HISTORICALLY significant venues around the district have started opening their doors as part of the Heritage Open Days Weekend event.
A railway museum, a National Trust hall and listed churches are among the venues offering free sneak peaks to the general public.
Although most of the participating venues are taking part over the weekend, some already welcomed guests yesterday and will do so today.
This is the first year that Ingrow Loco Museum, based at the Ingrow station in Keighley, is taking part in the event. It is home to the Bahamas Locomotive Society, which cares for LMS Jubilee 45596 Bahamas, LNWR Coal Tank 1054, Hudswell Clarke Nunlow, Andrew Barclay Tiny and an impressive collection of railway exhibits. Until Sunday, the museum is offering free entry and guided tours around the historic railway exhibits.
It is one of the few rail based venues taking part nationally. It will open from 10am to 4pm each day.
Also starting the weekend early was the Peace Museum in Bradford, where families enjoyed poppy making workshops and looking round the unique museum’s exhibits. There will be a second day of opening today from 10am to 4pm.
Yesterday, there was the first of two sneak peeks around Bradford City Hall. Parts of the hall not normally open to the public will be revealed, along with numerous of the district’s treasures that have been brought to the hall especially for the tours. The next open event at the hall is tomorrow from 10am to 4pm.
Meanwhile, City Hall will be home to a courtroom drama on Saturday as part of the event. Magistrates donned Victorian costume for their dress rehearsals for it yesterday.
These free sessions will be held in the Victorian Court Rooms and are all based on real cases and original documents heard before the courts in Bradford from 1914 and 1915.
Visitors will get to see four different cases re-enacted at sessions held at 10.30am, 11.30am, 1.30pm and 2.30pm.
The featured cases involve theft, burglary, fraud and a pickpocket.
People can also visit the Under the Clock Bradford Police Museum for free.
The Lord Mayor of Bradford, Councillor Joanne Dodds, joined the group for yesterday’s rehearsals. Gill Arnold is the event organiser and is also playing one of the defendants. She said: “The dress rehearsals went really well.
“The fact that these cases actually happened make them more interesting. It will be fun and entertaining for people.
“All of the defendants featured in the performance went to prison. They will be held in the court room that was used in Coronation Street when Deirdre was in court.
“Hopefully people will have fun and they will enjoy it.”
Fans of Bradford Park Avenue have been invited to come to see an archaeological excavation at the club’s former ground on Horton Park Avenue. Artists on the site are documenting the work, and are taking a photograph of fans on the former terraces on Saturday at 10.30pm.
The dig is going to be open to the public today from 11am to 3pm and on Saturday from 10.30am to 3pm.
Lower Wyke Moravian Church, a Chapel dating back to 1753 and considered to be a fine example of German Moravian architecture. On the Saturday and Sunday the church will have a display of the history of the church, as well as a tour of the surrounding area.
There will be guided tours around the Manningham area by a tour guide dressed as Samuel Lister, former owner of Manningham Mills, on the Sunday, and Grade II listed St Cuthbert’s Church in Heaton will open between noon and 5pm on the Sunday to allow visitors to see its features such as a statue of Mary as a mill girl and a set of Stations of the Cross by Eric Gill.
In Ilkley, there will be a heritage walk around Heathcote Garden and other notable buildings in the town on Sunday starting at 2pm.
High Royds Memorial Chapel in Menston will open its pauper’s graveyard. The chapel contains details of the 2,861 people who are buried there and will open on the Saturday and Sunday.
In the Keighley area, East Riddlesden Hall will have a free open day on the Saturday, and on the same day there is a talk in the town’s Cliffe Castle Museum on the history of wedding dresses.
Keighley Shared Church, a Grade II listed building on Church Street, Keighley, opens on the Saturday from 10am to 6pm.
For more details on the events, visit http://www.heritageopendays.org.uk/