About Us

We started Discover England Tours back in 2004, offering accommodation in our family home with guided tours. During that time we have welcomed guests from all over the world - though the majority come from North America. We live a superb part of Southern England with beautiful countryside, historic houses, town and villages, castles, stately homes, cathedrals, gardens and World Heritage coastline. There are so many wonderful places to visit that we can safely say we have never run out of ideas on where to take our guests!

The Covid pandemic brought about changes for many and after two years of closure, we decided to offer tours again but regretfully without accommodation in our beloved Church House. We have picked the best of our local hotels for guests to choose from and feel that while this is different from staying with us, we can still offer you, our guests a great experience and a memorable visit to England.

During the various lockdowns, we started a micro-bakery at home, baking sourdough breads, baguettes, viennoisserie and cakes. Its been a great experience and we have learned a lot about baking! We’ve also enjoyed providing a valued service to our local community. We plan to keep baking until the tour season starts.

David Whitlock

I was born in South Africa and brought up in Nottinghamshire, the home of Robin Hood.  I grew up with my older brother and 2 sisters and from an early age became interested in natural history, the outdoor life and sailing. I studied Agricultural Botany at the University College of Wales Aberystwyth and completed my PhD in Plant Pathology in 1986.  Susy and I met while at University and we were married in 1991. After leaving Aberystwyth I worked for Dalgety, one of the largest UK agricultural companies, followed by Agriland, one of the smallest. In 1992 I joined the American agricultural company Pioneer Hi-Bred, the largest plant breeding business in the world, as the UK Wheat Breeding manager. My interests are many and varied and include, gardening, photography, history, natural history, sailing and cycling and walking when I have the time.

Susy Gaisford

I grew up on a dairy farm in Wiltshire with my older brother, some ponies and a pack of dogs!  I studied Food Science at the School of  Agriculture, University of Nottingham and then did a PhD at the University College of Wales Aberystwyth, where I met Paul.  After my student career I worked for a seaweed processing company with sites in Scotland and San Diego, a food research organisation, then one of the worlds largest contract caterers and the accountants Deloitte and Touche - by which time I had switched to a technical analyst role in the IT department and not a food scientist at all. My main interests in life are baking,  growing vegetables, walking, cycling and sailing.  I also like to read books, take long walks by the sea, try to figure out Dorset geology and going to the theatre.