Heritage sites open doors for national festival

Petworth House and Park will be open to the public for free

Heritage sites across Sussex are opening to the public for free as part of a nationwide event.

Organisers of Heritage Open Days said the event, which runs until 21 September, was England's largest festival of history and culture.

Among the sites involved are Petworth House and Park, Anne of Cleves House Museum in Lewes, William Blake's seaside cottage in Bognor Regis, and Bateman's, former home of writer Rudyard Kipling, in Burwash.

The festival, which runs annually for 10 days and involves thousands of local volunteers and organisations, has the theme of architecture this year.

Sites include castles, stately homes, a brewery, a jewellery workshop and even a Grade II listed signal box at Pulborough.

Visitors will get a guided tour of the site, which the National Trust said was one of very few signal boxes to have retained all its old levers, its old and new block management equipment and its operating mechanisms under the signalman's working area.

Some sites will require anyone who wants to visit to make a booking in advance.