Youngsters offered heritage hands-on fun

Families are invited to bring their children to Tavistock for something fun and different to do this Saturday, including spotting history pictures in shop windows and panning for tin.

Family Fun Day at Tavistock Heritage Open Days (run by Tavistock Heritage Trust) is on September 19 with activities and historic places to explore across the town.

The historic Guildhall Courtroom is staging a hands-on craft session called ‘Working Life in Tavistock Through the Ages’.

A spokesman for the Tavistock Heritage Trust said: “Families with young children are invited to get properly hands-on with history. Children can ‘pan’ for tin, search a mining tunnel and try soap stone carving. Parents and their children can also design a Tudor-inspired shop or market stall with supervision.”

Families can drop in anytime between 10am and 1pm.

Meanwhile, the Museum of Policing (managed by volunteers and Devon and Cornwall Police), under the arch between the Guildhall and courtroom, will also be open all day free of charge.

Anyone is welcome to discover how everyday policing has changed, admire the range of police uniforms through the ages and try on a policeman’s hat. Visitors can also meet characters from the past through their stories of policing the streets of Tavistock, while there will also be crime-fighting related activities for younger visitors.

Also, Tavistock Museum will be open to explore the lives, trades and stories of generations of Tavistock people, with special heritage open day family activities, including having a whirl at medieval dancing.

Sharp-eyed shoppers are also encouraged to keep a lookout in shop windows for photographs of high street businesses of the past for the ‘Windows in Time’ activity.

An organiser said: “Look for historic photographs and stories displayed in shop windows and see familiar Tavistock streets as previous generations would have known them. There’s no set route and no timetable, so families can explore it whenever they like between activities.”

For more details on the shop windows activity and to read the blog see this link at Tavistock Heritage Trust website: https://www.heritageintavistock.org/.../windows-in-time...