The Sand House was once a prominent feature in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, from the 1850s until the Second World War. It was a mansion-sized dwelling carved from solid sandstone by Victorian businessman Henry Senior. As well as carving the house itself, which stood in a former quarry, Senior excavated into the adjacent ground and created a network of tunnels, decorated with fine and unusual carvings.
Why we take part
I’ve been passionate about heritage and history since I was a child and Heritage Open Days (HODs) are a great way to share this. They enable people to enjoy new experiences, learn new information and skills, see all kinds of wonderful buildings and connect with others for free!
What we do for HODs
The charity has been involved with HODs since 2019 with events including illustrated talks, walks around the area where the Sand House once stood and producing videos to assist the public in their understanding of how and where it was built. We intend to do more of these kind of events for future HODs.
This is the first year we have run a poetry workshop for HODs, and the first event that I have run myself. I have experience in writing and reading poetry plus I have gained knowledge of the history of The Sand House over the 12 years I’ve been a volunteer. My intention was to combine poetry with The Sand House history to create a workshop that would produce different pieces of writing from attendees and inform them about our charity, our work and the legacy of The Sand House.
I was surprised by the variety of the writing in how each attendee interpreted the story of the Sand House in their own unique way, it was amazing to hear everyone read their work out to the group. The stories and poems were very imaginative and detailed and brought the Sand House to life, this definitely made me smile a lot during the workshop!
The difference it makes
It was a fantastic way of producing creative writing pieces about the Sand House which were all unique. We had only put on a poetry workshop once before so this event has encouraged our charity to run creative writing workshops in the future in addition to our other events. The poems and stories produced will be added to a new tab on our website so we will have a dedicated space for all writing about the Sand House. The event has also increased my own self confidence regarding running more HODs events and I will be more involved going forward.
Amanda’s top tip!
Make lots of notes in your planning whether that is handwritten or typed. Keep those handy in a folder or saved on your phone/computer, so you can easily refer to them at any point. This is vital for keeping track of evolving the event and on the day too.
Inspired?! Find out more
- The Sand House
- More case studies - Meet other local organisers
- Get involved - Taking part in Heritage Open Days