Violet Manners On The New Age Of Heritage Tourism

Violet Manners is on a mission to future-proof Britain’s grandest homes. With her new platform, HeritageXplore, she’s reinventing heritage tourism for a new generation, says Skylar Pinchal.

Violet Manners On Her Latest Venture, HeritageXplore

‘It’s a very special, cool, and unique concept in this ever-so sped-up world,’ says Violet Manners, as a chauffeur drives us down a scenic road in the Scottish Highlands. Dressed elegantly in a tweed jacket, she’s explaining how she aims to save and bring awareness to Britain’s privately owned heritage properties that are open to the public. More specifically, she’s talking about her new venture: HeritageXplore.

‘It all started in 2020 on a road trip in America, when my mother and I came up with this podcast idea called Duchess.’ Duchess (which garnered a staggering 2.5 million listeners within its first 18 months) segued to Hidden Heritage, a second podcast launched last year under Manners’ new platform of the same name, covering everything from history chats with the V&A’s director, Tristram Hunt, to the ins-and-outs of archival research with the archivist at Glamis Castle.

From this success, Manners identified a bigger opportunity for the UK’s independent historic properties. As Hidden Heritage brought global interest to Britain’s heritage tourism, people began to go to her for advice about how best to visit these places. ‘When I went to plan trips to these wonderful houses, I was frustrated there was no central point of contact,’ she says, ‘and I just remember thinking that this really shouldn’t be this hard.’ One important factor that institutions such as the National Trust and English Heritage have in common is a unified website: something these independent homes lacked. ‘I thought, “why does each house have a different URL?” They’re all functioning independently, but they all want the same thing,’ she says. So, HeritageXplore was born.

Blair Castle

‘Instead of having multiple tabs on your computer open to compare places like Newby Hall, Blenheim Palace and Stansted Park, you can simply go on to HeritageXplore and see everything in one place, saving you lots of time,’ Manners says. ‘I am such a big believer in marketplaces. I use them for everything from ordering food to booking train tickets. These sites provide options – they give you places to compare and decipher what is most worth your time, as well as what suits your interests: a concept that we have now seamlessly applied to heritage tourism.’

HeritageXplore eliminates the ‘you don’t know what you don’t know’ factor within the genre, as lesser-known houses visitors never would have known to search for are easily found. Currently, 34 houses have become members of HeritageXplore – and Manners hopes to bring that number to 100 by the end of the year.

Not one to sit still, Manners is already upping the platform’s offering. ‘We are launching our membership this year, which will take us from being just a market-based platform to being a full-blown community that caters to all budgets,’ she says. An online book club, candle-lit supper clubs and black-tie events held within the homes are all some of the perks experienced with a HeritageXplore membership. ‘Over the next few months, there will be nearly 400 events across all of these properties,’ she adds.

Perhaps the most extravagant and exploratory of all are the HeritageXplore Luxe tours, which take members to some of Britain’s most treasured and storied houses, castles, and palaces. I tagged along with Manners and her guests for one of these three-night visits, which incorporated Boughton House, Blair and Glamis castles, Scone Palace, and her own family home, Belvoir Castle. We had the privilege of touring each one with the custodians themselves, and instead of staying in hotels, we stayed in our own bedrooms at Belvoir and Scone. Dinners were held in formal dining rooms with the custodians and their families, and we were spoiled with thoughtful and fitting activities such as whisky tasting and bagpipe performances. Even when we were dressed in black-tie under gilded ceilings, it was all refreshingly informal. In the private quarters, snooker was played, wine flowed, and everyone became well acquainted with one another (turns out Manners’ granny is a killer Bridge player). ‘I just really want everyone to feel like they’re on a magic carpet,’ Manners says of her luxury tour. Being chauffeured by sleek Swedish EV marque Polestar from place to place, experiencing some of the most beautiful homes in the world through the eyes of their custodians, she’s succeeded in doing just that.

Glamis Castle

Manners is keen that a visit to one of these homes can help visitors reconnect with a sense of place and find calm. ‘There’s a mental health pandemic among the younger generations,’ says Manners, ‘and I truly believe that these places give us a bit of respite from the very confusing and busy world that we live in.’ She’s right; at a time when our lives are dominated by screens, we need activities that encourage us to unplug and see the beauty in our surroundings by simply being present. ‘At HeritageXplore, we always talk about the concept of looking up – at that mural, say, from the 17th century – versus looking down at your screen,’ she says. Manners encourages members to lie on the floor (if this gives you anxiety, fret not; the custodians and caretakers have been warned). ‘If you can lie down and look at the ceilings in Boughton House, you’ll have a sense of being grounded, while lying on stones that have been walked on for hundreds of years. There’s something about looking up that is so fundamentally good for the soul,’ she says.

‘We also strive to be an instigator of cashflow for these homes,’ Manners adds, ‘and homes of this scale do need to make a significant amount of money – that’s a big reason why they partner with us.’ She would know, as she’s spent most of her life watching her parents preserve and rehabilitate Belvoir. ‘Financially speaking, when my parents moved into Belvoir, it was like the Titanic slowly heading toward the iceberg, and if my parents hadn’t been so thrifty and clever, we wouldn’t be there today,’ she says with a palpable sense of gratitude. HeritageXplore seeks to be an additional outlet for this next generation of custodians to be thrifty and clever themselves. ‘Ultimately, this is a partnership,’ Manners says, ‘as there are a lot of financial incentives for them in selling these memberships and joining HeritageXplore in general.’ Houses receive 85 percent of ticket sales if they’re purchased via HeritageXplore. Twelve of her investors happen to be next-generation custodians themselves: a strong sign of faith in Manners and her venture.

‘That next generation is the future,’ Manners says, ‘and the stories that exist within these homes have never been shared in a modern medium – nor from the perspective of the new and upcoming custodians of today.’ Every generation of HeritageXplore custodians has done their part to ensure the longevity of the homes they have inherited.

Scone Palace

‘It was my great-grandparents who opened the palace, despite all their friends saying they were bonkers,’ shares Viscount William Stormont, custodian of Scone Palace. ‘Every generation since has done their best to follow suit, and supporting a platform like HeritageXplore is part of my push. We are doing a lot of different things, really trying to break boundaries, and HeritageXplore is part of that puzzle.’

The next generation of heritage tourists are equally part of the consideration. ‘I want this to be a membership for that generation. Heritage properties are such an important part of Britain’s story, a story that can only continue if people still go and visit these incredible places,’ she says. By looking to the future and creating convenient, visible and accessible ways to explore these gems, HeritageXplore helps to make much-needed space for the past in today’s world.

heritagexplore.com