Across Bath and Bristol, National Trust places are full of warmth as the trees slowly turn to red, orange and gold, enjoy crisp walks with family and friends and steaming cups of hot chocolate. There’s lots on offer this season, from spooky Halloween trails to guided tours, and sensory walks to Heritage Open Days.
What’s more, every time you experience a National Trust day out, you help care for these special places for future generations.
Here is what’s happening near you this autumn, please check property website for opening days and times:
Bath Assembly Rooms
Guided Tours
22 to 25 Sep. 10am and 12am
Join your host for a fully guided tour of the ground floor of the Assembly Rooms. You'll learn a little about the future plans and be taken through the Ball Room, Great Octagon, Tea Room and Card Room where we'll share some of the history behind the building.
Tours will last approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour. Tours are aimed at adults, but are also suitable for interested older children. Please book a space for everyone in your party.
Price: £10 (free for National Trust members, please bring membership card). Booking essential 0344 249 1895, or via the website.
Connection Cafe
6 Sep. 10.30am-12.30pm
Through our work with local communities, we're trialling new Connection Cafés. This is a chance for local people in Bath to come to Bath Assembly Rooms for a free tea, coffee and cake, and a chance to meet new people. There will be an interactive session at each café that’s inspired by the historic Bath Assembly Rooms. Structure of the café is arrival with tea/coffee and a chance to meet everyone, followed by the interactive activity.
Price: Free. Booking essential 0344 249 1895, or via the website.
Explore Bath Assembly Rooms
7 to 12 and 16 to 19 Sep. 10am-2.30pm
Do you want to see inside the Assembly Rooms? Or walk in the footsteps of Jane Austen? Or perhaps marvel at the chandeliers? Whatever your reason for wanting to visit, Bath Assembly Rooms is offering explorer sessions so you can come in and look around.
Feel free to wonder around the Rooms, see the chandeliers, read the information boards or chat to one of the room guides. There will be pop-up talks from our expert guides for those looking for a little more history about the building.
Price: £4 (under 12s free and free for National Trust members, please bring membership card).
Hard hat behind-the-scenes event tours
11 Sep. 2.30pm, more dates to come
With the strip-out of the basement now complete, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the Assembly Rooms in a way it's not been seen for many years. The lower ground floor, rich in original architecture with vaulted ceilings and home to the historic Cold Bath is featured on this tour, as well as the principle rooms on the ground floor, and some of the upper floors. Before the next stage of works begin there is a limited opportunity to see the building in it's rawest way.
Each tour last approximately 1hr 45minutes to 2hrs. Suitable for those over 18 only, this is a specialist tour.
Price: £15 per person (both National Trust members and non-members). Booking essential 0344 249 1895, or via the website.
Specialist tour – Music at Bath Assembly Rooms
18 and 19 Sep. 2.30pm
Tour some of the principle ground floor rooms and hear about musical directors, performers and performances from the Georgian heyday of Bath Assembly Rooms.
Starting in the Ball Room you'll discover what type of music once filled the room and learn about characters such as Thomas Linley before moving through the building to hear about Rauzzini. There's plenty of other characters to learn about on the way with snippets of music played throughout.
Tours will last approximately 1 hour 30 minutes. Tours are aimed at adults, but are also suitable for interested older children. Please book a space for everyone in your party.
Price: £15 (free for National Trust members, please bring membership card). Booking essential 0344 249 1895, or via the website.
Events at Bath Assembly Rooms with The Jane Austen Festival
13 to 15 Sep. 3-10pm
The 2024 edition of The Jane Austen Festival takes place throughout Bath from Friday 13 September to Sunday 22 September and is the largest and longest running Jane Austen Festival in the world.
Bath Assembly Rooms is hosting a number of events this year including the fayre, dance workshops, the Netherfield Assembly Ball and a number of talks.
Visit the festival website for the full programme of events, latest updates and ticket availability.
Price: From £3 (please visit the festival website for all ticket prices). Booking essential, via the website (please note that booking is managed by The Jane Austen Festival, the organisers of this event).
Bath Children’s Literature Festival at Bath Assembly Rooms
Daily 27 Sep to 6 Oct. 10am-6pm
This year's festival features a programme of over 80 events, with special guests including Michael Rosen, Cressida Cowell, Rob Biddulph, Harry Hill, Andy Day, Jacqueline Wilson, Ben Miller, Robin Stevens and Liz Pichon.
Both weekends of the festival will be filled with lots of interactive events, with the chance to hear from authors and illustrators talking about the stories you love. The Schools Programme during the week will also be hosting some top names, with children from 44 schools in Bath & North East Somerset, Bristol, Somerset and Wiltshire taking part.
The festival hub this year is Bath Assembly Rooms. For full details of the festival including timings, ticket prices and booking, please visit their website.
Price: From £6.50 (please visit the festival website for all ticket prices). Booking essential, via the website (please note that booking is managed by Children’s Literature Festival, the organisers of this event).
Spooky crafts
Daily 28 Oct to 3 Nov. 10am-2pm
Visit Bath Assembly Rooms during October half term and get busy creating Halloween themed crafts.
In workshop style sessions you can make your own ghost ornament using felt or a spider in a web using sticks and string.
There will be other activities that you can try yourself such as origami pumpkins and turnips, make your own 3D haunted paper house, try trick or treat hula and of course some spooky themed colouring in.
Price: Free. Booking not required.
Bath Mozartfest
Daily 8 to 16 Nov. 7.30-8.30pm
Enjoy music at the Assembly Rooms this November as the 2024 Bath Mozartfest return for their 34th year.
Once again they'll be bringing some of the world’s finest musicians to the beautiful City of Bath in a wide reaching celebration of W A Mozart.
For a full listing of all performances and times, and to book tickets, please visit the Mozartfest website.
Price: From £17 (please visit the Bath Mozartfest website for all ticket prices). Booking essential, via the website (please note that booking is managed by Bath Mozartfest, the organisers of this event).
Dyrham Park
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/bath-bristol/dyrham-park
Heritage Open Day
7 Sep. 10am-5pm
Visit Dyrham Park for free on Saturday 7 September as part of the Heritage Open Days scheme. The parkland, garden and house will be open as well as the play area and café in the parkland, shop and tea-room.
Price: Free. Booking not required.
Book cleaning in the house
10 and 24 Sep, 8 and 22 Oct. 11.30am-2.30pm
Staff and volunteers will be cleaning, checking and recording books from the collection normally housed in the Plod Chamber. This collection includes Shakespeare, Ovid, Byron plus an Anglo-Dutch dictionary from 1681. A special book cushion, a gentle vacuum cleaner, a pony hair brush and special lamps are used for the process.
Price: Free (normal admission prices apply). Booking not required.
Nature Tots at Old Lodge
10, 17 and 24 Sep and 1, 8, and 15 Oct. 10.45–11.45am
The popular session for pre-schoolers is back with nature activities each Tuesday morning in term time. Sessions will usually include a song, story, craft and a game.
Price: Free (normal admission prices apply). Booking not required.
October half-term bat trail
Daily 26 Oct to 3 Nov. 10am-4pm
Swoop your way around Dyrham Park with a bat-themed trail around the 270-acre site. There will be clues and facts about our favourite upside-down friends to tie in with the half-term holiday and Halloween. The trail sheet will be £2.50 each which will include a prize at the end.
Price: £2.50 per trail sheet (normal admission prices apply). Booking not required.
Prior Park Landscape Garden
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/bath-bristol/prior-park-landscape-garden
Heritage Open Days
7 and 14 Sep. 10am–4pm
If you've not visit Prior Park before then this is the perfect opportunity. Come and see the garden for free and visit information points about archaeology, gardening, crayfish and more.
Price: Free. Booking not required.
Gardeners seasonal garden walk – autumn
21 and 23 Oct. 11am-12pm
Enjoy a guided walk from the gardeners at Prior Park.
Price: Free (normal admission prices apply). Booking recommended 01225 833977, or via the website.
October half-term spider trail
Daily 26 Oct to 3 Nov. 10am-3pm
This October half term, children can follow a spider trail around Prior Park. There will be clues and facts about our favourite eight-legged friends, just in time for Halloween. Complete the trail and get a prize at the end.
Price: Free (normal admission prices apply). Booking not required.
Tyntesfield
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/bath-bristol/tyntesfield
Tyntesfield After Hours
7 Sep. 5-8pm
Enjoy a relaxed evening of art, music, talks, and tours at Tyntesfield estate as part of Heritage Open Days.
Visit during the late opening for extended entry to the house and the first chance to see Nicola Turner's art installation ‘The Uninvited Guest from the Unremembered Past’.
The evening will feature a variety of drop-in activities, from guided walks and games, to flower arranging and botanical mocktails made using ingredients from Tyntesfield’s kitchen gardens.
Tickets are free and include entry to the estate, house and activities. Refreshments and snacks will be available.
Price: Free. Booking essential 0344 249 1895, or via the website.
The Uninvited Guest from the Unremembered Past by Nicola Turner
Daily from 7 Sep. to 3 Nov.10.30am-3.30pm
Artist Nicola Turner has disrupted Tyntefield house with The Uninvited Guest from the Unremembered Past. Throughout the house, Turner has created a series of evocative installations made from organic ‘dead’ matter, such as wool and horsehair. These materials hold traces of memory; the horsehair has been salvaged from old mattresses and furniture, therefore absorbed with a lived history from both its time as a domestic object and as part of a living animal. The installations explore ways of listening to past, present and future.
As well as some of our grand public rooms, like the Library and Main Hall, you’ll see spaces not normally open to the public, including bedrooms and storerooms.
The wool and horsehair installations respond to the house, often incorporating objects from Tyntesfield’s historic collection, like furniture, books and ceramics.
Nicola Turner’s installation invites us to reflect on Tyntesfield’s history, encouraging us to re-see the house and to interrogate the memories it contains.
Price: Free (normal admission prices apply). Booking not required.
Sensory walks: tailored tours for blind and partially sighted visitors
13 and 27 Sep, 11 and 25 Oct. 11am-12pm
Learn about the history of this fascinating place and use your senses to engage with nature on this intimate and interactive tour.
Tours will take place on the second and fourth Friday of each month (dates below) from 11am. We will accompany 6 blind and partially sighted individuals (and an accompanying individual) on a 3/4 mile accessible trail.
Please note that the event may be cancelled in cases of extreme or unsafe weather.
Price: Free (normal admission prices apply). Booking essential 01275 461 900.
Make your own Windsor Chair
Daily 14 to 19 Oct. 10am-4pm
On this flagship course you will make a comb backed Windsor Chair.
We start by splitting ash logs, which are chopped, shaved and then turned on the pole lathe. The first three days are devoted to making all the turned parts which are dried in our kiln. On day four you shape your chair seat using specialist hand tools, while also preparing a comb and steam bending it to fit. Friday sees the assembly of the legs and stretchers into the seat, and on Saturday the back sticks and comb are fitted.
You will go away with a fully functioning chair to be proud of. This 6-day course is quite demanding both physically and mentally but within the capabilities of most, will reasonably fit adults of all ages.
Price: £395. Booking essential via somersetbodgers@icloud.com (please note that booking is managed by Somerset Bodgers, who are organising the event).
Autumn Harvest Display
Daily 26 Oct to 4 Nov. 10.30am–4.30pm
Join the team at Tyntesfield for their spectacular annual gourd display in the orangery. For months the Outdoors Team have been growing pumpkins, melons, squash and cucumbers, with new varieties of each to be discovered, as well as beans and flowers to give that authentic rustic look – the perfect way to welcome autumn and snap that perfect pumpkin picture.
Price: Free (normal admission prices apply). Booking not needed.
Tyntesfield Halloween Trail
Daily 26 Oct to 4 Nov. 10am–4pm
Did you know a that witch lives in a cottage in the woods at Tyntesfield? You can come and meet her if you like. Be warned though, she’s a bit grumpy at the moment because her naughty cat Whiskers has torn her book of spells and she cannot finish making her frightful frog-fudge for her Halloween party guests. If you can find all the ingredients she needs around the estate, she may give you a prize.
Price: £3 (normal admission prices apply). Booking not required.
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