Sixteen West Oxfordshire places open free from 11 to 20 September, and ten of them fall on Saturday 12. Full list with dates, times and booking.

Sixteen buildings, walks and exhibitions across West Oxfordshire will open free of charge during Heritage Open Days, which runs from 11 to 20 September. Ten of the sixteen fall on Saturday 12 September alone, so anyone hoping to see more than a couple of them needs to plan that day.

Several are places you cannot usually walk into. Tower Hill Cemetery Chapel in Witney opens for two sessions. Witney’s medieval Bishop’s Palace runs a free drop-in. The Masonic Hall on Church Green opens its temple and museum. Chastleton House and Kelmscott Manor, both of which normally sell tickets, open with no admission charge.

The festival’s 2026 theme is “Everyday Histories”, and most of the Witney programme leans into it: burial records, trade directories, blanket-makers, market traders.

Everything listed below is free. The details are taken from each organiser’s own entry in the official festival directory, and every venue postcode was checked against West Oxfordshire district.

Friday 11 September

Event Where Time
Occupations at the Bishop’s Palace Bishops Palace, 15 Station Lane, Witney OX28 4BB 12:00 to 16:00
Lives in Stone: Witney’s Everyday Histories Tower Hill Cemetery Chapel, Witney OX28 5ES 15:00 to 20:00

Saturday 12 September, the busiest day

Event Where Time
Lives in Stone Tower Hill Cemetery Chapel, Witney OX28 5ES 09:00 to 13:00
The Fibreworks 10A Middle Row, Chipping Norton OX7 5NH 10:00 to 15:00
Kelmscott Manor Kelmscott, Lechlade GL7 3HJ 10:00 to 17:00
Burford Dolls’ House, Tolsey Museum Tolsey, 126 High Street, Burford OX18 4QU 10:00 to 17:00
St Martin’s Church Ledwell Road, Sandford St Martin OX7 7AH 10:00 to 18:00
Woven with Faith: Methodism and the Making of Witney High Street Methodist Church, Witney OX28 6HG 10:00 to 16:00
Draw Your Witney! Witney & District Museum, 75 High Street OX28 6JA 10:30 to 13:00
Chipping Norton Museum 4 High Street, Chipping Norton OX7 5AD 11:00 to 16:00
Town Hall exhibitions Town Hall, Market Place, Chipping Norton OX7 5NA 11:00 to 16:30
Living History Trail Town Hall, Market Place, Chipping Norton OX7 5NA tours at 14:00, 14:30, 15:00

The Living History Trail is a self-guided tour of five locations around Chipping Norton town centre, each with a speaker. Pre-booking is preferred for that one.

Sunday 13 to Friday 18 September

Event Where Time
Makers, Merchants & Market Days: A Walk Around the Square Witney & District Museum, 75 High Street OX28 6JA Sun 13 Sep, 11:00 to 12:30 and 14:00 to 15:30
Woven with Faith High Street Methodist Church, Witney OX28 6HG Mon 14 to Wed 16 Sep and Fri 18 Sep, 10:00 to 16:00; Thu 17 Sep, 10:00 to 13:00 and 15:00 to 16:00

Pre-booking is preferred for the Saturday walk around the square.

Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 September

Event Where Time
Tour the Witney Masonic Hall Temple and Museum Masonic Hall, 20 Church Green, Witney OX28 4AW Sat 19 Sep, 10:00 to 16:00
Family History Surgery Witney & District Museum, 75 High Street OX28 6JA Sat 19 Sep, 11:00 to 14:00
North Leigh Roman Villa mosaic open day North Leigh, Kingswood OX29 6PZ Sat 19 and Sun 20 Sep, 11:00 to 17:00
Chastleton House and Gardens Chastleton, near Moreton-in-Marsh GL56 0SU Sat 19 Sep, 13:00 to 17:00, last entry 16:00

The Family History Surgery is run with the Oxfordshire Family History Society, and you can bring your own questions.

Three that are genuinely hard to get into otherwise

Tower Hill Cemetery Chapel, Witney. Witney Town Council, which is running the event, calls the chapel “one of Witney’s best-kept secrets”. Visitors can browse the burial records and historic trade directories and see the funeral bier. The council’s listing mentions the occupations found in the registers, including wheelwrights, maltsters and a “blanket tucker”. Look for the pink flags; the entrances are on Tower Hill, Curbridge Road, or through the gate in the alley from Windrush Valley Estate. There is a small step up into the chapel and no public toilets on site, the nearest being at Welch Way.

North Leigh Roman Villa. English Heritage keeps the 4th-century mosaic covered for conservation for most of the year. On these two days the Mosaic House is open and volunteers are on hand. The mosaic was laid around AD 340 and is the only survivor of at least 19 that once decorated the villa.

Getting there needs some thought. English Heritage’s listing sets out the access:

  • parking is a roadside lay-by, opposite the farm track
  • then roughly half a kilometre on foot down an uneven track that turns muddy in wet weather
  • five steps down at the end, with a sturdy bannister
  • not suitable for wheelchairs or mobility scooters
  • no toilets or other facilities on site
  • nearest station Hanborough, about three and a half miles away

Dogs on leads are welcome on the site but not inside the Mosaic House on open days.

Chastleton House. The Jacobean house was built between 1607 and 1612 for the wool merchant Walter Jones and stayed with the same family until 1991. It opens free for the afternoon on 19 September, house and gardens, with no pre-booking.

What it means for you

  • Saturday 12 September is the day to clear. Ten of the sixteen openings are on it. Four of those are in Chipping Norton town centre, within a few minutes’ walk of one another, and three are in Witney.
  • Two need booking, everything else is drop-in. Pre-booking is preferred for the Chipping Norton Living History Trail and for the Witney walk around the square. The rest need nothing; Kelmscott Manor asks you to book on the day.
  • Check before you set off. The festival directory asks visitors to check entries for last-minute changes, and these are volunteer-run openings.
  • The Methodist Church exhibition runs longest. Six days, 12 to 18 September, so it is the easy one to fit around work.

The Methodist Church’s listing notes that its High Street venue is an easy walk from the Woolgate and Marriotts Close car parks. Parking costs nothing wherever you leave the car: the district council states that “parking is free in all of our car parks”. For more to do locally, see our guide to things to do in Witney.