Heritage memberships & supporters
SPAB – Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings
The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB), founded by William Morris in 1877, is a leading voice for the sensitive repair and long-term care of historic buildings. It promotes a philosophy of conservative repair, minimum intervention and respect for age, craft and patina, as set out in the SPAB Approach.
We support SPAB’s work and draw heavily on its guidance when advising on older fabric, traditional materials and repair strategies. Our Heritage Project Assistant, Mollie, has recently completed SPAB’s Repair of Old Buildings Course – a formal, five-day programme of lectures and site visits led by conservation professionals, exploring philosophy, legislation, traditional construction, and practical repair to materials such as stone, brick, timber and lime.
This training deepens our understanding of how to diagnose defects, specify appropriate interventions and manage risk on historic and traditionally built structures. While SPAB does not “approve” consultants in a formal sense, its principles strongly inform the way we approach heritage cost planning, procurement and value engineering on repair and adaptation projects.
IHBC – Institute of Historic Building Conservation
The Institute of Historic Building Conservation (IHBC) is the UK’s professional body for built and historic environment conservation, bringing together planners, architects, surveyors, archaeologists and other specialists. It sets standards, promotes good practice and provides extensive CPD and guidance for those working with historic buildings and areas.
We are affiliate members of the IHBC, reflecting our commitment to align with recognised conservation practice and to develop our skills within a multi-disciplinary professional context. Through the West Midlands Branch, we regularly attend in-person CPD events, seminars and study days, which offer structured learning and the opportunity to network with conservation officers, consultants and other practitioners across the region.
These branch events help us stay current with policy, case law, technical guidance and examples of good (and sometimes bad) practice in regeneration, viability and adaptation of heritage assets. Our affiliate status is not a professional accreditation in itself, and we do not present it as such; rather, it shows that we are engaged with the professional conservation community and committed to ongoing CPD in this field.
The Heritage Alliance
The Heritage Alliance is England’s national umbrella body for the independent heritage sector, bringing together over 200 organisations. It advocates for the sector with government, sits on national forums and helps shape policy on planning, funding and the historic environment.
We support The Heritage Alliance because its work underpins many of the frameworks within which our projects sit: from heritage protection and planning policy, to funding streams and the wider narrative about why historic places matter. By following its briefings, consultations and policy updates, we gain a clearer understanding of the pressures and opportunities facing clients who own or manage heritage assets.
Our relationship is as a supporter and beneficiary of its sector-wide advocacy, rather than as a formally accredited partner. Nonetheless, its cross-sector perspective helps us place individual projects in their broader strategic and policy context, particularly where clients are navigating planning risk, funding bids or public benefit arguments for heritage investment.
Friends of Friendless Churches
Friends of Friendless Churches is a small but highly impactful charity dedicated to rescuing and protecting redundant historic places of worship in England and Wales. Since its formation in 1957, it has taken into care dozens of churches and chapels at risk of demolition, decay or inappropriate conversion.
The charity’s work exemplifies hands-on, fabric-focused conservation: stabilising structures, repairing roofs, consolidating stonework and safeguarding fixtures, often in modest rural settings that might otherwise be overlooked. We support Friends of Friendless Churches because it demonstrates, in very practical terms, what it means to steward vulnerable buildings with limited resources but high cultural and community value.
While we are not formally accredited or endorsed by the charity, we follow its projects and communications closely. Its examples of phased repair, creative reuse and collaborative funding approaches inform the way we think about viability, risk and phasing for clients facing similar challenges with small but significant heritage assets, particularly redundant or underused religious buildings.
Historic Houses
Historic Houses is a co-operative, not-for-profit association representing over a thousand independently owned historic houses, castles and gardens across Britain. Most of its members are lived-in private homes; others are run as charities, museums or commercial venues. Alongside member benefits for visitors, it provides advice, lobbying and support to owners so these places can remain alive, financially viable and publicly accessible.
We are supporters and members of Historic Houses because its work sits at the junction of heritage, tourism, business and family ownership – the same intersection many of our clients inhabit. The organisation champions issues such as maintenance funding, diversification of uses, tax and planning, all of which are central to long-term stewardship.
Our engagement with Historic Houses is as supporters and visitors, rather than as advisors accredited by the association. However, the case studies, policy work and owners’ perspectives it shares are invaluable in shaping our advice on investment planning, phasing and risk for privately owned historic estates, where decisions must balance conservation with commercial reality and family continuity.
English Heritage & Historic England
We support and engage with both organisations as visitors, donors and practitioners who regularly rely on their published guidance, research, listing information and case studies. Their technical and policy resources strongly influence how we approach significance assessments, impact, setting, enabling development and repair strategies.
We do not claim any formal endorsement by English Heritage or Historic England. Instead, we see ourselves as active users of their guidance and stewards of their principles in the cost management, procurement and risk planning aspects of heritage projects – helping clients align budgets and delivery strategies with nationally recognised conservation standards.
National Trust
The National Trust is one of the UK’s best-known charities, established to look after places of historic interest or natural beauty for the benefit of the nation across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It cares for historic houses, gardens, coastline, countryside and collections, supported by millions of members, volunteers and visitors.
As regular visitors and supporters, we see first-hand how the Trust balances conservation, access, visitor experience and commercial sustainability across a very diverse portfolio of sites. Its work provides a rich source of learning on long-term maintenance planning, lifecycle investment, and the practicalities of opening sensitive historic environments to large numbers of people.
Our relationship with the National Trust is that of supporter and engaged observer, rather than accredited adviser. Nonetheless, the Trust’s published conservation statements, management plans, and practical solutions to issues such as access, servicing, sustainability and visitor flow offer valuable reference points when we are helping clients plan and cost interventions at smaller, but similarly complex, heritage sites.
Historic Buildings & Places
Historic Buildings & Places (HB&P) is the working name of the Ancient Monuments Society, founded in 1924. It is recognised as one of the National Amenity Societies, consulted on listed building consent applications involving demolition across England and Wales.
We support HB&P because of its dual role: both as a consultee on significant change to listed buildings and as an informed, independent advocate for high-quality conservation. Its casework and publications illuminate the reasoning behind formal advice on applications, helping practitioners and owners understand what “good” looks like in challenging schemes.
While we are not endorsed or accredited by HB&P, its work helps us anticipate the concerns of amenity societies and conservation consultees when advising clients. By engaging with its outputs, we can better align cost planning, option appraisal and risk discussions with the likely expectations of statutory and non-statutory consultees in the planning and listed building consent process.
The Wildlife Trusts
The Wildlife Trusts are a federation of 46 independent wildlife charities across the UK, Isle of Man and Alderney, co-ordinated by the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts. Together they manage more than 2,300 nature reserves and marine projects.
We support the Wildlife Trust movement because its work sits at the intersection of biodiversity, landscape and community – the same places where many of our heritage projects live. Their research, campaigns and practical conservation projects inform our understanding of ecological baselines, habitat connectivity and the wider environmental context in which historic buildings and landscapes sit.
Our relationship is as supporters and engaged followers of their work, not as an accredited or endorsed partner. By aligning our thinking with their ambition for a wildlife-rich UK, we are better placed to help clients consider biodiversity, landscape setting and nature recovery alongside the technical and commercial aspects of conservation projects.
The Woodland Trust
The Woodland Trust is the UK’s largest woodland conservation charity and the national voice for woods and trees. Established in 1972, it cares for more than 1,000 woods across the UK, open for people to enjoy, and has planted tens of millions of trees to create wildlife-rich woodland. Its work focuses on three core aims: protecting irreplaceable ancient woodland, restoring damaged woodland, and creating new native woods so that trees can thrive for people and nature.
We support the Woodland Trust because trees and woodland are integral to so many historic settings – from designed landscapes and parklands to field boundaries and village edges. The Trust’s research and advocacy around ancient woodland, veteran trees and woodland condition help frame how we think about setting, landscape character, climate resilience and long-term management on heritage projects.
Our involvement is as supporters and active users of their guidance, rather than as a formally accredited adviser. By keeping in step with the Woodland Trust’s vision of a UK rich in native woods and trees, we can better integrate woodland, trees and carbon considerations into cost planning, option appraisal and risk discussions for clients working with historic estates and rural sites.