English Heritage

[georgedawes]

Just wondering whether to renew our membership or not..We don't live near any sites, so in the past have stayed over and visited (e.g. Stonehenge).

If you have one, where is your favourite EH site? We have a 9 year old too if that helps with recommendations.

Fountains Abbey, just outside Ripon in North Yorkshire. Abbey, house and water garden plus a deer park. And very nice cafes.

It always used to be NT and EH, and you got in with either membership. Don't know if it still is as I don't have either membership any more (don't live close enough to any sites).

When dc were younger we often visited Dover Castle, includes the war tunnels. It has event weekends which are excellent.

Not one particular site, but there are a lot of EH sites quite close together in Northumberland (our EH membership paid for itself several times over the year we went there on holiday) and also in North Wales (which is actually Cadw, but gives free entry to EH members), so either area is a good place to go for lots of places to visit.

Live in West Yorkshire.
I love Gainsborough Old Hall and Conisbrough Castle

If you phone up and say you're thinking of cancelling you might be able to get a discount 😉

Whereabouts in the country are you OP?

Audley End in Essex is lovely, have a look on YouTube for Mrs Crocombe...

They've recently opened the new bridge at Tintagel which I'm really looking forward to seeing...

We use it a lot. We go away for the weekend and take the kids away a couple of times a year and there’s always somewhere to visit for a walk and a lunch. We’re members of the National Trust too which has also been well used.

We’re local to Framlingham Castle - the Castle on the Hill - and it has a lovely cafe. Lets dogs in too.

We often get membership although there's not loads near us. Where it's been really good was on holiday in Northumberland, as a pp said, and especially on the Isle of Wight. Osborne House is brilliant if you can get over there, and there's also Yarmouth Castle (small but nice views) and Carisbrooke Castle. We've also done Kenilworth Castle in the Midlands when visiting family.

Goodrich Castle

Kenilworth Castle.

I like Kenilworth and Osborne. Going to Deal and Walmer Castles is really interesting as they were built around the same time to similar footprints for similar purposes but they are now incredibly different. I really want to go to Rievaulx Abbey too.

Battle is good

Thanks all :) We're in Derbyshire so only Bolsover near (and tbh it's not that near). I did think when I was last in the NE that there were lots of places nearby we could've used it for if we were members!

I've checked and I can use it this year for entry to Edinburgh Castle so that covers half the fee - going there in Feb so that's one use down! We're going to Wales later in the year so will check that too.

Has anyone been to Tintagel since it has reopened?

If you're in Derbyshire it wouldn't be a million miles to Brodsworth Hall? Gardens there are really good

Just looked - never heard of there before! It's not close but doable in a day. Thanks.

EH is great for North Wales.

Fountains Abbey (but I usually use my NT membership for that because they get more money for it) and Brodsworth Hall (the gardens are lovely) mainly. We did use it quite a lot last year - Bolsover Castle, Scarborough Castle, Whitby Abbey etc. We got more out than we paid in. We're going to Cornwall soon so will use it then in several places.

We have NT as there's quite a few sites near us plus we go to Cornwall a lot. NT members can get into Stonehenge for free also; perhaps there may be other sites which allow both EH and NT members in?

I joined EH when on holiday on the Isle of Wight years ago and really haven't made use of it much use of it since, as there aren't many places near us and we are much more likely to go to National Trust properties and we are members of that too.

We have used it for Stonehenge, though that is NT too, Battle Abbey, Pevensey Castle, and Tintagel. I'm looking forward to going over the new bridge this year.

Near(ish) to you there is also Conisborough Castle, Peveril Castle and Hardwick I think? I’m within easy driving distance of Bolsover, Brodsworth and all the above.

Further afield we got our money’s worth in Cornwall, North Yorkshire and north Wales

Thanks all. Hardwick Hall is NT I think, but Conisborough and Peveril are a good shout - I'd forgotten about Peveril Castle as it was closed for some time, but seems to be reopened now.

Hardwick Hall is NT but Hardwick Old Hall, which is just next door, is EH. There's not that much to it though and entry to HOH doesn't buy you entry into HH, which is better imo.

Ah thanks. Had never heard of HOH!

It’s the original Hall. Bess built her new hall next door. It’s literally a ruin standing next to the new hall. It’s odd that they’re looked after by different groups, they’re on the same site.

You can't get inside all of the old hall ruin at the moment because of plaster conservation work so there's less to see than usual.