Heritage Opens Days 2012
Thursday 30 August 2012
The Heritage Open Days are once again upon us, with events across the county promising to be bigger and better than ever before.
The event, now in its 18th year, takes place from September 6 - 9 with over 30 venues confirmed across Coventry and the surrounding area and all participating venues will be welcoming visitors in free of charge, or at specially reduced rates to many places that are usually closed to the public.
There will be activities aplenty across some of the regions most famous visitor attractions including The Herbert Art Gallery, Baginton Church, Coombe Abbey, Lunt Roman Fort, The Electric Railway Museum, St Mary's Guildhall, Coventry Transport Museum, Airbase and many more across the city.
New for this year at the Coventry Cathedral, which celebrates its 50th Anniversary in 2012, there will be an opportunity to see a very special art exhibition entitled "Journey Into The Light". This ground breaking exhibition re-explores the journey followed by Sir Jacob Epstein, Graham Sutherland, John Piper and many many more, as a display of their original sketches, models and designs, many of which have never been seen before, will be on show in the Cathedral itself. A truly once in a lifetime chance to see a contemporary feast of Christian art created for Coventry Cathedral.
A second new venue also opens its door to visitors as The Premier Inn at The Butts, a Grade II listed building in the city centre will be offering guided tours of the old Technical College at the back of the building and also of the theatre situated within the College.
Severn Trent Water will also be offering behind the scenes tours at the Finham Sewage Treatment works to the public on Saturday 8th September. There will be three tours available for a maximum of 10 people per tour. Places on this tour will be on a first come first served basis and will run at 09.30-11.00, 11:30-13:00 and 13:30-15:00.
Guided walking tours of the city centre, will take place on both days across the weekend, starting at 11:00am & 2:00pm each day, departing from the Tourist Information Centre (TIC) in the Cathedral ruins. Advance booking is required for the majority of tours.
A free bus service will be on hand to transport visitors to and from many of the participating sites, all buses run from the Coventry Transport Museum in Millennium Place on both the Saturday and Sunday.
Roger Bailey, regional Blue Badge Tourist Guide said:
"The Heritage Open days weekend 2012, promises to be the biggest and best yet, as always it is a wonderful way to learn more about the history and heritage of the city and the surrounding areas. With wonderful new additions for this year's event available and items, exhibitions and spaces that have never been seen by the public, I'm sure there promises to be something for everyone, to keep them enthralled and amused throughout this wonderful weekend. Our thanks must go to the committee and of course all of the venues involved, who have worked incredibly hard to make the Heritage weekend the success it will undoubtedly be".
Coventry's Heritage Open Days are organised by a team of volunteers including the Coventry Society and Coventry City Council in association with English Heritage.
For further information and a full list of all the buildings involved and admission times, log on to http://www.visitcoventry.co.uk/ call into the Cathedral Tower TIC or visit www.coventry.gov.uk/hod
