by Jack Abell
IF YOU would like to find out more about the history of the area you live in, you will be able to take a step back in time at this weekend's Heritage celebrations.
The Chiltern District's history and culture will be celebrated this weekend with a selection of free events and some of the area's most famous landmarks will be opening their doors on September 8 and 9 in a bid to inform residents of the history that surrounds them.
The main attractions will include Milton's Cottage in Chalfont St Giles, the Roald Dahl Museum in Great Missenden, Holy Trinity Church in Penn and the Amersham Fair Organ Museum.
A vintage bus will operate from 10.25am until 5.30pm on Sunday, transporting visitors between these events.
Lorraine Surridge, communications manager for Chiltern District Council, said: "The vintage bus should prove popular and is a really nice way to help people to learn more about the area. When people are driving around the area they don't always get a chance to see some of the things that are on their doorsteps so this weekend is a great chance to do that.
"We hope that people who come will discover things they never knew about before and come back to these attractions again."
The weekend highlights some of the important historical figures who lived in the area.
John Milton wrote Paradise Lost and Paradise Revisited in his cottage in Chalfont St Giles, while William Penn, the Quaker and founder of Pennsylvania, was a regular at the Holy Trinity Church in Penn, which is named after him.
Both of these buildings will be open to the public over the weekend as part of the Heritage weekend.
Meanwhile, the Roald Dahl Museum in Great Missenden will offer free guided tours of the village, showing visitors a selection of places in the area from which Dahl drew inspiration for his characters. There will also be a selection of free craft activities in the museum and storytelling in Miss Honey's classroom, themed on the setting in Dahl's novel Matilda.
The Amersham Fair Organ Museum will give guests the chance to see the unique 89-key Marenghi organ, which is one of only three left in the world.
There will be a number of other attractions, including a demonstration of how organs work and performances of popular 20th century and classical pieces of music.
Guided walks will take place in Amersham Old Town, allowing visitors to learn of the history of the area and get a flavour of what life in the town