We are once again at that weekend in the year when local people have the opportunity to look inside some of our important local buildings. It also allows you free entry into buildings that usually charge for entry. With some of the venues the opening times are fairly short, or the free opening periods are, so if you want to make the best of this series of local events you need to plan it fairly carefully.
Here is the list from http://www.visitthanet.co.uk
Heritage Open Days
Thu 8 Sep 2011
Fri 9 Sep 2011
Fri 9 - Mon 12 Sep 2011
Sat 10 Sep 2011
Sat 10, Sun 11 Sep 2011
Sat 10 Sep 2011
Sun 11 Sep 2011
Tue 13 Sep 2011
Wed 21 Sep 2011
I am not sure if this is a complete list, I will try to find out if anything is missing and add it to this post.
In Ramamsgate Montefiore Synagogue Ramsgate is one that is well worth a visit, picture above. If you have a head for heights I can also recommend taking as tour up the tower of St George’s Church.
http://www.heritageopendays.org.uk has a slightly different list for Thanet
http://www.heritageopendays.org.uk has a slightly different list for Thanet
| Name | Town | Opening | Pre-Booking Required |
|---|---|---|---|
| St Peter's Churchyard Tour | Broadstairs | Saturday: Tour 1400 | Yes |
| St Peter's Village Tour | Broadstairs | Thursday: Tour 1345 Saturday: Tour 0945 | Yes |
| Margate 3 Squares' Walk | Margate | Friday: dep. 1145 Saturday: dep. 1145 | No |
| Margate Baptist Church | Margate | Friday: 1000-1200 Saturday: 1000-1200 | No |
| Margate Museum: Former Police Station | Margate | Friday: 1100-1700 Saturday: 1100-1700 Sunday: 1100-1700 | No |
| The Tudor House | Margate | Saturday: 1200-1600 Sunday: 1200-1600 | No |
| Theatre Royal Margate | Margate | Sunday: Tour 1400 & 1600 | Yes |
| St George's Church, Ramsgate | Ramsgate | Saturday: Tower tours 1130, 1230, 1430 & 1530 Sunday: Tower tours 1200, 1300 & 1430 | No |
| The Grange | Ramsgate | Friday: 1000-1600 Saturday: 1000-1600 Sunday: 1000-1600 | No |
At this point I was a bit confused about some of the entries, so this is by way of explanation.
My questions were is the Powell Cotton Museum doing something different for the heritage open day – free entry or a special event – or does this just mean that it is open as usual?
Why doesn’t the Tudor House opening appear on the council funded tourism site and is it in fact open?
Margate Museum opening does appear on the council’s tourism website but the link there takes you to http://www.margatemuseum.org/ a website of few words.
Anyway I went back onto http://www.visitthanet.co.uk and tried to phone up the tourist information office to check this out, the number given there is Thanet 577577, phoning this number is an education in itself and mostly seems to suggest that one oppresses buttons that eventually lead you to an automated message telling you to look on http://www.visitthanet.co.uk
As an effort to deter tourists it is a very powerful device that takes one agonisingly slowly through a list of alternatives the very last of which is to speak to a tourist information officer.
Eventually I managed to speak to an officer who told me that The Powell Cotton Museum has free entry but only for the two hours between 11am and 1pm on Saturday and Sunday.
The Tudor House is open although it doesn’t appear on the council’s website they don’t seem to know why.
http://www.visitthanet.co.uk have now updated their website, I think it is now pretty comprehensive.
http://www.visitthanet.co.uk have now updated their website, I think it is now pretty comprehensive.
Heritage Open Days
Thu 8 Sep 2011
Fri 9 Sep 2011
Fri 9 - Mon 12 Sep 2011
Sat 10, Sun 11 Sep 2011
Sat 10 Sep 2011
- Margate 3 Squares Walk at Margate
- Margate Baptisit Church at Margate
- Margate Museum Heritage Open Days at Margate Museum
- Open Days at Tudor House
- St Peter's Churchyard Tour
- St Peter's Village Tour
Sun 11 Sep 2011
- European Day of Jewish Heritage and Culture at Ramsgate
- Margate Museum Heritage Open Days at Margate Museum
- Open Days at Tudor House
- Theatre Tours at Theatre Royal Margate
I agree Michael, the Montefiore Synagogue is well worth a visit. I went last year.
ReplyDeleteMichael,
ReplyDeleteI have just spent the past two months in Bulgaria near the town of Shumen. Shumen is much smaller than Thanet; but it has its own TV channel. TV Shumen runs 24hrs it shows films, discussion programmes, news both national and local, in fact all that you would expect from a national channel. Importantly, it conducts vigorous interviews with local politicians and holds them to account. Now wouldn't that be fun on a 'TV Thanet!'.