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Battlefields Trust Heritage Open Day Events Help Promote Battlefield Heritage

23 September 2026

For a second year the Battlefields Trust ran a series of Big Battlefield Walks in September as part of the Heritage Open Days Festival.

Fourteen free walks to celebrate England’s battlefield heritage were organised with just under 300 people attending and over 210 people on waitlists in case someone dropped out. This compares favourably to last year where thirteen walks attracted 275 people.

The events aimed to increase understanding about battlefields and encourage those who might never have visited a battlefield, or encountered the Battlefields Trust before, an opportunity to do so.

The Battlefields Trust’s Research Coordinator, Simon Marsh, said ‘it was great to see so many people attending and wanting to come along to these walks. The Trust is grateful for the hard work put in by walk leaders who brought battlefields across the country to life over the last few weekends.’

Walks were held at the battlefields of Tewkesbury (1471) led by the Trust’s partner, the Tewkesbury battlefield Society, the siege of Newcastle (1644), Hopton Heath (1643), two at Nevillle’s Cross (1346) to accommodate demand, Maldon (991), Winwick (1648), Newark (1644), Lewes (1264), Lansdown (1643), St Albans I (1461), Newbury I (1643), Roundway Down (1643), and Fulford (1066).

The Trust will now evaluate the walks to identify any lessons which can be fed into any future programme.

(Photo: Big Battlefield Walks at (from top left clockwise) Boudica, Newbury I,  St Albans I, Maldon, Fulford, Roundway Down and Hopton Heath)