Involving volunteers, visitors and the community in reimagining Hinton Ampner

A group of people gathered together in the grounds at Stowe in Buckinghamshire discussing the tasks that need to be done for the day — As the project progresses, there will be regular opportunities to get involved | © National Trust Images/Chris Lacey

As the Reimagining a Hampshire Estate project begins to transform Hinton Ampner for visitors and nature, we want as many people as possible to be part of it. There will be continuing opportunities for volunteers and the local community to get involved, as well as ways for all visitors to share their experiences of the changing face of Hinton.

Volunteering at Hinton

In February 2023, we had our first community tree planting day, with 3,000 seedlings planted in Hangar field. It was a fun and diverse gathering of people, united by their passion for our natural heritage, landscapes and wildlife.

We’ll also be asking for help monitoring how the range of wildlife at Hinton changes as we improve the habitats.

We'll need volunteers to walk the estate, recording which species they find and how common they are. And the wider community can get involved in one of our 'citizen science' days – bring family and friends along to count birds, butterflies and other wildlife.

Volunteering with the archaeology team

Four local archaeology groups including National Trust volunteers are sharing skills, knowledge and equipment to undertake large landscape scale surveys on land that has recently come back into our care after years as arable farmland. The ambition is to learn as much as we can about the landscape so that we understand how to manage it for the future - for nature, heritage and local communities. And we want to share its stories with our visitors too.

This work will continue for at least two years so now is a great time to get involved with one or more of these archaeology groups. Our very local group, Hinton Ampner HART (heritage archaeology ranger team) is going to be running events and activities including a dig, during this year’s Festival of Archaeology, when there’ll be even more opportunities for people to find out how much fun it is to be part of a volunteer archaeology group.

You can also visit heritagerecords.nationaltrust.org.uk and select Contact us to complete a short form. Volunteering opportunities come up on National Trust archaeology Facebook, X and Instagram accounts too, or search online for your local archaeology group.

Jars of honey — Local honey for sale | © National Trust Images/David Levenson

Local produce

Where possible, we’ll process and sell the things we produce on the estate locally, such as honey from the bee hives on the estate.

As the project progresses, we’ll aim to offer visits to the farm to help people connect to where their food comes from and to show that it can be produced in a sustainable way.