Upcoming Tours
Zig Zags Xmas Party 2024
As described in his academic bio, Professor Richard Gaunt is an expert in 'late eighteenth and early nineteenth century British history, with a particular specialism in the political and electoral history of the age'...so what better way to celebrate the legendary Zig Zag Tours Xmas Party than a Q&A with the Prof on the diaries of the 4th Duke of Newcastle.
The 4th Duke's diary entries between 1822-1850 will leave you open mouthed with astonishment. Eye watering expenditure on speculative development, estate aggrandisement and political intrigue, that took him to the brink of bankruptcy and back again. Join us at Little Brickhouse for one of their exquisite buffet menus, fine wine and a deep dive into the Duke's bewildering life experiences.
We have booked the basement room of Little Brickhouse for the event and we will have music, merriment and maybe even a little dancing after the talk.
Ferment Design and Trespass
Highlights: trespass, fermentation, autumnal scenes, good food and design – a super autumnal weekend in the Peaks.
Lost in the Wolds Weekender
Highlights: lost villages, foraging, area of outstanding natural beauty.
Lost in the Hills: Bike, Camp, Festival
Highlights: quirky festivals, ancient pubs, scenic rides, chilled camping.
Georgian Townhouses of Nottingham
Highlights: abandoned buildings, Squirearchy, People's Hall, Lace Market.
African Enslavement and the Historic Development of Nottingham led by Dr James Dawkins & Dr Susanne Seymour
Highlights: local history, Standing In This Place.
Abandoned Buildings
Highlights: abandoned historic buildings, architecture gems, conservation, urban exploration.
Nottingham's 20th Century Pubs (Crawl)
Highlights: historic pubs, architecture gems, beers.
Derwent Valley
Highlights: UNESCO World Heritage Site, cotton mills, model village, start of industrial revolution, Richard Arkwright.
Notts Food & Wine
Highlights: South Notts villages, Stilton cheese, locally made wine, canal paths, country lanes, old railway tracks.
1845 Nottingham Enclosure Act
Highlights: commons, slums, housing developments, urban history, aperitivo.
Raleigh Cycle Tour
Highlights: Raleigh Cycle Company, Raleigh Street, The Howitt Building, workers’ rights, Nottingham Industrial Museum, Humber, Primary
Nottingham Lace
Highlights: Elegant Italianate Victorian Warehouses; Functional Tenement Lace Factories; Slum Housing; the Domestic Labour Environment; Georgian Industrial ‘Satellite Villages’ of Hyson Green, Radford and Lenton.
The Dukeries Weekender
Highlights: The eccentric 5th Duke of Portland and his labyrinthine underground tunnels; the reactionary 4th Duke of Newcastle and his delusional feudal fantasies; dissolved medieval monasteries, enormous country houses and bucolic parkland, inter-woven by miles and miles of level gradient, cycle-friendly public bridleways.
The Luddites
Highlights: The Domestic Lace Industry; Framework Knitting Workshops; Slum Housing; Vernacular Villages; Frame Breaking; Protest, Anarchy and Revolution (almost).
Vienna in Long Eaton
Highlights: Massive Tenement Lace Factories; Abstract Viennese Secessionism; Edwardian Civic Grandeur; High Arts & Crafts Mansions.
North Notts Coalfields
Highlights: Bauhaus Headstocks; a Colliery Model Village Housing Estate; a Ducal Vanity Project.