As I looked ahead to 2016/17 at Anglesey Abbey and started to consider the longer-term business plan, I recognised things were shifting in terms of the National Trust strategy and in our visitor’s expectations.

 

In short, I could no longer explain or justify why the property’s wonderful house was closed on a Monday and Tuesday. But I could also see that we weren’t encouraging visitors to even come inside to discover our stories and the site was continuing to lean more towards an outdoor and commercial offer.

 

We had to change it and by the summer of 2019 - pre-covid days - it was transformed through a clear vision, strong leadership and a team who wanted to do something different. The house was open seven days a week with a new, hands-on programme of engagement, active and visible conservation and a team with more ownership over the experience than they’d ever had.

 

And that approach and programme led to a complete transformation across the property with the house themes being adopted in the commercial areas, the facilities and in the conversations all teams had with visitors. It brought our donor Lord Fairhaven to life through parts of the collection never seen and stories never before told.

 

The result: house visitor numbers steadily rose, including families who had not always felt they could come inside; the visitor feedback was overwhelmingly positive with people connecting with the story and understanding the conservation needs; the staff team felt empowered and engaged and volunteers had the opportunity to try something new.

 

Former House & Collections Manager Kate Reeder said: “Amanda had a very clear vision for what she wanted. She recruited me to deliver it, gave me the freedom to try things and provided a level of coaching that gave me confidence to meet the brief. It was a constant process of testing and learning until we got it right.”

 

But the project wasn’t without its pain, so this is also a case study about getting things wrong, being brave enough to admit it and learning from it. 

 

We didn’t get the volunteer consultation right which meant we didn’t always bring everyone with us as we made changes; we probably did it too quickly in retrospect, although we reaped the benefits from our visitors; and we probably could have spent more time learning the lessons from others who’d tried similar things as we often encountered the same challenges, but reinvented the wheel.

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www.nationaltrust.org.uk/anglesey-abbey-gardens-and-lode-mill