HERITAGE Open Day events have been taking place around Romsey during the past week.

Their have been three events recently at well known attractions with a mixture of in person and online attractions.

The Heritage Open Days took place from September 11-19

On September 14, their was a special tour of the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens with a focus on the favourite trees and plants of the collection's founder Sir Harold Hillier.

Visitors had a guided tour of the gardens, which is just outside Romsey, from a horticultural expert and discovered the ‘founders favourites’, the plants and trees that Sir Harold Hillier cherished and that are still the backbone of the collection today.

He was an avid plantsman and wanted to establish a garden and arboretum dedicated to temperate zone 'woody' plants, which would grow to maturity long after his lifetime.

On September 18 and 19, their was an opportunity to see Romsey Signal Box in action.

The signal box was open with free admission over that weekend. It has been closed since 1982 but has been restored to full working order, with connections to signals and a point outside.

Visitors were encouraged to pull the levers and see things happening. They also have a miniature working signal box demonstration based on Cowley Bridge Junction signal box, which visitors observed.

Other artifacts and items of interest are spread around the site, including a small garden railway.

As well as these in person events, an online event was also available in connection to Mottisfont Abbey.

The event titled: ‘Mottisfont Abbey - Tracing the Priory in the Architecture‘, took the form of a video tour presented by archaeologist James Brown.

The tour looked at why it is called Mottisfont Abbey, when it doesn't look like an Abbey. It pointed out some of the obvious, and not so obvious, clues in the architecture.