Brits get ready to celebrate England’ heritage

Around one million people are expected to visit thousands of diverse heritage sites this September, from a hydro power station in Devon to a pyramid in Whitstable, for Heritage Open Days: the annual, free, four-day cultural event that celebrates England’s architecture and history.

This year for the first time, England’s largest voluntary, heritage event is being run by English Heritage. English Heritage stepped in to rescue the event when the previous organisers, the Civic Trust, went into administration earlier this year. From 10-13 September over 3,500 events are planned with properties of every style, period and function; promising a fun and revealing day-out for everyone. 90 per cent of the population lives within 30 minutes of a Heritage Open Days event.

From a rare opportunity to step inside a 1970s private home, now transformed into an imaginative eco-flat, to a walk in the woods with a “medieval woodsman”, a glimpse inside the oldest purpose built Masonic Hall in Northumberland and a rare chance to view the legendary Morecambe Winter Gardens, which has been closed since 1977. Heritage Open Days offers people the opportunity to explore a huge range of buildings and places, many of which are normally closed to the public, completely free of charge.

Thousands of volunteers from all walks of life, who share a commitment to opening up the buildings and spaces surrounding us, participate in the yearly event. The army of volunteer enthusiasts join the programme from local civic societies and heritage groups, local authorities, property owners, schools and colleges and local groups.

Baroness Andrews, OBE, Chair of English Heritage, said: “Heritage Open Days are thrilling. They are an opportunity to explore places which, however familiar, are normally closed and therefore mysterious. They provide a chance not only to discover secret history, but to meet the people who live or work there, and are passionate about their subject. And, of course, because there are so many of these places, and they are so very different – everything from Morecambe’s spectacular Winter Gardens to innovative eco-homes in Oxfordshire they demonstrate that the great wealth of our culture and history is all around us - on every street – and that we can explore for ourselves. That is what makes them so popular with adults and children alike.”

Highlights of Heritage Open Days 2009 include:

• Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach and Hippodrome, Norfolk - A tour of this entertainment landmark and scenic railway roller coaster. The ride was built at the park in 1932 and has been operational ever since. It stands and operates as the only remaining ride of its kind in the UK; and one of only eight in the world. The ride is virtually unique as a 'brakeman' is required to ride with the train to control its speed as there are no brakes on the track.

• Ice Cream Factory, Scarborough, North Yorkshire - Tours of traditional ice cream making factory attached to a traditional ice cream parlour.

• Brickendonbury, Hertfordshire - used by the Special Operations Executive to train agents and resistance workers in industrial sabotage throughout the Second World War, Brickendonbury has a long and colourful history dating back to Saxon times with parts of the mansion dating back to the late 17th century. It is believed that Agents trained at Brickendonbury were involved in vital operations such as the daring raid to destroy the Norwegian heavy water plant (part of Germany's nuclear bomb programme) and the bombing of the Renault engineering plant in France. A television documentary The Secret War showed archive film of parts of the estate being used for rehearsing such raids and a reminder of these activities was found during building work in 1973, when unexploded hand grenades and live mortar shells were discovered in the drained moat. Visitors will be able to see the various periods of the house as well as the model farm and gardens.

• The Mary Tavy Hydro Electric Power Station, Devon is home to the biggest renewable energy site belonging to South West Water. There has been a form of hydro power generated at Mary Tavy since 1932. During the last 75 years, the primitive mill wheels have gradually been replaced with the latest technology. Now Mary Tavy is a highly effective hydro electric power station, with six turbines powered by river water and a combined capacity of 2,610 kilowatts.

• Bagthorpe Gardens in Nottingham are historic cottage gardens dating from the 1840’s. Fruit and vegetables grown on the allotments will be for sale and visitors are encouraged to bring a picnic.

• Behind the scenes tours of the Sunderland Echo newspaper including tours of the presses and a talk by the Editor.

• Brokenbury Waste Treatment Works in Devon provides biological sewage treatment and ultra violet disinfectection for the whole of Torbay – an area described as the ‘English Riviera’.

• St Mary’s Church in Prestwich Manchester is famous as the setting for weddings and funerals in many episodes of Coronation Street.

• Stow Maries Aerodrome in Essex is the only existing WWI airfield with buildings left in the world. Built by the RAF towards the end of WWI it was abandoned in 1919 and has remained in ownership of the same farming family ever since. The majority of the original buildings remain but have been adapted to farming use over the years. However this has not changed the essential feel of the place. The site includes vintage and classic WWI aircraft.

• Explore the little known maze of mine workings that run underneath the Redcliffe area of Bristol’s residential streets.

• The magnificent Morecambe Winter Gardens in Lancashire were originally built as a swimming baths in the 1880s, and then developed into a People’s Palace. It housed the largest auditorium in the world and included a spectacular oriental ballroom. It is situated on the resort’s central promenade within sight of Morecambe’s other Grade II* listed building; the Midland Hotel. The Winter Gardens closed to the public in 1977, but the Friends of the Winter Gardens are working to restore it to its former glory as a multipurpose venue.

• 9 Dudley Court, Oxford is one of 25 privately owned eco-buildings across Oxfordshire that will be opening for Heritage Open Days. The two-bed 1970’s flat at Dudley Court has been eco-renovated to create a natural, healthy, low carbon home. Features include timber double glazing, low energy lighting, clay paint, a bamboo worktop, and tiles from a recycled car windscreen.

• The Willis Building in Suffolk with is sheer glass walls and kidney shape was designed by Foster Associates and was the youngest building in Britain to be listed at Grade I.

• The Breach House in Nottinghamshire is known to readers of D.H. Lawrence as “The Bottoms” in his semi auto-biographical novel Sons and Lovers. The Lawrence family moved here from Victoria Street in 1887 and lived here until 1891. Since it was an end house with extra space, they paid an extra sixpence a week rent.

• Chawton House in Hampshire, a Grade II* listed Elizabethan manor house, once owned by Jane Austen's brother, Edward, is now a unique research library of English women's writing from 1600-1830. Explore the house, gardens and grounds including the certified organic walled kitchen garden.

• A rare chance to visit the engineering sections of the massive command bunker at RAF Holmpton in Yorkshire nearly 100ft below the ground. Tours will visit parts of the site never usually seen.

• Stockport Air Raid Shelters are a fascinating underground labyrinth of tunnels built especially for shelter in World War II.

• Oxford Detectives – follow in the footsteps of the city’s celebrated TV detectives Morse and Lewis and visit the scenes of their best know cases.

• Emma Bridgewater Factory Tour in Stoke on Trent - An opportunity to tour the Emma Bridgewater Pottery factory, seeing how the pottery is made from start to finish, all by hand and using traditional methods. The pottery cafe will be open for all the family to decorate their own pieces of pottery.

• Clavell Tower, Dorset, was built in 1830 as an observatory and folly with three storeys and a distinctive Tuscan colonnade, inspiring PD James’s novel, The Black Tower. Thomas Hardy courted Eliza Bright Nicols here and used it as a frontispiece for his Wessex Poems. The tower, an important element in the coastal landscape of this World Heritage Site, has been painstakingly dismantled and re-erected 25 metres back from the crumbling cliff face to keep it safe from further coastal erosion.

Heritage Open Days is part of European Heritage Days, taking place across 49 countries during September as part of a mass celebration of Europe’s cultural heritage. The Heritage Open Days online directory listing all the events taking place in England can be seen at heritageopendays.org.uk.