SOME of East Lancashire’s oldest venues opened their doors to show off the area’s great heritage.

There was a great mix of young and old as Blackburn Cathedral gave tours of its bell tower, which even attracted a few Millwall fans, who had arrived in the town centre early ahead of their fixture with Blackburn Rovers.

The cathedral also hosted a cross-making arts and craft workshop for children, a QR reader photo search organised by pupils from St Wilfrid’s Academy and flower arranging demonstrations. There was also an open choir rehearsal, led by director of music John Robinson, and featuring current and former choristers, ranging from ages eight to 80.

Education officer Sian Howell-Jones said: “It has been encouraging. We have had some people who are from other countries who have just happened to be visiting family in the area. The other good thing was there was a football match on Saturday afternoon and we had some Millwall fans who had been walking past and wondered what was going in. We invited them in and gave them a tour.

“The heritage open day is really trying to encourage people to come into buildings that they wouldn’t necessarily realise they are allowed in.”

In total 100 different venues took place in events to mark the 25th anniversary of Heritage Open Days.

This included Gawthorpe Hall, near Padiham, which offered free entry to see its portraits from the National Portrait Gallery and the Gawthorpe Textiles Collection.