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Shine a lightSeptember’s Heritage Open Days festival is an excellent way to forge community links and help your Society raise its profi leFrom grottoes to gin distilleries, a host of secret spaces are among those that open their doors to the public for one weekend each September. Heritage Open Days is England’s largest grass-roots heritage festival involving over 40,000 volunteers and 5,000 events – all free of charge. It is a unique and special way to fi nd out what lies within some of our most iconic buildings.Many members are already engaged with Heritage Open Days, including our National Chairman June Robinson. June has been involved since 1998 and has many happy memories. Her Society, Leatherhead DFAS, became involved in 2001 and has taken part every year since. In 2015, this was expanded further with every Society in Mole Valley contributing to sponsor a lecture at Leatherhead Theatre. “Bertie Pearce was a popular choice and all 520 seats in the theatre were fi lled – a wonderful introduction for many who had never experienced a NADFAS lecture before,” says June.This year, Heritage Open Days runs from September 7–10. There are many ways to help and it is the perfect opportunity to make NADFAS better known, as these examples show. DREAM GARDENS IN MOLE VALLEYThe 2016 Heritage Open Days in Mole Valley, Surrey, included the grand opening of Dorking’s Deepdene Trail, set in a landscape that dates back to the 17th century and recently reawakened by a £1m Heritage Lottery Fund grant.Dorking DFAS sponsored a competition in honour of the opening of the trail. Children from 18 schools were asked to design their own ‘Dream Garden’, which helped the Society raise its profi le not only with schools, pupils and parents, but also in the local press.Rod Shaw, Principal Conservation 38 NADFAS REVIEW / SPRING 2017 www.nadfas.org.uk