Lowestoft’s award-winning Heritage Open Days Festival opens next week, with the town’s railway station providing a key focal point.
It will host several of the festival's many exhibitions, talks and special events, including a special market.
On Friday, September 10, between 10am and 4pm, the station's Parcels Office hosts an exhibition featuring the significant role Lowestoft has played in feeding the nation.
Using material generously provided from the archives of CWS, Morton, Beecham, Maconochie, Birds Eye and other companies, the event features a unique collection of memorabilia and rare film footage.
The exhibition will also run daily from September 13 until September 18 between 10am and 4pm and from 10am to 2.30pm on September 19.
The station host’s a special Edible England Local Produce Market on September 11 between 10am and 4pm.
On September 12 between 1pm and 3pm, an exhibition of postcards from the popular local collection 'Uncle David’s Postcards' will feature before a series of talks begin at 3pm with local historian and chairman of the Lowestoft Archaeological and Local History Society, Richard Mundy, describing What History Means To Me.
At 3.30pm, aviation historian Bob Collis shares details on how Lowestoft railway station survived both wars relatively unscathed, before historian Trudie Jackson, at 5pm, tells the story of the rivalry between Lowestoft and Pakefield which originated through a dispute between the Victorian Lifeboat Men of 1885.
A final station-based talk takes place on September 19 at 3pm as historians David Butcher and Ivan Bunn mark over 400 years of change within the local parish landscape.
The festival will also be supported by the East Anglia Transport Museum on September 11 as free heritage bus services run - for one day only - around the town every 30 minutes.
With use of the railway station made possible by the Wherry Lines Community Rail Partnership and the Lowestoft Central Project, Diana Moore, chairman of Lowestoft Heritage Open Days, said: “We are extremely grateful to the Wherry Lines Community Rail Partnership and volunteers from the Lowestoft Central Project for their continued support which has enabled us to greatly expand the number and range of activities this year.”
A free printed guide to events in and around the town is now available from various outlets and the tourist information office at the railway station, or visit www.heritageopendays.org.uk and select Lowestoft.
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