HERITAGE Open Days is England’s largest festival of history and culture, bringing together more than 2,500 organisations, 5,000 events and 40,000 volunteers.
Established in 1994 as England’s contribution to the European Heritage days, every year for four days in September places across the country throw open their doors to celebrate their heritage, community and history. It’s a chance to see hidden places and try out new experiences – and it’s all free.
Expanding and diversifying from 701 events at its launch to more than 5,000 today, Heritage Open Days continues to flourish with more events every year, reflecting the rich and diverse cultural heritage of England and its communities. Spanning the public, private and voluntary sectors, the festival is a unique and powerful partnership.
In this, its 23rd year, this “national local festival” will take place from Thursday, September 7, up to and including Sunday, September 10.
East Hampshire participants include:
ALTON QUAKER
MEETING HOUSE
(39 Church Street, Alton, GU34 2DA)
Open Saturday, September 9, 10am to 4pm. No booking required.
Alton Quaker Meeting House was built in 1672 (see the date on the wall) and is the second oldest Quaker Meeting House in the country. Visitors will be able to look around all the rooms on the ground floor, which includes the meeting room with its original screens and gallery. Outside is a burial ground where Quakers have been buried since the 1670s.
GILBERT WHITE’S HOUSE
MUSEUM, SELBORNE
(GU34 3JH)
Open Thursday, September 7, 10.30am to 5pm. No booking required.
Selborne and its surrounding landscape inspired Gilbert White’s life-long investigation of the natural world, culminating in his world-famous book The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne. His story within the walls of his family home and garden. The later extensions to the house host The Oates Collections, with galleries celebrating two very different explorers of the natural world. Beyond the walls of the house you can explore 30 acres of heritage gardens and wild flower meadow, as well as visit the tea parlour for afternoon tea.
While the ground floor of the house is disabled visitor friendly, there is no lift to the first floor.
For more details, visit gilbertwhiteshouse.org.uk.
THE MID HANTS RAILWAY
WATERCRESS LINE
(Ropley Station, SO24 0BL)
Open Friday, September 8, for tours at 11.30am, 12.30pm, 1.30pm, 2.30pm and 3.20pm.
No booking required.
The Watercress Line is this year running behind-the-scenes tours of its workshops at Ropley as part of Heritage Open Days.
Visitors can explore the engineering hub at the Watercress Line and find out what it takes to restore and maintain steam locomotives, including the railway’s Lottery Fund-supported flagship steam locomotive Canadian Pacific (CanPac). They will be able to get up close to the magnificent engines in the workshops and talk to staff who restore and maintain the engines. It’s an exciting opportunity to access areas that are not normally open to the public and learn about every aspect of restoration from restoring steam engines to building carriages.
Areas accessible on the tours will be dependent on the day and the engineering processes taking place but can include the light machine shop, wheel drop, main workshop, yard, carriage workshop and boiler shop.
There are a few stairs inside the workshops but the tour can be changed to accommodate anyone in a wheelchair.
Visitor parking can be found on Bighton Hill (SO24 9SQ) To get to the station follow the path from the car park down to platform one or across Kings Cross Bridge and through the yard. Tours will start from outside the viewing gallery on platform two.
Visit watercressline.co.uk.
GRANARY CREATIVE ARTS
CENTRE
The Granary, Brockwood Farm, Bramdean (SO24 0LQ)
Open Saturday, September 9, 10am to 4pm, Sunday, September 10, 11am to 4pm.
No booking required.
Visit this charming old Granary, one of the largest of its kind still standing, you can still see the chalk marks on the walls by farmers weighing and selling crops over 200 years ago. It’s now used as a centre for art classes, heritage craft workshops and events. Meet local artisans and try your hand at some traditional craft including stone carving and woodblock printing. Activities are aimed for older children and adults. Arts and crafts available to buy as well as hot soup, cake and drinks. East walk to and from Hinton Ampner.
The Granary is perched on staddle stones and has five steps. It is possible to carry push chairs in but sadly no access for wheelchair users.
For more details, visit granarycreativearts.com.
LONG BARN
The Old Sheep Fair, Bishops Sutton Road, Alresford (SO24 9EJ)
Exhibition open September 7-9, 9am to 5pm, and Sunday, September 10, 10am to 4pm, with talk at 2pm on Friday (September 8).
Pre-booking required on 01962 738684. Exhibition free, talk £10 to include 10 per cent shopping discount on the day.
Lavender has a long and ancient history in England: Romans lined their bed sheets with the flower to help with bed bugs, Elizabeth I carried posies at all times, to ward off stenches and plague, and Queen Victoria preferred a spot of lavender jelly to mint on her mutton.
Long Barn loves all things lavender at their home and garden store with cafe in Alresford. See their collection of artefacts showcasing English lavender growing. Additionally Founder Richard Norris will talk about the history from its origins, through its heyday in Victorian times to its recent resurrection.
For more details, visit longbarn.co.uk.
THE GRANGE
Northington, Alresford (SO24 9TG)
Open Friday, September 8: Tours 11am, 12.30pm & 2.30pm
The exterior is free to explore but tours must be pre-booked through Historic England on 01483 252020
On Friday, September 8, tours will be offered of the interior and exterior of The Grange (at no charge). The exterior is normally open, but the interior very rarely. The house is a ‘roofed ruin’ and was partially refurbished from a state of dereliction in 1975 when it passed into the hands of the Department of the Environment (now English Heritage). A great Greek Revival house to outward appearance, inside the house is revealed as a lost masterpiece of the age of Charles II. The two architects had very different ways of interpreting the legacy of Greece and Rome. The current state allows this transformation to be glimpsed, and with it the stages of social history through which the house has passed.
Its latest phase has included the insertion of a small opera house into the former ballroom which forms a surprising addition to the tour.
This tour is not for the faint-hearted because the house looks like a disaster, and it can feel like a tragedy. However most visitors feel at the end that it has been a very interesting experience and one they cannot gain in many other places. They still need stout shoes and a watchful attitude - not all floors are still there!
Because this is an unstaffed site, there are no toilets.The exterior (and thus part of the tour) is accessible to wheelchairs but the interior has a number of steps to the ground floor and no lift. The basement and first floor are also not accessible except by substantial staircases.
THE WATERCRESS CO
(Old Alresford, SO24 9DH)
Open Thursday, September 7, 6pm-8pm.
Booking required on 01962 732104.
Explore the history of Watercress in Hampshire, take a guided walk around the beds and learn more about the health-giving properties of this amazing herb. Then adjourn to the onsite Winchester Distillery for a tour of the site with a free tasting of their award-winning watercress gin.
This is a working factory where access to certain areas is over rough ground or may be slippery when wet.
This event is free although donations towards our supported charities would be very welcome.
WOODLANDS HOUSE
Woodlands, Bramdean (SO24 0HW)
Open Friday and Saturday, September 8 & 9, from 10am to 1pm.
Pre-booking required - conatct Nigel Symonds on 07939 947244
View the Art Collection.
Entrance via black gates south west of Woodlands Cottages
GIEVES & HAWKES LTD
(1-2 The Square, Winchester, SO23
9ES)
Open 9am to 5.30pm Thursday to Saturday (September 7 to 9)and 10am to 4pm on Sunday, September 10. No booking required.
For more than two centuries Gieves & Hawkes has been the worlds foremost in bespoke tailoring. With its iconic address No 1 Savile Row in London, Gieves & Hawkes can justly claim a place among the world’s leading menswear houses, having dressed men of distinction for important occasions since 1771. Holders of all three British Royal warrants, it has dressed every British Sovereign since George III and continues to serve every generation of the present Royal family.
Located next to Winchester Cathedral the store in Winchester is a well established part of the company’s history.
Over the Heritage weekend it will offer an opportunity to look back at the shop’s military history dating back to 1803 helmets and to when Princess Diana wore the Hampshire Regiment Colonel in Chief uniform made by Gieves & Hawkes - her original uniform jacket can be seen alongside many other archive pieces.
For more details, visit gievesandhawkes.com.
BARTER MEMORIAL CHAPEL
at ROYAL COUNTY HOSPITAL
WINCHESTER
(Romsey Road, SO22 5DG)
Open Saturday, September 9, tours from 11am to 3pm. No booking required.
Rarely open to the public, come and explore the original hospital chapel designed by William Butterfield and its beautiful stained glass windows. Learn more about the history of RHCH and see historical artefacts, including Florence Nightingale’s lamp, and photos through the ages.
The upper floor of the chapel is only accessible via steep stairs and not suitable for wheelchair users or visitors with walking difficulties.
For more details, visit hampshirehospitals.nhs.uk.
OLD SHOP FRONT EXHIBITION
AT THE TOP OF TOWN,
BASINGSTOKE
Market Place (RG21 7QA)
Open Thursday to Saturday, September 7 to 9, 10am to 4pm, and Sunday, September 10, dependent on location.
No booking required.
Walk in the steps of Jane Austen and Thomas Burberry whilst visiting locations across the Top of Town to see the Old Shop Front exhibition. Discover Basingstoke current gems and Basingstoke’s hidden past.
For more details, visit inbasingstoke.org.
ODIHAM’S HERITAGE SUNDAY
The Bridewell & Odiham Library, The Bury, Odiham (RG29 1NB)
Open Sunday, September 10, 11am to 4pm. No booking required.
Visit the Bridewell and view the Odiham Embroidery depicting 800 years of history since 1215. Also Archives and Garden inside this former jail, police station and magistrates court (now the Odiham Library).
Join a guided walk of ‘the Bury and Odiham High Street’ led by Derek Spruce, beginning at 11am from the Bridewell and ending at Dibrell House around noon.
View inside Dibrell House (57 High Street), one of many Grade II listed buildings and the former home of the Seymour family dating from the 17th/18th Century. Re-fronted and extended during the 19th century, it is remembered by many pupils as a 20th Century school. This is an unusual opportunity to see inside a significant Georgian residence, with attic and cellar, which poses a major restoration challenge. Open 12 noon to 4pm.
Join a guided walk of Odiham’s Historic Deer Park led by Derek Spruce, beginning from the Bel & the Dragon at The George at 2.30pm.
All Saints Church, originally a Saxon minster, is open during the daytime when services are not underway. The large Grade I listed church has special tranquillity and many fascinating features. The Pest House in the Churchyard, an Almshouse built in the early 17th century and occupied into the 20th century, will also be open.
Organised by The Odiham Society.