What I love about managing the Treasure Trails license for Herefordshire and Worcestershire is the sheer variety of every day!
Today is a good example.... I have worked on the challenge pages for a personalised Trail we are putting together for a hen party coming to the area in May.
I have written up all the testimonials we received over the last week into our new website and captured the names and email addresses into our customer database.
I have also written up our April newsletter ready to send out to our customers! I have cleared a high proportion of emails and as a result of re-reading the one from Business Link I have signed up to go to a half day seminar on Marketing.
I have tweeted of course!
I have welcomed a new Treasure Trails colleague and got to know them a little bit better - they are managing the Lancashire and Greater Merseyside area.
I have discussed our plans for adding Twitter and other contact information to page 7 of the Trail booklets now we have the new Text Line in place!
I have processed all the orders that came in over the weekend.
I have embarked on amending our Kingsland Trail so that it can be published and I am about to do a stock take in time for our show next week at Eastnor Castle.
Phew, after that lot, I think I'll have a rest, make a cup of tea and get the washing in!!
Monday, 19 April 2010
Thursday, 15 April 2010
Bespoke Trails
Bespoke Trails are an exciting part of the Treasure Trails product portfolio. By their very nature every single one is different and we seem to have successfully got several tailor made Trails to design over the next few weeks.....
We are close to delivering the Bee Trail for the University of the Great Outdoors which has the visitors to Hampton Court looking all around the grounds for Bees which we are hoping will be delivered in the next couple of days from the supplier.
We have designed a Bird Trail for a local camp site, which will be used exclusively by them throughout the summer.
We are commissioned by our local church to produce a Village Challenge for the second year running which will incorporate not only a Trail of some sort round the village but also a puzzle, a treasure collection and a tie breaker as well.
We are working on an event for the NHS Change4Life initiative and in association with Hereford Cathedral which will involve local Trails and be held during the summer holidays - probably on a Friday - look out for details on here and in the local press.
And we hope to provide a Strawberry Trail for the Worcester Strawberry Festival - we are just waiting for the go ahead from them.
Love this part of the job.... being creative! Perhaps I should do a graphic design course!
We are close to delivering the Bee Trail for the University of the Great Outdoors which has the visitors to Hampton Court looking all around the grounds for Bees which we are hoping will be delivered in the next couple of days from the supplier.
We have designed a Bird Trail for a local camp site, which will be used exclusively by them throughout the summer.
We are commissioned by our local church to produce a Village Challenge for the second year running which will incorporate not only a Trail of some sort round the village but also a puzzle, a treasure collection and a tie breaker as well.
We are working on an event for the NHS Change4Life initiative and in association with Hereford Cathedral which will involve local Trails and be held during the summer holidays - probably on a Friday - look out for details on here and in the local press.
And we hope to provide a Strawberry Trail for the Worcester Strawberry Festival - we are just waiting for the go ahead from them.
Love this part of the job.... being creative! Perhaps I should do a graphic design course!
Wednesday, 7 April 2010
Carn Brea - Cornwall
Its been such a busy few days with Easter in the middle, that I haven't had a chance to write up about the fun we had doing the Carn Brea Driving Trail in Cornwall when we were down there a few weeks ago.
Carn Brea itself was amazing - the views were awesome and the restaurant sited in the castle up there was incredible! But I am getting ahead of myself.....
The mission we were on was to stop another of Dr Madden-Badd's madcap ideas. Inspired by the legend of the giant Bolster, who could bridge the 6 mile gap between Carn Brea and St Agnes Beacon in stride, he has invented a device with similar capabilities. It uses a strong force field installed in the soles of a pair of hiking boots and a power unit that can be carried in a back pack. With it he can escape from the direst trap and we needed to find the secret code to disable his device!
We started the Trail at Gwennap Pit by the village of St Day. This was an absolutely amazing place and totally unexpected. We thought it would be just to do with tin or silver mining, but in actual fact it was (and I am now quoting from the Trail) a favoured venue of the founder of Methodism - John Wesley. He preached there in this amphitheatre which was created by mining subsidence. It really is worth seeing as I had no idea there was anything like it around. One of the two clues there was easy and the other a little harder to find which gave us a flavour of the type of Trail we were on!
As this is a driving Trail, we had to get back into the car and head off to Carn Brea, to find three clues.... none of which were obvious, but it was a great place to wander about and get a sense of history! It was also incredibly windy up there!
After that we were directed to a disused copper mine where we spent ages looking for the picture clue as we had a photograph as a reference point and had to get ourselves to that place using the photo and once in position, we would see the clue..... finding the position was tough, but we managed it in the end and enjoyed the search.
Off then to a tiny little park next to a pub (!) but we weren't ready to stop for refreshments just yet.... the park had a wonderful set of information boards and we discovered the Cornish word for a toad (cronek) as well as another name for otter
droppings (spraint) - you see, they really are educational as well as fun!!
Clue 13 in the park was one of those that you really have to use your brain..... it said, and I quote, "list the 6 different 4 letter words found below this picture. Applying the values A-1, B-2, C-3..... Y-25, Z-26 calculate which word gets the highest score!! As we aren't allowed to submit our answer, I am ashamed to say I haven't yet worked out the answer BUT, really liked the clue and may well use it on one of our new Herefordshire or Worcestershire Trails.
Back in the car to Tehidy Country Park where we had a walk around a lake and picked up more answers to clues and sat for a bit to watch the wildlife! Finally, we made it Hells Mouth and then onto Gwithian - the whole thing took nearly 3 hours and we were certainly ready for some refreshments by then. Gwithian didn't really appeal, so we headed off to St Ives for a Cornish Pasty and sit by the harbour - a fitting end to a really lovely morning's entertainment!
Carn Brea itself was amazing - the views were awesome and the restaurant sited in the castle up there was incredible! But I am getting ahead of myself.....
The mission we were on was to stop another of Dr Madden-Badd's madcap ideas. Inspired by the legend of the giant Bolster, who could bridge the 6 mile gap between Carn Brea and St Agnes Beacon in stride, he has invented a device with similar capabilities. It uses a strong force field installed in the soles of a pair of hiking boots and a power unit that can be carried in a back pack. With it he can escape from the direst trap and we needed to find the secret code to disable his device!
We started the Trail at Gwennap Pit by the village of St Day. This was an absolutely amazing place and totally unexpected. We thought it would be just to do with tin or silver mining, but in actual fact it was (and I am now quoting from the Trail) a favoured venue of the founder of Methodism - John Wesley. He preached there in this amphitheatre which was created by mining subsidence. It really is worth seeing as I had no idea there was anything like it around. One of the two clues there was easy and the other a little harder to find which gave us a flavour of the type of Trail we were on!
As this is a driving Trail, we had to get back into the car and head off to Carn Brea, to find three clues.... none of which were obvious, but it was a great place to wander about and get a sense of history! It was also incredibly windy up there!
After that we were directed to a disused copper mine where we spent ages looking for the picture clue as we had a photograph as a reference point and had to get ourselves to that place using the photo and once in position, we would see the clue..... finding the position was tough, but we managed it in the end and enjoyed the search.
Off then to a tiny little park next to a pub (!) but we weren't ready to stop for refreshments just yet.... the park had a wonderful set of information boards and we discovered the Cornish word for a toad (cronek) as well as another name for otter
droppings (spraint) - you see, they really are educational as well as fun!!
Clue 13 in the park was one of those that you really have to use your brain..... it said, and I quote, "list the 6 different 4 letter words found below this picture. Applying the values A-1, B-2, C-3..... Y-25, Z-26 calculate which word gets the highest score!! As we aren't allowed to submit our answer, I am ashamed to say I haven't yet worked out the answer BUT, really liked the clue and may well use it on one of our new Herefordshire or Worcestershire Trails.
Back in the car to Tehidy Country Park where we had a walk around a lake and picked up more answers to clues and sat for a bit to watch the wildlife! Finally, we made it Hells Mouth and then onto Gwithian - the whole thing took nearly 3 hours and we were certainly ready for some refreshments by then. Gwithian didn't really appeal, so we headed off to St Ives for a Cornish Pasty and sit by the harbour - a fitting end to a really lovely morning's entertainment!
Saturday, 20 March 2010
Not content with writing Trails, we go on them too!
Last week when we were on holiday in Newquay, we went on three different Trails written by the Cornwall team! We had such fun and what made it so great, was they were all three very different.
Perranporth was the first one we did. On arrival in Perranporth, we thought it looked like a small touristy type of town which wouldn't be particularly interesting. As it happened, it most likely isn't that interesting because the Trail took us out of town!! Anyway, we had to start at the Tourist Information Centre which isn't that far from the front and then we headed towards the beach, picking up clues on the way. We left the beach and headed back towards town to find the answer to a great clue on the Museum. Really liked it and will copy it and incorporate it into one of our Herefordshire or Worcestershire Trails. It said ... "At the library, find how many letters are in the word after Heritage. What letter appears in the corresponding position in the name of the museum?" Made us stop, think and count!! The Trail took us into a gorgeous little park with a boating pond and then to a seat commemorating the guy who gave his name to the Austin Healey car - very interesting little plaque. Finally, we walked through a playground, up a big hill and out onto the cliffs and the most gorgeous views. Stopping on the way for a chat with a man who owns the castle at the top of the hill! Last clues were on a gigantic sundial which we NEVER would have seen without the Trail taking us up there! We met a pair of fellow trailers too - they were from Reading and it was their first one - virgin Trailers!!
A couple of days later we tackled the Truro Trail. This was a very different kettle of fish. Unlike the Perranporth Trail which was out in the countryside and incidentally, a spy mission. This was in the county town and murder mystery! We drove towards Truro and as we weren't sure where the start was and we knew we needed to finish by the cathedral, we decided to start the Trail half way round - at Clue 9 to be precise! There are so many great things about the Treasure Trails, and one of them is that you can start wherever you like! Lots of the Trail is written in rhyme as well which is fun! For example, Clue 11 says.....
Return to the Shops, left you go,
When the cathedral is in sight, take it slow.
Around this square of 2 buildings a name is engraved,
This man didn't do it - his reputation is saved!
We raced around the Trail, because we knew that at the end we had a lunch date and we wanted to spend a bit of time in the Treasure Trails Head Office too. The best part of the Trail was in the Victoria Gardens, close to the viaduct which we learnt was built in 1904 replacing Isambard Kingdom Brunel's original one. It was a lovely garden which fountains and band stands but we were a little early for the spring flowers which in a week or two would be gorgeous.
We gave ourselves another day of rest and then set out for our final Trail. This was a driving Trail called Carn Brea. More on that in my next blog!
Perranporth was the first one we did. On arrival in Perranporth, we thought it looked like a small touristy type of town which wouldn't be particularly interesting. As it happened, it most likely isn't that interesting because the Trail took us out of town!! Anyway, we had to start at the Tourist Information Centre which isn't that far from the front and then we headed towards the beach, picking up clues on the way. We left the beach and headed back towards town to find the answer to a great clue on the Museum. Really liked it and will copy it and incorporate it into one of our Herefordshire or Worcestershire Trails. It said ... "At the library, find how many letters are in the word after Heritage. What letter appears in the corresponding position in the name of the museum?" Made us stop, think and count!! The Trail took us into a gorgeous little park with a boating pond and then to a seat commemorating the guy who gave his name to the Austin Healey car - very interesting little plaque. Finally, we walked through a playground, up a big hill and out onto the cliffs and the most gorgeous views. Stopping on the way for a chat with a man who owns the castle at the top of the hill! Last clues were on a gigantic sundial which we NEVER would have seen without the Trail taking us up there! We met a pair of fellow trailers too - they were from Reading and it was their first one - virgin Trailers!!
A couple of days later we tackled the Truro Trail. This was a very different kettle of fish. Unlike the Perranporth Trail which was out in the countryside and incidentally, a spy mission. This was in the county town and murder mystery! We drove towards Truro and as we weren't sure where the start was and we knew we needed to finish by the cathedral, we decided to start the Trail half way round - at Clue 9 to be precise! There are so many great things about the Treasure Trails, and one of them is that you can start wherever you like! Lots of the Trail is written in rhyme as well which is fun! For example, Clue 11 says.....
Return to the Shops, left you go,
When the cathedral is in sight, take it slow.
Around this square of 2 buildings a name is engraved,
This man didn't do it - his reputation is saved!
We raced around the Trail, because we knew that at the end we had a lunch date and we wanted to spend a bit of time in the Treasure Trails Head Office too. The best part of the Trail was in the Victoria Gardens, close to the viaduct which we learnt was built in 1904 replacing Isambard Kingdom Brunel's original one. It was a lovely garden which fountains and band stands but we were a little early for the spring flowers which in a week or two would be gorgeous.
We gave ourselves another day of rest and then set out for our final Trail. This was a driving Trail called Carn Brea. More on that in my next blog!
Tuesday, 9 March 2010
Endorsement from the Ramblers
We were really happy to see our Trails reviewed in the book section of this week's Rambler's Magazine! Click on the picture to enlarge it.
Friday, 5 March 2010
Article in the Cornish Guardian
The quality isn't great, but its great to see the publicity!! Click on the picture to enlarge it.
And another week ends
I can't believe how fast time flies - I must be having fun! Actually, I am in no doubt - I am having fun!!
The week started with a meeting in our local church with the Church Events Committee - a formidable group of ladies, chaired by a sole gentleman, who determine the events that will fund raise for the church. Last year they asked us to run a treasure hunt for them and it seems they want something similar again this year! We are delighted to be asked and presented some ideas on Monday all of which they seemed very excited about! Just need to work out how to do a treasure hunt round a very small village that has already had treasure hunted round it before! Think we will most likely come up with a hunt, a game and a puzzle and then the ubiquitous limerick as the tie breaker!
Spent some of the week liaising with the Change4Life lady to get the adverts just right on our Trails - they have sponsored 5 of our Hereford Trails which we are delighted about. Next steps are to put together an organised event with them!
Later in the week we met up with two representatives from the Worcestershire branch of The Prince's Trust fund raising committee and had a fab lunch with them at The Glasshouse in Worcester. Great food and good company. Viv and John had some thoughts and ideas about how we could market Treasure Trails and we hope to work with Viv and HotelShopUK in the future using the Trails as promotional incentives. Probably not until early next year, but watch this space! Viv also offered me some telesales training and I think I will take her up on it!
Have prepared for the stand we are on at Crufts - it is a stand run by rgtperrybarr.co.uk/ who are giving us a tiny space on it and so, I've sorted out 90 Trails for them together with a poster and a crib sheet. The plan is that I will sell on Day One and then leave them to it for the remaining days. Hope the Trails go down well with all those doggy people! Stand number is in Hall 4 Stand 76 - come and say hi.
Today, I've been in creative mode - twittering as usual but have also written two draft press releases, both of which will be pasted in here just as soon as they are agreed to by the other interested parties - Change4Life and the Kings Head Hotel, Ross-on-Wye.
The desk is tidy, but the floor and the sofa are littered with stuff and so the next job on the To Do List is to get them cleared and the whole office looking tidy ready to start the next week!
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