On Sunday 13 September Princethorpe was delighted to take part in this year's Heritage Open Day, England’s biggest heritage and culture festival.

It's a popular date in the calendar and the College always enjoys opening its doors to the local community and over the years has had hundreds of visitors attend. This year, however, because of the social distancing restrictions, Princethorpe decided to offer a virtual interactive Google 360˚ Heritage Day Tour instead.

The Heritage Open Day virtual tour included 13 different scenes of Princethorpe, with each scene combining a 360˚ photo with either narrated or written information. Visitors were able to explore the chapel and take a behind the scenes look at what was once St. Mary’s Priory. It included the quintessential Quad that has featured in BBC period productions, the stunning stained glass in what is now the Library, the nuns’ final resting place in the Roundhouse, the hidden secrets of Little Switzerland and so much more.

It was a rare opportunity to get under the skin of one of Warwickshire’s iconic landmarks. It was a fascinating insight into the history of the school.

Many thanks to the Foundation’s Archivist, Janette Ratcliffe, and to Assistant Head, Alex Darkes, for putting together the interactive tour.

The tour has been very popular with over 800 views so far and the great news is, that even if you missed Heritage Open Day this year, you can still take the tour yourself, just visit http://bit.ly/PrincethorpeHeritageTour