Choir Tour to North-East England - Spring Bank Holiday 2026
Cwmbran Baroque Singers are back from this year's wonderful tour to the North-East of England. As it happened, our visit coincided with a period of record-breaking high temperatures across the UK, so none of the precautionary woollies and rain wear that we had so diligently packed were needed.
Sound Escapes, the tour company who organised the trip details, started the six day adventure well by breaking the journey in Knaresborough. This an attractive small town in Yorkshire that provided us with an interesting range of features to explore - as well as giving us a chance to enjoy some refreshments during our afternoon's visit.
After that, we were well looked after at Redworth Hall Hotel in Newton Aycliff, near Durham, throughout our stay.
The second day featured a guided tour of the Cathedral and a day discovering Durham. The city is beautifully situated, looped around by the River Wear, its characterful streets, shops and market winding their way up the hill to the quite formidable and impressive Norman Cathedral. There we learned about William the Conqueror and the Harrying of the North, as he ruthlessly subdued any resistance to his conquest of the North of England. We learned about the Prince Bishops, whom he established as a way of enforcing his power across the area, and we could certainly see how the Cathedral and Prince Bishops of Durham might have fitted into that scenario.
After our history lesson, we spent the day wandering around the town, with its open air market, live music and indoor market. There was a great festive feeling as the people and traders celebrated the market's 75th birthday.
The third day took us to Hexham, where we were made very welcome at the beautiful Abbey. We rehearsed, relaxed, explored, and then sang. The sound was truly amazing, even though it was at first slightly offputting to find that the sound of one's singing floated away around the building, giving the strange sensation that one might actually be singing alone.
One highlight of that concert was a lady in the audience, wearing a Cwmbran tee-shirt. A white tee-shirt with a Welsh Flag and the Cwmbran Baroque Logo boldly displayed on the front. She clearly enjoyed our singing and stood and applauded strongly after each piece. She was apparently born and grew up in Cwmbran, though she had moved away some years ago. Unfortunately, none of us managed to photograph her. If you ever happen to read this, dear lady, thank you so much for making us feel truly at home in distant lands!
En route back to Redworth Hall from Hexham the coach made a detour by popular request, so that we could visit Anthony Gormley's famous sculpture, The Angel of the North. It is hard to imagine how enormous the structure really is. This addition to the visit was well worthwhile.
On Sunday 24th May we spent the day visiting the Beamish Open Air Museum. Given the age profile of Cwmbran Baroque Singers, the museum was a treasure trove both of nostalgic reminiscences and historic discoveries. The day opened with our concert at 11am in the Methodist Chapel in the 1900s Pit Village. Some audience members came and listened as for a normal concert. For others, however, we provided a little atmosphere and background music as they strolled around and popped in and out of the chapel. The informality of this was quite nice, as even quite young children had the chance to hear a choir singing in the chapel, without becoming bored.
Vintage trams and buses run around the site constantly, which is very convenient, especially on such a hot day.
Monday 25th May was the day we sang in Ripon Cathedral. Glorious though the weather was, we welcomed the shade of the Cathedral. As the Dean announced in his words of welcome, our concert made the Cathedral the coolest place in Ripon, in every sense of the word! The concert took place behind the choir screen with the singers among the choir stalls and the audience seated further towards the altar. This gave a pleasantly intimate feeling to the event. The music, of course, still soared up into the beautiful vaulted ceilings of the chancel.
On the final evening we ventured out from Redworth Hall and ate at Veeno's Italian Restaurant in Durham. The delicious menu choices were enjoyed by all. It was a lovely, sociable evening, a fitting end to an excellent tour. The choir thanked the tour organisers - Judy at Sound Escapes and Nikki and Marian in Cwmbran Baroque - and the musical team - Musical Director Carol, Accompanist Sian and Stage Manager Jonathan - and presentations were made.
Next day we set off homewards and arrived back at Cwmbran Stadium safe and sound, even if a little wilted in the heat. A very successful trip, with some final thanks going to our intrepid driver, Kevin, Master of the reverse gear!
