Our exploration of Jamestown includes an exhibition of glassblowing (an early industry of the colony), a museum that features a 15-minute film, and a walking tour. The tour takes us to the Olde Towne site; a statue of Pocahontas; the Memorial Church (left); a statue of Captain John Smith (right - governor of Virginia in 1608); the Dale House Archaeological Laboratory; the Memorial Cross; and the New Towne site - the area developed from 1620.

After the walking tour we explore Jamestown by car, a 5-mile loop road taking us round other parts of Jamestown Island. The afternoon is then spent in Yorktown which we reach by the beautifully constructed Colonial Parkway.

A film at a Visitor Centre tells the story of the town and of the 1781 battle, after which we walk towards the river and into the quiet town, where we view some interesting houses before driving the 7-mile Battlefield Tour. Finally, we visit the Civil War graves in Yorktown National Cemetery before having an excellent meal at The Cracker Barrel.

Victory Monument at Jamestown.

(Day 8: Thursday, June 3rd): today we visit the Shirley Plantation, Virginia's first plantation, founded in 1613 after a royal land grant carved the plantation out of the Virginia frontier. Shirley is also the oldest family-owned business in North America dating to 1638. It is located on the north bank of the James River between Wlliamsburg and Richmond. The plantation used between 70 and 90 slaves to work the property.

Our visit to Shirley Plantation includes a 1-hour tour of the Georgian style mansion that has an amazing cantilevered staircase rising for three stories without visible means of support, and is the only one of its kind in America. We spend the morning at the plantation, then drive to the site of the Civil War battlefield at Petersburg on the other side of the James River.

The siege of Petersburg (1864 - 1865) was the longest military event of the Civil War.

 

The National Park Visitor Centre, plus walking and driving tours, provide explanations of the extended battle.

 

Sites visited include the Union mortar 'Dictator' (left); Fort Stedman where fighting occurred in the final weeks of the Civil War; and City Point, the headquarters of General Ulysses S. Grant during the battle.

 

Back in Williamsburg, we eat at the Golden Corral - the first of many meals we are to have at this buffet chain during subsequent trips to America.

Bruton Parish Church.

George Whythe House.

Governor's Palace.

George Whythe House.

Governor's Palace.

(Day 9: Friday, June 4th): today we spend the whole of a sunny and very warm day in the major tourist attraction of the 'Historic Triangle': Colonial Williamsburg. The most visited historic site in Virginia, Colonial Williamsburg is a convincing re-creation of the late 18th-Century city that was the capital of Virginia from 1699 to 1780. Eighty-eight original 18th-Century and early 19th-Century structures have been meticulously restored, and another forty reconstructed on their original sites.

After watching two films and joining an orientation talk we spend the day exploring the historic area with its splendid buildings and its workshops staffed by costumed interpreters. The orientation talk explains that today represents November 17th 1775, a few months into the War of Independence.