West Horsley Place Trust is an ancient Manor House and estate, between Guildford and Leatherhead, in Surrey. It is steeped in 1000 years of history but is currently on Historic England’s ‘Hertiage at Risk’ Register. The house is surrounded by 400 acres of beautiful estate.
In 2015, after the death of Mary, Duchess of Roxburghe, the estate was inherted by Bamber Gascoigne. He gifted it to a newly formed charity with the mission to open to visitors and become a centre for culture and hertiage.
The more research that the charity undertakes the more we realise the historical significance of West Horsley Place. The building is in a serious state of disrepair and in order to not be lost conservation work needs to happen now. Opening up this special place for the public will save the building but also improve people's lives, access to culture, heritage and nature has been proven to aid mental and physical health. The charity also have ambitious sustainability goals and wish to lead the way for the hertiage sector in estate management and increase biodiversity to the benefit of the whole area.
"A place that for several centuries has been entirely private, can now look forward to many centuries of people enjoying it. I think thats a wonderful thing" Founder Bamber Gascoigne
West Horlsey Place look for volunteers in a number of different areas; from greeting visitors, leading tour groups to gardening and conservation.
We have a group restoring the huge book collection and another who create art works with textiles. All our volunteers come to us for a sense of commmunity and to make friends. All training is given and we hope to improve our volunteers wellbeing by helping them learn new skills.
We look for people who are friendly and would be welcoming to visitors.
