Heritage Open Days 2024
Fancy a delve into our rich history? Then Heritage Open Days is for you. David Whetstone has the details and plucks a few favourites from a capacious lucky dip
This year’s Heritage Open Days (HODS for short) runs from September 6 to 15 and is billed as England’s biggest festival of culture and heritage.
Run under the auspices of the National Trust, it involves thousands of organisations and volunteers and is supported by players of the People’s Postcode Lottery.
It started in 1994 as England’s contribution to European Heritage Days (launched in France 10 years earlier) – the same year, point out the organisers with their history hats on, that the world’s first smartphone came on the market, the Channel Tunnel opened and Sunday trading was legalised in England.
In this 30th anniversary year, the theme is Routes – Networks – Connections, highlighting the fact that our heritage tends to have evolved from all those things (just look at Hadrian’s Wall).
Across the country – and even in the North East – it’s the usual embarrassment of riches with a ridiculously fulsome programme spanning the counties and the centuries.
Details of everything can be found on the official HODS website at www.heritageopendays.org.uk and you might find some of the more tantalising attractions already booked up (although not sold out because this isn’t an Oasis gig. Everything’s free).
Our advice is to map out a manageable portfolio of attractions in one area and make a rewarding day of it.
Here are just a few – a happy half dozen - of the very many HODS attractions in this region…
BERWICK MASONIC HALL… Freemasonry has an aura of mystery about it, at least of you’re not signed up. Curious regalia and funny handshakes feature in many of the stories based on half-truths and hearsay. But what does go on? Ask the question at Berwick’s Masonic Hall which was purpose built on its site on The Parade in 1872 and is open to public scrutiny on Saturday, September 14 (10am to 4pm). And if you’re in Berwick on that day you’ll find many other heritage attractions vying for your attention. It’s a town rich in history.
BALLAST HILLS BURIAL GROUND… Not far from the attractions of Newcastle’s Ouseburn Valley is an old burial ground for paupers and non-conformists. Situated on Ford Street, Byker, it’s believed to be the final resting place of some 800,000 people, buried there from the 1700s to 1853. Researchers from Newcastle University have been looking into their stories and these have been the inspiration for musician Harry Gallagher and Phoenix Folk who will give a free performance on the site at 3.30pm on Sunday, September 8.
CHAPEL OF ST MARY THE LESS… Visitors flock to Durham Cathedral and many of them might have wondered about this much smaller church nearby on South Bailey. It was founded in the 12th Century (though largely rebuilt in the middle of the 19th) and was a garrison church for men guarding the city walls. Today it’s the chapel of St John’s College, Durham University. Why St Mary the Less? Good question but it might be because the cathedral is also dedicated to St Mary and there’s a great deal less of this intriguing little place. It’s open for the duration of HODS (8am to 6pm).
COLLINGWOOD HOUSE… This fine Georgian house on Oldgate, Morpeth, was the home of Admiral Lord Collingwood whose statue towers above Tynemouth. He wasn’t at home as often as he would have liked because he was at sea, most famously at the Battle of Trafalgar where, as second-in-command, he secured victory after Nelson’s tragic demise. His old house, of which he wrote fondly and where his wife and daughters lived, is now the presbytery of St Robert’s RC Church. Both house and church will be open on September 13 and 14, 12 noon to 4pm.
JESMOND DENE REAL TENNIS CLUB… Not Wimbledon. Oh, no. This is the real McCoy, home to a form of tennis that devotees will tell you was the original racquet sport. There are only 27 real tennis courts in the country and this one, just off Matthew Bank, is Grade II listed. It was built in the grounds of Jesmond Dene House which is now a hotel. Far from being a quaint relic, it is in daily use by members of Jesmond Dene Real Tennis Club (and on a personal note, 40 years ago I witnessed a match there featuring the American-Irish novelist JP Donleavy who used it to promote his new book De Alfonce Tennis). The club will be open to all comers on September 13, 14 and 15 (12 noon to 4pm).
MIGHTY WURLITZER THEATRE PIPE ORGAN… the North East has only one and it’s one of the biggest in the country. Who knew? It has recently been restored to its original glory thanks to a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund so can once again make sounds described as “spine-tingling”. You will find it in the New Victoria Centre on the High Street at Howden Le Wear, Crook, County Durham. On Saturday, September 14 (10am to 5pm) you can admire its 1,300 pipes and explore its two ‘secret’ chambers while also lending an ear to its instrumental capabilities. Why was the Wurlitzer mighty? Go and find out.