Posted on 11th September 2012 by Anna Lermon
© Civic Trust for Wales - Open Doors
© Open Doors - Newport medieval ship
© Open Doors - Gladstone Library, Hawarden
© Open Doors - Dolbedyr House, Denbigh
© Open Doors - Exhibit at Lloyd George Museum, Criccieth
© Open Doors - The Hetty, Trehafod
© Open Doors - Nantclwyd_y_Dre, Ruthin
© Open Doors - Llanfyllin, Powis
As a reader of the Heritage Open Days blog you’ll know all about European Heritage Days and will have enjoyed four interesting and fun Heritage Open Days visiting lots of fantastic English architecture and culture. While it is now sadly over in England for the year, just over the borders in Wales and Scotland the European Heritage Days programme continues throughout the month of September. In Wales we call European Heritage Days ‘Open Door’s and there are events taking place across Wales throughout September.
Here's just a taster of the variety of sites you can visit:
Weekend 15th/16th September
On September 15th, visit The Newport Medieval Ship the most complete surviving example of a fifteenth century Ship. You can get a rare update on the ship’s restoration, which was found in the mud banks of the River Usk in Newport, South East Wales. In North Wales, on September 16th take a tour of Britain’s only Prime Ministerial Library. Founded by the Victorian statesman, Gladstone Library houses over 200,000 volumes. Alternatively, make a weekend of it and visit Denbigh for a range of events over the whole weekend. The town boasts over 200 listed buildings in a mixture of styles, from medieval timber and stone to grand Victorian brick.
Weekend 22nd/23rd September
There’s lots more planned for the following weekend, including the Lloyd George Museum, which will open its doors for free on the 22nd. Learn about another former Prime Minister and visit his grave. If you’re nearer South Wales, visit the Great Western Colliery Winding House, ‘The Hetty’, on the 22nd or 23rd. The Hetty pit was one of the four pits of the Great Western Colliery supplying coal for the locomotives of the Great Western Railway. Alternatively, spend a weekend in beautiful Ruthin, a town full of architectural interesting including a former courthouse largely unaltered since the 1400s or Nantclwyd y Dre, which also dates from the early 15th century.
Weekend of 29th/30th September
This is the last weekend of Open Doors this year. On either day you could visit Llanfyllin Workhouse in Powys, an outstanding example of a Victorian Workhouse, designed by Thomas Penson and built 1838-40. Otherwise visit the home of the Girl Guides in Wales, Broneirion, a Grade II listed mansion designed in the Italianate style and surrounded by four acres of beautiful grounds.
For further details of these and other Open Doors events, as well as to find out which events require booking, see www.opendoorsdays.org.uk.
Hope to see you on one of the weekends here in Wales!
View more: Programme highlights
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