This page is for those who have been invited to accompany me on the trip to England in April 2009, and I shall use this page to keep everyone updated as plans are considered, updated, altered or confirmed.

Dates for the trip are confirmed - I will be collecting travelers at Gatwick & Heathrow Airport on the morning of Sunday, Mar 29, 2009, and we will be returning to those airports on Sunday April 5, 2009.

UPDATE 9/17/08

We have our third confirmed participant, Eddie, now added to Jay and Susan.

Also invited are Nan, Patrick and Marie, Melinda and Stephen, Karin and Josh. Hopefully all will be able to come on what will be a great adventure..!

As a professional English antiques dealer, I travel to Britain usually 4 or 5 times a year on antiques buying trips. I have often been asked if someone can accompany me, and I have always declined. The logistics of the trip, the usual 28-things-to-do-in-a-day lunacy of my time there have always made it impossible for me to say, 'Yes'.

I have wanted to, but couldn't - until now.

As you all know, I have decided to give you all the opportunity to come. I will take you to the places I go to to buy antiques, and you all know how nice some of those items have been, most of you having bought from me repeatedly.

This is your chance to be taken to the source, including the two largest antiques fairs in Europe, with more than 3000 dealers at each fair.

You will be able to buy items at the prices I buy them at and, if one buys wisely, one can cover the cost of the trip with the savings one will make in not paying US retail for them.

So, having established that the trip is effectively free :0) what is it likely to involve, just what will you see, where will you go and where will you stay whilst you're there..?

The plans are in their formative stages, and are subject to amendment to include those things/places that some of you may be particularly interested in seeing or doing.

There are a few 'givens' that will not alter, but all dates quoted are subject to confirmation:

Trip Cost & Deposit Requirements

I have tried desperately hard to keep the costs to a minimum, but I am fighting the extraordinary costs of hotel accommodation in England, typically between $200 and $400 per room per night.

Notwithstanding that, the total trip-cost is set at $1495 per person based on couples sharing a twin/double room, and excludes airfare, which is the traveler's own responsibility. Single occupancy will incur an additional cost of $295.

Breakfast at the hotel is included , when we can stay late enough in the morning to partake, but dinner is not. I will take the group to some local restaurants and pubs that I have used myself where the food is good and reasonably priced.

All travel will be in a 17-seater bus that I will be driving, also helping to peg the costs, and fuel is included too, notwithstanding that gas is currently $13 per gallon in the UK..!

Admission to the antique fairs is included too, saving each person $80 in admission fees. 

An initial good-faith deposit of $100 per person is requested immediately as, to make hotel bookings, I am required to pay 20% up front, even at this early stage. If I don't, it's more than likely that we will lose the opportunity of the rooms I know we would all like.

I need to receive the good-faith deposits so that I can know exactly how many are going. I do not wish to book more rooms than we need, but equally I do not want to book too few rooms either!

A further deposit of $647.50 per person, making 50% total, should be received by me no later than Oct 31, 2008. The 50% balance of the trip cost should then be received by me no later than Dec 31, 2008.

Checks should be made payable to:

The Yorkshireman Antiques

and mailed to:

The Yorkshireman Antiques

800 Orrix Creek Rd

Evington, VA 24550

Tel 434.309.1132

We are all friends and, with that in mind, deposits will remain returnable should one's circumstances alter making it impossible for you to go, with the proviso that any costs I have incurred at that point on your behalf will need to be met from that deposit. That is likely to be just 20% of the room cost, or c.$250.  

Sun 3/29/09 - Meeting Arrangements

On the Sunday morning, Mar 29, 2009, I will collect participants from London Gatwick Airport first and we will then drive to London Heathrow Airport to pick up the remainder of the group. Whether you arrive on the Sunday morning of pick-up or prior to that is your own choice - all I ask is that you be there  to be collected. I will supply my British cellphone number to each member of the group so that I can be contacted in case of emergency and/or delay.

We will then drive north to our hotel, likely to be either Branston Hall, Branston...

http://www.branstonhall.com/

or The Grange, Newark, subject to confirmation...

http://www.grangenewark.co.uk/

Mon 3/30/09 - Free Day in Lincoln or Visit to Hemswell Anrtiques Centre

One can spend the next day, Monday, ramping-up for the days ahead by relaxing and familiarising ourselves with the historic city of Lincoln. Pub visit, fish and chip shop, tea-rooms, they're all there, along with oodles of shopping, gardens, Lincoln Cathedral etc...

http://www.lincolncathedral.com/

or we can pay a visit to Hemswell, the largest antiques centre in Europe...

http://www.hemswell-antiques.com/

The antique fairs dates have been confirmed as Tues/Weds Mar 31/Apr 1 for Swinderby...

http://www.arthurswallowfairs.co.uk/swinderby-overview.php

and Thurs/Fri April 2/3 for Newark...

It is tentatively planned to spend the Saturday in York...

before returning to the London airports for the flight home on Sunday, April 5, 2009.

I will be happy to receive suggestions from anyone re places of interest to include or exclude. Remember, this is your trip, not mine, and I am at your disposal.

A Few Tips for Travelers...

All Englishmen are British, but not all British people are English.

My country's full title is 'The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland', where Great Britain comprises the countries of England and Scotland, and the Principality of Wales.

We drive on the right side of the road. No, madam, in the US you drive on the right, but that is the wrong side. In the UK, we drive on the correct side, the left. Clear? Please do remember it when crossing a road - look right first, then left, then right again, or you are likely to get flattened by a huge artic (our word for '18-wheeler').

We do not have pharmacies - that is a word coined in the colonies to describe what we call 'a chemist's shop'. Do not ask for a BandAid, as no one will understand you and, worse, they will assume that you are an American tourist - ask for 'a plaster' instead (honestly!)

Smoking is outlawed in the UK in any public building, a building being defined as something with at least three walls and a roof. You will see many pubs in Britain with only two walls or no roof as a result...

Bobbies are not wonderful. They are cops who will give you a ticket as soon as look at you. I know, I have had a few.

Strangers are strangers until you have been introduced. Here in the US, certainly here in rural VA, one greets and waves at total strangers in passing vehicles. In the UK, that is tantamount to asking them for a fight.

We British have a game we play everyday called 'queuing'. If you see a line, it is a queue, and jumping it to get to the front will get you abused and/or beaten mercilessly with an old lady's handbag (that you mistakenly call a purse).

We have free healthcare in Britain - we do, but you don't. You will be treated by the National Health Service should you need emergency treatment, but your insurance company will be billed. Mine won't, but yours will - gosh, it's GREAT to be British!       

No, we will not be able to have tea with the Queen.

The emergency phone number in the UK is '999'. Calling it to ask the way to the nearest restroom will get you arrested.

The word 'b****' is not considered impolite or rude at all, and is commonly used in conversation. However, the word 'fanny' is unutterable in public in Britain. If you don't believe me, go into a store and ask for a fanny-pack, and I will wait outside until the wonderful British bobbies arrive.

Luggage 

There will be perhaps 12 of us in a 17-seater bus, which leaves 5 seats available on which luggage can be carried on our way to the hotel and back to the airport a week later.

That is the only storage space available in that vehicle, and it will fill in very short order if everyone were to bring a whole herd of suitcases.

I urge restraint in packing. You will not require formal clothes, just casual and warm (April is not scorchingly hot in Britain) and it is important to travel as lightly as possible.

To avoid the scenario of a bus so full of luggage that we can't sit down, I ask each person to bring one suitcase and one carry-on. If you must bring two suitcases, you will be carrying one on your lap for the four-hour drive from London to the hotel.

Shipping of your Antiques Purchases

As I have mentioned previously, I am happy to make space available in my shipping container for your purchases so that you are not restricted to buying only what you can carry.

There are international shippers at the fairs who will do that, but you do not have enough money, however wealthy you may be. They typically charge $40 per cubic foot, which means that a small sofa table measuring 3' by 2' by 2' will cost you around $500 to ship.

I am happy to carry your purchases in my container back to the US for free, but this offer can only apply to items less than 1 cu ft or so in volume. I am happy to take any number of such items, as long as they don't grossly exceed that size.

To be able to include items much over 1 cu ft, I will first need to arrange to have any oversize ones collected from the seller at the fair and then delivered to my storage place 40 miles away. They will need to be packed for protection in the container, inventoried for US Customs and then, dependent on what they are, they may need their own Classification established by my Customs Broker in the US. They will also need to be shipped in the US from my address, which is where the container is delivered, to yours, and that US Domestic shipping will have to be paid by the buyer.

As you can appreciate, none of those operations are cheap. The fairest way to do this is to charge a flat rate for space in the container for oversize items at $8 per cu ft.

This should be borne in mind when buying. If your items are 1 cu ft or less (commonly called 'smalls') I will bring them back to the US for you free, no matter how many there are. That is a generous offer, given that the container will cost me c.$4000 to ship.

However, the sofa table I mentioned in the example above would cost you $96 to include in the container, and it would then need to be Fedexed to your US address, incurring further costs. Please, buy wisely and try, where possible, to buy physically small items..!

 UK Immigration Requirements

You may enter the UK as a visitor for up to six months without a visa but you must be able to show that you:

• only want to visit the United Kingdom for up to six months;
• plan to leave the United Kingdom at the end of your visit;
• have enough money to support and accommodate yourself without working, help from public funds or you will be supported and accommodated by relatives or friends;
• do not intend to charge members of the public for services provided or goods received;
• do not intend to study; and
• can meet the cost of the return or onward journey.

These are the documents you should have when coming to the United Kingdom as a visitor:

• a letter from your employer granting leave of absence from your job for a specified period. The letter should also say how long you have been employed by that employer, in what job(s) and should indicate when you are expected back at work;
• if you are self-employed, evidence of your business activities and financial standing;
• evidence of any property you own in your home country;
• if you are a student, a letter from your school or college stating which course you are on, its start and finish dates and the dates of the holiday period during which you intend to visit the United Kingdom;
• it will also help if you can show that you have family or social ties and responsibilities to return to;
• evidence of any firm travel plans you have made;
• bank statements going back over a period of several months;
  and
• evidence of savings available to you

 The chance of you actually needing to produce any of this bumph is minimal BUT if you are asked for it and don't have it, the best you can expect is a lengthy delay in UK Immigration.

I would urge all participants to procure such documents and carry them when you travel to Britain.