West Midlands

The fabric of this region – as diverse in its places as it is in its people – has been shaped by history and industry. From the sweeping hills of Shropshire to the panoramic views from the Clent Hills, just twelve miles from Birmingham, where several of our urban properties are based, there's a space for just about anyone to enjoy.

Looking after more than 8,000ha of land in Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Herefordshire and the West Midlands, we care for an amazing array of landscapes and places. There are beautiful properties like Attingham Park, a mansion set in stunning parkland and Hanbury Hall, a William and Mary style house, which is home to unique Thornhill murals. Then there's spectacular countryside like the Long Mynd, in Shropshire and the Clent Hills, a haven just eight miles from the centre of Birmingham. The region also boasts 'Capability' Brown's first complete landscape, Croome Park and his last, surrounding Berrington Hall.

We also care for plenty of social and industrial heritage, including the renowned Birmingham Back-to-Backs, which, alongside Berrington Hall and Croft Castle in Herefordshire and Wightwick Manor in Wolverhampton are hosting a pioneering new project called 'Atmospheres'. Combining professional rigour with powerful imagination, this is all about bringing history to life for our visitors in new ways. We've created spaces with furniture you can sit on and objects you can touch within rooms which are filled with the smells and sounds of the past. In short, we've taken away the traditional ropes and allowed our visitors to really take a step back in time.

So, there's incredible diversity here. But how we do conserve it, while encouraging more people to get out and interact with it? It's just one of the questions you'll ask – and answer. Ultimately, we want the special places we care for to be valuable community resources, not just great days out.

A word from our Director, Liz Roberts

"Not only are we at the cutting edge of presenting historic houses and engaging with local communities, but we're also really lucky to have an incredibly ethnically diverse region, which affords its own challenges and opportunities. I'm looking for a great leader who can balance the complex and often conflicting priorities that lie before us. Our region encompasses all the varied aspects of conservation and we need a confident spokesperson, who will embrace them and help us make the most of the wonderful, eclectic mix of special places we care for. Diversity – of people and places – will lie at the very heart of that. If we can combine the perfect welcome, with the perfect information and that elusive 'wow' factor, we'll have people coming back again and again."