A gift in your will

How to Leave a Gift in Your Will

Thank you so much for considering making a gift in your will to English Heritage. 

Legacy gifts like yours care for the nation’s heritage for generations to come. They make inspirational projects possible, support specialist conservation and enable innovative approaches to history at the remarkable collection of historic places in our care. 

We’ve partnered with Make a Will Online to offer all of our supporters easy access to a free online Will writing service. You’ll also find information below to help you make your Will in- person with a solicitor. 

Leaving a Gift in your Will

If you’re passionate about the preservation of England’s heritage and the stories of its people, leaving a historic legacy to English Heritage will protect these places and histories for everyone to enjoy, for generations to come. 

You can remember English Heritage in your will by including:

  • A percentage of the residue of your estate (residuary gift) 
  • A fixed sum of money (pecuniary gift) - we would suggest index-linking your cash gift to make sure that your kind gift retains its value and has the impact that you intended. 
  • An object or property – if you're thinking about leaving a gift like this, please contact us. 

Gifts that are free from restrictions ensure that the charity can prioritise the historic sites and projects with the most urgent needs. If you’re interested in your gift being used to benefit a specific site or area of our work, please get in touch with us when writing or re-writing your will so we can make sure that we’re able to honour your wishes. 

For more details on types of legacy gifts that you can leave to the charity, please see below.  

You can also contact us to request a copy of our free comprehensive digital gifts in wills guide which includes suggested wording for your solicitor. 

REQUEST A FREE GIFT IN WILL GUIDE
  • Types of Legacy Gift

    Residuary gift
    The residue of your estate is the balance of your estate after tax, expenses and all other gifts in your will have been paid. You can leave the residue to one beneficiary, or share it between several. All the other bequests will be settled before the residuary gifts are made. If you decide a residuary gift is right for you, here’s an example of how your will could be worded:
    ‘I give a X % share of the residue of my estate to The English Heritage Trust (registered charity no. 1140351) of 100 Wood Street, London, EC2V 7AN for its general purposes.’

    Pecuniary gift
    A pecuniary gift in your will is a specified amount of money. You can leave any chosen sum. However, when making a gift of this kind it is worth taking inflation into consideration – either by reviewing your will every few years, or index-linking your cash gifts (essentially, linking your gifts to the rate of inflation). Your solicitor will be able to advise how to do this. Here’s an example of wording for a pecuniary gift:
    ‘I give the sum of [amount in figures and words] to The English Heritage Trust (registered charity no. 1140351) of 100 Wood Street, London, EC2V 7AN for its general purposes.’

    Reversionary gift
    A reversionary gift allows you to leave assets to someone for the course of their lifetime, which will then pass (or revert) to The English Heritage Trust. This can be a good way to care for both your loved ones and our nation’s heritage, but please bear in mind this is a more complicated gift to arrange and we suggest speaking with your solicitor to ensure this is set out correctly.

    Gifts of objects and properties

    If you would like to leave a specific object, an entire collection or a property to English Heritage, we would be incredibly grateful if you could let us know so that we can make sure that we have the resources available to display and properly care for your gift.

    While we are very appreciative of gifts of any kind, we must make sure that the acquisition will enhance the National Heritage Collection in our care. Though we cannot promise to find a home for every object, we may be able to suggest a solution to ensure that your wishes will be carried out.

    You can read our full Collections Development Policy here.

Make a Will in-person

If your estate is above the inheritance tax threshold, if you have complex needs or, if you'd simply prefer to speak with someone face to face, you can find a solicitor near you through the Law Society website. 

When you discuss your gift in will to English Heritage with your solicitor, you’ll need these details: 

Full name: The English Heritage Trust 

Charity number: 1140351 

Registered address: English Heritage, 6th Floor, 100 Wood Street, London, EC2V 7AN 

 

If you already have a Will

If you already have a will, you might not need to write a new one to include your gift to English Heritage. You can make amendments to your existing will without having to re-write it by simply adding a Codicil. You can download this Codicil form to see our suggested Codicil wording. We always advise that you speak to a solicitor when writing or re-writing your will. 

Letting Us Know

We understand that the contents of your will are a private matter. However, should you wish to let us know of your intention to leave a gift to English Heritage, we would love to be able to thank you for your kind support.  

To show our appreciation, we invite those who have pledged a gift in their will to our Legacy Circle community. As part of this we invite members along to behind-the-scenes events and share interesting updates from our projects across England.  

Please get in touch with our legacy team to let us know if you’ve included or are thinking of including English Heritage in your will, or to find out more about our Legacy Circle.  

Let us know

Gifts of Objects and Properties

If you would like to leave an object, a collection or a property to English Heritage, we would be incredibly grateful if you could let us know. Before we are able to consider acquiring your gift, we must adhere to our Collections Development Policy and make sure that the acquisition will enhance the National Heritage Collection. 

We know that these potential gifts will likely have been cherished by you, and we also always need to consider if we have the resources available to ensure the proper care of them. Whilst we cannot promise to find a home for every object, we may be able to suggest a solution to ensure that your wishes will be carried out. 

Discover More

  • Guidance For Executors

    If you are administering a will that includes a gift to English Heritage, please get in touch and we will be happy to help in any way we can.

  • How Your Support Helps

    By supporting us, you're repairing medieval masonry, hanging world-famous paintings for all to enjoy, planting bulbs in restored Victorian gardens and more.

  • More Ways To Support

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