Heritage Walks to Celebrate Traditional Crafts During Heritage Open Days 2026

Three local heritage walks exploring traditional rural crafts will take place this September as part of  Heritage Open Days 2026 (11-20 Sept), Englands largest festival of history and culture. 

The festival's 2026 theme, Everyday Histories, explores the trades, skills and routines that shaped daily life in communities. Inspired by the old rhyme the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker, thousands of free events will invite people to discover the people and professions that once formed the backbone of everyday life.

As part of the programme, local walking guide Rural Strides will lead three walks focusing on traditional crafts that were once essential to rural communities: flint knapping, stonemasonry and wheelwrighting. 

The flint knapping walk explores what is widely regarded as humanitys oldest craft. Long before the butcher, baker or candlestick maker, early people relied on flint tools to hunt, prepare food and survive. Today, flint remains one of the defining building materials of the local landscape.

Two further walks will visit a working stonemason and a traditional wheelwright. Both trades were once common features of village life. Wheelwrights kept farms and transport moving by building and repairing wooden wheels for carts and wagons, while stonemasons shaped the stone used in churches, houses and monuments that still define the character of the countryside today.

While stonemasonry is enjoying renewed interest through conservation and restoration projects, traditional wheelwrights have become increasingly rare, with only a small number still practising across the country.

Rural Strides founder Malinka van der Gaauw says that by meeting craftspeople in their workshops and learning about their skills first-hand, these walks offer a chance to connect with the working traditions that helped shape everyday life in the past.

Further details and booking information can be found at www.ruralstrides.co.uk. The full Heritage Open Days programme is available at:  https://www.heritageopendays.org.uk