touch. Walk around Bristol, for example, and the Placeum app is primed to deliver two-to-three minute historical audio bites across the city.

In the same vein, the Leeds Cultural Walking Tour on the GPS My City app casts light on everything from the Royal Armouries Museum to the Museum of History of Education. In south Wales, the This is Gower app guides you around the UK’s first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Rock up pretty much anywhere in the UK and there’ll be a smartphone download ready to raise a virtual ‘follow me’ umbrella to the sky. Interesting fact: Worm’s Head, a promontory on the Gower’s most expansive beach, Rhossili, is reachable only at low tide. But if you do find yourself stranded and awaiting the ebb tide, you’ll be following in the ( lack of ) footsteps of Swansea’s most celebrated literary son, Dylan Thomas, who also once found himself stuck there.

“Without a guide you’d do well to spot the carving of a toothache sufferer in the south transept”