Thirteen free Heritage Open Days events in the Sevenoaks district, 11 to 20 September: Knole free on the 15th, Chartwell the 14th, Emmetts the 19th and 20th.
Heritage Open Days runs from Friday 11 to Sunday 20 September 2026, and it is the one stretch of the year when places that normally charge let everyone in for nothing. Thirteen events are on in the Sevenoaks district, across five places: Knole, Chartwell, Emmetts Garden, Quebec House in Westerham and Eynsford Castle. Every one of them is free, because that is the rule of the festival: “all of which are FREE to explore” (Heritage Open Days).
The festival’s own printable list for Sevenoaks carries twelve of the thirteen, at four places (Heritage Open Days, Sevenoaks area list). Eynsford Castle is the one it leaves out, and Eynsford is squarely in this district, so it only shows up if you search by distance instead. It is on the list below.
This year’s theme is Everyday Histories, and locally it has been read as working lives and lost lives rather than grand ones: the gardeners who built Chartwell’s terraces, the woman who ran a Foundling Hospital branch in Westerham, and a Victorian shopkeeper or two. Every date, time and booking rule below was taken from the festival’s own event listings on 9 September 2026.
The quick answer
Three places that normally charge are free on set days: Chartwell on Monday 14 September (10am to 5pm, no booking), Knole on Tuesday 15 September (gates 10am to 5pm, showrooms 11am to 4pm, and the car park is free too), and Emmetts Garden on Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 September (10am to 5pm). Quebec House in Westerham is open free on eight of the ten days. Seven of the thirteen events need booking, and the tours are small: eight places on the Westerham walk, twelve on the Chartwell garden tour, fifteen in each Quebec House talk.
Every Sevenoaks district event, with dates and booking
| Event | Where | When | Booking |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quebec House: Our Place, Your Past | Westerham, TN16 1TD | 11, 12, 13, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20 Sep; 11am to 3pm weekdays, 11am to 4pm weekends | Not required |
| Westerham: a stroll through time | Meet at Quebec House | Fri 11, Wed 16, Fri 18 and Sat 19 Sep, 11am, one hour | Required, 8 places |
| Quebec House: Meet Mrs Wadham | Westerham, TN16 1TD | Sat 12, Sun 13 and Sun 20 Sep, 11.30am to 3.30pm | Not required |
| Quebec House: Finding my foundling | Westerham, TN16 1TD | Sun 13 Sep, 2pm, 45 minutes | Required, 15 places |
| Chartwell House, Gardens and Studio | Mapleton Road, Westerham, TN16 1PS | Mon 14 Sep, 10am to 5pm | Not required |
| Beyond the plants: the people behind Chartwell's garden | Chartwell Visitor Centre | Mon 14 Sep, tours at 10am, 11am, 12pm, 1pm, 2pm and 3pm, one hour | Required, 12 per tour |
| Working for the Churchills | Mulberry Room, Chartwell | Mon 14 Sep, 11am | Required, 60 places |
| Knole | Knole House, Sevenoaks, TN15 0RP | Tue 15 Sep, gates 10am to 5pm, showrooms 11am to 4pm, last entry 3.30pm | Not required, but recommended |
| Quebec House: How local history brings family stories to life | Westerham, TN16 1TD | Thu 17 Sep, 11.30am | Required, 15 places |
| Eynsford Castle | off High Street, Eynsford, DA4 0AA | Thu 17 Sep, 10am to 5pm, talk at 11am | Not required |
| Quebec House: Stories of Victorian Ambition | Westerham, TN16 1TD | Thu 17 Sep, 2pm | Required, 15 places |
| Quebec House: The Tale of Laundry Basket Lucy | Westerham, TN16 1TD | Sat 19 Sep, 2pm | Required, 15 places |
| Emmetts Garden | Ide Hill, TN14 6BA | Sat 19 and Sun 20 Sep, 10am to 5pm | Not required |
Knole, Tuesday 15 September
This is the big one for anyone in Sevenoaks town, because Knole’s parkland is already free to walk into and the parts that are not free are exactly what opens up. “On Tuesday 15 September only, admission to Knole will be free for all. This includes to the showrooms, Gatehouse Tower and car park” (Heritage Open Days, Knole). Entry gates run 10am to 5pm, the showrooms and Tower 11am to 4pm with last entry at 3.30pm, and the café, courtyards and shops 10am to 5pm.
The free car park is the part worth planning around. Knole has no parking-only ticket for the rest of the year, so driving in usually means buying admission for everyone in the car. For one day it does not.
There is also a free guided walk, “The Changing Faces of Knole: An archaeology walk”, running 11.30am to 12.15pm from Stone Court, including a look into the historic icehouse from the new viewing platform. Twelve places, first come first served, and you need to collect a tour lanyard from the Visitor Centre by 11.20am.
Booking free admission is not required but is recommended to guarantee entry, and the slot you book is your arrival time at Knole, not your entry time to the showrooms. One practical warning from the Trust: some sat navs will not find Knole on TN15 0RP, so use TN13 1HX instead. Our full Knole Park guide covers the deer, the walks and what a normal day costs.
Chartwell, Monday 14 September
Chartwell is the other property where free entry is a genuine saving, because there is no free way in on any other day: the house, the garden and the car park all sit behind a ticket. On Monday 14 September the house, gardens and studio are open 10am to 5pm with no pre-booking required (Heritage Open Days, Chartwell).
Two extras that day both need booking through the National Trust website.
- Beyond the plants: the people behind Chartwell’s garden. An outdoor tour of how the formal gardens came to be, and of the gardeners who kept the Churchills’ vision going. Tours at 10am, 11am, 12pm, 1pm, 2pm and 3pm, one hour each, twelve people per tour. Check in at the Visitor Centre.
- Working for the Churchills. In April 1964 a 21-year-old started a temp job at Chartwell and stayed more than 50 years. Nonie Chapman’s talk covers working and travelling with Clementine Churchill and later the Soames family. 11am in the Mulberry Room above the café, 60 places.
Six tours of twelve is 72 places for the whole day, so the garden tour is the thing to book first. Our Chartwell visiting guide has the normal prices, the bus and the dog rules.
Emmetts Garden, Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 September
Emmetts opens free 10am to 5pm on both days, no booking (Heritage Open Days, Emmetts Garden). It is a hillside garden laid out in the late 19th century on one of the highest spots in Kent, with an Italianate rose garden, a rock garden and long views over the Weald. Mid-September is a reasonable time to see it: the Trust points to the Katsura tree that smells of toffee apples and the Nyssa sinensis colouring up.
It is steep in places. There is a buggy from the Visitor Centre up the hill towards the Discovery Cabin, and a tramper that can be hired, with booking recommended. Families can borrow games for the meadow, and there is a wild play area.
Quebec House and Westerham: eight days of it
Westerham has the largest programme in the district by some distance, and it is the one most people will not have heard about. General James Wolfe’s childhood home, Quebec House, opens free on 11, 12, 13, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20 September, 11am to 3pm on weekdays and 11am to 4pm at weekends, with no booking (Heritage Open Days, Quebec House).
New for 2026 is an exhibition about the 18th-century children left at the London Foundling Hospital who were then sent to live in Westerham, including the maternal love tokens left with them and replies made by local schoolchildren with the charity Coram. In the Coach House there is a Findmypast touchscreen for building a family tree, and between 11.30am and 2pm volunteers are on hand to help with it.
Around that sit six separate events.
- Meet Mrs Wadham, Saturday 12, Sunday 13 and Sunday 20 September, 11.30am to 3.30pm, no booking. Ann Wadham was made matron when a branch of the Foundling Hospital opened in Westerham in July 1760, and the character talk covers how the children were looked after and what happened when they fell ill.
- Finding my foundling, Sunday 13 September at 2pm, 45 minutes, 15 places. Helen Warren on the baby boy left at the Foundling Hospital on 10 April 1758 who turned out to be her ancestor.
- Westerham: a stroll through time, Friday 11, Wednesday 16, Friday 18 and Saturday 19 September at 11am, one hour, eight places. A guided walk through how the town’s buildings changed and what they were used for, with historic photographs. This is the smallest event in the district and the first that will go.
- How local history brings family stories to life, Thursday 17 September at 11.30am, 15 places. Findmypast’s genealogist Jen Baldwin on censuses, parish registers and newspapers, and on getting past names and dates, using records connected to Quebec House.
- Stories of Victorian Ambition, Thursday 17 September at 2pm, 15 places. Local historian Bill Curtis on names a Victorian Westerham would have known: Edmund Dye, Thomas and Harriet Newton, Edward Evenden, Herbert Bird.
- The Tale of Laundry Basket Lucy, Saturday 19 September at 2pm, 15 places. A baby girl found in a laundry basket in a London square in February 1851, told by her great-granddaughter.
The nearest parking is the main Darent town car park, about 80 yards away and pay and display rather than National Trust, and there is no parking for motor homes. Quebec House is a short walk from bus stops linking Sevenoaks, Oxted, Edenbridge, Biggin Hill and Bromley.
Eynsford Castle, Thursday 17 September
Be clear about what is on offer here, because the festival listing does not spell it out: Eynsford Castle is free every day of the year, open daily 10am to 5pm, with a small free car park on site (English Heritage). What Heritage Open Day adds on Thursday 17 September is a volunteer-led talk at 11am among the Norman ruins and English Heritage’s Conservation in Action van, which shows how its sites are looked after behind the scenes (Heritage Open Days, Eynsford Castle).
The ruins are a rare survival, with the moat, the curtain wall and traces of the medieval buildings still readable on the ground. Parts of the site suit wheelchair users and parts are reached by steps. It is off the High Street (A225) down a narrow unnamed lane directly opposite The Castle Hotel, with an Eynsford Castle sign shortly after the lane starts.
Just over the district boundary
Five more are close enough to be worth the drive, and all are free.
- The Red House, Red House Lane, Bexleyheath, Friday 11 September, 11am to 3pm. William Morris’s home.
- St John’s, Sutton-at-Hone, Church Road, Dartford, Saturday 12 September, 11am to 2pm. Open day and family fun day, with an exhibition on Sir Thomas Smythe, who is buried there.
- St Leonard’s Tower, West Malling, Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 September, 10am to 4pm.
- Scadbury Moated Manor, Scadbury Park, Chislehurst, Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 September, 2pm to 5pm, last entry 4.30pm.
- The Twitch Inn Heritage Centre, Douces Manor, West Malling, Sunday 13, Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 September, midday to 4pm.
How to find and book everything
The festival publishes a printable area list for Sevenoaks, which is the easiest thing to take out with you, with the caveat above: it has twelve entries and no Eynsford Castle.
The searchable directory catches the rest, but the radius matters. Searching Sevenoaks at five miles returns only two results, Knole and Emmetts. Widen it to eight and you get the whole district, Westerham, Chartwell and Eynsford included. Bookings for the National Trust events go through the National Trust website rather than the festival site, and the listing for each one says so.
A note on the calendar: Ightham Mote is not in the festival directory this year. Our Ightham Mote guide covers what a visit normally costs.
If none of this fits your week, the What’s On in Sevenoaks this month page has the rest of September, and things to do in Sevenoaks has the year-round list.
Common questions
Is Heritage Open Days free? Yes. Every event in the festival is free, including the ones at places that charge for the rest of the year. Some events still need a free ticket booked in advance because the numbers are capped.
When is Heritage Open Days 2026? Friday 11 to Sunday 20 September 2026. The theme is Everyday Histories.
Which Sevenoaks places are free and on which day? Chartwell on Monday 14 September, Knole on Tuesday 15 September, Emmetts Garden on Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 September. Quebec House in Westerham is open free on eight of the ten days, and Eynsford Castle is free every day anyway.
Is Knole’s car park free on Heritage Open Day? Yes, on Tuesday 15 September the car park is included in the free admission, which is the only day of the year that happens.
Do I need to book? For seven of the thirteen local events, yes. The tours and talks are capped at eight, twelve, fifteen and sixty places. Free entry to Knole, Chartwell, Emmetts, Quebec House and Eynsford Castle does not need a booking, though Knole recommends one.
Sources
- Festival dates, the free-to-all rule and the event directory: Heritage Open Days
- The district list of twelve: Heritage Open Days, Sevenoaks area list
- Knole, Tuesday 15 September: Heritage Open Days, Knole
- Chartwell, Monday 14 September: Chartwell House, Gardens and Studio, Beyond the plants, Working for the Churchills
- Emmetts Garden, 19 and 20 September: Heritage Open Days, Emmetts Garden
- Quebec House and Westerham: Our Place, Your Past, Meet Mrs Wadham, Finding my foundling, Westerham: a stroll through time, How local history brings family stories to life, Stories of Victorian Ambition, The Tale of Laundry Basket Lucy
- Eynsford Castle: Heritage Open Days, Eynsford Castle and English Heritage, Eynsford Castle
All dates and booking rules checked on 9 September 2026. If you find one that has changed, tell us and we will correct it.
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