Snowflakes made of diamonds and a room made of seashells! Delve into the history of some of the National Trust's treasured collections before the return of the popular BBC series this Christmas.

The biggest and best festival yet was delivered by our growing, and increasingly diverse community. With the help of new micro-grants and partnerships over 5,879 events were organised offering people more places to visit and stories to explore than ever before.

Join us to discuss the numbers and stories from this year's festival.

Holding open days for the community has become a vital part of this school’s year. Inviting people in to explore this historic building and its archive has helped overturn local perceptions and led to joyful reunions for past pupils. On little to no budget, working in partnership by providing a venue for others to run creative activities adds extra interest, further builds community links, and this year, may have inspired a new career for one young visitor!

Rosa May Billinghurst was a formidable woman and celebrated suffragette. Being partially paralysed by polio as a child was no bar to her activism, indeed she used her adapted tricycle to advantage at protests. Rosa’s story was part of an exhibition on the history of disability activism the Pankhurst Museum researched for our festival this year. To share this important work more widely we’ve invited them to give a taster of Rosa’s story and the history uncovered.

The Intact Centre have been using creativity to engage people through Heritage Open Days since 2019. They programme different activities to attract new people, and strengthen their local community links; encouraging them to explore the wildlife on site and highlighting the work the team do.

One of Surrey’s oldest private homes has been opening for the festival for over 30 years. Embracing new challenges and opportunities they have grown their offer across a 10 acre site (including a working forge). Participating has inspired further research into the site’s history and brought the community together as well as helped attract new visitors.

Our popular youth engagement training and development programme is back! For 2026 we are running a regionally focused version of New Wave in Leicestershire. Now open for applications.

From domestic townhouses to grand castles and mysterious follies this conservation charity has an extraordinary collection of historic buildings available for unique holidays. Alongside their lettings business though, open days are a vital part of their charitable purpose of engaging people with these sites and the, often award winning, restoration work it took to save and convert them for modern use. For over 15 years Heritage Open Days has been helping them do just that, providing a supportive central platform to raise awareness of their work, recruit new supporters, and sometimes staff too!

A young independent researcher found Heritage Open Days a valuable platform to share her work ahead of an important centenary next year. Exploring the sensitive story of Princess Irene Duleep Singh — a woman history has often overlooked — she worked collaboratively to navigate complex themes of identity, mental health, and heritage, and overcome challenges of access and copyright. The wonderful response to her in-person and online talks demonstrates how successful her efforts were and bodes well for future plans.