How to Use the Event Directory

Our online directory is your comprehensive guide to Heritage Open Days. Constantly updated, it provides you with full details of all property openings and events across England’s regions, including late entries, cancellations and last-minute changes. So keep visiting.

Heritage Open Days 2008 takes place from 11-14 September, but not all buildings are open on all four days. Some are only open for timed tours and others only by pre-booking. Please check with our online directory when planning your trip.

Finding out what’s on in your area

England Map / Regional Search

Heritage Open Days covers eight regions: South West, South East, Eastern Region, East of England, East Midlands, West Midlands, North West, North East and Yorkshire & Humberside. There are also some exciting properties and events in Greater London taking part in Heritage Open Days this year but London stages a separate event, called London Open House, which will take place on 20 & 21 September 2008. For more info go to http://www.openhouse.org.uk

Click on one of the coloured regions of the map or on any of the regions listed on the left and you will get a table of all events sorted by county and town listed under the respective region.

For full details of an entry click on the Name of the property / event.

To go back to the home page of the directory, click on Browse & Explore on the right sub-menu entitled ‘In this Section’.

Narrow your Search

Keyword Search

You may have heard or read that a specific building will take part in Heritage Open Days but don’t know where it is. In this case, type the name or part of it in the Keyword Search field and click on the arrow next to it. See what happens. Of course, depending on the keyword you enter, the search engine may throw up many more results. E.g. if you only enter the word “park” it will not only show up green spaces but any listing that has the word somewhere in its entry, e.g. “park & ride”.

If you are interested in a specific type of venue or event, we recommend that you try our Search by Type or Search by Period.

Postcode Search

Enter your postcode and the Search Engine will list all events within a five-mile radius. If nothing was found within this radius, vary the range with the Distance drop-down menu, e.g. set 40 miles.

County Search

If you want to know what’s happening in a particular county, use the county drop-down menu. For reasons of simplicity, we often use old county names, e.g. Berkshire, and place unitary authorities under bigger counties, e.g. Milton Keynes under Buckinghamshire, Telford and Wrekin under Shropshire.

Once you have pressed Return or clicked on the Search button, a table will appear listing all entries sorted by their nearest town. Smaller towns, villages or hamlets tend to be listed under a city or bigger town within a ten-mile radius. Please read carefully the directions supplied in most entries.

For full details of an entry click on the Name of the property / event.

Search by Interest

You can also further narrow your search by selecting a type of event or property, e.g. theatre/cinema, or a period you may be interested in, e.g. 20th century.

Wheelchair Users

Places and events that are fully wheelchair accessible can be found by ticking the box next to ‘Wheelchair accessible events only’.

We encourage property owners to make every provision for physical access to their properties. However, not every Heritage Open Days venue has full physical access as many are listed buildings that are not usually open to the public. The even directory indicates how accessible we have been told the property is (please see ‘Key to Symbols’). If you have a query regarding disabled access, please contact us on 020 7539 7918.

Children-friendly

If you would like to find family-friendly places and events offering special activities for children, tick the respective box. Please note that children under the age of 16 have to be accompanied by an authorised adult.

Reading a Listing Entry

Each listing entry provides you with address details, a short description of the venue or the activity, opening times and directions as well as some more details on admission procedures, amenities and access.

Each entry mentions at the end the organisation that has registered the property or event with Heritage Open Days. If applicable, we have set a link to the organisations’ websites.

Directions

Some events have also provided public transport information.

Opening Times

Heritage Open Days 2008 runs from Thursday 11 to Sunday 14 September. Some events however take place outside the official HODs dates, as for instance in the Liverpool City Region where the Capital of Culture marks its special year with a ten-day Heritage Open Days extravaganza. If a property opens outside the official HODs dates, the entry will state this clearly. You can also search for events taking part on alternative dates.

Event Symbols

For a full explanation of the icons used on each list entry, hover with your cursor over the relevant icon or select ‘Key to Symbols’ in the right sub-menu ‘In this section’.

Amendments and cancellations

The information provided in the online directory is correct at the time of going live. However, with such a large programme of voluntary events, some changes may well occur. Neither the Civic Trust, nor the individual organisers, can accept responsibility for any changes or errors, or any disappointment or inconvenience arising from them.

However, we ask all Heritage Open Days organisers to inform us of any programme changes and withdrawals so that we can keep the event directory up-to-date. Changes can occur at the very last minute, so please double-check details before setting out.

If an event changed times or booking details, a notice ‘Last modified’ plus date will appear under the address line of the directory entry.

My HODs Favourites

You can select a list of events you’d like to attend by clicking on the Add to My Favourites button shown at the bottom of each individual list entry.

In order to be able to use this function and look up your selection you need to be logged in. If you haven’t got a username or password yet, you need to register first. This is very easy and won’t take much time. Simply click on the link ‘Register as a new member’ and complete the registration form. An automated email message sent to your email address will confirm your account details. Go into your email and click on the link which will take you back to the HODs website.

The advantage is that Your HODs Favourites which you have will be saved for you for future reference until you remove them from your list.

To print out your selection, click on ‘View printable version’ first. We are still improving the layout of the printable version. We do apologise if pages still show lots of blank space.

Leave your Feedback

After your Heritage Open Days visit you can provide feedback by rating your visits (one to five stars) and leaving a comment, sharing your experiences and memories. All comments will be monitored and vetted before being published.