In 2020, after a career spanning three decades, Christine (Tina) Sitwell, Paintings Conservation Adviser, retired from the Trust. Before her departure, she spent time with her successor, Rebecca (Becca) Hellen, who took up the post amid the first national lockdown due to the global health pandemic. As Becca recounts, picking up the torch from Tina has been a fascinating yet nonetheless ...
Continue reading...Curator's blog
There are over 100 curatorial and conservation experts working for the National Trust, caring for our houses, collections, gardens and landscapes. Learn more about their experiences first-hand.


Behind the scenes of exhibitions and conservation work, getting closer to objects and collections research, and sharing art and cultural perspectives... Follow the National Trust Curator's blog to hear the latest news and views from our experts.
Latest posts
1 Apr 2021
11 Nov 2020
Exceptional times, extraordinary discoveries: lockdown at Oxburgh Hall
Published: 11 November 2020
Anna Forrest is a curator in the East of England. She has worked at many historic houses in the region but there is one place that has captured her imagination (and heart) more than any other - Oxburgh Hall in Norfolk. Here she describes the highs and lows of working on a complex project at Oxburgh throughout the unprecedented events of spring and summer 2020, and some of the exciting ...
Continue reading...27 Aug 2020
An object I love at Standen: De Morgan's peacock bowl
Published: 27 August 2020
Head Curator Sally-Anne Huxtable explains how she became smitten with the ceramics of William De Morgan, and why she particularly loves his peacock design on a bowl at Standen House, West Sussex.
Continue reading...13 Mar 2020
Caring for Nostell's dolls' house
Published: 13 March 2020
Simon McCormack, curator at Nostell, West Yorkshire, takes us into a miniature world and explains what it's like to look after one of the oldest dolls’ houses in the country. Dating from the 1730s, Nostell’s dolls’ house is one of only a handful surviving from the 18th century. A grand mansion in miniature, full of intricately crafted objects, the dolls' house is a microcosm of a real-sized ...
Continue reading...23 Jan 2020
An object I love at Castle Ward: Mary Ward’s microscope
Published: 23 January 2020
Frances Bailey is our Lead Curator for Northern Ireland. One of her favourite objects in the collections she helps care for is the 19th-century microscope Mary Ward of Castle Ward was given as a teenager. Not only does it remind her of her own childhood gift, but the microscope had a profound influence on Mary and her future achievements, as Frances explains.
Continue reading...21 Nov 2019
The object I love at Hardwick Hall
Published: 21 November 2019
Maria Jordan is Studio Manager of our Textile Conservation Studio at Blickling, Norfolk. It is our only specialist in-house textile conservation treatment facility and is tasked with caring for the over 150,000 individual items in our textile collection. One of Maria's first tasks when joining the studio was conserving some of the oldest and largest tapestries we care for – Hardwick Hall’s '...
Continue reading...11 Nov 2019
Paint Freedom: Celebrating the story of Dorset’s Tolpuddle Tree
Published: 11 November 2019
Kate Bethune, one of our regional curators in the South West, works on many different projects throughout the year, across lots of different properties. One of her favourites this year was part of our national People's Landscapes programme of events, celebrating the role that the places we care for have played in social change. Paint Freedom, a community art project, was held at one of the ...
Continue reading...25 Sep 2019
Banned Books Week and Vita's challenge
Published: 25 September 2019
The libraries at our places are of particular interest to Hannah Squire, Assistant Curator for National Public Programmes. In recognition of Banned Books Week, a nationwide campaign to celebrate the freedom to read, Hannah takes a closer look at a number of books in the library at Sissinghurst Castle Garden in Kent and explores the ways in which Vita Sackville-West challenged accepted ...
Continue reading...13 Sep 2019
Exploring transatlantic cultural relationships forged by the Mayflower's historic voyage
Published: 13 September 2019
2020 marks the 400th anniversary of the sailing of the Mayflower from Plymouth, Devon to Plymouth, Massachusetts. As this anniversary approaches, Curator Alison Cooper takes a deeper look at how this historic voyage and our subsequent transatlantic relationship has shaped, and been shaped by, our places.
Continue reading...30 Jul 2019
A closer look: what we learn from conservation photography
Published: 30 July 2019
Lorna Scott works as a conservation documentation officer, helping to create a permanent record of the conservation work undertaken on our collection items and historic interiors. She spends her days immersed in the beauty and intricacies of our rich and varied collections, all while working entirely at Heelis, the head office of the National Trust in Swindon.
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