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Heritage Open Days 2024

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Every year in September, places across the country throw open their doors to celebrate their heritage, community and history. It’s your chance to see hidden places and try out new experiences – and it’s all FREE. This year Heritage Open Days returns with a 10-day festival taking place from Friday 6th to Sunday 15th September. You can have free access to events and properties that are usually closed to the public or normally charge for admission or choose one of the many events that place especially for the festival.

Colour Key

Here in Stoke-on-Trent, there will be the the usual chance to discover fantastic architecture and enjoy a wide range of events and activities that bring local history and culture to life. This year the national theme is ‘Routes - Networks - Connections’, providing opportunity to highlight our role in shaping the transport routes of the industrial revolution, the networks that have brought our city together and our connections with the rest of the world! As ever, we will also be focussing on our unique industrial heritage with events that feature our iconic bottle ovens.

The programme is co-ordinated nationally, by the National Trust and with support from players of the People's Postcard Lottery, and locally by The Heritage Network for Stoke-on-Trent, bringing together local hosts and heritage enthusiasts.

As events are still being developed, this page will be a work in progress until registration closes on 8th August. See our "At a Glance" guide below.

Colours indicate general location: Pink=Tunstall; Orange=Burslem; Yellow=Hanley & Etruria; Green=Stoke & Penkhull; Blue=Fenton; Purple=Longton & Trentham; Grey=our friends just outside the city.
Themes: R=Routes|Networks|Connections    B=Bottle Ovens    P=Pre-booking required
  
The Festival - Friday 6th to Sunday 15th September 2024
 
Fri 6 Sep   Salt, Pepper & Vinegar Bottle Ovens
1300-1600  B
1400  B  R  P 
Sat 7 Sep     Bethesda Chapel
1200-1500
 
Chatterley Whitfield and Colliery Tours
1000-1600  P
1100-1630  B
   Time Travelling Through Trentham 
1100-1600
Our Lady and St Peter's Catholic Church
1100-1700
 
Sun 8 Sep Chatterley Whitfield and Colliery Tours
1000-1600  P
1100-1630  B
  Our Lady and St Peter's Catholic Church
1100-1700
Ford Green Hall
1100-1530
Commonwealth War Graves Tour - Stoke (Hartshill) Cemetery
1400  P
Historic Longton Walk
1400-1530  B  P
Mon 9 Sep  
 
 
1400  B  P
   
Tue 10 Sep       Exploring Stoke's Historic Potbank Sites
1400  B  P 
   
Wed 11 Sep 
1030-1430  B
1100  R  P
       
Thu 12 Sep
1030-1430  B
1100  R  P
  Uncovering St Mark's with Mervyn Edwards
1900
 
Fri 13 Sep
1030-1430  B
   
 
Sat 14 Sep Stoke Minster
1000-1400
Bethesda Chapel 
1200-1500
Spode Museum:
Unpacking the Collection
1400  B  P
Blue Room Tour: Connecting Landscapes
1500  R  P 
 
Pots & People - Walk from Spode Factory to Stoke Minster
1030 and 1200  B  R  P
 



 
Sun 15 Sep Chatterley Whitfield and Colliery Tours
1000-1600  P