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The National Trust has an incredible collection of places, objects, and most importantly, stories. A collaborative research project has helped them highlight more of these from under-represented groups. Members of the project team introduce their work here and share three of the stories – discover the celebrated miniaturist who painted with her mouth and shoulder and the much loved sister who learnt to speak again after an accident.

This year we celebrated three decades of connecting communities and helping them discover the stories on their doorstep. Over 1 million visitors enjoyed the 5,427 events organised by our community of thousands of local volunteers and organisations.

This beautiful historic theatre in Cheshire not only knows how to pull in the crowds for a show, but how to engage visitors with its history! Their backstage tours with a local historian are always popular but this year they expanded their repertoire to reach an even wider audience with two new events: a pantomime costume workshop, and a spooky escape room created in collaboration with young adults.

How do you engage people with a busy 1,352ft long historic bridge, rising over 300ft above a gorge, which is in constant use?! This Trust has been doing just that, hugely successfully, for ten years. Working in partnership with a range of experts currently involved in maintaining the structure has given the team a new angle this year and made them even more of a highlight for visitors.

This cultural and community development organisation leads one of our most creative and diverse festival hubs. In addition to using the festival platform to showcase their work in preserving, documenting and celebrating the history of Milton Keynes, they also coordinate the wider local festival network on behalf of the City Council.

Heritage is about everything that makes us who we are; this means it weaves an incredibly rich, varied and powerful tapestry. Sadly though, not all of its amazing colours and strands get included in every weaving. This can leave people whose story threads are missing feeling invisible, and the general tapestry is dimmer, even misleading for the gaps – like trying to read a story with several chapters missing. Earlier this year we attended a powerful workshop run by a project in Sheffield who are leading the way in working with communities to address these issues. We’re delighted to introduce you to them and their work here.

This extraordinary piece of ‘lost’ heritage lives on thanks to the work of a dedicated group of volunteers. Over the past six years they have held talks, led walks, and created videos sharing its story for the festival. This year they tried something different with a poetry workshop that helped more people discover the site’s history in new ways.

This stunning holiday home in Dorset tends to be booked up all year. To ensure the house and its story connects with as many people as possible though, the team saves space in the calendar for rare, but very special (and popular!) open days.

Over 10 years this local society has been developing a fantastic, creative hub of festival events. Their History Rock Snake really captured people's attention locally this year, while online they have 'visitors' as far afield as Australia with their series of films, which can showcase places and stories inaccessible any other way.

This national support network has been working with us since 2019. Drawing on our festival theme and amazing organiser network, each year they develop and deliver a series of talks, both in person and online, to help promote the history and potential of women in engineering.

From Roman soldiers to a Regency era ferryman, the rich history of African people in our country is a long one. A project in the North East has been researching these stories, sharing them through a range of resources and events – including a taster walk over our festival. As we couldn’t attend the walk we asked them to share a few stories here, highlighting the wonderful work they do and resource they are creating.

From a dazzling cloak to the portrait of a Curling Captain there is more to our sporting heritage than you might think. Sport is a huge part of our culture, but its place in our heritage has sometimes been overlooked. Earlier this year though we came across a brilliant network working to change that. As they lead us in celebrating National Sporting Heritage Day, their Founding Director is here to introduce their work and some amazing sporting heritage collections you can visit.

Over the festival, alongside managing the media channels and taking turns with 'helpdesk duty' it's really important for the team to see events in action. It helps us to support organisers locally and reconnect with the festival experience as visitors, to see where we might do more to help in future. From the pinkest event to pen nibs hidden in doors, here's a quick taste of where we went and what we discovered this year.

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?

Several days down, but there is still more to come! Time's ticking by fast as we move into the second half of the 2024 Heritage Open Days festival. Here's a sneak preview of some amazing events we think you shouldn't miss in the final days.

Can’t travel to that great event? Fancy catching something quick whilst waiting at a bus stop? Try one of these great online options – from ancient farms to modern airports via social media posts to live webinars, there are so many ways to explore our heritage this week!

Buckle up - we couldn't have a theme of Routes-Networks-Connections and not give you a whole spotlight full of cars, buses, boats and trains now could we?! Here are just some of the hundreds upon hundreds of fab free events offering you the chance to see, step aboard, maybe even take a ride in, or on, a huge variety of vehicles. What are you waiting for, the festival has begun - all aboard the Heritage Open Days Express!

What brings us together? Are you a traveller or a host? At the heart of our festival theme this year is people - so here are 12 great events exploring the routes we've taken and connections made throughout history.

From undersea fibre-optic cables to lacework coffeepots and 'Aylesburys' around the world - our festival community have pulled out all the stops for this year's theme. For our anniversary we're celebrating how people and ideas have moved around and come together throughout history. The transport routes, communication networks, trade unions and social clubs. The travellers who have spread ideas and the hosts who welcome them. There are so many links on our doorsteps just waiting to connect us, near and far. What will you discover?

The country’s largest festival of history and culture showcases a packed programme of free events