Vintage Bus Essex Tour with Lunch

We begin in Thaxted, Queen of Essex at 10.30am for morning refreshments in an old coaching inn. Betjeman said Thaxted was about as good as it gets. We’ll visit the old wool church where English composer Gustav Holst played the organ and the vicar flew the Red Flag from the tower. Who’s for a few verses of Holst’s hymn Thaxted, better known as I Vow To Thee My Country?

From the church we weave past black and white striped Tudor houses and jolly colour-washed homes from the mediaeval to the Georgian period to the beautifully wonky old Guildhall. From high in the coach we’ll take in the gently rolling landscapes of rural Essex and the chocolate box village of Finchingfield as we head south the Lodge Garage at High Easter near Chelmsford.

A Ploughman’s Lunch is ready for us in the garage museum surrounded by the vintage vehicle collection and old coaching ephemera collection of the Lodge Family who celebrated their centenary in 2020. It’s a lovely afternoon with time to enjoy the collection of old coaching and bus ephemera and every body gets tow little rides out in immaculately restored 1940s and 1950s coaches that have starred in Only Fools spin off Rock & Chips and blockbuster series The Crown.

We finish the day with tea and cake back in the middle of the vintage collection. You’ll be ready to head home at 4.45pm.