English Heritage

sarahTT

We've taken out a membership with EH last February and as this is now about to end, we thought we'd give others some ideas as to whether this is a worthwhile thing to do and also share some hints and tips.

Was it worth the yearly charge? Absolutely. We paid 80-odd quid for the membership (joint) and "saved" a lot of money. Depending on your location and your willingness to travel you can easily save many hundred, perhaps more than thousand, pounds on entrance fees. However... you will probably spend a lot more on travel and/or accommodation and that's why I wrote "saved" above.

What about the things to see, are they worth the journey? Well, it depends. First it's very often ruins so if that's not your cuppa then perhaps EH is not ideal. Some of the places were first rate (eg Dover Castle, Kenilworth Castle, Eltham Palace, Osborne House), others turned out to be a complete disappointment (eg Tintagel, St Augustine's Abbey). However, this is a highly personal, beauty-and-eye-of-the-beholder thing. Then there are the nice surprises, like Bayham Abbey or Okehampton Castle or Maiden Hill Fort. So all in all, with around 400 sites on the menu, there's bound to be quite a few for everybody, though it bears repeating that a high entrance fee is no guarantee at all that a site makes for a worthwhile visit. Indeed, some of the best sites we visited were free.

The booklet that comes with the membership is very informative and well laid out. There's also a glossy magazine that comes roughly every three months... this is more hit-and-miss: sometimes there are really interesting articles but often it's rather boring. Plus we got regular emails detailing some things to do and see.

There are some things we found consistently problematic on most EH sites. The poor, often very poor, signage on site, both for directions and sense of visit and also for the panels with notes and explanations. The latter (if they can be deciphered at all) were often a lot less informative than they could have been, sometimes even bordering on pedestrian. The audio guides, where available and in working order, are not a great help either. Kids are normally very, very well catered for, by contrast. Also, many sites do not allow any photography inside the premises which can be pretty frustrating.

A real problem we faced repeatedly was the unreliability of published opening times. More than once a place that should have been open was in fact closed. After this had happened to us for the first time (with Apsley House), we made it a firm rule to double-check on the EH website on the eve of visiting or even the morning whether a place was indeed open. Unfortunately, even this is not a fool-proof strategy: twice we stood before closed doors while the website still insisted those sites were open. Additionally, some site managers open and/or close at other (and invariable shorter) times than published which can create problems if you've arrived in (published) time (and perhaps after a lengthy drive)... only to find that the site has just closed. The already mentioned Bayham Abbey was such a case.

Another thing that can be a bit annoying is the parking. EH often provides parking space and that's a very nice feature but the iron rule is that these spaces open and close precisely at the same time as the site. Given this and given the desire of EH staff (often volunteers where that's more understandable) to get home they often shepherd you towards the parking lot way before actual site closure.

Last but not least, there's also a scheme where as an EH member you get discounts (nothing huge, though) at various "partner" outlets. We found these offers not worthwhile at all (for instance, there was a money-off voucher for the Isle of Wight ferry but our accommodation provider gave us a much better discount code). After a while, being bombarded with those partner offers became positively annoying. But again, some people may find that those offers can save them a little money.

Bottom line: it was certainly worthwhile but some things could be made much better with not too much trouble.

p00hsticks

We're members, mainly because we're close to a EH site that is expensive to get into and we like to visit occasionally. 
I do get membership at a greatly reduced rate via an employment related social club I belong to though - if you are thinking of joining it is well worth looking out for offers as there are usually some around - e.g. Tesco Clubcard  
Spend vouchers on English Heritage Membership at Tesco.com

I do think that some EH sites (such as the one near us) are very expensive for what they are, but my understanding is that because many of the sites they maintain such are not ones that they can logistically charge admission to enter (around half are completely free to enter), the fees from those that they can, such as Stonehenge, Tintagel etc, go to support the majority that they can't. 

sarahTT

p00hsticks said:

I do think that some EH sites (such as the one near us) are very expensive for what they are, but my understanding is that because many of the sites they maintain such are not ones that they can logistically charge admission to enter (around half are completely free to enter), the fees from those that they can, such as Stonehenge, Tintagel etc, go to support the majority that they can't. 

Yeah, that is certainly true and I fully appreciate that and why they're doing that. My comments were not meant as a general observation re their pricing strategies but more as a sort of "warning" that even very high entrance fees don't automatically mean sites are worthwhile destinations in themselves. This may be no big deal if, as a member,  you visit a site near you... you have not paid an entrance fee and it was near you... but it could make a difference if you drive many miles, perhaps pay for accommodation... and then end up at a somewhat disappointing site. That's I meant with my comment.

And as I wrote many of the free sites are great discoveries, so it certainly pays to check them out.

TELLIT01

I prefer the type of places covered by The National Trust and that is certainly worth the membership cost assuming you actually make use of it.  One visit a month during the summer months would more than cover the membership cost.

thegreenone

sarahTT said:

given the desire of EH staff (often volunteers where that's more understandable) to get home they often shepherd you towards the parking lot way before actual site closure.

The doors may close for visitors but there's much work to be done by the cleaners, gardeners, maintenance staff etc before it gets too dark.

We joined EH last year and our membership is up for renewal at the end of March.  We don't have enough places around us or holiday in the UK enough to continue.

baser999

Check if there’s reduction in being an older member. We realised that with my reaching retirement we’d be able to pay senior admission - it was either EH or NT (forgot which) that dealt with it retrospectively whereas the other wouldn’t entertain the reduction until renewal.