One of the country’s largest free to enjoy heritage festivals will return to Lowestoft in September.

Heritage Open Days will run from September 10 to September 19 with this year’s national theme ‘Edible England’, enabling organisers to focus on the important contribution the town has, and continues to make in feeding the nation.

First staged in 1994, Heritage Open Days have grown significantly with Lowestoft’s contribution to the 2019 festival placed in the top 10 nationally for the volume of activities available to the public.

Last month Diana Moore succeeded Paul King as chairman of Lowestoft’s steering group and she is excited by this year’s events.

Mrs Moore said: “This year’s theme, ‘Edible England’, offers great opportunities to celebrate our town’s particular contribution to history.

"I’m looking forward to a real celebration of what we do best - and some taste-testing thrown in.”

Paying tribute to the outgoing chairman Paul King, she added: “We owe Paul a huge debt of gratitude for his unstinting work to build and mould Lowestoft’s Heritage Open Days into the nationally-recognised success that it has become.”

Over the last two centuries the town has played an integral role in feeding the nation.

This year organisers are planning to celebrate this illustrious history and the numerous iconic brands manufactured in the town, from the pioneering Maconochie Brothers who perfected the canning process and supplied rations for British troops, the Waveney range of food manufactured for the Co-operative Wholesale Society and other much-loved brands such as Beecham, Morton, Ross and Birds Eye.

In addition, smaller food producers both past and present will feature within the festival.

The return of a full-scale event this year is a huge boost to tourism, after a scaled back version was staged in 2020 due to the Covid pandemic.

Last December, the 2019 event was recognised nationally, winning first prize in the Heritage and Tourism category at the prestigious Community Rail Awards.

This year, organisers are hoping even more businesses, homeowners and organisations will take part and register via www.heritageopendays.org.uk

Although the national deadline for registration is August 1, the team behind Lowestoft’s events are hoping people will register early and you can email lowestofthods@gmail.com .