Heritage Open Days this weekend, Your chance to visit interesting properties.

Its that time of year again when historic buildings open their doors to the general public.

Heritage Open Days celebrates England’s fantastic architecture and culture by offering free access to properties that are usually closed to the public or normally charge for admission. Every year on four days in September, buildings of every age, style and function throw open their doors, ranging from castles to factories, town halls to tithe barns, parish churches to Buddhist temples. It is a once-a-year chance to discover hidden architectural treasures and enjoy a wide range of tours, events and activities which bring to life local history and culture.

To see a list of places that are open in the East Midlands see their website :
Heritage Open Days East Midlands.

or

Heritage Open Days in Derbyshire.

or

Heritage Open Days in Derby.

As you can see there are lots of venues open in Derbyshire to visit this weekend, some require you to book but are free.

Enjoy!

Heage Windmill, My Virtual Tour wins a Judges Special Award at Renaissance Heritage Awards 2009

Since 2007 I have been working with the volunteers at Heage Windmill to help promote the great work they do by using my panoramic photography skills. Back then it consisted of just two 360 degree panoramic photographs taken inside the cap of the windmill where people can not go due to safety reasons. This mill exhibit was popular with visitors and in 2008 I offered to take some new 360 degree photographs for them. What started off as a simple idea soon became a major project consisting of 26 full 360 x 180 degree (spherical VR) photographs all linked together by hotspots.
This allows disabled people or anyone that is not able to climb the mill stairs the opportunity to take a really good look around the windmill. I designed the virtual tour for them so that when you hover the mouse over areas of interest then it tells you what the various parts of the workings are used for.
Because my VR tour encompasses the entire windmill site it is also useful if you visit on a rainy day.

In July, Heage Windmill won the Judges Special Award in the Renaissance East Midlands Derbyshire Heritage Awards 2009 (see photograph of the plaque) ...
"For an innovative solution to providing access to the mill, delivered by volunteers, to a very high standard."

As well as creating the high resolution full virtual reality tour at the windmill I also created a reduced mini vr tour for their website which you can take a look at here :
Heage Windmill mini Virtual Reality Tour.

Heage Windmill is open every weekend from April to October, why not go along and see this great windmill in action. There is nothing quite like seeing the only working 6 sailed STONE tower mill in Britain turning around in the wind.

For more information please visit their website :
Heage Windmill website.

You can even buy Heage Windmill Flour from Belper Farmers Market. The market runs from 9am to 2pm on the second saturday of every month and takes place on Belper Market Place.

To see a list of the other winners see the website:
Renaissance East Midlands Derbyshire Heritage Awards.

My interactive map for Heage Windmill:

View Heage Windmill in a larger map

I have also created a driving video of how to get to Heage Windmill from Belper :
Belper to Heage Windmill video.


Thanks
Andy

South Derbyshire Heritage News 2003

My website has been featured in many magazines and articles over the years but I have never got around to mentioning them as there does not seem a suitable place to put them on my website.
Now I have a blog this seems like the ideal place for such things.

Click on the scan to the left from South Derbyshire Heritage News back in April 2003 about my website, Quite funny looking at the images I happened to use in the article, Derby Hippodrome Theatre at the time was in good condition, liitle did it know how it would end up just 5 years later !

South Derbyshire Heritage News is available to view online which includes some back issues too.
Heritage News is published three times a year around April, August and December.
It is circulated to all parish councils / meetings, amenity societies and historical groups within South Derbyshire, and is also distributed to libraries and to local press contacts.

If you enjoy reading about local history then take a look here at the Heritage News editions online.