Run by and for independent heritage

After a career as an Old Master Paintings specialist at Sotheby’s London, Jason then dealt in 20th-century French Paintings. He inherited Hedingham Castle in Essex in 1998, moving there full time with his wife and family in 2004, running it as a wedding and events business. He is passionate about art and architecture and the great outdoors.

Andrew is Chairman of Hopetoun Estates and resident trustee at Hopetoun House. Hopetoun, with its related estates, is managed as a diversified rural tourism, hospitality, events, agricultural and property business. With a background in nuclear physics and software and systems engineering, Andrew worked for Intense Ltd., a Scottish opto-electronics firm, and prior to that at the GEC group of companies (subsequently BAE Systems). Andrew also chairs Historic Houses Scotland.

Eleanor has run Inveraray Castle & Gardens with her husband, Torquhil since 2002. One of Scotland’s leading visitor attractions, the house is also the seat of the Clan Campbell, welcomes over 120,000 tourists annually as well as hosting various events and festivals. With a background in public relations, Eleanor used to work for Charles Barker Public Relations, subsequently Weber Shandwick. Eleanor is also the President of the Georgian Group, Patron of Richmond’s Hope (the leading provider of support for child bereavement in Scotland) and Chairman of the Women of Achievement Lunch.

Sheila moved into Layer Marney Tower, Essex with her husband, Nicholas, in 1989, and was immediately put on the Regional Committee of the HHA. She was its Chairman from 2003 – 2008. She became Chairman of Invitation to View in 2009 and was involved in the merging of Invitation to View with Historic Houses in 2018. She became the first Chairman of the Invitation to View Committee with Historic Houses and thus joined the main Board of Historic Houses. She retired from the committee after its first year and is now a co-opted member of the Historic Houses Board. She is also currently Chairman of the Braintree District Museums Trust, which looks after the internationally important Warner Textile Archive.

Ursula Cholmeley joined the board in 2019 and chairs the Gardens Committee. She is a gardener, business owner and garden writer with an MA in History from St Andrews. An occasional tennis coach and polo umpire, in 2001 she began a lifelong project to restore Easton Walled Gardens. The 450-year-old gardens now welcome visitors throughout the year and have a growing reputation for quiet innovation. She has a passion for great horticulture and can be hard to remove from a conversation about plants.

The Rt Hon The Lord Garnier KC was called to the Bar in 1976 and practices from 4 Pump Court Chambers in the Temple. Edward Garnier’s practice includes corporate advisory and financial services work, corporate crime, international human rights, defamation, privacy, confidence, malicious falsehood, contempt and related media law cases. He is a Bencher of the Middle Temple. He was the MP for Harborough in Leicestershire 1992-2017, Shadow Attorney General 1999-2001,2009-2010 and HM Solicitor General from 2010 to 2012. Knighted in 2012 and sworn of the Privy Council in 2015, he is now in the House of Lords.

Henry joined the Historic Houses Board in 2020 as the representative of the non-open houses. He lives at Munden on the outskirts of Watford in Hertfordshire and manages a diversified rural estate. Munden House has often been used as a TV and feature film location, whilst also providing a venue for weddings and other events.

Henry’s career has been in property, and he still holds a number of director and trustee roles in the industry. He is also chair of the Hertfordshire Community Foundation.

Sarah and her husband Gavin moved back to Larchfield Estate in Northern Ireland in 2007. They opened up Larchfield for weddings, events and over-night accommodation, run by their multi award winning team, alongside the farm and forestry. They are proud to be a carbon negative venue. Passionate about heritage, Sarah has been secretary of the Northern Ireland branch of Historic Houses since 2013 and currently also sits on the Historic Houses Business Development Committee.

Miranda moved back to her family home, Burghley House, in 2007 with her husband Orlando and their four children.  As Executive Chair of the Burghley House Preservation Trust, Miranda oversees the running of the House and Estate on behalf of the charity and its board of trustees.  Miranda has a background in Art History, an MA from London University and a personal passion for the history of the Grand Tour collections at Burghley.  While maintaining the essential energy and spirit of family life within the heart of the house, she is tasked with continuing to explore new ways to diversify and regenerate commercial activities across the Estate.  Now embarking on an ambitious 10 year Masterplan of the visitor business at Burghley, she is more often to be found in her wellies plotting the future restoration of the walled gardens.

James joined the Board in 2013 and became Chairman of the Tax and Political Committee in 2019. James and his wife have lived at Rockingham Castle in Northamptonshire since 1999, when he inherited the house from his father. The castle is over 950 years old and has been owned by his family since 1540, having previously been a royal castle. Since moving in James and Lizzie have developed the castle business beyond being a visitor attraction, hosting weddings corporate events and major external events including the Rockingham International Horse Trials. James continues to maintain a career in finance alongside managing the castle.

Ben is the Director General of Historic Houses. He has worked previously for the National Trust, English Heritage, and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. He sits on the Government’s Heritage Council as representative for the interests of private owners of heritage.   

Rufus joined Historic Houses in October 2016 and holds responsibility for a wide portfolio including finance, HR, IT infrastructure, data management, and operational services. Alongside providing robust financial systems and processes, with his team, he provides our house and garden owning members with access to expert advisory services alongside a programme of educational and networking events. Rufus has a background in charity and private sector finance and a MA in Egyptian Archaeology.

James heads up our visitor membership scheme, external communications, and commercial development. He has been with Historic Houses since 2017 but has a background in education, volunteering, and communication in the charity sector.

Sarah leads our policy, public affairs and engagement work. Before joining Historic Houses in early 2022, she worked in various history and heritage sector roles, including in communications, digital media and collections/curation work. She is a trustee of the Heritage Education Trust, and holds an MPhil in public history.

Lois joined Historic Houses as Scotland Coordinator in August 2012 to support the Scottish Chairman, and to coordinate meetings for the Scottish Council, Business Committee and Tourism and Marketing Group. She also organises Member events and visits, seminars and, of course, our AGM.  Lois has a History of Art degree from the University of East Anglia and previously worked as events manager at Hopetoun House and before that in the press office at Garrard in London. She and her family live in East Lothian.

Natalie joined Historic Houses in January 2022 as a part-time Finance Assistant, supporting the Finance Officer with admin, client tour accounts and Sage accounting. Natalie previously worked for the IET in the publishing department, editing scientific journals for the inhouse database. Natalie spends her free time with her husband, two children and two dogs, enjoying trips to the seaside whenever the opportunity arises.

Emily joined Historic Houses in July 2024. A key part of her role is looking after our House, Next Generation and Corporate members. Before joining the team, she worked in a variety of roles across heritage sites and charities, including Historical Association and Historic Royal Palaces. 

Emily has a keen interest in heritage crafts and actively participates in classes such as bricklaying, stonemasonry and woodcarving.

As the Parliamentary and Public Affairs Officer, Maddy monitors and reports on political and policy developments, and provides broader support to the Policy team.  Before joining Historic Houses in July 2023, Maddy worked as a Parliamentary Assistant, on Hansard and at the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.  She has a BA in History and French from the University of Manchester.

Fiona joined Historic Houses in 2004 taking on the role of  Marketing Executive until 2009 when she relocated to Derbyshire. Since then, Fiona has continued to work for Historic Houses as their Events Co-ordinator, working along side the Operations team to produce their Seminar programmes and Annual National Business Conference.

Pat is part of the marketing team and deals with visits to our properties. She has been arranging tours through Invitation to View since 2004 and joined Historic Houses following the merger between the two companies in 2018. Pat has a background in children’s publishing as an author, editor and translator.

Astrid joined Historic Houses in March 2024 and looks after the association’s governance-related matters. Her previous experience includes working in executive administration and event management at the British Institute of Persian Studies and the Iran Heritage Foundation. She was part of the curatorial team behind the V&A’s ‘Epic Iran’ exhibition and was project curator for the British Museum’s show ‘The Horse: From Arabia to Royal Ascot’.

The first and only Design and Brand Officer in Historic Houses history to date, Kai has tinkered every single piece of design members see and hold in their hands since the association’s rebranding in 2018. She takes members’ feedback seriously and has never stopped experimenting with new solutions.

Fascinated by art, culture, and history, Rosie spent a total of ten years working at The National Gallery and Museum of London before joining Historic Houses. A keen traveller herself, she loves that her design can inspire people to travel off the beaten path and experience the wonderfully intriguing but lesser-known independently owned historic places.

Tolu joined Historic Houses in June 2022 as Digital and Marketing Officer, having recently graduated from the University of Nottingham. Tolu looks after the website and digital side of things, as well as covering all marketing, partnerships, and communications including writing our weekly newsletters, writing articles for the website, and contributing features to the Historic House magazine. He also operates the digital marketing/advertising activities and social media.

Jane is one of the association’s longest serving members of staff and has over 20 years’ experience working as an accountant in the charity and not-for-profit sector.

Jane provides the day-to-day financial administration for the association ensuring that we operate in accordance with accounting procedures and statutory requirements and advises on all the association’s finance affairs.

Adrian started his after studying at the University of Wales in Bangor and Aberystwyth (MSc EIA). Over the intervening period Adrian has specialised in tourism, heritage and environmental policy having held senior management positions within the private and third sector throughout his career. He is a keen advocate of debate and consultation and has chased the issues of the day in Wales for many years with regard to his specialist subject areas particularly where there is likely to be significant resource implications for the tourism and heritage sector. Adrian has been Policy Advisor for Historic Houses in Wales since 2018.

Robert Parker has been Technical Adviser to Historic Houses since 2005. He is well placed to offer advice to members, being, also, the owner of the Grade I-listed Browsholme Hall, Lancashire.