I opened the doors of my home right back at the beginning of Heritage Open Days more than 30 years ago, and I can look back and be very certain that it was the right thing to do: for the house, for the community, for history and in fact for me personally. I’ve grown with the story of the building and its landscape and people.
Why we take part
I recognise Heritage Open Days as a hugely constructive and important event in England’s cultural calendar. It has such positive impact both locally and nationally, and crucially it is a two-way process that doesn’t just reveal heritage to communities but very actively progresses our collective understanding of all of our heritage. It has a reputation for involving people in journeys of real discovery – and that changes whole communities in remarkably beneficial ways.
The experience of participating is uplifting, inspiring and productive. It always pushes us forwards – keeping us on our toes, in an entirely positive way. It develops the place and spreads the word – it creates a sense of energy and pride.
What we do for HODs
Besides opening the house, I also run an adjacent ironworks, which is not normally accessible to the general public. For the past few years we have included this heritage craft element in the experience we offer to visitors, and it has been hugely popular. There is nothing quite like live blacksmithing to fire the imagination! It’s such a visually dramatic craft. In contrast we’ve recently also added the woodland nature reserve I manage to our HODs offer, which includes the footprint of an entire Victorian brickyard.
Working with the festival theme
In 2025, the theme of ‘Architecture’ was perfect for us but also challenging to describe. In the house, I wanted to try and convey the chronology of such an ancient building, especially the sense that it is not a neat tidy story of ‘an architect’ designing a building and placing it in a landscape. Rowhurst is a mess of a place, which is its charm; it is a great heap of ruinous remains from several eras which have then been patched and made good for the very many uses people have made of it. The land around it has been similarly mucked about with, and I wondered how to convey this reality of a churned up chaotic history.
Based on previous years, I tried to predict what our 2025 visitors would want to know, and with a fellow artist who works with me we created a folded leaflet that felt like a small booklet; we wanted to mix up history and convey the key ‘happenings’ that define the site, from the English Civil War to the building of the M25. This was tricky to pull off, but we had a very warm response and we all had to think a lot in the process about how history can best be communicated.
Meanwhile, at the forge, we celebrated architectural ironwork, and had a big screen with a running Powerpoint presentation showing the many architectural projects made and restored on our site since 1932. From the coronet on top of the Greenwich Observatory and the Shakespeare’s Globe gates to the restoration of Old Father Time at Lord’s and the strawberry staircase at Strawberry Hill, it was good to have an excuse to seek out, scan and curate all these pictures of interesting projects.
I am hugely looking forward to the 2026 theme already, and have many ideas forming! The themes encourage adventures into new research and communication territory, and they are responsible for very substantially advancing the stories of England’s places and populations (and indeed they often reveal how English history relates to histories all over the world).
The difference it makes
Participating makes a huge difference – it changes one’s whole perspective on human life, on social history, politics, science, the arts and so on. It brings that most precious of gifts, that can’t be measured but is invaluable: conversation. Stories told by one person to another, recollections, revelations, instinctive reactions, ideas, information. New directions to pursue. New ways of looking at things.
Best bits
This year we engaged 4 blacksmithing colleagues to demonstrate the skills and processes involved in shaping hot iron. A young boy visiting the forge with his father became particularly engaged with the process of one of the blacksmiths making a leaf keyring from start to finish. The boy watched intently for an hour, and was amazed by the seemingly magical transformation of a straight bar of iron into a beautiful organic leaf. The blacksmith handed him the keyring – a gift. We received the most beautiful thank you message from the father. I know from my own experience that such moments in one’s youth are life-changing.
Overcoming challenges
It’s always a lot of work, but in a very good way. I have to make sure my site is safe and that I’ve thought of everything. Signage, health & safety, risk assessments, etc. Ash dieback is a new challenge and a stressful one, so I changed the event to avoid any visitors going close to ash trees. Weather had been a factor for the previous two years (a heatwave and then torrential downpours), so I am learning to plan for more tumultuous weather conditions. Having to address all of this keeps historic sites up to speed, though, which keeps them well-managed and arguably saves them in the long run.
Lucy’s Top Tip
Do it! Just say yes, and the rest will fall into place. You will never regret it. It is a great way to make friends and to meet interesting people, to learn so much and to get that warm feeling inside from becoming part of living history. You are empowered to make that crucial difference and to keep our heritage accessible and vibrant.
Images from: Lucy Quinnell, Fire & Iron / HODs 2025
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