Five free openings left in the borough after today, four needing no booking: a Ramsbottom walk on Wednesday, Radcliffe from Friday, two churches on Saturday.

England’s free heritage festival has a week left to run, and five openings across Bury borough are still to come after today. Four of the five need no booking at all: turn up, walk in.

Heritage Open Days runs from 11 to 20 September 2026. Everything in it is free. The festival’s list for Bury borough carries 14 listings this year, spread across Bury, Radcliffe, Prestwich and Ramsbottom.

Still to come

Wednesday 16 September: a walk on Holcombe Moor, above Ramsbottom. Ramsbottom Heritage Society has Nik Taylor leading a walk and talk on natural flood management. The listing describes him as the National Trust warden for the Stubbins estate. Meet at 10am at the Lumb Carr Road car park, Holcombe, BL8 4NN. The route goes via Buckden Wood with a comfort break. No booking needed.

Friday 18 to Sunday 20 September: old Radcliffe, at St Thomas and St John. Grit, Smog and Fame is an exhibition on the industrial and commercial past of Radcliffe, built from archive material and from people’s own memories of working and living there. New Church Street, M26 2UD. Open 10am to 4pm on the Friday and Saturday, and 1pm to 4pm on the Sunday. No booking needed, and the church says there is wheelchair access through the main body of the building.

Saturday 19 September: the bell tower at Bury Parish Church. St Mary the Virgin on The Rock is opening its old parish registers, its historical vestments and silver, and access to the bell tower. BL9 0AH. No booking needed. One caution on the times: the festival listing gives them as “10.00am - 3.00am”, which looks like a slip, so check with the church before making a late afternoon trip of it.

Saturday 19 September: churchyard tours in Prestwich. St Mary’s C of E on Church Lane, M25 1AN, is open 10am to 3pm, with churchyard tours led by local historians on who is buried there, plus trails, quizzes and games for children. No booking needed.

Sunday 20 September: behind the scenes at the East Lancashire Railway. Guided tours at 10am and 1pm from Bolton Street station, BL9 0EY, take visitors into parts of the railway not normally open, and include a full-line return train journey on the day. These must be pre-booked, and they are the only remaining Bury listings that need it. The festival carries the railway twice, with two booking routes: one entry books online and the other by email.

Open today, for a few more hours

Four places are open as this is published on Sunday 13 September:

  • Radcliffe Parish Church of St Mary, Church Green, M26 2QA, on its war dead and local war heroes, until 4pm, with a Songs of Praise service at 4pm
  • St Gabriel’s, Prestwich, Bishops Road, M25 0HT, 12.30pm to 4pm, an Art Deco church of 1932-33 marking 100 years as an independent parish
  • St Hilda’s, Prestwich, Whittaker Lane, M25 1HA, 11am to 4pm, Grade II listed, a few minutes from Heaton Park
  • East Lancashire Railway, Bolton Street, BL9 0EY, tours at 10am and 1pm, pre-booked only

Four Bury listings have already closed: the Heritage Tours of The Met, the Curious Folk Trail and the urban sketching session with Crockerart, all at Derby Hall on Saturday 12 September, and St Margaret’s Church in Prestwich on the same day.

What it means for you

Every event here is free and none of them charge on the door. Only the East Lancashire Railway tours need booking in advance.

The festival’s own advice is worth repeating: check the listing before you set off, because organisers post last-minute changes there. One Greater Manchester entry, at St Peter’s in Swinton, is already marked cancelled on the same list, so it does happen.

Getting there without a car is straightforward for most of them. The Prestwich churches are a walk from Heaton Park or Bowker Vale tram stops, and Bolton Street station is a few minutes from Bury Interchange. Current closures and replacement services are on our Bury roadworks and travel page, and town centre car parks are listed on our parking in Bury page.

More to do in the borough after the festival ends is on our things to do in Bury page.

Sources