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The biggest and best festival yet was delivered by our growing, and increasingly diverse community. With the help of new micro-grants and partnerships over 5,789 events were organised offering people more places to visit and stories to explore than ever before.

Holding open days for the community has become a vital part of this school’s year. Inviting people in to explore this historic building and its archive has helped overturn local perceptions and led to joyful reunions for past pupils. On little to no budget, working in partnership by providing a venue for others to run creative activities adds extra interest, further builds community links, and this year, may have inspired a new career for one young visitor!

Rosa May Billinghurst was a formidable woman and celebrated suffragette. Being partially paralysed by polio as a child was no bar to her activism, indeed she used her adapted tricycle to advantage at protests. Rosa’s story was part of an exhibition on the history of disability activism the Pankhurst Museum researched for our festival this year. To share this important work more widely we’ve invited them to give a taster of Rosa’s story and the history uncovered.

The Intact Centre have been using creativity to engage people through Heritage Open Days since 2019. They programme different activities to attract new people, and strengthen their local community links; encouraging them to explore the wildlife on site and highlighting the work the team do.

From domestic townhouses to grand castles and mysterious follies this conservation charity has an extraordinary collection of historic buildings available for unique holidays. Alongside their lettings business though, open days are a vital part of their charitable purpose of engaging people with these sites and the, often award winning, restoration work it took to save and convert them for modern use. For over 15 years Heritage Open Days has been helping them do just that, providing a supportive central platform to raise awareness of their work, recruit new supporters, and sometimes staff too!

Our popular youth engagement training and development programme is back! For 2026 we are running a regionally focused version of New Wave in Leicestershire. Now open for applications.

A young independent researcher found Heritage Open Days a valuable platform to share her work ahead of an important centenary next year. Exploring the sensitive story of Princess Irene Duleep Singh — a woman history has often overlooked — she worked collaboratively to navigate complex themes of identity, mental health, and heritage, and overcome challenges of access and copyright. The wonderful response to her in-person and online talks demonstrates how successful her efforts were and bodes well for future plans.

Discover the talented dancers who have worked on stages across the globe, on films such as Indianna Jones, and with iconic pop stars like Madonna. The history of Black dancers in British ballet is rich and inspiring, but not well known. A project run by Oxygen Arts is seeking to change that, they gave a wonderful talk over our festival but as we couldn’t all attend, we’ve invited them to share their work here. Be inspired by some of their stories and find out more about their important work.

This Italianate Palace in the heart of Suffolk, with over 1,800 acres of parkland and gardens, is quite the showstopper of a day out. Over the past few years the team have tried out various audience focused events and often had those visitors asking to be invited back next time something ‘bigger’ was on. So for 2025 they went bigger, MUCH bigger – offering a 10 day extravaganza of activities showcasing ‘behind the scenes’ of the estate.

Navigable waterways are an important part of our island story. A dedicated group of volunteers in Nottinghamshire helped bring some of it to life this year with three fabulous, fun events as they participated for the first time. Seeing the festival as an opportunity to promote their work to the wider community, they also found working on it helped them develop new skills, resources and, best of all, brought the team closer together.

Ten days, so… many… miles! By bike, train and car the team criss-crossed the country to visit as many places as possible over the festival. Alongside managing the media channels and taking turns with 'helpdesk duty' it's really important for us to see events in action, to take photographs (LOTs of photographs!) and support the amazing volunteers and staff working so hard on the ground. From ancient African games and local folklore to industrial mines and pink treasure trails, here's a quick taste of where we went and what we discovered this September.

The good, the bad... and the bunting! Our amazing festival is over for another year, but we couldn't visit all the thousands of events, so we need you to tell us - how did it go?

Can’t travel to that great event? Fancy catching something quick whilst waiting at a bus stop? Whether you want to explore behind the scenes of classical buildings or re-discover a lost canal, we have an event for you. Try one of these great online options – from daily social media posts to live webinars, you just need to click to connect to more!

Have you heard of the pioneering roadbuilder who was blind? The South Asian women who joined the army in WWII? What about the late Victorian queer poet who earned a state pension? Here are some great events shining a light on important, but lesser known histories over the festival.

From the ancient wonder of henge monuments to the modern marvel of submarines, grand plaster ceilings to tiny bird nests. There are so many stories to tell of the structures that surround us – the makers, the menders, the materials and more! Here are just some of the amazing events exploring our official festival theme this September.

From sensory art events to finding quiet spaces in glorious gardens; sign language tours of historic buildings, and audio descriptions of international science collections. There is something for everyone to explore this September.

Whether you want to search the stars, get tangled in woolly stories or explore acres of castles across the continent, this September you are spoilt for choice! Yes, European Heritage Days are back. We’ve been highlighting all the free joyful events here in England but there's even more to explore beyond our borders - here’s a taste of what’s happening elsewhere in the UK… and beyond!

Help! A 17th century ship is disintegrating, the Tudor tapestry is unravelling, and your precious ancient manuscript is torn and faded! Who are you gonna call?! The Conservators! Are you ready to meet some of these stars, and find out just how they work their magic on our heritage treasures? Well, here are 10 great opportunities for you – picked out by the Institute of Conservation no less, but be quick, they book up fast!

Get ready for the biggest festival yet - more events, more stories, and more opportunities than ever to discover the places, spaces, and vibrant communities that make England unique.

What links vampire bunnies, a painted room, a forgotten princess and a slave trade trail? They are all part of the amazing rainbow of our heritage waiting to be explored this September. From thrilling and fun to inspiring and thought-provoking - we challenged the Kids in Museums Youth Panel to choose a favourite event from our listings and this is their incredible selection.