An invitation only event and fully booked out, the weekend has been nearly a year in the making said the Chair of the Central West National Trust Open House Committee, Jenner Plomley.

“Since last winter we’ve been meeting with owners and seeing if they were prepared to open their houses,” she said.

Mrs Plomley added that the history of individual houses may be the central feature of the tour, but the villages are also a large draw card.

“Both Millthorpe and Carcoar are very interesting and are recognised as being of significance by the National Trust,” she said.

“Carcoar in particular because it’s such a charming village and we are very fortunate to have a house open in Carcoar, but also the visitors will have time there to see other buildings such as the court house.”

The four houses open on Saturday in Millthorpe are “Methleigh”,  the Baptist Church on Pearce St, “Grove Farm” on Forest Reefs Rd and “Vermont” at Tallwood.

On Sunday the Carcoar houses are “Kentucky” in Carcoar,  “Chesney” on Errowanbang Rd, the Errowanbang Homestead and Woolshed as well as a general walk about in Carcoar with inspections at the court house and hospital.

Millthorpe Museum treasurer Rosemarie Amos said that on the Saturday there will be a two hour break in the middle of the day with the visitors free to roam around the village, and coordinating sustenance for them all was important.

“During the 2 hour lunch break, the Museum will provide 200 lunch boxes that will be pre-ordered,” she said.

“The rest of the people will be buying their lunch around the village, so we need to make sure all the food outlets are prepared for an influx of around 300 people between 12 and 2pm.”

The visitors are split up into 4 groups so there would be approximately 125 at each house at any given time. Each group will see two houses in the morning and two in the afternoon.