Rebels, Royalty & Religion

Travel back to a time when, with royalty at its head, the church was all-powerful with grand hierarchies and stunning cathedrals.

Discover the stories of royal power and the religious conflict that the Mayflower Pilgrims desired to find freedom from.

Tour highlights

• Explore the ancient English villages and churches where the influential Pilgrims, William Bradford and William Brewster shaped their Separatist beliefs

• Visit Epworth, the home of John and Charles Wesley – the founders of Methodism

• See Gainsborough Old Hall, one of the best preserved medieval manor houses in England, where Thomas Helwys would meet in secret with John Smyth and the Separatist congregation

• Visit Nottingham and learn of England's Civil War and the Mayflower Pilgrims who returned to their home country to fight in it. Learn of later religious radical, William Booth, founder of the world-wide Salvation Army

• Walk the cobbled streets of historic Lincoln, visit Lincoln Castle and see King John's 1215 Magna Carta and Lincoln Cathedral – a seat of religious power

• Visit Boston Guildhall and the cells where the fleeing Separatists were held and tried - a town from where, in the 1630's, the Rev. John Cotton influenced mass migration to America

• Discover historic Rotherhithe and Southwark – once a district of religious dissent now a thriving cultural destination

How to explore by train

Newark Northgate can be easily accessed from London Kings Cross. Get a train from St Pancras International (London) straight to Nottingham.