Desperate Times…

Use thetrainline.com or gwr.com (Great Western Railways is the company that
runs trains to Newbury) to purchase train tickets. gwr.com will have current
information regarding train strikes. Strike information does change, so I would
check frequently.

The Highclere Castle website lists a few local taxi companies; if the festival is
as popular as you imply, I'd consider booking a taxi in advance.

Newbury is not that far from London; going to Heathrow and renting a car is
also worth considering if you are comfortable driving on the other side of the
road and will have been there long enough to not be jet-lagged.

If you want a detailed plan, you need to include more information about where
you are departing from in London, and date/times you hope to travel.

But, this is not as complicated as you are afraid it might be.

There is no rail strike on 8 October, and we are now within the 14 day notice period, so there can't be one.

There are direct trains to Newbury from Paddington at 0844 and 1036, arriving at 0923 and 1115, and one change trains (at Reading) at 0905, 1003, 1103. The next direct is at 1236, a 1315

A similar service is offered on the way back- at least hourly, either change at Reading or direct.

Last train back is 2252, arrive Paddington 0014.

Return train fare is £30.50 each. These are commuter trains, so cannot sell out, and are a fixed walk up price- no cheap advanced fares for specific trains to worry out. You have to book a specific train in the booking process, but can then use any train you want.

So go ahead and buy the event tickets, then worry about the trains.

I believe I am right in saying that you can arrive as early as you wish to enjoy the grounds. The 2,30 time is merely for the event part of it

I second the idea to pre-book a taxi, particularly for the trip back to the station. We used Cabco (Newbury). You can call them, but they also have an easy to use app. But yes, a very simple trip.

The gwr.com website has a well known glitch which means that many US cards don’t work on it. Whilst there are other sites to get train tickets from, given there is no financial advantage in buying them in advance I would just get them when you get to Paddington.

I have 2 tickets for the 4:00 show Six.

Not the same day, I hope!

I'm just delighted to know that Highclere Castle has greatly expanded their calendar of events and open-to-the-public days. When we were in the UK 7-8 years ago, you could only visit Highclere on a very limited number of days in certain months of the year, and those days didn't fit with our other reasons for scheduling our trip.

As it happened, we stayed in Newbury and took the train to London one day. Travel from Newbury to Paddington and back was easy. Highclere Castle, though, is several miles from the station.

The time to arrive in Newbury is a little perplexing because as was indicated previously, although we have 2:30 tickets I’m planning on an earlier arrival, about 1:00 to visit the grounds prior to castle tour. We can leave Tower Hill station at any time. Is there a cafe or restaurant in Newbury to have lunch prior to cab to Highclere? For the return cab, it’s difficult to plan the leave time. Again, this is a challenge. We don’t have many castles in USA for comparison.

"For the return cab, it’s difficult to plan the leave time."

You might ask your cab driver on the way to Highclere what they think? Also you'll need to time it with a train back to London.

There won't be anything at the station on a Sunday but it's only a very short walk into the centre of Newbury where there are plenty of places to eat- there is even a mall which will be open from 10am on a Sunday.

As a for instance you could stroll down to the [Kennett and Avon] Canal wharf and eat here- https://www.teashopbythecanal.co.uk/

The Canal links Reading and the River Thames with Bath and Bristol, and is a very nice place to go down to.

That is just a for instance, lots of other places. But if you went to one specific place like that, you could arrange for the cab to pick you up there, rather than the station.

But the website says-

All ticket holders are welcome to spend the whole day in the grounds and enjoy the entertainment between 10:00am – 5:00pm

The 2.30 time is the entrance to the Egyptian Expedition.

I personally would go straight there, there is a lot on during the day, then book the cab back for maybe around 4 pm, or so. I guess there will be an exodus at 5pm- so 4pm gives them time to fit in another run before that mass exodus.

To somewhere like Highclere I would actually have thought the vast majority would drive themselves there. So how busy the taxis really will be is a bit debateable.

Return trains are 1546 (change Reading), 1721 direct, 1753 (change Reading) and 1925 direct.