Editor’s note – this news story dates from 10 August 2023; on 1 October 2023, The Sunday Times published a series of extremely concerning allegations regarding Hamish Ogston – Chair of the Hamish Ogston Foundation. English Heritage subsequently decided to sever its ties with the Foundation, to return to the Foundation the funds we had received to date, and to no longer draw down on any further funds committed by the Foundation to English Heritage. For more information, see our full statement.  

A ground-breaking heritage apprenticeship programme, designed to pass the dying skill of flint-working to a younger generation, was announced today by English Heritage, following a major donation of £11.2m from the Hamish Ogston Foundation. This is the largest donation ever received by English Heritage.

The programme will see the establishment of a new heritage skills training centre in East Anglia, the creation of an inhouse ‘heritage crafts team’ at English Heritage, and safeguard the future of 34 flint castles and abbeys in the East of England. It will highlight the opportunities of working on heritage buildings to thousands of school children, offer hands on experience for student trainees and create over 50 new apprenticeship roles.

Gerard Lemos CMG, Chair of English Heritage, said:
“Both the landscape of East Anglia and the lives of its people have historically been defined by flint, with skills apprenticeships passed down over generations. That’s no longer happening, and both the buildings and the people have been the poorer for it. With the extremely generous support of the Hamish Ogston Foundation for which we are immensely grateful, our new skills apprenticeships will provide a radical new approach to address the decline. This investment is not just in the past – through saving English Heritage sites as well as homes and churches across the region – but in the future, by providing fulfilling careers for this, and subsequent generations.”

Robert Bargery, Heritage Project Director of the Hamish Ogston Foundation, said:
“Heritage skills like flint knapping are the timeless threads that weave our past with our future. The art of flintknapping is at a severe risk of extinction with only a handful of specialists left in the UK. This latest grant from the Hamish Ogston Foundation to English Heritage will help to secure a new generation of specialists, so that we can combat this skills shortage and ensure that historic buildings at-risk can be preserved for years to come.”

With around a third of its historic buildings containing flint and only a handful of skilled flint-workers remaining, East Anglia has some of the most significant conservation needs as well as the most severe shortage of heritage craft skills in the country. Flint-knapping is listed as endangered on the Heritage Crafts Red List. This major grant from the Hamish Ogston Foundation will allow English Heritage to arrest that skills decline by developing new apprenticeships in flint and stone masonry and heritage brickwork. The seven year programme will see the training of 48 young heritage skills apprentices along with 3 professional apprentices.

The new skills training programme will specialise in conservation in flint and rubble and ensure that the few remaining skilled craftspeople – like 81 year old John Lord – can pass down their vital craft to a younger generation.

As well as the formal apprenticeships which will be developed over the next 12 months, the centre will work to raise the profile of heritage skills as a career choice by welcoming local primary and secondary school children through school visits and onsite Conservation in Action activities. It will also provide hands-on training sessions to 450 Further Education construction students to broaden their understanding of heritage conservation techniques.

English Heritage properties set to benefit:

Beds, Cambs, Essex, Herts: Berkhamsted Castle, Houghton House, Denny Abbey, Audley End House, Hadleigh Castle, St Botolph’s Priory, St John’s Abbeygate, Waltham Abbey Gatehouse, Roman Wall St Albans, Old Gorehambury House

Norfolk: Binham Priory, Blakeney Guildhall, Burgh Castle Roman Fort, Caister Roman Fort, Castle Acre Bailey Gate, Castle Acre Castle, Castle Acre Priory, Castle Rising Castle and Norman Church, Creake Abbey, Great Yarmouth Row Houses/ Row 111, Greyfriars Cloisters, St Olave’s Priory, Thetford Priory and Gatehouse, Thetford Church of Holy Sepulchre, Thetford Warren Lodge, Weeting Castle

Suffolk: Bury St Edmunds Abbey Church Ruins and Abbey Gate, Bury St Edmunds Norman Tower, Framlingham Castle, Leiston Abbey, Moulton Packhorse Bridge

This grant to English Heritage is part of a wider £29 million investment into heritage skills training in the UK and the Commonwealth which the Hamish Ogston Foundation is announcing today. The new funding will also support heritage skills training programmes in partnership with the Commonwealth Heritage Forum, Cathedrals’ Workshop Fellowship and Historic Environment Scotland.

The Hamish Ogston Foundation has now pledged nearly £44 million towards heritage skills training since its establishment in 2019. It is the largest single private donor to heritage skills training in the UK and is now committed to support the training of more than 3,300 conservation trainees in the UK and Commonwealth.