Residential Holiday 2026 Chester & Liverpool - Report by Patricia Brindle
On 7 June 42 members of our u3a left Bicester to travel to Chester, with our Group Leader Audrey Luff and coach driver Laurence. We stopped off at Dudmaston Hall, where we had lunch and had time to visit the house and explore the beautiful gardens before arriving at The Queen Hotel in Chester, our home for the next week.
Day 2 – we travelled to Port Sunlight Village, which was founded by industrialist William Lever in 1888 to house employees of his new Lever Brothers soap factory. Mr Lever was in his time the richest man in this country and became the fairest employer for his workers, allowing them to study and also have fun, make music and have dancing evenings. The business grew enormously in this country and abroad and became what is today known as Unilever.
Port Sunlight Houses. Photo © Richard Herbert
What a magical place – even the name sounds special – it felt like walking onto a film set. The houses were built to a high quality with a church and a school built for the workers’ families. On arrival a guide, Sonia, joined our coach, and this made such a difference to the visit. The tour lasted about an hour while Sonia pointed out places of interest and gave us an insight into the lives of the workers. After the tour we had free time to have lunch (some in a bistro in the church) and visited one of the houses. Unfortunately, the Lady Lever Art Gallery was closed to the public on Mondays, more of that later!
Port Sunlight House. Photo © Richard Herbert
Day 3 – Liverpool! Again, a guide joined the coach, and we had a two-hour tour of Liverpool’s highlights with stops for photographs. We learnt the history of the development of Liverpool, along with anecdotes of Beatles’ trivia. The statues of the Beatles provided an unmissable opportunity for selfies and photographs.
Photo © Wyn May
Many people will have seen photographs of the iconic ‘Liver’ building, but they fail to display the beauty of the architecture. Then some free time to explore and to have lunch by the Albert Dock. Our coach then took us to the ferry terminal, and we took “the Ferry Cross the Mersey” – our psychedelic ferry was called ‘Snowdrop’.
Liver Building. Photo © Richard Herbert
That evening, the steam train “Blue Peter” made a stop at Chester, and some of the group were able to take photographs and even stand on the footplate, an unexpected treat.
Photo © Richard Herbert
Day 4 – Disaster! The skies were black with heavy rain and thunderstorms forecast and then Audrey heard from the coach driver that our coach had broken down and would not be available that day. Did that bother Audrey? Not at all – she swapped our ‘free day (driver’s day off)’ from Thursday to Wednesday and rearranged the visits to Bodnant Gardens and Rhyl for Thursday. Most of the group opted for a trip on the Open Top Bus tour of Chester (sitting downstairs) and some also included a cruise on the River Dee. As we got off the bus the heavens opened – heavy rain, hailstones, thunder and lightning – but we didn’t get wet, we had our umbrellas!
Timbered House in the rain in Chester. Photo © Richard Herbert
We settled for an early lunch, and the sun came out in the afternoon. We explored this beautiful city with its famous clock and magnificent cathedral.
Photo © Richard Herbert
A bonus was that there was an exhibition on at the cathedral by Jacquie Parkinson called “Threads through Creation.” Jacquie had created 44 panels over a ten-year period (25 million stitches) depicting texts from the bible in pictures. Another project on display was Chester Cathedral in Lego. This was built by members of the public who paid £1 per brick to raise money for the Chester Cathedral Education Trust. 275,000 bricks were used and it took eight years to complete (partly due to COVID 19 lockdowns). The model can be split down the middle on certain advertised days so that the public can see the inside of the cathedral.
Photo © Tania Duby
Day 5 – back on track. We visited Bodnant Gardens – there were two wonderful trails to suit different abilities (we spent most of the time between the two trails – lost, but a fabulous visit nonetheless).
Bodnant Gardens. Photo © Patricia Brindle
We had lunch at the Bodnant teashop before continuing our journey to the North Wales coast and the seaside town of Rhyl. The tide was well and truly out so no chance of a paddle, we just waved at the sea! But we were able to take a bracing walk along the promenade before returning to Chester.
Photo © Patricia Brindle
Day 6 – Today we visited the lovely town of Llangollen. We went to a small craft market and took a leisurely walk along the River Dee. We also took a walk up Heol y Bryn (Hill Street for fans of Gavin and Stacey) to the world-famous home of the Ladies of Llangollen, Plas Newydd. In 1780 the two ladies moved into a modest cottage in Llangollen and transformed it into a Gothic fantasy of stained glass and carved oak. This house captured the imagination of Regency society and was visited by such people as Wordsworth and the Duke of Wellington (and most of the U3A party). It now has a lovely tearoom – avocado and courgette cake anyone?
Front Door of Plas Newydd. Photo © Dauna Coppin
We walked back into the town to have some lunch before meeting up with the coach and our onward journey to Trevor and the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. A highlight of our holiday was a trip across the aqueduct in the Little Star/Seren Fach narrowboat where we ‘crossed the stream in the sky’.
Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. Photo © Dauna Coppin
Day 7 – and so our holiday came to an end EXCEPT that Audrey had negotiated a trip back to Port Sunlight to visit the Lady Lever Art Gallery. The gallery was commissioned by William Lever after the death of his wife in 1913 and named in her memory. The museum was completed and opened in 1922, to house many items of fine art which had previously been collected and displayed in several of his residences. The museum holds the finest collection of Wedgwood Jasperware in the world. We had one more stop on the way home at the Trentham Gardens and Shopping Centre – for lunch and shopping.
A huge thank you to Audrey – the Queen of Organisation – for all your hard work, negotiation skills and patience, and to our wonderful driver Laurence.
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