European Heritage Days were set up in 1991 – the principle was to throw open the doors to historic monuments and buildings, in particular those normally closed to the public, in order to raise appreciation of Europe’s rich and diverse cultural assets and the need to care for them. Heritage Days are now held annually in September in 50 European states.
Abingdon’s first big Heritage Open Day was in 2003. Interestingly this was a few years before Oxford Preservation Trust ran their first “Open Doors” which their Director often tells us was inspired by Abingdon’s example. At first, Town Councillors organised the events, but since 2007 they have been run by volunteers, mainly from the town’s heritage organisations, but with financial support from the Town Council. During those early years Abingdon Heritage Open Days (HODs) mainly involved giving people the opportunity to see inside buildings not normally open to the public – in some cases private householders bravely opened up their homes to visitors.
England joined the Heritage Days scheme in 1991 and it is now the biggest community heritage festival in the country. Similar events take place in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. There is a national organisation providing ideas and guidance, the familiar pink branding and the opportunity to advertise events nationwide, but all events and activities are organised by local volunteers and a key principle is that all are free of charge.
From 2011 the programme was expanded to include heritage-themed guided walks. These have now become a very popular fixture and cover topics from the Lost Abbey to lost pubs, and from Abingdon Industry to Public Art. Since 2013 the event has been expanded still further to include talks, and an exhibition, usually running for several days – these have been very successful, usually attracting well over 1000 visitors.
In some years Heritage Open Days have been expanded into a mini-festival with family activities as well as the regular elements: in 2014 an “Abingdon at War” event in the Market Place was a massive success, educating and entertaining all generations. 2015 had a Victorian theme and 2016 saw the Market Place return to medieval times, albeit marred by dreadful weather. In 2019 there was a very successful festival based around the 1919 film of Abingdon’s WW1 “Homecoming Parade”.
2020 was a low-key event, mainly out of doors but in 2021 and 2022 we joined in enthusiastically with the national organisers’ chosen themes of “Edible England” and “Innovation and Invention”, the latter being particularly appropriate given our history of excellence in technology and science.
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Abingdon Heritage Weekend is an event managed by Friends of Abingdon Civic Society, working closely with the Abingdon and Area Archeological and Historical Society, and is run by a committee of volunteers. We aim to hold a heritage event every year in September, and the scale and scope of the event varies depending on the year and the budget. If you would like to become an organising volunteer please register your details here and we will contact you in late September/early October so that you can join in the planning for the next heritage event in 2025.
