Heritage Open Days 2026: Tickets Have Gone Fast – Book Remaining Tickets Now!
- dconn40
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
With Heritage Open Days 2026 now only a few weeks away, bookings are gathering pace across our programme of talks, walks, tours and family activities.
This year we are offering more than 40 free events under the banner A Thousand Years of Tavistock in Ten Days, and the response has been terrific. Several events are already full, while others are rapidly approaching capacity.
So, if you have been browsing the programme and thinking “I’ll book that later”, later has arrived!
To make it easier to see what is still available, we are introducing a simple traffic-light ticket system:
🔴 FULL – JOIN THE WAITING LIST
🟠 VERY LOW AVAILABILITY – BOOK NOW
🟡 LOW AVAILABILITY – DON’T LEAVE IT TOO LONG
🟢 SOME AVAILABILITY – PLACES STILL AVAILABLE
🔴 Already full
Two of the centrepieces of this year's programme have now reached capacity:
Earldorman, Lord and Queen: Ordgar, Ordwulf, Ælfthryth and the Beginnings of Tavistock on the first Friday is FULL.
Our special Rediscovering Tavistock Abbey event, including the opportunity to see the conservation work at Betsy Grimbal's Tower from the scaffold, is also FULL.
If you missed out, please join the waiting lists. Plans change and places can become available, so a full event need not necessarily be the end of the story.
🟠 Very low availability
A number of events are now down to their last handful of places:
Tavistock's Wharves
Bannawell Street
Town Centre Burial Grounds
Plymouth Road Cemetery
Temptress, Murderess, Mother and Patron: The Many Faces of Ælfthryth
Early Christian Stones in the Vicarage Garden, with very limited availability across both sessions
If any of these are on your Heritage Open Days wish list, we strongly recommend booking now. These are the events most likely to be the next to display the red FULL symbol.
🟡 Low availability
Places are also becoming limited for the Mount Kelly event. There is still an opportunity to join us, but this is another one where we would advise booking sooner rather than later.
🟢 And don't overlook these!
One of the pleasures of putting together such a large programme is its sheer variety, and there are some excellent events where we currently have more availability or have managed to build in extra capacity.
Our children's activities offer families a chance to get hands-on with Tavistock's history. If you have children or grandchildren, take a look at these sessions and help introduce another generation to the extraordinary story beneath their feet.
Don't miss Dr. Suie Andrew's remarkable social history " A Pair of Shoes for a Poor Child"
There are also places available for Where Demons Fear to Tread, our journey through a thousand years of Tavistock's churches and religious buildings.
Superintendents Letters explores another fascinating aspect of everyday history, while through the characters reported by Superintendent Mitchell, also Simon Dell's The Fair Arm of the Law uncovers the remarkable story of women in policing.
And while Mount Kelly is already showing low availability, there are still places to be had, so now is an excellent time to secure yours.
Free doesn't mean unlimited!
All Heritage Open Days events are FREE, but many take place in historic buildings or locations where numbers have to be strictly limited. Walks and tours are deliberately kept to manageable groups so that everyone can hear the guide and enjoy the experience.
That means we cannot simply squeeze a few more people in once an event reaches capacity.
Please book only the events you genuinely intend to attend, and if your plans change, cancel your ticket so that somebody on the waiting list can take your place.
With Heritage Open Days running from 11–20 September, Tavistock is preparing to open doors, uncover hidden corners and tell stories spanning more than a thousand years.
Some events still have good availability. Others are hanging by their last few tickets.
🟢 Choose it. 🟡 Book it. 🟠 Don't delay. 🔴 Join the waiting list.
Most importantly, don't wait until September to decide what you want to see.
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