Roll up! Roll up and discover historic places in Kent you’ve never visited before – or see old friends in a new light – and all for free! The Heritage Open Days Festival is a country-wide initiative, organised by the National Trust and with an extra reason to celebrate this year: its 30th anniversary. In 2024, the festival takes as its theme, Routes, Networks & Connections, so as well as the places themselves and what they have to offer, you can look forward to plenty of information about how they fit in within the wider area and perhaps the social context of when they were first created. And historic houses to factories, museums to music halls, formal gardens to graveyards, places and spaces will again open for free this autumn.
Francesca Baker from HOD explains, ‘What makes the event so special is the sheer breadth of what’s on offer. With more than 100,000 events and over 39 million visits across 30 years, it has grown from just 700 events in the first year to over 5,250 in 2023. Here in Kent, we’re anticipating around well over 100 openings, and all for free. The range is terrific – everything from National Trust favourites such as Chartwell and Emmetts Garden welcoming visitors without charge, to places such as the extraordinary Paradise in Ramsgate. The town’s oldest street, it was home to sea captains back in the early 18th century. Today they’re in private ownership, but householders are generously opening their doors and there’ll be a chance to find out more about the lives of those who originally lived there’ [see box out].
It's not just about visiting buildings, though, says Francesca: ‘This year, we’ve got exhibitions, walks, both self-guided - through Ramsgate, for instance - and led by experts, through some of Kent’s most historically interesting and lovely areas. We’ve got a guided Wateringbury Railway Ramble that’ll take us past historic hoppers’ huts and on to Yalding, and a guided five-mile mini pilgrimage along a part of the Augustine Camino route, starting from Minster Abbey, complete with tales en route featuring everyone from saints and scholars to Vikings and powerful princesses.’
‘I’m opening my front door for HODs!’
Robert Milton Wallace is opening the doors to his home in the Paradise area of Ramsgate’s Historic Quarter. He explains what made him want to get involved with this year’s HODs Festival.
‘I’ve always been interested in period architecture and in 2016 I bought my grade II-listed cottage in Paradise, Ramsgate’s oldest street – once situated between a brewery and a nunnery, hence the street’s name. My cottage is one of a number built in Georgian times as homes for sea captains – you can guess the relative status of each man by the size of the house. The wealth they generated from trade with Norway, Russia and New England is reflected in some impressive architecture, with features such as Dutch gables on display even on rows of smaller houses, with grander mansions in the area, too. My cottage needed restoring, and when I came back from living in the States and moved to the house full time, I did a Masters in Architectural Conservation at the University of Kent, which only increased my skills and interest in the subject. Three of us in Paradise are opening our doors for the first time for HODs – I was keen to persuade the others to join me as I think it’s a really wonderful thing to be able to engage with people and share what we have.
The sort of features visitors will be able to see include a central beam that runs through three of the cottages that’s made from a ship’s mast and old wood panelling, while a neighbour has wonderful rounded cabinets that clearly once belonged on a ship. And these houses have tales to tell: many of them, including mine, have smugglers’ tunnels running underneath them.
HODs offers good support to those of us who sign up to be part of the festival – the fact that they provide limited liability insurance, for instance, was part of the appeal. Now we’re looking forward to introducing people to this marvellous but sometimes overlooked part of the town, and signposting them to other great architecture nearby. Plus the event should be a great springboard for the Ramsgate Historic Quarter Regeneration Scheme, which I’ve launched and the communal garden I’m planning in the heart of the town. We really do need to be doing all we can to celebrate our heritage and creative atmosphere here in Ramsgate and to encourage as many people as possible, whether locals or visitors, to appreciate and enjoy it. You’re not making the most of living somewhere like this if you don’t want to get involved in the local community is my feeling. Come September 7, we’ll have our doors open, there’ll be sea shanties being sung and friends in period costumes will be leading tours – I’m even trying to find a sponsor so we can get a barrel of beer in. It should be a lot of fun, and I’m sure I’ll hear some stories from those with past connections to Paradise, too.’
ramsgatehistoricquarter.org
What to look forward to in Kent
Here’s a pick of just some of the places we can look forward to exploring this month – and remember: all for free!
Canterbury Cathedral
So much to explore at this incredible World Heritage Site! Step back in time on a guided tour of Canterbury Cathedral’s precinct - spaces that include the Great Cloister, Chapter House and monastery ruins, learning about the lives and times of the earliest inhabitants of the site, Benedictine monks who lived here during the Middle Ages. Along the way, you’ll find out about medieval attitudes to health, diet and even hygiene among traces of the past that can still be seen today. Explore Canterbury Cathedral’s gardens, too, including the historic Herb Garden, the peaceful Friends’ Garden and the atmospheric Memorial Garden, where you’ll find pieces of modern sculpture and poetry to sooth and inspire you. Find out what it takes to care for the Cathedral’s green spaces today, always with a strong emphasis on sustainability. And if you thought graffiti was a modern phenomenon, have your eyes opened via a tour that looks at the many ancient markings to be found in its Eastern Crypt – close to the first site of St Thomas Becket’s tomb and systematically recorded by a group of volunteers back in 2019 - open your eyes to the graffiti of yester year. You’ll explore a wealth of religious pictures and symbols, discovering the origin of these marks and finding about who might have made them – possibly visitors from all over Europe, who would have shown their devotion to St Thomas by carving crosses and other religious marks in the closest parts of the building to his resting place.
Precincts guided tours: Sunday September 8, 2pm
Sunday September 15, 2pm
Pre-booking required
Historic Graffiti Tour: Thursday September 12, 12.30pm
Friday September 13, 12.30pm
Pre-booking required
Deal Timeball Tower
Victoria Parade, Deal
Centuries before the Greenwich ‘pips’ became a familiar sound marking the hours for all of us, it was a device in Deal that ensured the nation’s Navy was able to time-keep accurately and effectively. The iconic Grade II-listed Timeball Tower still stands proudly on the town’s seafront, serving as a reminder of the town’s nautical importance in Georgian times. Its museum features exhibits and information bout the history of the tower, its use for navigation, signalling and precision electrical timekeeping, and the mechanics of the operating timeball itself. The current tower stands on the site of an earlier shutter telegraph, one of a chain of 10 stations between the Admiralty telegraph in Southwark and the Naval Yard then at Deal. The telegraph line, which opened in 1796, allowed rapid communication between the naval anchorage in the Downs and the Admiralty in London. From 1821 to 1831, the Tower carried a semaphore mast, which was used by the navy's coast blockade against smugglers. The timeball, though, was established in 1855. It fell at 13:00 precisely, triggered by an electric signal sent from the Observatory at Greenwich, so that ships could check their chronometers. It was administered by the Royal Observatory from 1864 until 1927, when having become obsolete, its operation ceased. Find out more about its glory days, though, through a visit during HODs.
Saturday September 14, 11.30am - 4.30pm
Pre-booking not required
The Medway Queen - online
If for any reason you’re unable to visit a HODs event in person, there are online events to be enjoyed too. For instance, there’s an online exhibition featuring a nautical heroine who celebrates her centenary this year, The Medway Queen. She’s famous both as a well-remembered seaside excursion steamer and as the ship that saved 7,000 soldiers during the Dunkirk Evacuation in 1940. In the Isle of Wight and Solent area the Medway Queen has a further claim to fame as a favourite restaurant and nightclub from 1966 to 1974. You can find out more about her various incarnations from the comfort of your own computer, simply by visiting the website – and you won’t have to worry about seasickness, either!
medwayqueen.co.uk
Available anytime; pre-booking not required
Woodbury Park Cemetery - An introduction to a Victorian gem
Woodbury Park Road, Tunbridge Wells
2024 is the 175th anniversary year of this extraordinary hidden Valhalla, a leafy oasis in the heart of Tunbridge Wells. The Cemetery opened in October 1849, when space in the town’s first parish churchyard, Holy Trinity in Church Road, began to run out. Today, it is Grade II listed as an early example of a garden cemetery for the local Anglican congregation. As the final resting place of over 6,000 people from all classes and backgrounds of Victorian society - from paupers to priests and servants to shopkeepers - Woodbury Park has a fascinating tale to tell, not least about its relatively recent restoration thanks to a committed band of volunteers. Come to this Sunday morning talk and find out more.
Sunday September 15,10-11am
Pre-booking not required
Self-Guided Walking Tour of Ramsgate
Marina Esplanade, Ramsgate
Like to do things under your own steam? Pick up a map from Ramsgate Tunnels and take a walk around the historic town, taking in the special historic features of Ramsgate – including the UK’s only Royal Harbout - with an emphasis on this year’s HODs theme: networks and connections. Keep your eyes open for the town’s multitude of blue plaques, revealing those who’ve spent time in the town, both UK-based historical figures and those from further afield.
Available anytime
Pre-booking not required
Foord Almshouses
The Office, Foord Almshouses, Priestfields, Rochester
Join a guided tour or visit the exhibition during Heritage Open Days to discover the fascinating stories of the Foord Almshouses, which still provide accommodation for local people today. They were built as the result of a legacy from Thomas Hellyar Foord, a generous locally born businessman who also bequeathed monies for Rochester Museum, Rochester Cathedral, and a nurses' home at St Bartholomew's Hospital, Rochester. Open to residents since 1927, there’ll be a chance for visitors to see inside an Almshouse flat or two, to check out the accompanying exhibition and perhaps even to enjoy light refreshments.
Saturday September 7, 11am – 3pm
Pre-booking not required
Birchington Map Exhibition
Church House, Kent Gardens, Birchington
Arguably nothing exemplifies the importance of connections better than maps, which reveal just how one place is connected to another, and you can see a collection of original and reproduced maps from the Birchington Heritage Trust at the Church House community centre here in this seaside village. With Ordnance Survey maps dating back to 1872, information on former surveying methods, lost buildings and sites of interest, and the 1840 Tithe Map on display, its an unmissable chance to find out more about our heritage for people living in, or having connections with, the local area.
Sunday September 8, 2 – 5pm
Pre-booking not required
A Soldier's life in the Great War
Detling Hill, Detling, Maidstone
2024 sees the 110th anniversary of the outbreak of the Great War, 1914-18, and to mark the occasion the Centre for Experimental Military Archaeology (CEMA) at Detling will be running a weekend of talks and presentations. Established in 2021 by historian and broadcaster Andy Renshaw and military-history enthusiast and business director Mark Ingarfield and working in collaboration with Wessex Archaeology and the University of Kent, CEMA is already winning plaudits from everyone from visiting schoolchildren to TV crews. Its vision is to become the home for historical experimentation, where the methods of military attack and defence can be investigated, and the day-to-day lives of soldiers throughout 2,000 years of history can be experienced. The first big project on show here is a replica of a Great War trench. During HODs, you’ll find these ‘garrisoned’ by troops and you can find out how they lived, worked and ate – there’s even a tented camp with period cooking facilities. A series of informal illustrated will further help to bring the past back to life.
Saturday September 14 – 16, 10am to 4pm
Pre-booking not required
Criterion Blue Town
69 High Street, Blue Town, Sheerness, Kent
Love a bit of showbiz? You’ll not want to miss, then, the chance to enjoy a behind-the-scenes tours of the remarkable Criterion Music Hall in Sheerness, dating from 1868 when it was a pub plus ‘Palace of Varieties’. Tours will be conducted by the amazing Jenny Hurkett, someone key to bringing it back to life since taking it on in 2009 – previously she and her husband Ian had run their kitchen business from the site without realising its remarkable history. Jenny and her team of trustees, staff and volunteers have helped uncovered a little-known aspect of theatrical heritage on the Isle of Sheppey and done much to boost community engagement in the area. Today the music hall plays host to a whole range of shows and events, plus there are film screenings, a tea shop and museums. Find out more via a HODs visit.
Saturday September 14, 11am-12pm and 1-2pm
Pre-booking preferred
St Mary's Abbey (Malling Abbey)
Swan Street, West Malling
St Mary's Abbey in the heart of this pretty Kent market town was founded in 1090 by Bishop Gundulf of Rochester as a spiritual home for Benedictine nuns. After its closure in 1538 by Henry VIII, the property was owned by a succession of families, but in 1892 it was purchased in trust that it might be restored as a home for Benedictine nuns, which it still is today. On the 50-minute self-guided tour you will see the Norman west front of Gundulf's Abbey Church, the medieval Gatehouse and Guest House and the Grade II* Abbey Church, consecrated in 1966. You are also invited into the nuns’ private cloister area, including the Chapter House (part of the 11th century transept of Gundulf's Church) and the 13th-century cloister A visit here should make for an interesting, reflective and peaceful afternoon.
Sunday September 8, arrival times: 2pm -2.20pm, 2.20pm-2.40pm, 2.40pm-3pm. Site closes at 4pm.
Pre-booking required
![So much to explore at Quex House [Credit Amy Louise Kolsteren]](https://www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/resources/images/18438034/?type=mds-article-620)
Powell-Cotton Museum, Quex House and Gardens
Quex Park, Birchington
A chance to explore the Powell-Cotton Museum, Quex House and Gardens – and, as with every other HOD event – for free! Quex House was built in 1812, and many of the passions and interests of its builder John Powell-Powell can still be seen today, including a collection of Napoleonic memorabilia, naval canons and the distinctive boat-shaped curve to two of the publicly accessible rooms. The house has been extensively remodelled in its lifetime, with the current layout largely reflecting the life of Percy Powell-Cotton and his family, who lived in the house in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Percy is perhaps best known as the founder of the Powell-Cotton Museum and as an explorer, with both his travels and enthusiasm for collecting reflected throughout the house. Quex Gardens stretch across seven acres and are the perfect space to stretch your legs after a long journey. You can enjoy a woodland walk, a walled kitchen garden, a croquet lawn, beautiful borders and an ornamental fountain. Plenty to keep you busy here, then!
Saturday September 7, 11am – 4pm.
Pre-booking not required.
Leave to Land: The Kitchener Camp Rescue, 1939
ARK, Cliftonville, Margate
There’s a chance to find out about a remarkable period in Kent’s war-time history at ARK, Cliftonville’s cultural centre based in what was once Margate’s synagogue, this autumn. In 1939 the Kitchener Camp was set up in an old WW1 army base in Sandwich, saving 4,000 Jewish men from the Holocaust. Most had had to leave behind their families in the Third Reich, many of whom were subsequently murdered. An exhibition brings together archival records and family treasures to build a moving and compelling picture of a little-known aspect of Jewish refugee history. If you’re keen to know more, a talk on 15 Sept at ARK by academic Clare Ungerson, herself the daughter of granddaughter of Jewish refugees and the author of Four Thousand Lives: the rescue of German Jewish men to Britain will shed further light on the story.
Sept 7; Sept 8; Sept 14; Sept 15 10-3pm; Clare Ungerson’s talk: Sun Sept 15, 2-3pm
Heritage Open Days run September 6-15, 2024. Find out more about what's going on in Kent and beyond at heritageopendays.org.uk
