Southwell to showcase its heritage to Tour of Britain supporters

Visitors to Southwell when the Tour of Britain passes through can explore different locations and architecture in the town through a Heritage Hop.

There will be interactive displays and activities at a range of venues.

From 10am until 4pm, people can visit Higgons Mead, the old Minster School site on Church Street, and learn about a recent archaeological dig and finds at Vicars Court, and take a guided walk around the Roman site.

There will be free tours of Southwell Minster and the Archbishop’s Palace between the same times.

The tours will explore the history of the minster from its Saxon beginning, through Norman times to present day.

Visitors can also see the world famous Leaves Of Southwell stone carvings at the cathedral.

A tower tour at the minster costs £5 for adults and £3 for children.

Stops on the Heritage Hop include The Minster Centre, Southwell town centre, Southwell library, the war memorial, the old courthouse, Becher’s Court at the Burgage, and the Workhouse.

At the Workhouse, there will be a festival focusing on poetry from the first world war.

Poems will be on the walls of the main house, the exercise yards and the gardens, so visitors can see the lives that the workhouse shaped over the centuries.

There will also be poems covering contemporary issues of homelessness, flight and dispossession in wartime.

Visitors are being encouraged to write what they would carry with them if they were fleeing home, to help create a tree of ideas on luggage labels in the learning room.

Admission is free and the last entries to the Workhouse will be 4pm.

Family-based activities, such as mosaic-making, face-painting and a bouncy castle, will be available around the town.

More details are at www.visitsouthwell.com

A map with the different locations is available on Newark and Sherwood District Council’s website.