Heritage Open Days, 2024

Once again GMDT are co-ordinating this year’s Heritage Open Days events in Morpeth from Thursday 12th   > Sunday 15th Sept 2024.  It’s with the help and participation of the venues and volunteers hosting the events that we are able to put forward a program of fourteen events in and around the Town. The full HODs programme is published on the national HODs website

Meanwhile there is still available free to view online the ‘Morpeth Film archive’, a series of short videos from previous ‘Heritage Open Days’, kindly presented via Morpeth News TV ‘You Tube’ channel: 2021 HODs videos MorpethNews TV

Each September GMDT co-ordinates Morpeth’s programme for the national Heritage Open Days (HODs) festival. After a single event in 2005 involving the opening of Collingwood House and an accompanying display by Morpeth Antiquarian Society, the programme has expanded most recently to cover 4 days across a long weekend.

An intensive programme takes place during which many of Morpeth’s churches, heritage buildings, and organisations stage around special free events or venue openings. These range from poetry walks through exhibitions and talks; to guided visits around local churches, Collingwood House, and the treasures of Morpeth Town Hall!

GMDT ‘s co-ordination of HODs events across Morpeth and its surrounding area, sees our community taking an active part in animating local spaces to highlight the importance of our heritage and its part in local life. Some typical events are described below:

> Churches put on displays and/or provide refreshments;

> drop-in heritage afternoons take place;

> poets provide costumed guided walks;

> Morpeth Town Council opens up the civic rooms housing Morpeth Town Hall’s treasures;

> Clock Tower Bellringers show visitors inside the Tower and try their hand at handling the bells;

> The Collingwood Society presents one of its annual lectures;

Our local community is actively encouraged to join in, and the whole project is run locally by volunteers. While there is no funding support provided by the national HODs team, online marketing, display materials and advice are provided by its partners, the National Trust and Postcode Lottery.