This year’s Winchester Heritage Open Days, comprising 110 free events over a four-day period (13th-16th September) and provide a wonderful time out for the whole family.
This year there are guided walks, special talks, behind the scenes tours, Heritage crafts, pop-up performances, Anglo Saxons & Vikings in the Cathedral close, Medieval Knights at the Westgate and a chance to see and hear about Winchester’s very own Shakespeare First Folio at Winchester College
“Heritage Open Days champions everyone’s story and everyone’s history,” says national HODs Manager, Annie Reilly. “This year, we’re shining a spotlight on Extraordinary Women, encouraging people across the country to share stories of women who’ve shaped their places in ways large and small. It’s an exciting opportunity to celebrate not just queens, famous writers and inventors, but also the women who put the ‘ordinary’ into extraordinary.”
Here in Winchester more than 40 ‘Extraordinary Women’ events have been organised. Highlights include:
• Radio 4 Women’s Hour presenter Dame Jenni Murray in conversation with The Very Revd Catherine Ogle, Dean of Winchester about ‘A History of the World in 21 Women’
• Dr Jane Robinson, Dr Fern Riddell and Professor Emma Rees leading suffrage talks, and Historian Emma Muscat hosting a suffrage tea at Winchester College
• General Sir Anthony Walker KCB leading a talk on ‘What did you do in the War, Mummy’
• 2TimeTheatre’s world premiere of ‘Sir Walter’s Women’ at The Great Hall, and Blue Apple’s ‘Fragments of Winchester’ at Pilgrims’ Hall
The programme is now available from Winchester Tourist Information Centre and also online. Some events you can just turn up to but others need to be booked in advance via the online box office. Not surprisingly, tickets are already flying out the door for many of the special one-off events, as well as the much-coveted behind-the scenes tours of buildings not normally open to the public. So visit the website at www.winchesterheritageopendays.org now and book early to avoid disappointment.
