Want to take part in Heritage Open Days, but not sure how? Here are our top tips, which will make all the difference when planning, registering & running your HODs events, to make sure that you can make the most of being involved with Heritage Open Days.
Ready? Set?... Go! Yes the event directory is now live, with over 1,600 events for you to hunt through. The team’s first picks range from immersive theatre exploring food histories to a church open day showcasing local farming lives (including a ‘giant’ legend from the 17th century). Heritage Open Days is back on 11-20 September - it’s your passport to explore, so save the dates and make your picks!
From lamps to light your way to sandwich saving tins and revolutionary baths. Explore the working lives of miners with these objects from the National Coal Mining Museum.
Kill or cure – can you tell the difference? Set up to train 17th century apothecaries Chelsea Physic Garden has a history of horticultural innovation and an ongoing legacy as a botanical hub. Here the team take us through highlights of its early years and how traditional skills now blend with modern methods.
Henry saved nearly 900 lives in his lifetime. Emily ran a railway station singlehandedly in 1903. Explore these and other gems of our Everyday Histories with Findmypast. Discover how they fit into the bigger picture and ways you can start uncovering stories of your own!
Meet the first professional gardeners. Wages were low, hours long, and expectations very high. Discover more about their lives and the (immortal?!) rewards they could reap, as you climb the career ladder with Fiona Davison from the Royal Horticultural Society.
What connects a data scientist, a housekeeper, and an archer?! You might be surprised to discover, they all currently work in a ‘castle’! If you’ve wondered just what people do in grand (and sometimes not so grand) old places these days, then read on for a taster. Historic Houses are launching a new careers network - perhaps you could be the next retainer recruited at your favourite castle?!
We're working with Findmypast to look for England’s Everyday History Heroes. The local people and places uncovering and sharing stories of their community’s rich past. Are you one of them, or do you know someone who is?
Where do those graceful hotel flowers come from, and who picks them? Meet the 17th century gardeners and more recent lily-pickers of Middleton Hall. Volunteer, Debbie Jordan, has been researching the estate’s women workers across its centuries of history. She shares some of her discoveries here, but watch out for their event this September where more stories of Everyday Histories will be explored!
Researching a forgotten princess took heritage detective, Sundeep Braich, from Lichfield to Kensington Palace. First sharing the story of Princess Irene Duleep Singh in an event for our festival last year, she was invited to the palace for a special preview of their new exhibition. Excellent as it is though, the exhibition cannot cover everything, so here Sundeep fills in some gaps to highlight the other half of an extraordinary family, and their legacy.
Meet Emma, the Victorian dressmaker with a soft spot for toffee! Princethorpe College have been delving into their archives and have a wonderful story of Everyday History* to share from the site’s former use as a Priory. Their archivist, Joanna Wong, gives us a taster here, but do look out for their event in September where there will be more stories to explore. (*Nb. Everyday Histories is this year's festival theme.)
Captivated by the mysterious beauty of a tilted gravestone, Jeanne Pope has discovered an unexpected connection with a Victorian cook. Unravelling Philadelphia’s past raised more questions than answers though, and highlights how every life has a valuable story to tell.
Beatrix Potter is beloved as an author but how much do you know of her as Beatrix Heelis, the farmer? Step into her clogs and discover the land and the animals she loved. Plus some of the people she couldn’t have done it all without.
Curtain up, and let’s welcome into the spotlight three brilliant entertainers who defied gender conventions. The popular male impersonator who became Britain’s highest earning woman. The Colonel who created a sideshow out of speculation about their marriage. The elegant ventriloquist with a matcho working class alter ego. Sit back and enjoy as Showtown in Blackpool introduce us to these stories of working lives that don’t revolve around a desk!
In Georgian England a London merchant saw the opportunities of industry in the North. Settling in Cheshire he built Daresbury Hall for his family, from which a web of stories can be unravelled. Heatherfield Heritage have been digging in to the records to follow the threads of these everyday histories and share some of them with us here - but watch out for more over the festival in September!
