Oakmere Solutions delivers high quality contemporary consultancy, evaluation and change management services to clients underpinned by values of customer service, confidentiality, professional integrity and open and honest relationships and communications. Launched in 2009 we offer:

• Creative, wide-ranging and outcomes-driven consultancy services
• Project design, implementation and management services
• Project mentoring
• Service and project monitoring and evaluation
• Strategy development and redesign services.

We work extensively, but not exclusively in the heritage sector. Our specialisms include activity planning, business planning, the planning of volunteer recruitment and training, and the development of effective evaluation strategies alongside supporting the successful development of project proposals for funding by the Heritage Lottery Fund and other funding bodies.

We are committed to ethical and sustainable business practice, to maintaining and promoting equal opportunities and the health and well-being of our customers, stakeholders, associates and directors.

Current Activity

• Aldeburgh Cinema
  Consultancy to explore development options for this heritage cinema in preparation for its centenary in 2019.

• Aldeburgh Museum
  Activity Plan consultancy to support a Round 2 HLF application to regenerate this charming museum located in the Grade 1 listed Aldeburgh Moot Hall which tells the story of Aldeburgh’s rich history and heritage. This includes a focus on local governance, the Moot Hall being a seat of local government since the mid-16th century to the present, and the role of influential families in Aldeburgh’s history particularly the Garretts and the Cables. Newson Garrett was a renowned industrialist. Two of Newson’s daughters, Elizabeth and Millicent, were outstanding in their fields. Elizabeth Garrett Anderson was the first woman to practice as a medical doctor in Britain and was the country’s first female Mayor. Millicent Garrett Fawcett was an inspirational suffragist and social reformer who co-founded Newnham College, Cambridge. The Cable family have given a lifetime commitment to the sea. James Cable is revered for his bravery: during his long service as Coxswain he was awarded three RNLI silver medals.

• Derbyshire Wildlife Trust
  Consultancy to support the production of Round 2 Skills for the Future proposal and training plan to the HLF. The project, Working for Nature will provide practice-based skills training and relevant qualifications in natural heritage with a focus on ecosystem services. The project will be delivered in partnership by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife Trusts.

• Heritage Lottery Fund
  Oakmere Solutions provides expert advice, monitoring and mentoring services to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). Current projects include:

  • A Passion for People, Boston: The PCC of the Ecclesiastical Parish of Boston, Lincolnshire
  • Alban, Britain’s first saint - telling the whole story: St Albans Cathedral
  • Brackley Town Hall Development: Brackley Town Council, Northamptonshire
  • Canterbury Journey: Canterbury Cathedral, Kent
  • Charterhouse: Refreshment of Great Chamber, London
  • Cultural Cooperation: Strengthening our Community Life by Nurturing Heritage Skills. London
  • Garden Museum Development, London
  • Kings and Scribes - The Birth of a Nation: Winchester Cathedral, Hampshire
  • Kings Cross Story Palace: Historypin, London
  • Letting it Speak for Itself: Peterborough Cathedral, Cambridgeshire
  • Marble Hill Reinterpretation: English Heritage Trust, London
  • Perpetuating Thames Sailing Barge ‘Pudge’ for a viable future: Thames Sailing Barge Trust, Essex

• Heritage Lincolnshire
  Oakmere Solutions has been retained to provide consultancy services to support the development of a Historic Environment skills initiative. The initiative aims to engage people across Lincolnshire and the East Midlands in the skills needed to conserve, protect and help the public engage with their heritage including; archaeology, traditional building skills, project management for building preservation trusts and engagement. The initiative is led by a partnership of Heritage Lincolnshire, the Heritage Skills Centre in Lincoln Castle and the Lincoln Cathedral Works Department.

• Samphire Hoe
  Samphire Hoe is a 30-hectare nature reserve created during the construction of the Channel Tunnel, and located at the foot of Shakespeare Cliff, between Dover and Folkestone, Kent. The site is owned by Eurotunnel and managed in partnership with the White Cliffs Countryside Partnership. Oakmere Solutions has been commissioned to undertake options appraisal work and to explore and provide recommendations for how the owners and managers of Samphire Hoe can build on its current successes and develop an expanded and sustainable service and commercial offer.

Recently Completed Projects

• Beonna, Benington, Lincolnshire
  Activity and interpretation planning and associated business planning for the Benington Community Heritage Trust (BCHT) in partnership with the Churches Conservation Trust for the development of Grade 1 listed All Saints Church leading to a successful £1.8m Round 2 application to the Heritage Lottery Fund.

• British Horological Institute, Upton, Nottinghamshire
  Activity Plan consultants for a £4.5m HLF supported project designed to: restore a derelict Stable Block to create a ‘Centre for Horology’ in the grounds of Upton Hall; increase horology training capacity and address the recognised shortage of UK trained horologists; open the Upton Hall facilities to the public, provide an exhibition space, offer insights into key items from the museum collection and support the direct observation of horologists at work; provide a range of activities to increase volunteering, promote heritage skills and understanding and increase engagement with local people and communities.

• Britten-Pears Foundation, Suffolk
  Consultancy leading to the completion of an activity plan for Britten 100, a major project to increase learning about, and participation in, the heritage legacy of Benjamin Britten in Aldeburgh. The subsequent proposal to the HLF resulting in a £1.4m grant to mark and celebrate the centenary of Benjamin Britten, and the impact his work had on our national culture and music heritage.

• Catton Park, Norwich
  Consultancy to support the future development and long-term sustainability of the park. Catton Park is a nationally important space and an area of historic interest located on the outskirts of Norwich, Norfolk. The 70-acre park, which includes extensive woodlands, was the first known commission of the renowned landscape architect Humphry Repton.

• City of London Corporation: Hampstead Heath
  Wide-ranging work with staff and volunteers to support the development of an outcomes-led communications strategy for Hampstead Heath one of London's most popular open spaces and a major tourism destination.

• Croydon Airport Society, London
  Consultancy supporting the CAS explore options and build capacity to further develop its current Visitor Centre and safeguard and make accessible its unique and significant paper and photographic archive and collection of items and memorabilia relating to the history of Croydon Airport, and aviation history more generally.

• East Anglian Offshore Wind
  Wide-ranging consultancy to develop a skills strategy and associated detailed implementation plan to support skills development for the East Anglia ONE offshore windfarm. The Crown Estate Commissioners awarded EAOW rights to develop Zone 5 of The Crown Estate’s UK Offshore Wind Round 3 tender process. This zone is a significant area of the seabed located off the coast of East Anglia with a target capacity of 7,200 megawatts of power.

• Historic Royal Palaces, London
  Consultancy working with the Historic Royal Palaces team, service users and other stakeholders to review the HRP education strategy and associated activities and present options and recommendations for change. HRP is an independent charity that looks after the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, the Banqueting House, Kensington Palace and Kew Palace – palaces owned by HRM The Queen on behalf of the nation. The HRP education service provides learning visits for schools and colleges, adult learning events and family learning activities, welcoming some 200,000 education visitors annually.

• Lincolnshire County Council, Lincolnshire
  Options appraisal work for the organisational management of Lincoln Castle and a five year business plan for the Heritage Skills Centre located in the grounds of Lincoln Castle. In addition as a separate consultancy Oakmere Solutions supported the securing of an apprenticeship funding through the HLF Skills for the Future programme.

• Middleport Pottery, Stoke-on-Trent
  Appointed by the Princes Regeneration Trust (PRT) to undertake an external summative evaluation of the £9m restoration of Middleport Pottery, the historic home of the world-famous Burleigh pottery in Stoke-on-Trent and which is now both a working factory and unique visitor attraction. The evaluation both assessed the achievements of the restoration against its targets and identified lesson and good practice that can inform and support the heritage sector more widely. In addition, the work included piloting and review of an outcome-led evaluation framework being developed by the PRT.

• National Trust of Western Australia
  Consultancy for the National Trust of Western Australia supporting its work in establishing a robust methodology for determining the social and economic value of the heritage.

• Orangebox Centre of the Arts for Young People, Halifax
  Consultancy and business planning resulting in a successful myplace application and £3.8 million funding for this contemporary facility in Yorkshire.

• Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, London
  Independent evaluation of the SPAB Maintenance Cooperative Project. This three year £1.2m HLF supported project designed to build capacity and promote best practice in preventative maintenance, through active networks of local groups or Maintenance Co-operatives in five regional areas: Cumbria; Hereford and Worcester; Lincolnshire; the North East; the South West. This work builds on the success of the earlier Faith in Maintenance project for which Oakmere Solutions acted as the external evaluator. The project provided training and support for volunteers in England and Wales who help to maintain historic places of worship. FIM subsequently won a prestigious Europa Nostra Laureate Award supported by evaluation evidence.

• St. Martin of Tours, Bilborough, Nottingham
  Multi-year independent external review and continuous assessment to the evaluation elements of this HLF-supported project. The project aimed to reveal the rich heritage of the medieval church of St Martin of Tours, including two unique wall paintings by war artist, Evelyn Gibbs.

• St. Nicholas’s Chapel, King’s Lynn
  Production of a comprehensive Activity Plan and associated robust and evidenced Business Plan to support a successful and innovative £2.7m Round 2 proposal to the HLF.

• Suffolk Horse Society
  Mentoring and evaluation of this unique project designed to catalogue, safeguard and make accessible a specialist archive and collection that provides insights into the historic significance of the Suffolk Punch horse breed and the developing nature of agriculture and the land based economy during the late 19th and 20th centuries.