Becconsall Heritage Park, set to become Lancashire's first open air museum, announces vintage fair
A special event is being held next weekend at a park set to become Lancashire’s first open air living museum.
A site on the outskirts of Preston, currently under development to become the North West’s only rural living museum, has announced its first community event of the year.
Becconsall Heritage Park, which opened in 2025, is a not-for-profit community initiative which is bringing a 20 acre former brickworks site in Hesketh Bank into beneficial use as an open-air, living museum.
The site, which produced bricks for over 100 years, has just announced its first major event for 2026 - a Steam & Vintage Fair taking place this upcoming Bank Holiday weekend, on Sunday, May 3 and Monday, May 4.
Funds raised from the two-day event will go toward the ongoing development of the Heritage Park which is taking place largely through the work of dedicated volunteers and Friends of the Heritage Park.
Open to everyone, the fair will bring together steam traction engines which are over 100 years old along with old tractors, vintage vehicles, craft stalls and a variety of children’s enetrainment- including a face painter, a bouncy castle and a waltzer.
The event is open from 11.00 to 16.30 each day but at about 18.00 on the Sunday, the steam traction engines and some of the vintage vehicles will travel from Hesketh Bank to the neighbouring village of Tarleton.
Tickets for the event cost £8.50 are available online at becconsall.org and are also available on the day at the site.
A spokesperson for the site said: “Becconsall welcomes visitors to this new event which will help conserve our heritage and provide a new visitor and educational facility.”
The Park is being developed in several phases over a period of time and the volunteers have so far been supported by grants from the Key Fund, the Lottery Heritage Fund, Asda Foundation, Hesketh with Becconsall Parish Council and Lancashire Environmental Fund.
Prior to the Becconsall initiative opening last year, the North West was the single, populous region of the UK which didn’t have a rural, living museum facility.
Upon completion, the museum, already home to a WW2 shelter and Nissen hut, will be similar to those at Beamish, Ironbridge and Amberley, but smaller in scale.
Becconsall Living Museum will tell Hesketh Bank’s rich heritage stories across brickmaking, coastal shipping, agriculture, transport, tourism and other industires, as well as present old trades, crafts, shops and services such as blacksmiths, basket making, wheelwrights, bakers, bank, post and communications.
In addition to being a new visitor attraction, Becconsall already provides a host of educational opportunities: it works closely with local schools and further education colleges and is currently working with West Lancashire Borough Council to seek funding for a quality Visitor & Learning Hub for the site to support education activities and interpretation.