Shaw House opens free on 13 and 20 September, where a family normally pays £25, with rare Bake House tours. Twelve more sites open near Newbury and one is already full.

Thirteen sites within five miles of Newbury are opening free between Friday and Sunday 20 September, and one of them is charging nothing for a house where a family normally pays £25.

Shaw House opens free on Sunday 13 and Sunday 20 September, 11am to 4pm. It is the town’s Grade I listed Elizabethan mansion, on Church Road on the north edge of Newbury, and this year the free opening marks 20 years since it reopened to the public after its restoration in 2006.

Normal day entry is £9 for an adult, £6 for a child, £6 for a concession and £25 for a family of two adults and up to three children. West Berkshire residents pay £6, £4 and £20. On those two Sundays, all of it is free, and no booking is needed to get in. (West Berkshire Heritage, plan your visit)

The Bake House is the bit that needs booking

The rare thing at Shaw House is not the house. It is the Elizabethan Bake House, which is normally closed to the public.

Tours run at 12pm, 1pm, 2pm and 3pm, they last 30 minutes, they are free, and booking is essential because spaces are limited. Bookings go through the West Berkshire Heritage what’s on page or on 01635 279279.

Councillor Nigel Foot, the council’s executive member for culture, leisure, sport and countryside, said the chance to see the Bake House was “particularly exciting, as it is not usually open to the public”. (West Berkshire Council)

What else is at the house on those days:

  • four recreated period rooms: the Tudor Oak Room, Queen Anne Drawing Room, Georgian Parlour and an Edwardian Bedroom
  • Dressed for Battle, English Civil War arms and armour on loan from the Royal Armouries, back in the area for the first time in over 34 years
  • Dressed for Shaw, period costume from Elizabethan to Edwardian
  • restored Tudor and Edwardian gardens, and a new accessible play area
  • free audio guides from reception, and a café

Parking is free. The house is a 25 minute walk from the town centre, and there are three marked Blue Badge bays through the main gates and right in front of the house. Only assistance dogs are allowed inside.

Seven of the 13 are on Saturday 12 September

Saturday is the day to clear. Friday 11 September and Monday 14 September have nothing listed near Newbury at all.

Day by day grid of the thirteen free Heritage Open Days events near Newbury between 11 and 20 September 2026. Saturday 12 September has seven. Friday 11 and Monday 14 September have none.
Saturday 12 September carries seven of the thirteen. Shaw House is on the two Sundays.

The one most people will not have seen inside

The decontamination suite at Greenham Air Base opens on Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 September, 11am to 3pm, with no booking needed. It is Building 274 on Buckner-Croke Way, Greenham Business Park, RG19 6HX.

Greenham Common’s Cold War buildings are the reason the base is nationally known. This is one of them, and it is on the festival’s list of sites that open only during Heritage Open Days.

Newbury Town Hall, and a tour that is already full

Newbury Town Hall opens on Saturday 19 September, 10am to 2pm, no booking required. That is the Old Town Hall on Market Place, RG14 5AA, where Newbury Town Council sits.

Donnington Castle gate house guided tours are full. Four tours were listed for Saturday 12 September, at 2pm, 2.30pm, 3pm and 3.30pm, and the organiser’s own booking note now reads “This Event is Now Fully Booked”. If you turn up anyway, parking at the castle costs £2 for non-members, payable by text, and is free for English Heritage members.

A second Donnington Castle event is not full. The research and volunteering morning at St Mary’s Church, Shaw-cum-Donnington, next door to Shaw House, runs on Saturday 12 September with doors open 9.30am to 1pm and tours between 10am and 12.30pm. Pre-booking is preferred rather than required.

The Old Library tour is the one to check. The festival directory lists it as fully booked. The Corn Exchange’s own box office, which is the source that actually holds the tickets, was still offering the 10am slot when we checked today. It is a 50 minute tour of the Carnegie building on Cheap Street, reopened earlier in 2026 as an arts hub, led by local historian and former librarian Sue Ellis, with the café bar open from 9.30am to 12pm. Under-14s must be accompanied. (Corn Exchange Newbury)

If you want that one, book it through the Corn Exchange rather than trusting the directory.

The rest of the list

In Newbury:

  • Cloth Hall attic, West Berkshire Museum, 1 The Wharf, RG14 5AS. Meet Kennet Valley Guild members and see the attic. Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 September, 10.30am to 3pm. No booking.
  • Working Lives: Oral History Project, the chapel at Newtown Road Cemetery, RG14 7BT. Saturday 12 September, 10.30am to 4pm, with a demonstration at 3pm of Turboscribe, the software used to transcribe the interviews. No booking.
  • Working Lives: guided tour of Newtown Road Cemetery, 2pm on Saturday 12 September. No booking.
  • Battle of Newbury I, 1643, a Big Battlefield Walks weekend walk. Sunday 20 September, 10.30am, meeting in the Falkland Cricket Club car park on Enborne Street, RG14 6TW. Booking required, through Eventbrite.

Outside Newbury:

  • Share your History, Colthrop Mill, at The Old Bluecoat School, Chapel Street, Thatcham, RG18 4QN. Drop in on Saturday 12 September between 10am and 1pm. No booking.
  • Sandham Memorial Chapel, Harts Lane, Burghclere, in Hampshire, RG20 9JT. Saturday 19 September, 11am to 3pm, on the First World War Macedonian front and Stanley Spencer’s murals. A three mile walk around Burghclere starts from the chapel at 12.30pm and must be booked, on 01635 278394.
  • Hollington Kiln, Hollington Lane, Woolton Hill, in Hampshire, RG20 9XX. Tours on Tuesday 15 September at 11am, 2pm and 4pm; Wednesday 16 at 2pm and 4pm; Thursday 17 at 4pm; Friday 18 at 11am. Pre-booking by telephone is essential, on 07443 229850.

What it means for you

  • Everything on this list is free. Heritage Open Days is the national festival, and it runs from 11 to 20 September 2026, on the theme “Everyday Histories”.
  • Book the four things that need booking now: the Shaw House Bake House tours, the Old Library tour, the Battle of Newbury walk and Hollington Kiln. Two of the 13 are already full or listed as full.
  • If you only have one day, take Saturday 12 September. Seven of the thirteen are on it, and five of those need no booking at all.
  • If you want the free house, it is the two Sundays, the 13th and the 20th, 11am to 4pm.
  • Check the county before you set off. Two of the thirteen, Sandham Memorial Chapel and Hollington Kiln, are in Hampshire, not Berkshire, and Colthrop Mill’s event is in Thatcham.

Shaw House goes back to charging after the festival, and its opening hours change on 1 October: Monday to Saturday only through October, closed on Sundays, then closed altogether in November. More free and cheap things to do are on our things to do in Newbury page, and if you are driving in, the emptiest car parks are listed on Newbury roadworks and travel.

Sources