Pepys and Ploughman's Vintage Tour

Pepys and Ploughman’s Vintage Tour

 

Join us on our beautifully restored 1941 Bedford OB coach on a treat of local history and a hearty ploughman’s – the classic summer lunch.

 

We start with a private tour of Samuel Pepys House in Brampton. It is often referred to in the Diary and one of the few Grade I listed buildings in the area. Set in beautiful gardens and six acres of surrounding meadowland, it is an interesting site that has few days open to the public.

 

Samuel’s family and forebears came from Huntingdonshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk, and he attended Huntingdon grammar school (alma mater of both Cromwell and Montagu) for a short spell during the Civil War, staying in Brampton.

 

Later in 1667, when the Dutch fleet appeared in the Medway, Pepys famously sent his wife to bury £1,300 of gold in the garden — which he struggled to find and had to sieve for coins “just as they do for dyamonds”. 

 

We carry on from Brampton, taking the scenic route through to the Admiral Wells in Holme – the lowest pub in the British Isles.  Named after Vice Admiral Thomas Wells, who was born in the village in 1759, a pallbearer to Horatio Nelson and Grandfather to William Wells, who successfully drained the area and sunk the iron posts from the Crystal Palace, that remain there today to measure the rate of land shrinkage nearby the pub.

 

After a highly rated (by our own team!) Ploughmans, we set off, sun roof back, summer sun shining  through, for a pleasant ride home.

 

Entrance to Pepys House, Lunch and Vintage travel all included in ticket price.