Great Yarmouth Preservation Trust remains committed to its original vision of protecting the Borough’s historic built environment and promoting the preservation of our shared heritage.

While protecting Great Yarmouth’s historic built environment is at the heart of all our work, we see heritage preservation as a fantastic tool for driving regeneration in our community. In 2012, recognising that skills shortages were one of the most significant issues affecting Great Yarmouth and its heritage, the Trust developed a strategic approach to the problem. Education, training and outreach were placed firmly at the centre of every project we undertook, at every level from concept through to completion. A model developed where entire projects were undertaken by volunteers and trainees, under the close supervision of heritage professionals, who monitored, advised and mentored the workforce. This innovative model inspires a sense of civic pride and ownership in the work, creates a highly skilled and motivated workforce, and enables effective repair and preservation of our town’s rich heritage. In 2015, the success of the Trust’s training work led to the establishment of Norfolk Conservation Ltd., a social enterprise company which employs people who have been trained on our projects.

As part of this emphasis on education, training and outreach, the Trust has also pioneered an international approach to heritage preservation, and runs a series of successful projects in collaboration with Taiwanese, Estonian and Bulgarian partners. International conservation projects have been delivered in the UK and abroad, facilitating knowledge and skills sharing, and creating unique opportunities for young people to travel and experience different cultures.

Our vision for 2018 – 2022 is to complete a further 13 projects, remove 9 buildings from the Heritage at Risk Register, create 14 residential units, deliver 40,000 training hours to 430 volunteers, create 10 jobs and bring back 10 currently vacant buildings into use.