Agenda item

To receive an update from Josephine Flye, Experience & Visitor Programming Manager (Projects), Stourhead, National Trust.  

Josephine Flye, Experience & Visitor Programming Manager (Projects), Stourhead, National Trust gave a presentation on National Trust Stourhead, which is appended to these minutes.

It was explained that Stourhead is a large estate, of about 2,650 acres. The Stourhead portfolio cared for Stourhead Estate, including King Alfred’s Tower, and Dinton Park & Philip’s House in Dinton, Mompesson House in the heart of Salisbury, Bruton Dovecote, and Little Clarendon. Across the portfolio they were supported by over 60 employed team members and 500 volunteers that helped them to care for these special places. It was noted that volunteering was really good for people’s wellbeing, and that if anyone was interested in volunteering or apprenticeships, they should get in touch.

The National Trust had a new 10 year strategy, which had 3 ambitions:

·       restore nature

·       end unequal access to nature, beauty and history

·       inspire millions more people to care and take action

They would do this by renewing their ways of working so people may see them start to work differently and looking at how they played their part for the community and for nature. This had all been very timely with the development of the Wiltshire Cultural Strategy.

The National Trust were continuing their journey to Net Zero. At Stourhead this meant: EV Charging, moving to all electric estate vehicles, machinery and systems, ground source heat pumps and the exploration of Solar Array / Solar PV on the estate. In addition to developing the next stage of their green travel strategy.

Stourhead was famous for its garden and central to this was the lake. The large lake, which was once a group of medieval fishing ponds, was a designated reservoir. They also had another reservoir they called Turners Lake/Reservoir. These lakes, holding 200,000+m³ of water were classified as reservoirs under the Reservoirs Act of 1975. They had to strengthen these structures to prevent dam collapse, a risk which was heightened by climate change.

A further interesting project to share was Berkeley Farm and Whitesheet Hill. It was explained that a farm had recently been returned to the Stourhead estate. It was a 370-acre arable farm (about 180 football pitches) right next to White Sheet Hill. White Sheet Hill was a protected landscape, with open access, which was rich in ancient history and protected both for its human history, and for the flora and fauna. Nature restoration work would take place at Berkeley Farm and would include:

·       River restoration work on headwaters for the River Wylye

·       Arable reversion to species-rich pasture

·       Retention of regenerative arable

·       Continuing to graze and manage the landscape

This work was going to happen thanks to agri-grant scheme: Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) and funding from the Environment Agency’s WEIF funding.

In addition, they had received funding from the Farming in Protected Landscapes (FiPL) to improve the access and visitor experience at Whitesheet.

In 2024 Stourhead opened its Access Hub, where any visitor with access needs could have a dedicated space and member of the team to discuss their needs, hire a Tramper for free, borrow a sensory pack, pick-up large print or braille, or even use the space to breastfeed in comfort and quiet. The second part of the project had been to have a changing places facility installed.

Josephyne thanked everyone for their time and for the invitation to present and was keen to hear from others on anything that raised some interest. The chairman also thanked Josephyne.