Doors open across Kent for Heritage Open Days

Tours of Canterbury Cathedral's outside spaces are among the highlights of 2024's Heritage Open Days

People are being offered the chance to visit some of Kent's historic locations, many usually closed to the public.

The Heritage Open Days programme runs from 6 to 15 September, and is celebrating its 30th year.

The theme for 2024's events is routes, networks and connections.

As well as building tours, several towns are offering guided walks.

Canterbury Cathedral is offering tours examining religious graffiti in the Eastern Crypt, and some of the building's outdoor spaces and gardens.

One of the city's smaller places of worship will also be welcoming visitors, with the former synagogue now used for musical performances by the King's School, opening its doors on 15 September.

There will be an opportunity to see inside the Swiss chalet in Eastgate Gardens in Rochester High Street that Charles Dickens used to write in.

Sir Winston Churchill's home at Chartwell is taking part in Heritage Open Days

Chartwell House near Westerham, the home of Sir Winston Churchill from 1922 until his death, will be opening as part of the scheme on 9 September.

The property includes extensive gardens and a studio featuring paintings by the wartime prime minister.

Charles Dickens' writing chalet in Rochester is one of the buildings opening to the public

In Thanet there will be a tour of the Palace Cinema in Broadstairs, while performers in period costume will perform sea shanties in Paradise, Ramsgate's oldest street on 7 September.

Maidstone Carriage Museum in Mill Street holds a collection of 60 vehicles, while visitors can follow a history of transport trail around the town.

St John's Church in Deal was built to serve the town's population of Catholic coal miners

On 14 September visitors can look around St John the Evangelist church in Deal, built in 1934 to serve the town's growing Roman Catholic population among families who had moved to the area to work in the coal mines.