diff --git a/ChangeLog.md b/ChangeLog.md
--- a/ChangeLog.md
+++ b/ChangeLog.md
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+## 1.5.1.0
+
+* Better error provenance for stuff invoking withResponse' [#1191](https://github.com/yesodweb/yesod/pull/1191)
+
 ## 1.5.0.1
 
 * Fixed the `application/x-www-form-urlencoded` header being added to all requests, even those sending a binary POST body [#1064](https://github.com/yesodweb/yesod/pull/1064/files)
diff --git a/Yesod/Test.hs b/Yesod/Test.hs
--- a/Yesod/Test.hs
+++ b/Yesod/Test.hs
@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@
     , get
     , post
     , postBody
+    , followRedirect
     , request
     , addRequestHeader
     , setMethod
@@ -277,15 +278,21 @@
 -- response-level assertions
 withResponse' :: MonadIO m
               => (state -> Maybe SResponse)
+              -> [T.Text]
               -> (SResponse -> ST.StateT state m a)
               -> ST.StateT state m a
-withResponse' getter f = maybe err f . getter =<< ST.get
- where err = failure "There was no response, you should make a request"
+withResponse' getter errTrace f = maybe err f . getter =<< ST.get
+ where err = failure msg
+       msg = if null errTrace
+             then "There was no response, you should make a request."
+             else
+               "There was no response, you should make a request. A response was needed because: \n - "
+               <> T.intercalate "\n - " errTrace
 
 -- | Performs a given action using the last response. Use this to create
 -- response-level assertions
 withResponse :: (SResponse -> YesodExample site a) -> YesodExample site a
-withResponse = withResponse' yedResponse
+withResponse = withResponse' yedResponse []
 
 -- | Use HXT to parse a value from an HTML tag.
 -- Check for usage examples in this module's source.
@@ -295,16 +302,17 @@
 -- | Query the last response using CSS selectors, returns a list of matched fragments
 htmlQuery' :: MonadIO m
            => (state -> Maybe SResponse)
+           -> [T.Text]
            -> Query
            -> ST.StateT state m [HtmlLBS]
-htmlQuery' getter query = withResponse' getter $ \ res ->
+htmlQuery' getter errTrace query = withResponse' getter ("Tried to invoke htmlQuery' in order to read HTML of a previous response." : errTrace) $ \ res ->
   case findBySelector (simpleBody res) query of
     Left err -> failure $ query <> " did not parse: " <> T.pack (show err)
     Right matches -> return $ map (encodeUtf8 . TL.pack) matches
 
 -- | Query the last response using CSS selectors, returns a list of matched fragments
 htmlQuery :: Query -> YesodExample site [HtmlLBS]
-htmlQuery = htmlQuery' yedResponse
+htmlQuery = htmlQuery' yedResponse []
 
 -- | Asserts that the two given values are equal.
 assertEqual :: (Eq a) => String -> a -> a -> YesodExample site ()
@@ -569,7 +577,7 @@
 -- >   addToken_ "#formID"
 addToken_ :: Query -> RequestBuilder site ()
 addToken_ scope = do
-  matches <- htmlQuery' rbdResponse $ scope <> "input[name=_token][type=hidden][value]"
+  matches <- htmlQuery' rbdResponse ["Tried to get CSRF token with addToken'"] $ scope <> "input[name=_token][type=hidden][value]"
   case matches of
     [] -> failure $ "No CSRF token found in the current page"
     element:[] -> addPostParam "_token" $ head $ attribute "value" $ parseHTML element
@@ -685,6 +693,29 @@
 get url = request $ do
     setMethod "GET"
     setUrl url
+
+-- | Follow a redirect, if the last response was a redirect.
+-- (We consider a request a redirect if the status is
+-- 301, 302, 303, 307 or 308, and the Location header is set.)
+--
+-- ==== __Examples__
+--
+-- > get HomeR
+-- > followRedirect
+followRedirect :: Yesod site
+               =>  YesodExample site (Either T.Text T.Text) -- ^ 'Left' with an error message if not a redirect, 'Right' with the redirected URL if it was
+followRedirect = do
+  mr <- getResponse
+  case mr of
+   Nothing ->  return $ Left "followRedirect called, but there was no previous response, so no redirect to follow"
+   Just r -> do
+     if not ((H.statusCode $ simpleStatus r) `elem` [301, 302, 303, 307, 308])
+       then return $ Left "followRedirect called, but previous request was not a redirect"
+       else do
+         case lookup "Location" (simpleHeaders r) of
+          Nothing -> return $ Left "followRedirect called, but no location header set"
+          Just h -> let url = TE.decodeUtf8 h in
+                     get url  >> return (Right url)
 
 -- | Sets the HTTP method used by the request.
 --
diff --git a/test/main.hs b/test/main.hs
--- a/test/main.hs
+++ b/test/main.hs
@@ -20,11 +20,13 @@
 import Control.Applicative
 import Network.Wai (pathInfo, requestHeaders)
 import Data.Maybe (fromMaybe)
+import Data.Either (isLeft, isRight)
+import Control.Exception.Lifted(try, SomeException)
 
 import Data.ByteString.Lazy.Char8 ()
 import qualified Data.Map as Map
 import qualified Text.HTML.DOM as HD
-import Network.HTTP.Types.Status (unsupportedMediaType415)
+import Network.HTTP.Types.Status (status301, status303, unsupportedMediaType415)
 
 parseQuery_ = either error id . parseQuery
 findBySelector_ x = either error id . findBySelector x
@@ -213,9 +215,30 @@
                 setMethod "POST"
                 setUrl ("/" :: Text)
             statusIs 403
+    describe "test redirects" $ yesodSpec app $ do
+        yit "follows 303 redirects when requested" $ do
+            get ("/redirect303" :: Text)
+            statusIs 303
+            r <- followRedirect
+            liftIO $ assertBool "expected a Right from a 303 redirect" $ isRight r
+            statusIs 200
+            bodyContains "we have been successfully redirected"
 
+        yit "follows 301 redirects when requested" $ do
+            get ("/redirect301" :: Text)
+            statusIs 301
+            r <- followRedirect
+            liftIO $ assertBool "expected a Right from a 301 redirect" $ isRight r
+            statusIs 200
+            bodyContains "we have been successfully redirected"
 
 
+        yit "returns a Left when no redirect was returned" $ do
+            get ("/" :: Text)
+            statusIs 200
+            r <- followRedirect
+            liftIO $ assertBool "expected a Left when not a redirect" $ isLeft r
+
 instance RenderMessage LiteApp FormMessage where
     renderMessage _ _ = defaultFormMessage
 
@@ -235,6 +258,9 @@
         case mfoo of
             Nothing -> error "No foo"
             Just foo -> return foo
+    onStatic "redirect301" $ dispatchTo $ redirectWith status301 ("/redirectTarget" :: Text) >> return ()
+    onStatic "redirect303" $ dispatchTo $ redirectWith status303 ("/redirectTarget" :: Text) >> return ()
+    onStatic "redirectTarget" $ dispatchTo $ return ("we have been successfully redirected" :: Text)
     onStatic "form" $ dispatchTo $ do
         ((mfoo, widget), _) <- runFormPost
                         $ renderDivs
diff --git a/yesod-test.cabal b/yesod-test.cabal
--- a/yesod-test.cabal
+++ b/yesod-test.cabal
@@ -1,10 +1,10 @@
 name:               yesod-test
-version:            1.5.0.1
+version:            1.5.1.0
 license:            MIT
 license-file:       LICENSE
 author:             Nubis <nubis@woobiz.com.ar>
 maintainer:         Michael Snoyman, Greg Weber, Nubis <nubis@woobiz.com.ar>
-synopsis:           integration testing for WAI/Yesod Applications 
+synopsis:           integration testing for WAI/Yesod Applications
 category:           Web, Yesod, Testing
 stability:          Experimental
 cabal-version:      >= 1.8
@@ -60,6 +60,7 @@
                           , yesod-form
                           , text
                           , wai
+                          , lifted-base
                           , http-types
 
 source-repository head