Northampton Heritage Buses to showcase in national Heritage Open Days 30th anniversary gallery
27 June 2024
Northampton Transport Heritage Buses have been selected to showcase in the national Heritage Open Days gallery to celebrate the festival’s 30th anniversary.
The online gallery will feature 30 stories from across the UK covering the breadth of Heritage Open Days over the years and detailing the story behind each one to serve as an important record of the event’s history.
From 1 July, the public will be able to vote for their favourite entries, with the winning 10 being featured in the final gallery and being awarded a small grant from the National Trust.
The vintage bus service is a popular fixture in West Northamptonshire’s Heritage Open Days festival and was selected by the National Trust out of over 100 entries following an entry submitted by West Northamptonshire Council (WNC).
The buses have been taking part in Northamptonshire’s Heritage Open Days event since 1994, offering a free hop-on-hop-off service between venues and attractions across the county during the 10-day event, delivered by a great team of volunteers.
Over the years, Northampton Transport Heritage has also provided classic buses representing various operators nationwide, including United Counties and on occasion buses from further afield such as London Transport’s ubiquitous Routemaster.
Heritage Open Days is England's largest community led festival of history and culture, involving thousands of local volunteers and organisations. Each year the event brings people together to celebrate their heritage, community and history with stories, traditions and histories all brought to life with free events and activities.
This year’s Heritage Open Days event will take place between 6 and 15 September and will utilise the theme Routes, Networks & Connections to bring together the past and present with workshops, talks, hidden spaces, walks and activities for all the family.
West Northamptonshire Council has again been co-ordinating this year’s local events programme which, for the first time, includes many offers from attractions across the whole of the county with the aim of making the heritage festival more diverse than ever before.
This year’s events include a film of Northampton’s evolving Market Square, a student showcase of Northampton’s rich heritage and fun runners getting into the heritage spirit. More details will be revealed shortly on the WNC website together with details of where and when the heritage buses will be running.
“We are once again thrilled and proud to be supporting Heritage Open Days with our partners at WNC.Graham Croucher, Chair of Northampton Transport Heritage
“Our vehicles have been a feature of the event since its inception 30 years ago when we started with one bus! Now we have anything up to ten buses at any given time. This event is a popular one in the calendar and is looked forward to by local people and visitors from across the country alike.
“As well as the rich seam of history and historic buildings in Northamptonshire, people love the fact they can travel to them on a local heritage bus and they are, in this area, a key attraction in their own right. Our trustees and volunteers are looking forward to providing another fantastic event.”
Find out more about the festival and vote for your favourite stories in the 30th anniversary gallery on the Heritage Open Days website.