Blue Badge Tourist Guide

When I retired from teaching, I decided to train as a Blue Badge Guide for the counties of Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset and the Isle of Wight. I had known the area all my life, having been brought up on the edge of the New Forest, attended school in Salisbury and university at Southampton. And, although I had spent 30 years teaching Biology, I had also researched and published books on various topics in Archaeology and Local History.

So, through much of the 1990s, I was occupied, from time to time, in taking visitors on coach visits and walking tours of the market towns of Romsey and Fordingbridge, the cathedral cities of Salisbury and Winchester, the mysterious sites of Stonehenge and Avebury, and so on.

The ancient traditions of the New Forest particularly interested me and I was asked to write what has proved to be a best-selling guide book to the area.

I am no longer active as a guide, but I am in touch with many other holders of the Blue Badge and have sometimes been able to advise on the best person to contact about a particular tour.

I am a keen photographer and I regularly give slide presentations to societies in the area, on topics which include Stonehenge, Callanish and other stone circles, the New Forest and the history of Hampshire.

Blue Badge Tourist Guides are fully qualified to provide visitors, whether British or from overseas, with in-depth information about all matters concerning local heritage, while at the same time giving an enjoyable experience. The tours may be by coach or on foot, they may last an hour, a day or several days.