Every year the Heritage Open Days festival chooses a theme and for 2024 it is 'Routes - Networks - Connections.' We will be celebrating how people and ideas have moved around and come together throughout history. The transport routes, communication networks, trade unions and social clubs. The travellers who have spread ideas and the hosts who welcome them. There are so many stories on our doorsteps just waiting to be uncovered.

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Some inspiration...

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• What’s in a name? Place names can tell us a lot about the people who settled in an area in the past. 

• Wish you were here?! Why did people settle in your area, why did they visit, have those reasons changed? Do you have a market place or a village green? Meeting and trading places have hundreds of stories to tell.

• Where does the river run? From source to sea, how has it shaped the land, who travels on it? How has it brought people together?

• Lost links. Are there any ‘forgotten routes’ near you? Perhaps a lost Roman road, railway line, postal path or maybe there’s a street name on an old map that has changed or infilled with building over time?

• Famous faces.  Who is linked to your local area?

• The world on our doorstep. Look around and there are global influences everywhere. Are there some ‘Corinthian Columns’ in the local architecture – where have these designs come from? Check your local park – plants and trees that seem everyday to us now may have exotic origins!

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