Heritage Open Days

Mason? Well, you will notice my left trouser leg has been rolled up now.

Apparently, while we're recording, which is kind of mid-September 2026, it's a Heritage Open Day week, or whatever in the UK, where lots of heritage places are open for people to go around.

mostly organized by English Heritage and so on, the National Heritage Organization.

And it turns out, we were looking at the list, Helen and I, for something to do, that there is actually a rather large local Masonic lodge in the area.

And it's funny that you're talking about cemetery.

Yeah, it's funny you're talking about cemeteries because in England at the moment, this two weeks, is heritage open days.

And what we do in England is we have places open to the public that are not normally open to the public.

So last Saturday and then again this Saturday, I'm actually opening our cemetery chapel, not normally open to the public.

When the cemetery was opened, there were two chapels built.

One of them was for nonconformists and one of them was for Church of England.

And one of the chapels is now used still sometimes, not very often, but it's never open to the public apart from on the Heritage Open Days.

Oh, nice.

Slightly? Yeah, someone who's more of an introvert than anything, It can be a bit like, this is you.

But I think, you know, similar to you, there's two ladies, I have to thank, I don't get their names, unfortunately, but they, whenever I was out last weekend for the Heritage Open Day, they spotted me at the train museum with my son and they commented on our stuff.

And I wasn't wearing any Door 14 stuff or hockey stuff.

So they just spotted me and said hello, which was nice.

Yeah, absolutely.

And I think all of that makes Broseley such a good fit for the Heritage Open Days theme this year, which is Everyday Histories.

Find My Past was proud to sponsor the 2026 festival theme, and our flagship event at Broseley Pipeworks this month gave us a really brilliant way to show what that means in practice, right? Not just the names that appear in guidebooks, and the big history books that we all love to read, but the everyday lives that really built these places.

Yeah, exactly.

But as we've heard today, the story of Iron Bridge is still very much unfolding.

A huge thank you to Helen and Lauren for joining us today.

And if this episode has made you curious about Iron Bridge Gorge, go! explore the places and the collections and the stories and see them for yourself and if you're researching your own family history keep an eye out for those small clues right that crossed out occupation the unexpected address the name that appears in more than one place they're often where the richest stories begin find my past is proud to sponsor the 2026 heritage open days theme everyday histories celebrating the people whose lives shaped the places around us Thanks for listening.

Remember, you can chat with us on Instagram and on Substack, and be sure to join us next time on A Family History Of.

... which is a bit of a shame.

Uh, they did open it I think for Heritage Open Day last year, um, and people had a bit of reminiscing about when they'd been kids-

Oh, nice

... and sat on the lions.

Short answer is I'm gonna get very tired 'cause there's so much to do.

[laughs] Um, the museum, yes, we're open under the Heritage Open Days scheme from the nineteenth and twentieth, uh, September.

Uh, so we're free under this scheme.

We're not charging anybody to come in, so it's, uh, the greatest free show on earth.

The site is now under the care of the National Trust, which is significant.

And the stories that we've been telling will be featured as part of Heritage Open Days 2026. which Find My Past is very, very proud to collaborate with and sponsor the theme of everyday histories where ordinary people shaped our world.

So we're just thrilled to bring these archival stories to public audiences.

So over this episode, we're going to follow Matthew's journey from soldier to miner at Madeley Wood.

I'm like, okay, now I think I know what he's talking about.

So it is, as you mentioned, Heritage Open Days weekend across the UK, which is a great time where hidden historical sites, they open their doors to the public.

And we're going to explore the massive variety of venues that are actually taking part, the absolute importance of making local history accessible to everyone, and then focus on a monumental milestone for Muslims here in Britain, the Ahmadiyya Muslim community, at least the 100-year centenary of the iconic Faisal Mosque in London.

built in 1924, inaugurated in 1926, the first purpose-built mosque here in London.

It's not just one verse that we have mentioned, chapter 22, verse 47, but referring to people of the past, to nations of the past, the Quran always reminds us that you should look towards them, see what they did right or what they did wrong, and learn from the mistakes of those earlier people, earlier nations, tribes, whoever that may be, so that you don't commit the same mistakes, you don't fall into the same traps.

Now bringing things closer to home, let's talk about what is actually happening across the country this weekend.

So the Heritage Open Days is officially the UK's largest grassroots heritage festival.

And its entire mission is to break down the barriers that usually keep people away from history.