Challenge

Brockhampton Estate is a former medieval manor house and farmed estate built in the 14th Century. Within the quirky manor house there has been extensive refurbishment to the gatehouse which is surrounded by a moat. The house tells the story of its life and its residents throughout the ages. Elsewhere on site, various walks are signposted, which feature ancient trees and sculptures to give visitors an in-depth picture of what the estate used to be like.

As part of the National Trust Hereford’s long-term heritage strategy, Brockhampton Estate, Croft Castle and Berrington Hall needed to be nurtured and enhanced by improving their accessibility. The National Trust wanted to ‘capture a spirit of place’ and each site had a specific point in its life where it was most influential and the aim was to bring this to life through engaging new signage.

The National Trust wanted to improve the site’s presentation, ensuring visitors were guided and informed, and could appreciate a co-ordinated and consistent level of signage, ultimately improving visitor enjoyment as part of a wider push to deliver basic information and improve presentation.

Solution

Fitzpatrick Woolmer was to establish a suite of highly durable and effective directional signs and orientation boards for Brockhampton Estate. FWDP defined how access around the site would work and created sign proposals which were suitable for the site and specifically designed to complement the historic style.

Although durability and vandal resistance would still be essential, the key objective was to produce a suite of signs sympathetic to the heritage of the property. Timber was chosen to complement the natural wood in the manor house and surrounding grounds, with full colour n-viro™ graphic panels.

Outcome

Fitzpatrick Woolmer's designs have improved visitor orientation and smartened up the estate, while remaining in keeping with its historic architecture, to attract a range of audiences for The Trust.