Venues in Avon; hire a String Quartet

This is a list of venues where you may want to hire one of our String Quartets for your Wedding, Party or Dinner. Our bands have already performed at many of these venues.

Aust

This little village on the banks of the Severn is now dominated by the modern Severn Bridge which carries the M4 to Wales; but it will never lose its lure for people interested in history. Buried Merchants put cash on flat-topped pillars ('nails') outside Bristol Corn Exchange to settle bargains in the rugged clay and limestone cliffs, part of the 200-million-year-old West-bury Beds, lie the fossilised remains of countless prehistoric animals. Archaeologists have found Roman remains on the cliff tops.

String Quartets at Armada House, Bristol (Avon)

String Quartets at Arnos Manor Hotel, Bristol (Avon)

String Quartets at Avon Gorge Hotel, Clifton, Bristol (Avon)

Badminton

The impressive Palladian mansion, Badminton House, set in a i5,ooo-acre estate, has been the home of the Dukes of Beaufort for more than 300 years. The three-day Badminton Horse Trials are held there in April, and visitors can see the house and the kennels of the Beaufort Hunt. The house has a collection of Italian, Dutch and English paintings and much fine carving by Grinling Gibbons.

String Quartets at Aztec Hotel, Bristo, Avon

String Quartets at Beeches Hotel, Bristo, Avon

String Quartets at Blaise Castle Museum, Bristo, Avon

String Quartets at Bristol Marriott Hotel, Bristo, Avon

String Quartets at Bristol Marriott Royal Hotel, Bristo, Avon

String Quartets at Bristol Old Vic, Bristo, Avon

String Quartets at Bristol Thistle Hotel, Bristo, Avon

Berkeley

Berkeley Castle, built in the i2th century, stands in lovely grounds in a tranquil town where the liveliest noise comes from the hounds of the Berkeley Hunt in the kennels close by. In the park there are red and fallow deer and wild geese. The Berkeley family have occupied the castle continuously since the izth century. Edward II was murdered in the dungeons in 1327.

The parish church has a superb east window of nine lights, filled with pictures of Christ healing the sick—a memorial to Edward Jenner, discoverer of vaccination, who was born in Berkeley and returned there before his death in 1823. He is buried in the chancel.

Berkeley is the centre of the Vale of Berkeley—thousands of acres of flat land stretching for 15 miles on the east bank of the Severn. Little watercourses form criss-cross patterns, with lanes crossing them on stone humpbacked bridges beside meadows of grazing cows. A canal passes through the Vale from Gloucester to Sharpness—a vital ly-mile waterway which links Gloucester with the sea.

String Quartets at Bristol Zoo Gardens, The Clifton Pavilion, Clifton, Bristol (Avon)

String Quartets at Byzantium Restaurant, Bristo, Avon

String Quartets at Cameley Lodge, Bristol (Avon)

String Quartets at Chelwood House Hotel, Bristo, Avon

String Quartets at Chewton Place, Keynsham, Bristol (Avon)

Gloucester

This bustling manufacturing and market centre was once the Roman fortified town of Glevum, for centuries guardian of the routes to Wales that converged at the lowest crossing-point of the Severn. There are several interesting medieval buildings, including the New-Inn, Fleece Inn and the 16th-century Greyfriars ruin.

But Gloucester is more of a commercial centre than a tourist attraction. The opening of the canal between Gloucester and Sharpness in 1827 made the city an important inland port.

String Quartets at Clifton Pavilion, Bristo, Avon

String Quartets at Folly Farm, Bristo, Avon

String Quartets at Glass Boat, The, Bristo, Avon

String Quartets at Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, Bristol (Avon)

String Quartets at Greenway Centre, Bristol (Avon)

Painswick

This old wool town of grcystone buildings dating back to the i4th century stands on a hill in the Cotswolds. In the parish churchyard there are more than 100 clipped yews, some of which have been there since 1714. Traditionally there were only 99 trees; it used to be said that every time the looth was planted, the Devil removed it. The peal of 12 bells in the 15th-century St Mary's Church is one of the finest in the west, and by the churchyard wall there is a pair of iron stocks, shaped like a pair of spectacles. On the Sunday following September 19, the church holds a Clipping ceremony—a medieval custom in which children join hands round the church while a hymn is sung. The ceremony, which has nothing to do with shearing sheep, was once an ale-swilling dance.

String Quartets at Greenway Centre, Bristol (Avon)

String Quartets at Holiday Inn Bristo, Avon, Bristol

String Quartets at Hotel du Vin Bristo, Avon (Avon)

String Quartets at Hunstrete House Hotel, Bristo, Avon

String Quartets at Jarvis International Hotel, Bristo, Avon

Bristol

An ancient and modern city, lively, contemporary and keeping up with fashion, but deeply soaked in history. It grew up around its harbour on the River Avon and as a result the city became a flourishing commercial port from the loth century onwards. As a mark of its importance it was made a county in its own right in 1373, and after John Cabot set sail in 1497 .from Bristol to discover Newfoundland and North America—a year before Columbus landed on the American mainland—it became known throughout the world. Here, too, was founded in 1552 the Society of Merchant Venturers, who did so much to lay the prosperous foundations of the Empire. Bristol's cathedral started as an Augustinian monastery in 1148. The town has some good modern architecture, too, among the buildings erected to replace bomb damage from the Second World War. Rooftop views from the new Broadmead shopping area are as good as those from Cabot Tower, which was erected to commemorate Cabot's discovery of North America. The Theatre Royal, the oldest existing theatre in England, built in 1766, is the home of the Bristol Old Vic Company, and in Broadmead is John Wesley's Chapel. He built it in 1739, and it is the oldest Methodist chapel in the world.

The Bristol Avon is a more attractive river than the Severn, and the Avon Gorge, where the river flows between steep cliffs of limestone, is spanned 245 ft above high water by the Clifton Suspension Bridge, designed by Brunei but not completed and opened until 1864, five years after his death.

In the old quarter of the city outside the 18th-century Exchange Building are four bronze pillars where merchants completed their transactions. The pillars are known as nails, and here originated the phrase 'paying on the nail'.

String Quartets at Kendleshire Golf Club, Bristol (Avon)

String Quartets at Kings Weston House, Bristo, Avon

String Quartets at Mansion House, The, Bristo, Avon

String Quartets at Mercure Holland House Hotel Bristo, Avon, Bristol

String Quartets at Old Court, The, Bristo, Avon

Dodington House

A Palladian house, designed by James Wyatt in 1796 and completed in 1813, the year Wyatt died in an accident on his way from the house to London. The house is almost square; on the west side is a portico built so that a carriage could drive through to the main entrance. The grounds were laid out by Capability Brown in 1764.

String Quartets at Pratts Hotel, Bath, Bristol

String Quartets at Ramada Bristol North, The Grange Country House Hotel, Northwoods, Winterbourne, Bristol (Avon)

String Quartets at Redwood Hotel & Country Club, Failand, Bristo, Avon

String Quartets at Royal Fort House, Bristo, Avon

String Quartets at Shoots Floating Restaurant, Bristo, Avon

Dyrham Park

A 17th-century house built by William Blathwayt, Secretary of State to William III. It is one of the National Trust's finest properties, and worth a visit for its gardens and tapestries alone. There is an orangery where oranges, grapefruit and mimosa grow.

String Quartets at SS Great Britain, Bristo, Avon

String Quartets at The Bristol Golf Club, Almondsbury, Bristol (Avon)

String Quartets at The Council House, Bristo, Avon

String Quartets at University & Library Club, Bristol, Avon

String Quartets at University of Bristol, Goldney Hall, Bristo, Avon