Category: Open Days

Two New Heritage Harbours Announced

Two New Heritage Harbours Announced

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Gloucester’s historic docks. Image copyright Dr Mchael Nevell.

Gloucester and Ramsgate officially become Heritage Harbours on Saturday 7th September 2024, joining twelve other locations across the UK already recognised for their contribution to saving our maritime heritage. The Heritage Harbours project is supported by National Historic Ships UK, Historic England and Maritime Heritage Trust.

Gloucester and Ramsgate join Bideford, Bristol, Buckler’s Hard, Chester, Exeter, Faversham and Oare Creeks, Ipswich, Maldon and Heybridge, Sandwich, Shardlow, Stourport, and Wells next the Sea in the Heritage Harbours National Working Group.

Gloucester, a Roman town in origin, will be celebrating its Heritage Harbour status on Gloucester Day, Saturday 7th September, with a procession through the city and proclamation by the town crier, rounding off with cannon fire from the Sealed Knot re-enactment society. Tony Conder, Chair of the Gloucester Docks Bicentenary Working Team, said: “Heritage Harbour designation is an amazing achievement for Gloucester, building on the work of the City Council, Canal & River Trust, previously British Waterways, in bringing new life to the waterfront. It offers fantastic opportunities for all the current partners engaged within the historic Port of Gloucester to celebrate the Bicentenary in 2027 and to go on to strengthen the Gloucester Docks businesses and enhance the enjoyment of visitors to this maritime heritage site into the future.”

Ramsgate’s Royal Harbour is Grade II* listed and is the only royal harbour in the world, an honour bestowed by King George IV in 1821. “We are thrilled to receive the Heritage Harbour designation,” said John Walker, Chair of the Ramsgate Heritage Harbour Working Group. “It’s wonderful that our amazing maritime heritage, combined with the activities of a working harbour and thriving cafe culture, has been recognised nationally. Ramsgate is a great place to work and to visit.”

“We are very pleased to welcome on board Gloucester Docks, and Ramsgate’s Royal Harbour, during Heritage Open Days 2024, the largest festival of history and culture in the UK,” said Henry Cleary, Heritage Harbours’ convenor and chair of Maritime Heritage Trust. “Heritage Harbours are about capturing the interactions between navigable water and the land and buildings alongside it. No other designation does this and we now have locations which represent the main types of historic port from the Roman period to the 19th century.”

Many of the Heritage Harbours are staging maritime events during Heritage Open Days and deatils can be foundont he Heritage Open Days website here: https://www.heritageopendays.org.uk/

For more details about the UK’s Heritage Harbours follow this link: https://maritimeheritage.org.uk/

Ramsgate’s Royal Harbour. Image courtesy fo Heritage Harbours.
Over 90 Industrial Heritage Sites Open for Heritage Open Days 2021

Over 90 Industrial Heritage Sites Open for Heritage Open Days 2021

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The 2021 Heritage Open Days season runs from the 10th to the 19th September and this year sees the return of live visits. Billed as England’s largest festival of history and culture, every September thousands of volunteers across England organise events to celebrate this rich legacy from the past. With around 5,500 events, it’s your chance to see hidden places and try out new experiences – all of which are FREE to explore.

Established in 1994, Heritage Open Days is England’s contribution to the European Heritage Days and has since grown into the country’s largest community heritage festival. Further details here: https://www.heritageopendays.org.uk/

There are over 90 industrial heritage sites in England offering activities from lectures and walking tours to food events and virtual experiences, or you could just walk around industrial sites that have not been open, in some cases, for 18 months. Industrial Heritage sites opening for this year’s Heritage Open Days include 21 watermills, 18 windmills, 13 textile sites, ten railway sites, eight metal working sites, and five pumping stations. These tend to be smaller industrial sites that are largely volunteer led.

So now is your opportunity to visit the world’s largest tidal mill at Home Mill in London, the only eight-sailed windmill at Heckington in Lincolnshire, take a behind the scenes tour of the workshops at the Stephenson Railway Museum in North Shields, gaze at the huge horizontal steam engine that once powered the Leigh Spinners cotton spinning mill in Leigh, Greater Manchester, or explore the buildings and machinery of the Westonzoyland Pumping Station at Bridgwater in Somerset. Or explore one of the many other industrial heritage sites available this year.