Dear members,

You may have seen some coverage in the press recently about some potential changes at English Heritage. I wanted to share a little bit more with you, our most important supporters.

From rising conservation costs to the slow return – post-pandemic – of international visitors, these are challenging times for organisations like ours. We want English Heritage to flourish and to give our sites and collections the care they deserve. To do that, we need to make some changes.

We’ve developed a series of proposals mostly relating to the internal structure of English Heritage. They include creating a single centre of curatorial and conservation excellence within the charity, focusing all our site operations in one unit, and bringing together our commercial, marketing and fundraising teams.

We are also proposing that about 20 of our smaller sites will close during our winter season when very few people visit them. At another 20 sites, we want to do things a little differently with special guided tours and working with local communities to put on some really great events.

Unfortunately, there will be some job losses amongst our team. Some media have speculated that this would mainly involve our curators and historians but let me reassure you, we will always have a large team of experts to care for our sites and to uncover and share their stories with you.

These are only proposals at present and we’re consulting with everyone across the charity. We’ll continue to keep you, our members, updated. Your support is vital and we are incredibly grateful for it.

All your membership benefits remain the same including entry to the 400 historic places in our care. We’re working hard to grow overall member benefits, enhance our members’ rewards schemes and to add more discounted partner attractions right across the country. There is lots to look forward to at English Heritage this year with – from Kenwood to Kenilworth – some great new things for you to enjoy. We’ll have more information on what to expect in 2025 in the next Members’ Magazine. And I hope that in February – including over half-term – you enjoy your membership and get out and visit as many of our sites as you can.

Thank you.

Dr Nick Merriman, Chief Executive

31 January 2025