English Heritage care for over 400 properties in England, and last year, they welcomed more families to their historic venues than ever before.

Over 550,000 families visited English Heritage sites in 2032 – this is the highest figure since records began.  What’s more, the number was up by 54% over the last 10 years. 

Stonehenge in Wiltshire saw its best year ever in 2023 for families coming to visit. 
It saw family visits go up by 23% year on year. 

Nine historic castles, palaces and abbeys saw their highest ever number of visitors in 2023, and 10 more had their best years in over a decade.

English Heritage is thrilled to see so many families enjoying the sites where history happened. 

Tintagel Castle in Cornwall had its best ever figures for the third year in a row.  Their numbers were up by nearly 20% in 2023, compared to the year before.

Helmsley Castle is in North Yorkshire - visit it to find out how it evolved over 900 years.

Other castles also had a great year:  Helmsley in North Yorkshire, Deal in Kent, Portland in Dorset and Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight all had their best ever years.  Leicestershire’s Kirby Muxloe, Pevensey (Sussex) and Stokesay (Shropshire) all had their best years in over 10 years.

Nine of the properties with their highest ever visitor numbers were connected to Henry VIII.   The castles build in Deal, Portland and Yarmound were all build by Henry VIII as coastal fortresses.   His childhood home was Eltham Palace in London, where visitor numbers were up 9%. 

Gainsborough Hall is one of the biggest and best-preserved medieval manor houses in England.
It's in Lincolnshire, and it hosted Henry VIII several times.
Catherine Parr lived there as a girl. 

Roman sites saw numbers go up as well, such as the Richborough Roman Fort  and Amphitheatre in Kent, which welcomed 145% more visitors than it had before it closed for a two year conservation project.   And visitors flocked to Aldborough Roman Site and Wroxeter Roman City in Shropshire had their best visitor figures since 1999 and 2011 respectfully

And monastic sites did well, too, such as Furness Abbey (Cumbria), Lindisfarne Prior (Northumberland) and St Augustine’s Abbey in Kent had their highest visitor numbers in over 20 years.   Battle Abbey (Sussex), Tynemouth Priory (Tyne and Wear) and Hailes Abbey (Gloucestershire) had strong years, too.

SPECIAL OFFER ON NEW GIFT AND ANNUAL MEMBERSHIPS

You can see there’s lots to see and experience, and enjoy and discover – and English Heritage have 15% off new gift and annual memberships until the 31 December 2024.  So don’t wait any longer – give a gift membership or take one out yourself!  Use the code  EHAFF2024  to get your 15% off**.  

**This code EHAFF2024 is valid until 31st December 2024 and for use on new  membership purchases only.  Annual Direct Debit only. 

In 2024, we have two great offers from gift experience companies Red Letter Days and BuyaGift.  

They both have thousands of experiences (including subscriptions, online experiences you can do from home, days out, short breaks, spa and beauty, flying, driving, food and drink experiences (including lashings of Afternoon Teas), adventure experiences, animal experiences, historic experiences and more.  There are experiences for lovers of steam trains, museums, gardens, arts and crafts, photography, theme parks and sports. 

They are both giving visitors from this website a discount, which is site wide and covers special offers and 2 for 1s, although some products are excluded.   This is a great chance to stretch your hard earned cash and make it go further.

So here are the codes:

Enjoy!

On Thursday 4^th January on Channel 4 at 8pm, there’s a new series starting about life at Knowsley Safari Park!

Called Secret Life of the Safari Park, the six part series gives us all behind the scenes access, with  footage of the animals at the park, the incredible keepers caring for them and some of the visitors.

Knowsley Sfari Park is 10 miles from the heart of Liverpool. It’s home to 700 animals.  There’s a Safari Drive, a Foot Safari, and there’s a new App to help you plan your visit.  And they’ve got animal experiences (rhino, lion, tiger, meerkat, bush dog, and also an accessible experience).   If you’re worried about your car being damaged by those naughty baboons, you can take the Baboon Bus instead!

In Episode One for example, the programme:

• Delves into the dynamics of an African lion pride as they navigate their social hierarchy
• Watches the heart-stopping intensity of a Congo buffalo calf’s birth
• Follows Cosmo, a mischievous Fallow deer who is trying to charm the ladies
• Watches the antics of Kevin, a baboon who is coming of age

It’s a chance to see Knowsley Safari Park, even if you don’t life anywhere near it, so tune in!

And you can watch it on demand on Channel 4, and check to see what’s happening in episodes by following  @KnowsleySafari on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and X.

@KnowsleySafari

#SAFARIPARK

You can also give a gift membership to a loved one - there are plenty to choose from, with an Adult Membership, a Senior Membership and a Child Membership, plus a Child and Ride and a Ride Only Membership too.  

Find out more about the Gift Memberships at Knowsley Safari Park
Image copyright Knowsley Safari Park

Find out about their conservation projects to help Amur tigers, Eld’s Deer, Western Derby Eland, and Wild Camels.

Visit Knowsley Safari Park here to find out more about the Programme and the Park!

I love the Wildlife Trusts.  They are a grassroots movement of people from all sorts of backgrounds and they are on a mission:  to restore a third of the UK’s land and seas for nature by 2030.

Each Wildlife Trust is an independent charity.  Those involved (in whatever way) want to make a difference to wildlife, to nature, to our climate. 

There are now 46 Trusts throughout the UK, from Alderney Wildlife Trust in the Channel Islands to the Scottish Wildlife Trust, from South and West Wales to Suffolk, from Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly to Northumberland.  So wherever you are, or wherever the nature lover in your life is, there should be a Wildlife Trust in their area you can tap into and get involved with.

The Wildlife Trusts together have over 900,000 members.  There are 600 Trustees, over 32,500 volunteers and 2,500 staff.  That’s a lot of people who care about nature and who want to make a positive difference.  If we all work together and we are committed to making life better for nature and wildlife – and for people, too – we can achieve much.

Members are helping their Trust to look after wildlife and the natural places in their area, and they receive a welcome back, regular magazines and lots of information. It’s the sort of thing where you can get as involved as you want; if you are really manic with life, you can at least know that your membership is helping your Trust continue with its vital work.   

Membership benefits

Because each Trust is an independent charity, the memberships will vary on cost (most are about £3 a month) but generally they include a welcome pack of goodies, regular magazines full of news and features, access to beautiful nature reserves, talks, walks and events – these are a great way to meet fellow wildlife lovers who care about the natural world – and chances to campaign for wildlife.

It may be half price membership month at your local Wildlife Trust or offers may be available on memberships!

The good news is that in January, some Wildlife Trusts (but not all) have half price or memberships for the month, or an offer of some sort, so if you’ve been thinking about joining but not got round to it, this could be a great time to join.

For example:

Devon Wildlife Trust

Durham Wildlife Trust

Suffolk Wildlife Trust

Surrey Wildlife Trust

Staffordshire Wildlife Trust

Radnorshire Wildlife Trust

Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife Trust

Somerset Wildlife Trust

Shropshire Wildlife Trust

Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust

Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust

Kent Wildlife Trust

Northumberland Wildlife Trust

Manx Wildlife Trust

Ulster Wildlife Trust

Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside Wildlife Trust

Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust

North Wales Wildlife Trust

Cheshire Wildlife Trust

Cornwall Wildlife Trust

Dorset Wildlife Trust

Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust

Give a gift membership to a Wildlife Trust here

Take Action and Support your Local Wildlife Trust

Take a look at your local Wildlife Trust, you can find yours here – and sign up.  It’s a great way to show your support for nature and to help Wildlife Trusts reach the 30x30 target - that's 30% of land and sea protected by 2030. 

The Wildlife Trusts are aiming to put nature in recovery, making more space for it and connecting habitats on a large scale so that wildlife can pass safely through to new territories.  The Trusts want to restore nature so that ecosystems can function again - the UK natural world is very much depleted now.   

The Trusts are also hoping to inspire us all to act for nature and rewild our neighbourhoods, working with our communities.  I am a member of a couple of Wildlife Trusts and love to receive news of how I can get involved and make a difference - and also to see success stories.  Together we can all drive change and actually help nature help us - nature is vital for our wellbeing. 

So give a gift membership to a Wildlife Trust and you'll be giving a gift that helps nature, wildlife and people and is a win-win for nature lovers all round!