Windows in Time: See Tavistock’s High Street as You’ve Never Seen It Before

Walk through Tavistock town centre today and you’ll see cafés, shops, banks and businesses. But what if the windows could take you backwards?

During Heritage Open Days 2026, they can.

Windows in Time transforms Tavistock town centre into an open-air exhibition, using 48 shop windows to reveal what those businesses and buildings looked like, and what they were used for, in years gone by.

There’s no ticket to book and no particular time to arrive. Simply pick up the trail, head into town and start looking.

Why not tie it in with Saturday's Family Fun Day.

Get the kids involved with:

• the Traders in Time treasure hunt around town

• drop into the Discovery Team build and craft workshops in Tavistock Guildhall Heritage Centre from 10 - 1 in the Courtroom

• pile into Tavistock Museum and get involved with historical characters and heritage trails

• follow that with a dive into the Police Museum

• medieval music and dance with the Tavistock Edge players in the Guildhall Square

NO BOOKINGS REQUIRED - DROP IN AND GET INVOLVED

SATURDAY WITH YOUNGSTERS - SORTED !

The High Street is a history book

Tavistock has always been a trading town, but its shops and businesses have constantly changed.

A familiar shopfront might once have housed a completely different business. The things displayed in its windows might have been unrecognisable to today's shoppers. Behind other façades were businesses that served the everyday needs of generations of Tavistock families.

Windows in Time brings some of that lost world back into view.

Historic photographs displayed in participating shop windows allow you to stand in today's Tavistock while looking directly into its past.

And there is plenty to discover.

The trail takes in 48 locations across the town centre, including West Street, Duke Street, Brook Street, Market Street and the surrounding streets.

Not just photographs, but people's lives

Windows in Time grew from a project exploring the retail history of Tavistock town centre from the 1870s through photographs and personal memories.

The project was brought together by Tavistock BID in collaboration with Linda Elliott, author of The Traders of Tavistock.

Linda has spent years gathering the stories behind the photographs. Her research records people talking about their earliest memories of the town's shops, accompanied by photographs, advertisements, invoices and even apprenticeship documents.

It means these aren't simply pictures of old buildings.

They are glimpses into everyday histories: the shopkeepers behind the counter, apprentices learning their trades, customers doing their weekly shopping and businesses becoming part of the rhythm of Tavistock life.

That's what makes Windows in Time such a perfect fit for this year's Heritage Open Days theme.

How much has changed, and how much remains?

There is something wonderfully strange about standing in a modern street and seeing almost the same view photographed perhaps a century ago.

Buildings remain while businesses vanish. Shop signs change. Clothes, vehicles and advertisements date a photograph instantly. Yet the shape of the street can remain surprisingly familiar.

Windows in Time encourages you to stop rather than simply walk past.

Find the old photograph. Look at the building. Compare the windows, roofline and neighbouring properties. Then imagine all the people who have crossed that same pavement before you.

For older Tavistock residents, some photographs may unlock memories of shops and characters they remember themselves. For younger visitors, they reveal a town centre that can seem almost impossibly different.

And for visitors, it is a fascinating way of discovering that Tavistock's heritage doesn't end with its grand monuments. It lives in its shops, streets and everyday places too.

Take a walk through time this Heritage Open Days

Windows in Time runs throughout Heritage Open Days, 11–20 September.

Pick up the trail leaflets from Tavistock Visitor Infomation Centre or participating retailers, seek out all 48 windows and discover what Tavistock used to look like and sell.

No booking. No timetable. Just bring your curiosity.

Because sometimes the best way to discover Tavistock's history is simply to look through the window. 🕰️