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Invitation to View > The Tours

Invitation to View tours

In most cases, Invitation to View visitors are shown around by a member of the family or a guide with personal knowledge of the place. House owners aim to treat visitors as guests and, unlike traditional guided tours, there are no rope barriers and officious rules. The tours not only cover the property’s history, but also that of the families who have shaped the buildings and the landscape surrounding them. Owners will reveal secrets, ghosts and the skeletons in the family cupboards. Tours are usually followed by refreshments and a chance to chat.

For fast-track tour booking click the green ‘Go to tour booking’ button on the right-hand sidebar.

Tour dates

Select a tour from the list below or the calendar on the right, or by entering the date(s) in the Search boxes. You can also choose a tour by region, particular features or historical period using the ‘advanced search’ function.






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Date/Time Property tour
Sun 16 Dec

2:30 pm
£20.00

 Layer Marney Tower Layer Marney Tower, Nr Colchester, Essex

Grade I red-brick Tudor gatehouse is decorated with Italianate terracotta. Henry, First Lord Marney, Henry VIII's Lord Privy Seal started the work to create a magnificent palace but died in 1523 and work stopped two years later. Henry VIII came to stay while it was still being built.
Sun 16 Dec

3:00 pm
£16.50/special tours £18.50

 Talliston, Great Dunmow, Essex

Once an ordinary house in an ordinary street, Talliston House and Gardens have been transformed into a series of inspiring locations, each set in a different time and place. In 25 years, the project has taken a three-bedroomed, semi-detached ex-council house in Essex and transformed it into what The Sunday Times calls ‘Britain’s most extraordinary home.’
Mon 17 Dec

2:30 pm
£14.00

 Old Bowlish House Old Bowlish House, Shepton Mallet, Somerset

Built around 1618, this Grade II* clothier’s house was modernised by the Georgians c.1735. A Palladian frontage and stone mullioned rear windows are two of the external features which enclose finely proportioned rooms, original fireplaces and a magnificent heavily-carved Jacobean openwork scroll oak staircase which winds through all three of its floors.

Wed 19 Dec

2:30 pm
£15.00

 Old Hall Old Hall, South Burlingham, Norfolk

Old Hall is an Elizabethan lawyer’s country house, with a decorated porch, wallpaintings of hunting scenes and many original features; the present owners rescued it from dereliction and have filled it with colour and a hugger-mugger of books and pictures . A house included in Simon Jenkins’ Thousand Best Houses
Thu 20 Dec

2:30 pm
£14.00

 Old Bowlish House Old Bowlish House, Shepton Mallet, Somerset

Built around 1618, this Grade II* clothier’s house was modernised by the Georgians c.1735. A Palladian frontage and stone mullioned rear windows are two of the external features which enclose finely proportioned rooms, original fireplaces and a magnificent heavily-carved Jacobean openwork scroll oak staircase which winds through all three of its floors.