The annual festival of history and culture, Heritage Open Days, returns this month (September) with the theme of creativity. Founded in 1994, Heritage Open Days sees venues across the country open their doors to visitors for free, with help from volunteers. Coordinated nationally by the National Trust, it is supported by the People’s Postcode Lottery.
Hundreds of activities will adopt this year’s theme, Creativity Unwrapped, as it celebrates “the experts and enthusiastic amateurs whose passions and skills add something special to our daily lives.” The festival’s events will be hosted by locations that usually charge, alongside free sites and those that aren’t usually open to the public. Among the venues to open their doors to visitors are more than 100 industrial heritage sites from the M Shed in Bristol and the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, to the Macclesfield Silk Museum and Wandle Industrial Museum. There are also more than 100 industrial-themed walks, talks and exhibitions.
The 2022 Heritage Open Days festival saw nearly 5,000 events across the country, attracting one million visits. This year, more than 5000 events are planned. Heritage Open Days says around one-third of visitors last year had not visited a heritage site or event in the past year, while 80% of festival-goers said their visit made them more proud of their local area.
To find an industrial site or event follow this link: https://www.heritageopendays.org.uk/visiting/advanced-search
Industrial Heritage Networks 