Hundreds attend Heritage Fair 2026 at Wicksteed Park

Events
Written By Lynne Dickens

More than 600 visitors attended this year’s Heritage Fair at Wicksteed Park, bringing together heritage organisations, local history groups and visitors from across the county for a day celebrating Northamptonshire’s rich and varied heritage.

Exhibitors on the lawn outside the Pavilion before the event started

Exhibitors outside the Pavilion before the event started

The event was organised by Northamptonshire Family History Society members Angela Malin and Janet Lawrence, with support from Matt Taylor, Heritage Manager at Discover Northamptonshire, and Connor McIntyre, Community and Heritage Coordinator at Wicksteed Park.

Held in warm sunshine, the Pavilion was filled with more than 65 exhibitors representing a wide range of organisations and interests. These included archaeological societies, family history groups, local history societies, museums, historic churches, battlefield organisations, heritage craftspeople, wildlife and natural history groups, visitor attractions and historic houses from across Northamptonshire.

“A fantastic opportunity to showcase the amazing variety and scope of heritage in Northamptonshire.”

Several Northamptonshire Heritage Forum members attended the event, with the Forum itself also hosting a stand during the day. The fair provided an excellent opportunity for organisations to meet visitors, share their work and highlight the breadth of heritage activity taking place across the county.

Throughout the day, exhibitors welcomed a steady stream of visitors, answering questions, sharing research and encouraging people to discover more about their local heritage and community organisations.

The event also highlighted the importance of partnership working within the county’s heritage sector, bringing together organisations of all sizes in a shared celebration of Northamptonshire’s history, culture and natural heritage.

Representatives of Cornerstone and Alfred East Gallery in Kettering on their stand

Cornerstone and Alfred East Gallery Kettering

Special thanks were given to the volunteers from Wicksteed Park and Chester House Estate, whose support helped ensure the smooth running of the event.

Lynne Dickens

Lynne is currently a part-time freelance website designer and marketer. Formerly trading full-time as Spot On Creative is a Northants-based creative team who have the hard-earned skills, expertise and industry knowledge that only come from having worked for years in advertising. It was all managed by Lynne Dickens who has over 20 years’ experience in marketing communications, and ten years in website design and build, and creative team project management.

Lynne is also a qualified art historian and has some expertise in curating fine art exhibitions and producing all of the catalogues, posters and supporting material to create a successful event.

All the guys in the team have worked for one-man bands, SMEs and large blue-chip multinationals in just about every sector, field and industry. Collectively, we can come up with great ideas, superb design and copy, and exceptional photography for anything from websites to email campaigns, branding to brochures – and everything in between.

And the beauty of Spot On Creative is that we’re big in creativity, experience and knowledge, but small in overheads and invoices. So we’re a much more sensible and affordable option for you than a larger advertising agency or marketing company.

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