Season highlights and new group portal for English Heritage visits

The charity looks after 400 sites of national importance and its new system, Ventrata, aims to make booking group visits much easier - it’s been described as a one-stop shop for bookings, payments, amendments and cancellations. 

It offers an online portal access to customers with the ability to make, amend and cancel bookings. GTOs can also book multiple sites and add-ons in one transaction and prepayment for all of the sites.

The team have also said it would be helpful if groups can show their booking QR code on arrival to admissions staff. 

Highlights to look out for this year include…

Battle Abbey, Sussex

2026 marks 960 years since the Battle of Hastings, making this the ideal year to plan a visit. At Battle Abbey, groups can follow in the footsteps of William the Conqueror as they trace the dramatic story of 1066 and the epic battle itself.

Stonehenge, Wiltshire

Groups can explore the visitor centre exhibition, see reconstructed Neolithic houses and walk around the famous stone circle itself. This year, volunteers are building a full-scale Neolithic hall using ancient techniques, giving groups the chance to watch the process and chat with the team.

If you’re after something more exclusive, the Stone Circle Experience offers the chance for groups to step inside the monument outside normal visiting hours.

Audley End, Essex

There’s a new display opening at Audley End House near Saffron Walden which charts the period of history which saw the house evolve from the remnants of a Benedictine monastery into England’s finest Jacobean mansion. 

The display From Monastery to Mansion: Portraiture, Power and Ambition marks 400 years since the death of Thomas Howard, the 1st Earl of Suffolk. For the first time, portraits of Thomas Howard and his wife Katherine are being displayed at Audley End alongside portraits of Thomas’s mother Margaret Audley and his grandparents, Sir Thomas and Lady Elizabeth Audley. 

Dover Castle, Kent

The ‘Spur’ viewpoint opened last year at Kent’s Dover Castle offering visitors a spellbinding panorama of the castle, where history and romance meet.

Groups can gaze upon the original castle entrance, imagine the drama of a long-ago siege and soak up the timeless beauty of the surrounding landscape. 

Corbridge Roman Town

Rare Roman artefacts, once buried beneath layers of mud in the River Tyne, are set to go on public display for the first time at Corbridge Roman Town in Northumberland.

Unearthed by two divers and amateur archaeologists near the remains of a Roman bridge that once served as a crossing to the town, the finds include a gladiator knife handle, a sword scabbard slide, a buckle, a panther-shaped mount and several coins.

Together, the objects form Roman Rivers & Rituals, a new exhibition at the Hadrian’s Wall site that explores the Romans’ fascination with running water, their efforts to appease the gods, and the role of ritual and good fortune in daily life.