Bushey Rose Garden and Aldenham School opened free on Saturday 19 September 2026 for Hertsmere's first Heritage Open Days: the tour times and both venues.

Two places in Hertsmere are opening free to the public on Saturday 19 September, and one of them needs booking now.

Hertsmere Borough Council is taking part in Heritage Open Days for the first time. Its announcement on 3 September sets out two events, both on the same day:

  • guided tours of Bushey Rose Garden, hourly between 10am and 3pm, run with the Friends of Bushey Rose Garden
  • guided tours of Aldenham School, at 2pm, 3pm and 4pm

Neither is in Borehamwood. Bushey Rose Garden is on Bushey High Street, about four miles west of the town. Aldenham School is on Aldenham Road between Elstree and Letchmore Heath, roughly two and a half miles west. Both are close enough to do in one afternoon, which is what the council suggests.

Everything is free. Heritage Open Days is England’s festival of history and culture and it runs from 11 to 20 September this year, with every event free to attend.

Heritage Open Days in Hertsmere, Saturday 19 September 2026 Two events on Saturday 19 September 2026. Bushey Rose Garden runs hourly guided tours between 10am and 3pm, pre-booking required through Eventbrite, at High Street, Bushey WD23 3HH. Aldenham School runs tours at 2pm, 3pm and 4pm, no booking required, each lasting about fifty minutes, at Aldenham Road, Elstree WD6 3AJ. Both are free. Saturday 19 September: what opens, and when Both events are free. Only one of them takes bookings. Bushey Rose Garden Hourly guided tours, 10am to 3pm Pre-booking required, through Eventbrite Subject to volunteer availability High Street, Bushey WD23 3HH Car park at Bushey Country Club, opposite Buses 142 and 258 stop on the High Street Aldenham School Tours at 2pm, 3pm and 4pm No booking needed About 50 minutes each Aldenham Road, Elstree WD6 3AJ Car park through the main school gates Disabled parking at the same entrance Source: the two Heritage Open Days listings and Hertsmere Borough Council, 3 September 2026. Graphic by The Borehamwood Post
The Bushey tours start five hours before the Aldenham ones finish, so both fit in a day.

Bushey Rose Garden: book, because the tours are ticketed

The garden was laid out by the artist Sir Hubert von Herkomer with the landscape architect Thomas Mawson, and it is the surviving piece of Bushey’s art school. The council’s Heritage Open Days listing says the walled garden now holds more than 40 varieties of rose and over 4,000 plants across three parts: the Sunken Garden with its fountain and rose beds, the Lawn, and the Rose Walk running in from Herkomer Road.

The same listing records the restoration. Funding of £1.5m came together in May 2008 from the Heritage Lottery and Big Lottery Fund’s Parks for People programme, Hertsmere Borough Council, the German town of Landsberg am Lech and the Rotary Club. Work started on site in August 2009 and the Lord Lieutenant of Hertfordshire, the Countess of Verulam, reopened the garden on 23 July 2010.

It has kept its standing since. The council’s Green Flag announcement in July records the Rose Garden as a Green Flag winner for 16 years, and says it has again been given Green Heritage Site Accreditation, which is supported by Historic England and judged on how a site’s historic features are looked after.

Tours are led by volunteers and run hourly from 10am to 3pm, subject to volunteer availability. Booking is through Eventbrite, and when we checked on 7 September the free tickets were still on sale. The listing names Hannah Oliver at the council for booking questions.

Use the High Street entrance. Garden visitors can park at the Bushey Country Club car park over the road, or at Kemp Place just off the High Street. The nearest station is Bushey, about a mile away on the line into Euston, and the 142 and 258 buses stop at the station and on the High Street near the garden.

Aldenham School: no booking, three tours, about 50 minutes each

Aldenham School was founded at the end of the 16th century and largely rebuilt in the 19th. Its festival listing sets out what the tour covers:

  • the listed buildings, including the old library and dining hall, the headmaster’s house, the tower and the school room, in stock brick with stone dressing
  • the chapel and McGill’s and Beevor’s houses, from the major expansion at the end of the 19th century
  • Paull’s House and the commemorative library from the early 20th century
  • Kennedy’s post-war boarding house with its distinctive copper roof

Tours run at 2pm, 3pm and 4pm and there is no booking. The listing gives an estimated duration of 50 minutes and names the School Bursar as the contact on the day, near the main entrance. There is a car park next to the main School House building, through the main gates by the zebra crossing, with disabled parking at the same place.

Why the council is doing this

Councillor Nik Oakley, the portfolio holder for planning, infrastructure and transport, is quoted in the council’s announcement: “We have spent so much time looking forward to the future that we have neglected the magnificent heritage that this borough has to offer.”

He said much of Hertsmere’s built heritage is in private occupation and usually behind closed doors, and that other places are “already eager to join us next year”. So this is a first run at it rather than a full programme, which is worth knowing before you expect a borough-wide open weekend.

What it means for you

  • If you want the Bushey tour, book it this week. Tickets are free but the tours are ticketed and volunteer-led, so places are finite in a way the Aldenham ones are not.
  • You can do both in one afternoon. Bushey finishes at 3pm at the latest and Aldenham starts at 2pm, so a late Bushey tour and the 4pm Aldenham tour work.
  • Aldenham needs no planning at all. Turn up for 2pm, 3pm or 4pm.
  • Check what the roads are doing first. The A411 through Bushey High Street, the road the Rose Garden sits on, is under a proposed closure order from 14 September, which is after this weekend but worth knowing if you plan a return visit. Our roadworks and travel page tracks it.
  • One more free opening nearby, on the weekend before. Kingsbury Barn in St Albans, about seven miles north, holds a ceramics exhibition by the Dacorum and Chiltern Potters Guild in a privately owned 13th or 14th century barn, 10am to 4.30pm on Friday 11, Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 September, no booking. It shows on the Hertsmere area list but it is in St Albans district, not this borough.

Sources

Checked against the sources above on 7 September 2026. Ticket availability can change; confirm on Eventbrite before you travel.