Heritage Open Days are organised by The National Trust over 9 days from the 8th to 17th September 2023.
It is an amazing opportunity to visit historic venues for free. Many places run special events during the nationwide festival.
In Lowdham, we have two open day events, right on our doorstep. If you visit www.heritageopendays.org.uk and search for ‘Lowdham’ you will find details of St Mary’s Church and Lowdham signal box.
On Saturday 9th, Joanne Johnson is doing two tours of the church at 10:30am and 2pm. Joanne is Head Guide at Southwell Minster will be offering free Guided Tours of our splendid 12th century medieval church which has been a place of worship for almost a thousand years.
The signal box will be open in the afternoons of both weekends. It was made redundant by Network Rail in a resignalling project in 2016. Since then, it has been moved to a new location and fully restored to its 1950s condition. It is now open to visitors. We normally do an hourly tour explaining what a signalman did in a rural signal box and how their work was critical to the safety of the railway. But on these two weekends we are additionally going to demonstrate what the signalman at Lowdham had to do on a busy Monday morning in 1954, and the consequences of a coal train running 20 minutes late.
It would help if you could book your signal box visit slot on www.eventbrite.com, again please search for ‘Lowdham’. Both events are free, but donations will be welcome.