To kick off Heritage Month, The Bermuda National Trust will be taking Bermudians back in time with their first ever open house historic day at Verdmont in Smith?s Parish.

?We are celebrating Bermuda?s history and culture,? said Nicola O?Leary, Bermuda National Trust education officer. ?We want to feature local crafts, games and trades and the artisans who continue them. That is where our programme is going. Those are our objectives: to make history fun, engaging, interactive for all ages.?

The open house will be a family day on May 1 from 12 noon to 5 p.m. Entrance is free.

Kate Berry Trust Development Project Manager said the point wasn?t to make money but to get people out and interacting with their heritage.

?The point is to get people in here, seeing and touching and doing and learning about what happened in Bermuda,? she said. ?That is the whole thing. It is important for little kids to be able to go and see a carpenter sitting there and making a chair. They would normally just go to a store and buy one.?

?It is not only education, but it also helps with children understanding where their food comes from. The trades for example how do you know you want to become a carpenter unless you have seen a carpenter do something?

?We have got so to the point where we buy everything that we have almost forgotten where it all comes from. This is meant to educate. You can preserve only what you know. It will be fun.?

The event is part of the Heritage Month Quincentennial celebrations organised by the Department of Community & Cultural Affairs.

?They have been a fantastic support and help,? said Mrs. Berry. ?It has been really great to work in partnership with them on this.?

Dr. O?Leary said the open house will loosely be modelled on Bermuda Connections, the showcase of Bermuda culture put on at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. a couple of years ago. She said that in addition to seeing artisans and craftsmen at work, just seeing Verdmont House is a treat. Although the house is open to the public throughout the week, many Bermudians never get around to seeing it, even if they live just down the road. ?You get to see Verdmont, which is a house that is almost 300 years old. It is really quite spectacular for any house to remain for 300 years in the condition that it originally had,? said Dr. O?Leary.

Verdmont is one of Bermuda?s most significant historic buildings. It was built around 1710 and is a unique example of early Georgian architecture.

?For 240 of these years the house was lived in with no plumbing or electricity,? said Mrs. Berry. ?Verdmont is four squared with four great chimneys, two at each end, providing a fireplace in each of the eight rooms. Its strategic location in the middle of the Island commanding a magnificent view over the South Shore and shipping lanes, was surely no accident, as two of the previous owners were Collectors of Customs.?

The last person to live at Verdmont was Miss Lillian Joell. Her family sold the house in 1951 to the Bermuda Historical Monuments Trust, forerunner of the Bermuda National Trust, which opened the house as a museum in 1956. The museum features an extensive collection of antiques including Bermuda-made cedar furniture, portraits, English and Chinese porcelain and a child?s nursery. The old walled gardens contain an assortment of herbs, old roses and fruit trees known to be growing in Bermuda in the 18th century.

During the open house, local author Diana Chudley will give a brief history of Smith?s Parish and a talk about Verdmont itself. Mrs. Chudley?s book about Smith?s Parish is scheduled to come out this November.

?There will be two levels of activities for people,? said Dr. O?Leary. ?One is a slightly more formal set of activities that will be going on approximately every half hour. There will also be discussions by different people in the community.

?For example, Andre Hubbard will talk about people in the building trades. Ruth Thomas will head the African dancers and drummers. We have some students from CedarBridge participating. Clifford Smith will talk about the Manilla wreck.?

There will also be a talk about the making of Gombey costumes and the Warner Gombeys will end the afternoon.

?We also envision a number of people demonstrating different things,? she said. ?We may have some of the guides dressed in period costume. We will have a bee keeper. Fred Phillips who makes fine furniture will be there. David Wingate will be working to build blue bird boxes.?We have a lot of activities going on in a very little space.?

Mrs. Berry said the Ministry of Community & Cultural Affairs had been very helpful and supportive. ?They have been giving us advice and working with us the whole way through on this,? she said. ?They have been really fabulous.?

Parking for the event will be at the Elliot Primary school field. They will have a shuttle bus service between Elliot and Verdmont house. There will be light refreshments available for sale. The event is sponsored by Belco and the department of Community & Cultural Affairs.