Every September, Heritage Open Days invites people to uncover the hidden stories that helped to shape our nation’s history. Here are just some of the unique experiences you can enjoy with us this year.
A hammer rings out from a canal forge. A boat glides slowly through a series of locks. A kingfisher skims low across the water. Thanks to your support, our canals are living, breathing history – and still very much part of our everyday lives.
That’s why to celebrate our many Heritage Open Days this September, we’re inviting you to step into workshops where traditional skills are still practised, hop aboard narrowboats that navigate age-old routes, and visit remarkable places that keep our canal heritage alive.
Reignite the past in West Yorkshire
Step inside the blacksmith’s forge at Dobson Locks on 16 and 17 September and you’ll be greeted by the sights, sounds and smells of a bygone era. A hammer striking an anvil, the hiss of hot iron cooling in water, and the acrid smell of burning coals hanging thickly in the air.
The blacksmith’s forge at Dobson Locks on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal.
Nestled beside Dobson staircase locks in Apperley, near Bradford on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal, the forge forms part of the larger Grade II Listed canal workshop. Complete with fireplace, bellows and chimney, it was once at the epicentre of local trade, with skilled smithies crafting the ironwork that kept one of the country’s busiest canals moving.
Come along and see for yourself how forges like these powered the early canal age, as our volunteers fire up the furnace and demonstrate the timeless art of blacksmithing. Using traditional tools and techniques, former blacksmith David Wadsworth and fellow volunteer Phil ‘Bellow Boy’ Bristow will take you through the process, from working the hot metal on the anvil to cooling it in the water and finishing it off with a beeswax coating.
From ironworks to an iron work icon of canals. Join us aboard our trip boat ‘Edwin Clark’ on 13 September in the shadow of Anderton Boat Lift, and you’ll be transported back to a time when men, women and children lived and worked on our nation’s canals.
Trip boat ‘Edwin Clark’ at the foot of Anderton Boat Lift.
Anderton Boat Lift has dominated the skyline here for more than 150 years, and as you ease away from the foot of Cheshire’s iconic ‘Cathedral of the Canals’, reflections of the riveted ironwork dance in the water below.
The journey along the Weaver Navigation moves at a gentle pace. As you chug past green, tree-lined banks, reeds sway in the breeze, herons rise from the shallows, and cormorants gather on low branches. If you’re lucky, you might even spy a kingfisher, flashing across the water.
Once a bustling trade route, carrying cargoes of salt, coal and timber, the river still bears the scars of its rich industrial past, with its engineered banks, stone bridges, and ageing waterside buildings.
Once the journey’s over, you’ll get a chance to explore Anderton Boat Lift, enjoy a tour of the control room and step out onto the structure for sweeping views of the Cheshire countryside.
A little further south, another iconic canal awaits you. Visit the National Waterways Museum in Gloucester on 12 September, and you’ll see the story of our nation’s canals brought to vivid life. Housed in the old Llanthony Warehouse in the heart of Gloucester Docks, the museum takes you on a fascinating journey through two centuries of canal history.
Inside the Grade II listed grain warehouse, you’ll be able to trace the evolution of Britain’s inland waterways, from their commercial peak at the height of the Industrial Revolution to their triumphant rebirth at the end of the last century.
Boats, tools and working artefacts capture the stark reality of life on those early canals, from the hard-bitten navvies who carved them out of rock and earth to the families and communities that grew up around them.
Venture outside and you’re reminded of a bygone age, when Gloucester Docks was a hub of international trade, with huge cargoes from across the world being loaded and unloaded on the dockside.
Today, things are a little more sedate. Tall, red-brick buildings line the water’s edge, birds dip and dive along the banks, and narrowboats bob gently at the quayside, their bright livery reflected in the still water. It’s an experience not to be missed – a monument to the people who lived on our canals and a reminder of how your invaluable support helps to keep their stories alive.
National Waterways Museum, Gloucester.
With more Heritage Open Days being added all the time, this is just a selection of the many events we’re running right across our canal network. Many of the buildings, workshops and historic structures we’re celebrating only survive today because your support helps us carefully maintain them.
By opening their doors during Heritage Open Days, we hope to share these special places with you and thousands of visitors each year, helping more people discover, appreciate and value our canal heritage. So, if you love canal history, please explore our calendar to find an event near you to enjoy.
