Heritage open days in Bourne and Holbeach
Friday sees the start of the Lincolnshire Heritage Open Days Festival, where a number of the county’s landmarks and historic venues will opening their doors to visitors for free.
It was touch and go whether this year’s festival would be able to go ahead, in light of the COVID pandemic.
However, volunteers have been hard at work preparing for the event to enable it to happen; and this year’s theme is called The Past and Pastimes.
The festival will look a bit different this time with special measures in place to allow the safety of all during COVID-19.
And for the first time, the programme will include a mixture of in-person and digital events.
Among the many venues taking part is Baldocks Mill and Heritage Centre in South Street, Bourne. It will be open from 2-4pm on Friday, September 11 until September 20 for the festival.
People will be able to see the centre’s old watermill with working wheel and three floors of exhibitions exploring Raymond Mays’ Motor Racing and BRM Cups, Charles Worth, old Bourne businesses, waterworks and railway memorabilia, and Delaine buses.
The Victorian Holbeach Cemetery Chapels in Park Road, will also be open on Saturday, September 12, from 11am until 4pm. People will be able to learn about Holbeach lives through an exhibition about leisure and pastimes in the iconic chapels. A guided cemetery trail with fascinating anecdotes about those buried there will highlight the harshness of life for many living in Victorian times.
Also in Holbeach the ROC Post on Washway Road, PE12 7PP will be open for pre-bookable tours.
Entitled ‘Discover the Secret Cold War Bunker on Your Doorstep’ the tours are on Friday, September 18 and Saturday 19, at 11am, 12.30pm, 2pm and 3.30pm.
To book a tour, contact Heritage Lincolnshire on: 01529 461499 or email htladmin@heritagelincolnshire.org
For more about the venues taking part for either in-person or online events, visit www.heritagelincolnshire.org
You can download a copy of the brochure from the website; or pre-order a hard copy online by September 3 to get it in time.
