Conservation

When the Weston Park Foundation was established in 1986, with support from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the core objectives of the charity were learning and conservation. Conserving the property in perpetuity and generating the income to enable this is the motivation for everything that happens at Weston Park from public opening, events and private use of the House for corporate hospitality and special events.

The Foundation is committed to retaining the integrity of the property through effective conservation rather than restoration.

The collection inside the House, which includes over 30,000 objects, ranging from oil paintings by Van Dyck to delicate tapestries, requires a particular environment with temperature and humidity monitored regularly.

The 1,000 acres of Capability Brown Parkland is managed using a Conservation Management Plan and provides the vision for the future management and restoration of this significant part of Weston’s historic legacy and ecological importance.

Each year conservation work is undertaken by the Hamilton Kerr Institute at Cambridge, who come to work on the paintings in the collection. Other items are looked after by the in-house team and volunteers – including the monumental task of cleaning the 3,000 books in the Library.