CHARITY UPDATE

CHARITY UPDATE

As you receive this issue, sites up and down the country are busy gearing up for the peak summer season and many of you will be helping to welcome visitors, sharing stories, tending the gardens and much, much more! Thank you all for the vital support that you give to the charity – by sharing with us your time, skills and enthusiasm you make a real difference to our work. I’m delighted that we have more volunteers than ever. Over 1,200 new volunteers started with us last year, and more sites continue to launch volunteer programmes. And we’re not just offering roles at our sites, offices or collection stores – new roles such as translation volunteers have been advertised for those who wish to support us remotely.

Transforming visitor experiences In the last couple of months, we’ve welcomed visitors back to Clifford’s

New roof deck at Clifford's Tower offers magnificent views over York Tower in York and Marble Hill in west London following projects to conserve them, retell their stories and transform the experience for visitors. At Clifford’s Tower a free-standing timber structure has been installed, protecting the tower and creating a new roof deck offering magnificent views over York. New interpretation introduces the tower’s long and turbulent history and critical conservation work has been carried out to safeguard it for the future.

The project to revive Marble Hill has seen the Palladian villa conserved and represented and its lost pleasure garden reinstated. We’ve also improved access and facilities across the park, from the play area and the café to the sports pitches and changing rooms. This major transformation wouldn’t have been possible without the support of the local community and a team of over 250 volunteers who helped make it happen. Sharing our past, shaping our future In March we set out our ambitions for the charity and the key priorities for the next three years in our Strategic Plan 2022–2025. Many thanks to those of you who contributed and I hope you’ve had a chance to look at this on Fuse or

watch the presentation from our Senior Management Team. With your support, we’ll continue to provide people from all backgrounds with inspiring and enjoyable opportunities to explore England’s past. The incredible sites and artefacts in our collection will continue to receive expert care, and we’ll continue to involve as many people as possible in our work. As the charity recovers from the impact You make of the pandemic, we’re working hard a real to make sure we get on a sustainable financial footing in the not-too-distant difference future. When you read the plan I also to our hope that you see how committed the charity is to becoming a more equal, work diverse and inclusive organisation, and that we’re taking important steps to respond to the climate emergency. This magazine is full of stories that show your passion, expertise and dedication, and I’d like to thank you for all that you do. It fills me with great confidence that as well as continuing to give millions of people fantastic days out, we’ll also do work that will strengthen communities, safeguard more of the nation’s heritage and inspire future generations in new and exciting ways. ■

GET INVOLVED To find out about current volunteer opportunities across the country, go to www.english-heritage.org.uk/volunteer