English Heritage’s Award Winning Night
The North East England tourism awards, now in its fourth year, honours and rewards the regional tourism industry’s leading individuals, businesses and attractions.
The winners were announced last night at a sparkling dinner and awards ceremony at the Marriot Hotel in Gosforth. Three hopefuls were shortlisted for the ‘Outstanding Customer Service’ award with the gold award scooped up by a star English Heritage employee.
John Wilkinson, 45, who lives in Acomb is a visitor operations site supervisor at Chesters Roman Fort, Northumberland. He has worked for English Heritage for over 20 years, starting as a seasonal worker in 1985. John manages the Chesters site on a day to day basis and he covers all aspects of visitor operations. His duties range from site checks, security, retail stock control, site presentation and financial tasks.
John who described being nominated as a ‘great honour’ – was selected as the gold medallist by a panel of four judges. These included Geoff Hodgson, chair of the North East Tourism advisory board; Jenny McGee from Visit Britain; Norma Hope, external affairs for One NorthEast and Bill Clifford who is an independent tourism consultant.
The judges deemed John a winner for having made a significant commitment to outstanding service within the region’s tourism economy. John regularly goes above and beyond the call of duty, he frequently opens up the Northumberland site earlier than required and has stayed after hours to accommodate visitors, ensuring them an unhurried and memorable experience.
John commented: “Chesters Roman Fort is a lovely location, to work in and to visit. I have met some lovely people, especially the ones that I work with. I’m still working here so I must like it!”
Furthermore John has independently supplied and planted new flowers to give the site some colourful cheer and has on several occasions been known to give lifts to Hadrian’s Wall walkers to Hexham, on the discovery that they missed the last bus. This is eight miles out of his normal route home.
He said: “There aren’t many other forms of transport around the area and if visitors miss the last bus it’s a long walk back to Hexham, if they are stuck I get them back to Hexham. I just view everything I do as part of my job. ”
Chesters Roman Fort is part of the Hadrian’s Wall World Heritage Site, and is situated in Chollerford and due to renewed interest in Hadrian’s Wall, the fort received over 60,000 visitors last year. The site achieved an outstanding 98% in the most recent mystery shopper survey, a testament to John and his team as the average score is only 80%.
The devoted employee was also nominated by English Heritage’s operations director, to represent English Heritage at Her Majesty’s prestigious garden party in July at Buckingham Palace.
John said: “I went to the garden party in July, which turned out to be one of the fewest of nice days we have in British summertime. It was a great honour to attend and represent English Heritage.
“It was a lovely day, and a lovely atmosphere, there was over 9,000 people in attendance, so it was an excellent experience.”
However, John wasn’t the only English Heritage award winner last night. Warkworth Castle won the bronze award in the Small Visitor Attraction of the Year award. Built in the mid 12th Century, Northumberland’s Warkworth castle was one of the star attractions in the visit North East England’s television advertisement earlier this year. Not only that, but it has been the backdrop for several regional events, such as, the Northumberland Lights Festival in winter 2007 which won several awards, and English Heritage’s St Georges Day celebrations.
All regional gold winners will then go onto represent the North East of England at the next national Enjoy England Awards for Excellence.
For a full list of English Heritage sites, admission prices and opening times, visit www.english-heritage.org.uk
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