Period Abbey

[LadyArowana]

I think Wells Cathedral counts as a “Period Property” albeit not the sort which is usually the subject in this corner of the internet. I recently found out they do a behind the scenes High Parts tour which I thought might be of interest. https://www.wellscathedral.org.uk/visit/tours/high-parts-tours

 

[a twig]

Well (geddit) worth doing in my humble experience

 

[Kearn]

It’s meant to be brilliant. Just wandering the standard spaces is pretty epic…

 

[a twig]

Equally can thoroughly recommend sitting on the lawn in front of the cathedral with a picnic and a bottle of something nice as the sun goes down and watching the colour of the stone change as the light goes

 

[Stevers]

Also the wonderful Bishops' Palace Gardens - where the 'wells' of Wells can be found - adult admission £17.50 that allows re-entry for 12 months.

 

[Flyfisher]

A lot of these sort of places seem to have adopted the "free re-entry for 12 months" thing, though I doubt many people actually take up the offer unless they happen to live nearby.

While I understand the costs of maintaining these wonderful old buildings, the entry costs can make them fairly expensive to visit, not only in financial terms but also in time because the high entry costs encourage visitors to make a day of it.

We're fortunate to have a National Trust lifetime membership (a generous Christmas present from many years ago), which apart from the obvious benefit of saving us the entry costs, means that we can just pop in to places without worrying about getting 'value for money'. Consequently, we're regular visitors to any NT property that happens to be nearby whenever we're travelling around the country. These days, our favoured approach for tea breaks on long journeys is to find the nearest NT property (Google is our friend!) and divert there for a short break rather than use the motorway services. Fortunately, most NT places have very pleasant cafes these days and it all adds a bit of interest on long journeys.