Fancy A Day Out with The Belles?
Details of upcoming trips can be found at meetings, on our calendar, or on our Buddy Belles Facebook Group.
Currently, trips are designed to be easy and fun, with little to no booking requirement and no upfront payments. Please check the details on Buddy Belles or our calendar for any specific details regarding a particular adventure.
Gallery
Tripping Tales
Recent trips
The Brentwood Belles recently enjoyed a day out at the Museum of Power Maldon for talk on Sense and Sensibility and a delicious lunch at the Maldon Smokehouse.
GALLERY
Museum of Power Maldon, July 2019
Barnards Farm Gardens & Sculptures – 16th July 2015
Alexander McQueen – Savage Beauty
Exhibition at Victoria & Albert Museum – 25th July 2015
Backstage tour of The Cliffs Pavilion & Afternoon Tea – 26th October 2015
Visit to the Liberty in Fashion exhibition London (and Glass Blowing) – 6th February 2016
Guide Dogs Training Centre – 11th May 2016
Visit to Capel Manor Gardens 22nd June 2016 – Ladies in the Maze
Visit to Capel Manor 22nd June 2016
Visit to the Cinema Museum, 15th September 2016
Alpaca Farm & shop visit – 10th November 2016
Kings Seeds & walk around the sweet pea fields – 17th June 2017
The Charterhouse, London – 22nd September 2017
London Postal Museum – 12th March 2018
London Postal Museum – 12th March 2018
A Ride on the Underground Mail Train – 12th March 2018
Tiptree Farm Tour – 20th April 2018
Tiptree Tractor Trailer Ride – 20th April 2018
Tripping Tales
The Cliffs Pavilion visit
Eleven of us went to The Cliffs Pavilion in October 2015.
We had a very informative talk and were able to walk on the stage and see the changing rooms and loading bay. Afternoon tea in the restaurant overlooking the sea made a perfect end to the afternoon.
We hope to arrange a trip to see something here next year, then we will have an idea of what’s happening behind the scenes!
The Hanningfield Smokehouse visit
A couple of visits have been made here. The process of smoking fish was explained, there were mouth-watering tasters and we completed our visit with some purchases.
Guide Dogs Training Centre visit
In May 2016, fifteen of us visited the Guide Dogs Training Centre in Woodford Bridge to see and hear about the amazing work they do there. We went into the indoor training room & watched 4 dogs at different stages of their training taking part in exercises & had a chance to stroke them afterwards, they were adorable! There were different breeds if dogs, including a Labradoodle…tempting to bring one home! Several of us bought the nearest soft toy substitutes in the gift shop!
We were taken into the kennels, which can house up to 150 dogs and saw an outdoor demo with the dogs walking around an obstacle course. Tony, a man who was blind from birth came in with his guide dog, Gibbs and gave us an insight into how his life is with Gibbs and how he copes with everyday life, very inspiring.
It costs about £50,000 to train a dog and they rely on help from many volunteers around the country to dog walk the puppies, act as borders, raise funds etc and they are always looking for new volunteers. There is an open day on Saturday 3rd September when apparently, there will be lots of puppies there!
The Cinema Museum visit
In September we visited the intriguing Cinema Museum, housed in an old workhouse building where Charlie Chaplin and his brother lived briefly, along with their mother.
It was a nostalgic trip down memory lane looking at various pieces of memorabilia and sitting in the plush red seats in the small thirty-eight seater cinema room, where we watched some short films from different eras – all that was missing was some popcorn!