THE ENGLISH HERITAGE TRUST

Registered charity 1140351 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · Wikidata: Q936287 · Wikipedia · also known as THE ENGLISH HERITAGE FOUNDATION

The English Heritage Trust is responsible for the conservation and enhancement of the National Heritage Collection of more than 400 unique historic sites and monuments. Through this Collection, and the London Blue Plaques Scheme, English Heritage promotes public knowledge, enjoyment and education of our shared history and heritage.

Objects

1) TO PROMOTE THE CONSERVATION OF THE HBMCE HERITAGE ASSETS AND THE HBMCE COLLECTIONS, AND THEIR ENHANCEMENT FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT, INCLUDING BY THE PROVISION OF ADVICE, ASSISTANCE AND SERVICES TO HBMCE;2) TO PROMOTE THE CONSERVATION OF HERITAGE ASSETS BY SUPPORT AND ASSISTANCE TO HBMCE IN MAKING ADDITIONS TO THE HBMCE HERITAGE ASSETS AND THE HBMCE COLLECTIONS;3) TO PROMOTE THE PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE AND ENJOYMENT OF THE HBMCE HERITAGE ASSETS AND THE HBMCE COLLECTIONS, INCLUDING THROUGH THE PROVISION OF INFORMATION AND OTHER SERVICES AND FACILITIES FOR VISITORS AND MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC;4) TO ADVANCE EDUCATION BY PROMOTING PUBLIC APPRECIATION OF THE HISTORY OF AND ENCOURAGING FURTHER STUDY OR ENQUIRY INTO BUILDINGS, LANDMARKS, PEOPLE OR EVENTS OF HISTORICAL, ARTISTIC, SCIENTIFIC OR RELIGIOUS SIGNIFICANCE THROUGH THE OPERATION AND SUPPORT OF THE BLUE PLAQUE SCHEME; AND5) TO FURTHER SUCH OTHER EXCLUSIVELY CHARITABLE PURPOSES INCIDENTAL TO THE ABOVE OBJECTS AS THE TRUSTEES SEE FIT.

Area of benefit: NOT DEFINED

The charity’s charitable objects and area of benefit, quoted from its governing document as held on the Charity Commission register.

Causes: Education/training · Arts/culture/heritage/science · Environment/conservation/heritage · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: City of London, London, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that total charity funds decreased from £50.6 million to £42.9 million due to a net expenditure of £7.7 million, driven by restructuring costs and lower visitor numbers. The charity holds unrestricted reserves of £29.6 million against a new policy target of £21 million, representing eight weeks of unrestricted expenditure. While the charity forecasts cash surpluses from 2026/27, it notes uncertainty inherent in forecasts due to the challenging global economic environment.

Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Comptroller and Auditor General. Discloses 4 of 6 completeness components.

Policies the charity declares

In its annual return the charity told the Commission that it has the policies listed below. This is self-declared: it is not verified by the Commission or by this site, and it is not evidence of how a policy works in practice.

• Bullying and harassment policy and procedures
• Campaigns and political activity policy and procedures
• Complaints handling
• Complaints policy and procedures
• Conflicting interests
• Financial reserves policy and procedures
• Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
• Internal risk management policy and procedures
• Investing charity funds policy and procedures
• Investment
• Paying staff
• Risk management
• Safeguarding policy and procedures
• Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
• Social media policy and procedures
• Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures
• Trustee expenses policy and procedures
• Volunteer management

From the charity’s annual return (Part A, self-declared)

Answers and figures the charity gave in Part A of its annual return to the Charity Commission. They are self-declared: not verified by the Commission or by this site. Only positive answers and figures are listed; items not listed are simply not shown.

Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

In the news

Recent coverage mentioning this charity by name (automated match; headlines belong to their publishers).

• English Heritage Trust bids to make changes at Whitby Abbey gazettelive.co.uk · 05/03/2024
• English Heritage Trust alerts contractors to £39M civil engineering maintenance opportunity newcivilengineer.com · 06/04/2023
• Does our history have a future in the hands of the English Heritage Trust? telegraph.co.uk · 28/02/2015

What the charity says about itself (2024/25)

From its own voluntary annual review / impact report — the charity’s account of its work, distinct from the statutory accounts analysed above.

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — The English Heritage Trust (matched by registered charity number).

Leadership, per the charity’s website

• Tim Reeve CBE — Chief Executive (source)
• Tony Hales CBE — Chair (source)
• Geoff Parkin — Interim Chief Executive (source)

Listed on the charity’s own website when we last crawled it; roles may have changed. Pay-band disclosures above are anonymous statutory disclosures and are not attributed to any named individual.

Funders the charity credits

Named as funders/supporters on the charity’s own website (the charity’s claim, distinct from accounts-verified grants).

• Omaze — “We’re partnering with Omaze to give you the chance to win this house in Bath worth over £4,000,000, along with £250,000 in cash, all whilst …” (source page)
• Vaillant — “We’re excited to partner with Vaillant, whose support will help English Heritage accelerate progress toward our ambitious sustainability goa…” (source page)
• Craghoppers — “Craghoppers have provided our site based staff with new technical waterproof jackets, soft-shell jackets and fleeces.” (source page)
• Google Arts & Culture — “We have partnered with Google Arts & Culture’s Gardens United project to share new stories and interactive content related to our historic g…” (source page)
• Riviera Travel — “We are delighted to be partnering with Riviera Travel on Members' Week and a number of other events across the year.” (source page)
• Sir Robert McAlpine — “Sir Robert McAlpine support our Conservation on the Road programme.” (source page)

Property (HM Land Registry)

6 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (0 freehold). All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

Trustpilot: English Heritage scores 4.6/5 from 3,705 reviews (source) — reviews usually concern the charity’s shops or services, not its charitable performance.

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook (835,314 likes) · instagram (448K followers)

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/03/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~2.5 months of spending — below the median for charities its size (median 2.6 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 34.1% of total income — above the 90th percentile for charities its size (median 3.2%) (benchmarks).

Register events

• Received assets from another charity (24/01/2024) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (21/08/2015) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

• Antony John Hales CBE
• Beverley Jane Tew CMG
• Bronwyn Syiek
• Dale Thomas Haddon
• Dr Chris Michaels
• Elizabeth Anne Sophia Hogg FCA
• John Nigel Barnes OBE
• Paul David Charles Farmer CBE
• Peter Richard Liney
• Prof. William Hadden Whyte FSAFRHistS
• Susan Linda Wilkinson OBE · trustee of 1 other charity
• The Hon. Sebastian Richard Edward Cuthbert James
• Tony Cates

Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).

Operates in: Throughout England

Income and spending

Common questions

Known funders

Grants to this charity found in funders’ own accounts filings.

Grants marked “Unverified read” were flagged by automated checks as possibly misread from the funder’s filed accounts. They are listed, but left out of the totals, counts and funder relationships this site computes.

Government & lottery funding

Grants to this charity published as open data by government and lottery funders (360Giving).

Funders of similar charities

Funders whose accounts show grants to charities similar to this one (and no recorded grant to this charity) — a starting list for fundraisers.

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with THE HISTORIC ENGLAND FOUNDATION.

• THE HISTORIC ENGLAND FOUNDATION income £361k
• SAVE BRITAIN'S HERITAGE income £432k
• THE HERITAGE TRUST FOR THE NORTH WEST income £2.1m
• WORLD HERITAGE UK income £62k
• LONDON HISTORIC PARKS AND GARDENS TRUST income £222k
• HERITAGE TRUST NETWORK income £473k

Side by side with its peers

Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.