A day tour exploring Dorset's historic connections with America
Start with a visit to Castletown D-Day Museum which recreates a busy wartime dockyard on Portland from which, in 1944, thousands of American troops of the 5th US Corps and the US 1st infantry embarked, bound for the heavily defended beaches of Nazi occupied France.
Studland Bay and Fort Henry - Visit the bunker from which Churchill and Eisenhower watched the full dress rehearsal for the allied landings in Normandy on D-Day. Then on to the abandoned village of Tyneham, requisitioned by the army during the war. Finally, visit Steeple church to see how The Stars and Stripes came to be - a coat of arms derived from the marriage of Agnes Washington to Edmund Lawrence in the C14th.
Finally, visit the historic village of Cerne Abbas where the parish church has floor tablets in the nave of the Notley family who owned Cerne Abbey Manor in Washington, the site on which Capitol Hill stands today. Across the street still stands the home of Thomas Washington, uncle of the first president, built by the monastery in around 1480.
From £200
1st April to 31st September