Heritage Open Days (HOD) took place between 11 – 20 September 2026. Thousands of volunteers across England organised events to celebrate their local history and culture, creating a chance to see hidden places and try out new experiences – all of which are FREE.
The theme for 2026 was the everyday histories of working lives – what did your ancestors do? From factory floors to kitchen counters, school desks to sailors’ docks, serving halls to vegetable gardens. The daily routines of different jobs, the skills required, the people that did them and the places that housed them.
BARTH worked with partners to create a series of events that that highlighted: working life on railways, a steamship, Bridgeland Street history, a 120 year old lifeboat restoration and launching a shipyard trail between Bideford and Appledore. We welcomed about 300 visits, where we could record numbers, and there were many more visitors who took time to look at the panels displayed along Bridgeland Street. Most of the visitors recorded (59%) were from local EX39 postcode, 21% other EX postcodes, 19% other UK postcodes and 1% international. For a summary of HOD 2026 locally see: Heritage Open Days 2026 NDJ 01/10/2026
Details of all events – times and locations on the HOD website
Heritage Open days 2025
Bideford & River Torridge Heritage Harbour coordinated 17 events in and around Bideford over the 2025 Heritage Open Days Festival: 2 exhibitions with associated talks, 3 guided walks, 9 open day events and 1 public unveiling of a memorial plaque. There were in excess of 380 visits to all events. This is visits not separate visitors, many people took the opportunity to visit several events.
Full Report: Heritage Open Days 2025 in and around Bideford.
Links (click for details)
Elisabeth Deneys Press Release
Newsletter Heritage Open Days September 2025
NDJ 11/09/25
