Chartwell is free on 14 September and Knole on the 15th: 12 Heritage Open Days events at four district places, plus the Gruffalo trail at Knole and the markets.

The bandstand season is over and the street food fest has packed up, so on paper September looks like the quiet month. It is the opposite. Heritage Open Days runs from Friday 11 to Sunday 20 September and four places in this district are taking part, which means Chartwell opens with no admission charge on Monday 14 September, Knole on Tuesday the 15th and Emmetts Garden on the weekend of the 19th and 20th. Add the twelve giant Gruffalo sculptures that went up in the parkland at Knole for the autumn and there is more free to do in the next three weeks than there was in August.

Below is what organisers had confirmed on their own listings when we checked on 30 August 2026, with times, venues and postcodes. Every entry links back to the source so you can check before you set off. For places that are open whatever the month, see our guide to things to do in Sevenoaks.

The next three weeks at a glance

  • Saturday 5 September, 9.30am to 10.30am. Tai Chi on the Vine with the Deputy Mayor. Free.
  • Monday 7 to Sunday 13 September, 11am to 4pm. Conservation Week at Knole.
  • Monday 7 September. Toddler Mondays start at Knole, 10am to 12pm, running to 19 October.
  • Wednesday 9 September. Lord Sackville’s private garden opens, 11am to 4pm.
  • Friday 11 to Sunday 20 September. Heritage Open Days: twelve free events at Quebec House, Chartwell, Knole and Emmetts Garden.
  • Monday 14 September, 10am to 5pm. Chartwell opens free, house, gardens and studio.
  • Tuesday 15 September. Free entry to Knole, including the Gatehouse Tower and the car park.
  • Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 September, 10am to 5pm. Emmetts Garden opens free.
  • Wednesday 30 September, 10.30am to 12pm. Forget-me-not Café at Bat & Ball Station, with a talk from Sevenoaks Museum.
  • Every Saturday and Wednesday. The town’s three street markets.

Heritage Open Days: twelve free events across the district

Heritage Open Days is England’s largest history and culture festival and it runs nationally from 11 to 20 September 2026, on the theme “Everyday Histories” (Heritage Open Days). The festival publishes a list for each district, and the Sevenoaks list carries twelve entries at four places: Quebec House in Westerham, Chartwell, Knole and Emmetts Garden (Heritage Open Days, Sevenoaks).

Twelve entries understates it, because several repeat: across the ten days there are 25 separate openings. Three of the four venues normally charge for entry, so the practical point is that Chartwell, Knole and Emmetts each have one day or one weekend when they do not.

Date Free that day Book ahead?
Fri 11 Sep Quebec House, Our Place Your Past, 11am to 3pm; Westerham stroll through time, 11am The stroll only
Sat 12 Sep Quebec House, 11am to 4pm; Meet Mrs Wadham, 11.30am to 3.30pm No
Sun 13 Sep Quebec House, 11am to 4pm; Meet Mrs Wadham, 11.30am to 3.30pm; Finding My Foundling talk, 2pm The talk only
Mon 14 Sep Chartwell house, gardens and studio, 10am to 5pm; Working for the Churchills talk, 11am; garden tours hourly, 10am to 3pm Talk and tours
Tue 15 Sep Knole showrooms and Gatehouse Tower, 11am to 4pm, and the car park Recommended
Wed 16 Sep Quebec House, 11am to 3pm; Westerham stroll, 11am The stroll only
Thu 17 Sep Quebec House, 11am to 3pm; family history talk, 11.30am; Stories of Victorian Ambition, 2pm The talks only
Fri 18 Sep Quebec House, 11am to 3pm; Westerham stroll, 11am The stroll only
Sat 19 Sep Emmetts Garden, 10am to 5pm; Quebec House, 11am to 4pm; Westerham stroll, 11am; Laundry Basket Lucy talk, 2pm Stroll and talk
Sun 20 Sep Emmetts Garden, 10am to 5pm; Quebec House, 11am to 4pm; Meet Mrs Wadham, 11.30am to 3.30pm No

Quebec House, Quebec Square, Westerham, TN16 1TD, is the busiest of the four and is open on eight of the ten days. Its programme is built around the Westerham foundlings, the children sent from the London Foundling Hospital to a branch in the town in the 18th century, and the family history sessions are run with findmypast (Heritage Open Days, Quebec House: Our Place, Your Past).

Chartwell free on Monday 14 September

Churchill’s family home at Mapleton Road, Westerham, TN16 1PS, opens with no admission charge on Monday 14 September, 10am to 5pm, and no booking is needed to walk in. That covers the house, the hillside gardens and the studio (Heritage Open Days, Chartwell House, Gardens and Studio).

It is the one day a year Chartwell drops its charge, and from 2 September that charge is £24 an adult for the house, garden and studio. A family of four arriving by car pays £66 on an ordinary day and £6 on the 14th, because the National Trust’s ticket page says admission is free but says nothing about the car park. The full breakdown is on our Chartwell visitor guide.

Two things on the same day do need booking:

  • Working for the Churchills, 11am. Nonie Chapman on 50 years working for the Churchill family (listing).
  • Beyond the plants: the people behind Chartwell’s garden, six tours on the hour from 10am to 3pm, on the gardeners who built the landscape (listing).

Heritage Open Day at Knole, Tuesday 15 September

On Tuesday 15 September only, admission to Knole is free for everyone, and that covers the showrooms, the Gatehouse Tower and the car park. The entry gates are open 10am to 5pm; the showrooms and tower run 11am to 4pm, last entry 3.30pm. The café, courtyards and shops are open 10am to 5pm (National Trust).

There is also a free guided walk that day, “The Changing Faces of Knole: an archaeology walk”, 11.30am to 12.15pm, starting in Stone Court and taking in the historic icehouse from a newly installed viewing platform. There are only 12 places, given out first come first served on the day, and you need to collect a tour lanyard from the Visitor Centre by 11.20am.

Pre-booking your free admission is recommended to guarantee entry, and booking opened on 20 August, so the slots are live now. The booked slot is your arrival time at Knole, not your entry time into the showrooms.

Emmetts Garden free on 19 and 20 September

Emmetts Garden at Ide Hill, TN14 6BA, is the third district place to drop its admission charge for Heritage Open Days, and the only one that does it for a whole weekend: Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 September, 10am to 5pm on both days, with no pre-booking (Heritage Open Days, Emmetts Garden).

On any other day between 1 March and 31 October the garden is £15 an adult and £7.50 a child aged 5 to 17, or £37.50 for a family ticket covering two adults and up to three children. Under fives are free, and the Gift Aid prices are £16.50, £8.30 and £41.30 (National Trust). The car park is free all year, so on those two days a family arriving by car pays nothing at all, which is not the case at Chartwell on the 14th.

It is an Edwardian hillside garden on one of the highest spots in Kent, laid out in the late 19th century under the influence of William Robinson, and September suits it: the Italianate rose garden, the rock garden and the South Garden turn as the colour comes, and the Weald views run for miles. The shop keeps garden hours, 10am to 5pm, and the Old Stables Tea Room closes at 4.30pm.

Getting round it takes some planning. The paths are steep in places and the woodland path is uneven and not tarmacked. There are seven accessible parking spaces, the furthest 24 metres from the Visitor Centre, a buggy runs up the hill from there when staffing allows, and a tramper can be hired if you book ahead. Dogs on short leads are welcome in the garden and in two designated bays of the tea room seating. The duty manager is on 01732 751508 on the day.

Knole through September and into the autumn

Knole sits at the top of the town and has the fullest diary of anywhere in the district. Its own listings show (National Trust):

  • The Gruffalo Art Adventure, to 1 November, 10am to 5pm. Twelve giant sculptures through the parkland, aimed squarely at half term.
  • Attic tours, 2 September to 28 November, 11.30am to 12.15pm. A behind the scenes look at the roof spaces above the showrooms.
  • Conservation Week, 7 to 13 September, 11am to 4pm, when conservation work on the collection is done in front of visitors.
  • Toddler Mondays, 7 September to 19 October, 10am to 12pm, for under fives, with storytime in the bookshop.
  • Lord Sackville’s private garden open days, 9 September to 16 October, 11am to 4pm. The 26 acre garden is only open on a handful of dates a year.
  • Storytime in the Orangery, 12 and 13 September at 10.15am, then 14 to 18 September at 11am.
  • Bat walk with Mountfield Ecology, Friday 18 September, 6.45pm to 8.15pm. Listed as sold out, so this one is worth watching for a repeat rather than turning up for.
  • Volunteer coffee mornings, 23 September to 28 November, 10.30am to 12pm. For anyone thinking about volunteering at Knole.

The National Trust had not published prices for the individual events on that listing when we checked, so use each event’s own page before booking. Our guide to Knole Park covers opening times, parking and the deer.

Tai Chi on the Vine, Saturday 5 September

An hour of tai chi in the open air on the Vine, 9.30am to 10.30am, led by the Deputy Mayor, Cllr Lionel O’Hara. It is free and open to all abilities, with no booking mentioned on the listing, though there is a collection for the Mayor’s chosen charity, Hospice in the Weald. Vine Gardens, TN13 3UH (Sevenoaks Town Council).

It is the town council’s only outdoor event of the month: the Music on the Bandstand season closed on 27 August and the next one on the council’s calendar is the food festival on 3 October.

The Forget-me-not Café, Wednesday 30 September

A free dementia-friendly session at Bat & Ball Station, TN14 5AP, from 10.30am to 12pm on the last Wednesday of every month, with free refreshments and volunteers on hand, for anyone noticing problems with memory or cognition and for their family and carers. On Wednesday 30 September Liz Botterill of Sevenoaks Museum gives a talk and runs an activity (Sevenoaks Town Council).

The weekly markets

Three markets run every week whatever else is on, all confirmed by the town council (Sevenoaks Town Council):

  • Bligh’s Saturday Market, Bligh’s Meadow, 9am to 4pm, with jewellery, ceramics, candles, prints and speciality foods including cheeses and patisserie.
  • High Street Saturday Market, upper High Street outside the Chequers, 9am to 4pm, for breads and baked goods, olives, fruit, vegetables and flowers.
  • Wednesday High Street Market, also outside the Chequers, 8am to 2pm. This is the market that used to be held in Buckhurst Lane.

Coming up after September

  • Kent Biodiversity and Regenerative Food Festival, Saturday 3 October, 10.30am to 4pm at the Vine Gardens. A free first-year festival of regenerative and organic growers, bakers and makers, with live music all day (Sevenoaks Town Council).
  • The changing faces of Knole archaeology walk, Thursday 15 October, 11.30am, for anyone who missed the free one on Heritage Open Day.
  • Deer Keeping: Autumn Rut, 16 and 17 October, 5.30pm to 7.30pm, out with the park and deer keeper at the peak of the rut.
  • West End Classics, Friday 23 October, two candlelit concerts at St Nicholas Church, Rectory Lane, 6pm to 7pm and 8pm to 9pm. Danny Whitehead, Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera, and mezzo-soprano Rachel Roper sing Phantom, Les Misérables and The Sound of Music with the Celonatius Ensemble. Tickets £25 to £45, separate tickets per concert, in aid of the music charity Music in Action (Eventbrite). Our feature on the concerts.
  • Book Club at Knole, Thursday 22 October, 6pm to 7.15pm, on this year’s page-to-screen theme.
  • The Gruffalo film screening and playtime, 24 and 25 October, 10.30am to 11.45am, in half term.
  • Free fishing at Monk Lakes, Thursday 29 October, 9.30am to 4.30pm, for 11 to 17 year olds, with transport laid on and only eight places a day, booked by email (Sevenoaks Town Council).
  • The Holly Party, Friday 11 December, 7.30pm to 11pm at the Bat & Ball Centre. Sevenoaks Town Team’s shared Christmas party, £28 plus booking fee, with an eight-piece band and a buffet (Sevenoaks Town Council).

We keep separate dated guides to the rest of the year: October half term and pumpkin picking, Halloween events and fireworks displays, then Christmas fairs and markets, pantomimes and where to meet Father Christmas.

Getting there

The Vine Gardens, the High Street and the Stag are all within a ten minute walk of each other, so one trip covers most of the town centre listings above. Chartwell, Quebec House and Emmetts Garden are all a drive out west, and Chartwell’s car park fills early on a free day. If you are driving into town on a Saturday, our page on parking in Sevenoaks has the current tariffs and the car parks that fill first, and there is a separate list of free parking. Coming by rail, see train times to London for the timetable in both directions, and note that both the Orpington to Tonbridge and the Otford to Sevenoaks lines are closed on Sunday 6 September and on later September Sundays, which we cover in Sevenoaks trains: Sunday closures in September. If you are making a day of it, we also keep guides to things to do with kids, family walks and breakfast and brunch.

This page is rewritten as organisers confirm new dates. Everything above was checked against the source listed beside it on 30 August 2026, and dates can still change, so use the links before you travel. More in our What’s On section.

Sources

Image: “Sevenoaks, Knole Park, Knole House” by Michael Garlick, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sevenoaks,Knole_Park,_Knole_House-geograph.org.uk-_7392566.jpg).