View from upstairs - the daily challenges of the Chief Executive

Summer fun at Blenheim Palace!

2010-07-17T05:38:00.000-07:00

Apologies for the significant pause since I last blogged - no excuses other than time racing by at a frighteningly fast pace.

I last wrote on the morning after the Awards evening when we were celebrating winning the 'Oxfordshire Business of the Year' Award. We have been enjoying this accolade and there is no doubt that it will help our profiling going forward - it raises the bar on everyone's expectations (quite rightly) and hopefully it will draw business to us as we pop into mind and onto radars. Would be good if it helped to draw in new conference and banqueting business as the space we have to offer in the Palace and in the Orangery is absolutely stunning - as good as anything available in the County or even further afield.

A lot has happened since I was last on here - pretty much all positive - the headlines and highlights are below:

My daughter Louisa turned 8, on American Independence Day (highly appropriate for a very independent young lady) and we had a lovely lunch followed by a visit to Giffords Circus with a bunch of her friends. Great entertainment and a fun day.
Our summer Trustees meeting went very well - great to get their positive and enthusiastic support for how we have performed over the previous period/year and to work with them for future opportunities and future strategic ambition going forward. It is so exciting that after 8 years or so at Blenheim Palace that there is so much still on the agenda - in every area of the business.
England slid out of the World Cup with hardly a wimper; Andy Murray fell under the weight of expectation at Wimbledon; and an Australian won the British Grand Prix - we expect so much and so often we fail to deliver. The media should talk down our chances and we should celebrate any surprise victories that then may happen!
The new Destination Management Organisation for tourism delivery across Oxfordshire is up and running - at least in its "shadow format" under the City Council - and I am honoured to have been asked to chair the Shadow Board through this initial phase. It is going to be tough as funding cuts kick-in but there is no doubt that this structure is the right structure going forward - the first year or so will be critical to its long term success and it is vital that everyone across the public and private sector supports its arrival and invests in its success.
Attended Annabelle's sports day and enjoyed watching her and her class mates strive for glory in everything from tug-of-war to 4x100m relay - her class came second in their year and they all had a great day.
Attended Louisa's Barn Dance as she moves on from her pre-prep school - great fun although both Tracy and I wished that we had done some practising beforehand!
Attended the Vision XS annual conference in Oxford - an excellent gathering of industry professionals and a good line up of international/high profile speakers. Blenheim Palace was the case study workshop session in the morning - great fun to have 140 people chew over the business and to discuss the "opportunities" - we came away with some ideas that could work well - watch this space!
We had our "fun" staff golf evening at Kirtlington Golf Club last Thursday - a great evening with a mixture of golfers and (very) non-golfers. The non-golfers so enjoy the short 9 hole course and it is an evening that works very well with some super prizes (including 'best dressed' and 'shortest drive' - both incidentally either won or shared by Cathy) and the Tony White Cup in memory of our late construction manager who instigated this event a few years ago. The Cup was won by Andy Gunn with a score of 30 - not bad given the high winds! My team - "Hoy's Heroes" - came last! The non-golfers in my team played OK; I think it was the golfers in my team that let them down!!!!

Blenheim Palace continues to trade well and the "Buy One Day Get 12 Months Free!" annual pass offer continues to be very popular. June numbers were broadly on target and July has started OK - at least until it rained on St Swithin's Day - don't panic!

We have much to look forward to and hopefully the critical months of July and August will deliver in terms of fine weather and good numbers.

The gathering of Massed Brass + Silver Bands in the Great Court on Sunday 25 July should be an amazing spectacle (and a great sound!); this is followed by three days of jousting and falconry on Friday 6 to Sunday 8 August; which is then followed by the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Club Championship Dog Show on Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 August (you would be barking mad not to come and see that!!) and then August closes with the Annual Classic Car Show on Sunday 29 August and Monday 30 August. Now that's what I call variety - especially when you add everything else that is here to enjoy each day.

Please make sure that Blenheim Palace is on your "to do" list this summer - we look forward to seeing you here and we look forward to giving you a very memorable experience - everyone is awaiting your arrival! And don't forget to get your annual pass!

I am now off for a few days holiday and I will write again when I get back.

Have a great summer.

A very special night!

2010-06-19T01:36:00.000-07:00

Last night we attended the 16th Oxfordshire Business Awards and we took a full table of managers from across all sectors of the business - a few could not attend this year due to holidays/other engagements but we had a good turn out and we were set for a good evening.

We were up for two awards:

>> First up was the Sustainability Award and we were up against The Big Bang Restaurant and Fired Earth. The Big Bang Restaurant won the award (well done Max!) and thus we picked up the Runner-up Award. A huge credit to everyone on site who has driven the sustainability agenda so aggressively over the last year or so - virtually from a standing start.

>> Next up was the Tourism, Hospitality and Leisure Award and we were up against West Oxfordshire District Council and Witney Lakes Resort. We were delighted to win this award and it reflects the success of the "Buy One Day Get 12 Months Free!" scheme through 2009.

All of the award winners are then assessed for the overall "blue ribbon" Oxfordshire Business of the Year Award and we were stunned and delighted that this was awarded to Blenheim Palace!

What a huge credit to the Duke and to everyone who works here; what a huge credit to a hugely talented team of people - well done to them all!

We celebrated with a glass or two of bubbles; we hit the dance floor and the mini-bus finally dropped us all home - tired, proud but massively happy.

Blenheim Palace is a unique and wonderful resource and it is very special to have our business recognised by our peers across Oxfordshire - thank you to the organisers for a wonderful awards evening and well done again to an amazing team at Blenheim Palace.

Where do we go from here?

Roll on June!

2010-05-31T01:36:00.000-07:00

The last day of May and the last day of our three day craft fair - "Art, Design and a Taste of Summer" - a wonderful collection of exhibitors and displays.

May has been a topsy-turvey month with some very good weather/numbers and some very untimely poor weather. We started the month with the May Day Bank Holiday Jousting weekend hugely affected by damp + miserable weather and the Whitsun Bank Holiday weekend at the end of the month has also been weather affected - with Saturday virtually washed out by the rain. Despite an underwhelming start and finsh - the middle has performed OK with some lovely hot weather at times and some strong weekends - not least the glorious Aston Martin Owners Club gathering which sat spectacularly across the front of the Palace.

Hopefully June will enjoy good weather and good numbers - so important that these critical summer months perform at or above expectations as once they are past there is not enough "volume" in the remaining months to pull up any shortfall. The month has a variety of sporting and cultural delights for everyone to enjoy - on the sporting front we have the Triathlon weekend (5 + 6 June) and this is followed by a Junior Sculling Regatta on the Main Lake organised by the Hinksey Sculling School (12 June) - culturally the month is dominated by a series of outdoor theatrical performances by the Oxford School of Drama at the Pleasure Gardens. From 9 to 12 June and then from 14 to 19 June performances of "The Comedy of Errors" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream" will be staged on alternate nights - a great setting for some inspiring outdoor theatre.

June is also annually dominated by preparations for our summer Trustees meeting in early July - this meeting is held on site here at Blenheim Palace which adds to the pressure for all concerned. Papers and Agendas are beginning to be drafted and these include the accounts from the prior year - which mean that Dom's desk is covered by even more paper than usual! We are on track at this early stage and hopefully the month will run smoothly and that the pack of papers will go out to the Trustees on time at the end of the month - always a sigh of relief to get to that stage but not there yet!

On the national/international front, it has been a weekend of mixed fortunes for the Brits. Success in the Grand Prix with Lewis and Jenson storming to the front courtesy of the "fighting bulls seeing red" and the England Football team scraping a dodgy win in Austria thanks to the generosity of the Japanese defence - on this form the England team won't last long in South Africa but I have a hunch that we will actually do quite well - semi's or even the final should be in our grasp! On the failure front, Andy Murray skidded out of the French Open with hardly a whimper and our entry in the Eurovision Song Contest achieved a glorious last place on the night! We almost expect this outcome - but then Pete Waterman was successful several decades ago so why should we expect him to deliver the right formula for success in 2010 - we need a fresh young approach to have any chance of overriding the voting prejudices across Europe. And the jury is out on the England Cricket team - currently struggling to beat the mightly Bangladeshi team at Lords - could be an exciting last day's play.

Enjoy your bank holiday and say goodbye to May - lets hope that June arrives in positive mode and that it delivers on every front!

Enjoy it while it lasts!

2010-05-21T03:39:00.000-07:00

The sunshine, warmer weather and blue skies lifts our spirits and visitor numbers each day reflect this improvement - a good, positive measure is that ice-cream sales are soaring! Fingers crossed that it lasts into the Whitsun weekend so that we can finally enjoy a sunny bank holiday.

The political horizons are trying to settle down with the new coalition still finding it's feet - only time will tell how it performs but I feel positive that the "can do" attitude will prevail and that collectively we will hawl ourselves out of the hole that we were left in by the last government. I am sure though that there will be some collective pain for us all to go through - both personally and from a business perspective - to get there and we will no doubt better understand this once we have seen the Emergency Budget on 22 June. I suspect that we will face some tough times for two or three years and that we may well have to again look carefully at costs, etc across the business. Lets hope that the continued sunshine mitigates the pain!

The working weeks seem busier than ever with a multitude of engagements throughout each day and into many evenings - the new Destination Management Organisation for Oxford and Oxfordshire (to drive a joined-up tourism message) is looking very positive and the "invited" Shadow Board is due to meet for the first time early next month - this will then formulate the work load around the launch of this exciting new venture for the County. It has taken a while to structure this public/private sector partnership but it will be good for the tourism sector once it is up and running - not long now!.

The managers from the various Treasure Houses met yesterday in London for one of our regular meetings and it was sad that two of the managers - Simon Seligman from Chatsworth and Celia Deeley from Woburn Abbey - are both moving on this summer to new challenges and thus this was their last meeting. Both will be hugely missed and both have contributed massively to the Treasure Houses group - we gave them both a good send-off over a yummy lunch! Always interesting to get feedback from the other houses as to how they are faring on the business front - we are all broadly faring similarly on the visitor front other than Harewood who had a storming bank holiday event with Peppa Pig - clearly a very popular little piggy given the crowds that descended on Harewood over two days in early May! Most sites reported strong wedding business and "recovering" conference + banqueting business - we certainly have a steep recovery line to achieve for our conference + banqueting trade which has been hit hard by the economic downturn - but there are signs that the range and extent of our stunning space, both within the Palace and at the Orangery - is drawing business back slowly.

We had a planning meeting for the Triathlon on Thursday - the big weekend draws closer (5 and 6 June) and several of our staff (but not me!) are in the final stages of their tough training regimes - will they all survive and will they improve/achieve their times? I will report the full gory details post event!

This weekend we have a stunning event lined up for Sunday under the sunshine and blue skies - the Aston Martin Owners Club are staging their 75th Anniversary Concours and they are going for the largest gathering ever of Aston Martins in one place. Around 400 cars are expected to be parked up in and adjoining the Great Court in front of Blenheim Palace - what a wonderful spectacle it will produce. HRH Prince Michael of Kent is attending and Carolyn Grace will be bring back her Spitfire for a stunning air display over the Lake at 2.50pm. Definately an event not to be missed and we hope for big crowds to enjoy this spectacle.

Enjoy the weekend; enjoy the sunshine; enjoy the ice-creams and enjoy the Aston Martin event.

Uncertainty!

2010-05-11T07:26:00.000-07:00

Much has evolved since my last blog and as I sit here writing this we are still facing so much uncertainty.

On the political front, the Lib Dem flirting with both parties goes on and we all await news - currently the Conservative/Lib Dem "deal" looks the most likely which will hopefully soon see David Cameron in at No 10 and some stability returning to Westminster. So much needs to be done and the uncertainty needs to be removed as soon as possible.

On the economic front, the situation in Greece has created much turbulence but hopefully the recently announced 750bn euro stabilisation package will have calmed nerves and lessened the contagion risk into other countries - but clearly the ongoing uncertainty in Westminster continues to fuel the worries and doubts and keeps matters unstable until there is an outcome.

On the tourism front, we face a raft of uncertainty caused by the volcanic ash clouds still affecting air travel coupled with the recently announced raft of strikes dates within BA - all very negative and unhelpful to a business that relies upon smooth inbound travel.

On the meteorological front the weather has been bitterly cold and very non-condusive for tourism and visits to places like Blenheim Palace. The Bank Holiday weekend was hugely affected by the cold/wet/dreary weather and it has stayed cold ever since - hopefully it will warm up soon as we need certain dry hot weather to pull in the crowds and to drive business levels.

On the sporting front, there are as always many distractions from Formula 1 to F A Cup to the summer World Cup and much much more - and locally we will be impacted by Oxfordshire descending upon Wembley Stadium next Sunday to watch Oxford United take on York City in the Blue Square Premier play-off for promotion into the Football League. Good luck Oxford!

So much uncertainty - but we must keep working hard to get our key messages out to the market and to continue to showcase Blenheim Palace for everyone to enjoy.

We have a whole raft of wonderful events this summer and we look forward to welcoming everyone - not least to take advantage of our "Buy One Day Get 12 Months Free!" special offer.

Cheer yourself up through all this uncertainty and enjoy a wonderful day out here at Blenheim Palace!

Joust for you; Joust for fun!

2010-04-29T23:30:00.000-07:00

So the second bank holiday has arrived - and true to form the weather has taken a depressing dip after a couple of weeks of blue sky and sunshine. The colder, damper weather is hardly condusive to spending time outside but hopefully the appeal of our Jousting Tournaments and falconry displays will draw big crowds each day.

The Knights of Royal England led by Jeremy Richardson provide fantastic entertainment with two displays each day - both preceded by stunning falconry displays. A great day out for all the family with the Palace as a fantastic backdrop to the activities - hope to see you there!

The last couple of weeks have raced by and we are now less than a week away from the "big" election. The leaders debates have provided great prime time viewing and at least the 3rd one last night was a little more feisty - and a little less stage managed - than the first two on ITV and Sky. Brown seemed to be immensely negative and defensive throughout, not surprising after the events of the previous day in Rochdale, and he does seem to be wounded/damaged beyond repair which leaves Clegg and Cameron fighting for the floating or the switching voter. The fear of Labour securing the most seats with only the 3rd highest share of the popular vote terrifies me and hopefully the fear of this, and the uncertainty that it will create, will push votes towards the Conservatives so that they can secure both the seats they require and a working majority - probably too late to get the three leaders to Blenheim Palace this weekend for the jousting tournament - last man standing wins - sounds like an attractive proposition! Only time will tell but we will know the outcome a week today!

The Duke and Duchess have finally managed to return from a short break in America - they like many others were delayed by the volcanic ash cloud - but they got back in time for the Churchill Memorial Concert at Blenheim Palace last Saturday evening. The numbers attending were slightly down on prior years but it was an excellent evening with the main address being given by General Sir Richard Dannatt GCB CBE MC - very thought provoking and very clearly hugely inspired by the memory of Sir Winston Churchill. An excellent, high quality, event that raises good money for local charities.

On Monday evening we had a launch event to celebrate the publication of Margaret Forster's first book called "Churchill's Grandmama" - Margaret is married to John Forster (the Archivist and former Education Officer at Blenheim Palace) and this interesting book looks at, and celebrates/reveals, the life of Churchill's grandmother, Frances, 7th Duchess of Marlborough. Published by the History Press it is a great book that has been fully embraced and supported by the family - a "must read" for all of those interested in Churchill's life and his roots. Hopefully it will do well for Margaret.

On Wednesday I was in London for a meeting of the Tourism and Commercial Development Committee at the Historic Houses Association and we covered a wide range of topics including the political situation, the olympics and much more. One topic raised related to comments posted on websites and the apparent lack of controls to mitigate what is said about your property - this is a risk in today's open social media world but all we can all try to do is to ensure that everything is run and delivered to the highest possible standard every hour of every day so that we lessen the likelihood that negative comments will be posted. That said, we do know that some people will never be happy and that some people will always find fault and that some people will always just seek to complain - probably to see what they can get out of it - sad, but true. We monitor as many sites as we can and I am pleased that the vast majority of posts about Blenheim Palace are very positive - those that are negatively slanted are often price/value related but we have hugely lessened this area by way of our "Buy One Day - Get 12 Months Free!" Annual Pass offer.

So with an eye on the weather forecast we hope for a busy/successful weekend and with lots of families here to enjoy the bank holiday events - a perfect day out (even if the weather is less than perfect) to have some fun and to be entertained by the Knights.

The Knights of Royal England at Blenheim Palace - joust for you, joust for fun!

The forecast?

2010-04-17T03:34:00.000-07:00

It seems some time since I last had time to post a blog but a lot seems to have happened in that time.

The party leaders have held their first much heralded TV debate and the pundits seem undecided as to whether much has come from it - Clegg (with nothing to lose and everything to gain) appears to have sparked some voter interest but only time will tell as to whether this will translate into votes on 6 May; Brown seemed robotic and fairly underwhelming; and Cameron appears to have done himself no harm but has probably not made the progress that he would have hoped for going into the programme. We missed watching it live as we were out but it seems to have been too much stage managed, pre-prepared and stilted - a bit like the first leg in a football match - and hopefully it will all get more feisty and off-the-cuff as they move into the second and third debates and as the finishing line draws closer. Will be interesting to see if viewer figures (around 9.9 milion) can be maintained - if not for Sky next Thursday then for the BBC debate on 29 April - as I suspect that the buzz around the first one may weaken by the third? It will be interesting to see and no-one can predict or forecast the outcome at this stage.

Work has been busy with lots of activity surrounding the emerging Destination Management Organisation for tourism delivery across the county - this is virtually ready to launch and the real work will now start to get the initial board in place; to get the staffing structure established; and to get pledges for membership turned into reality. Interesting times, positive times.

On Wednesday I took a rare day off and we went over to the West Midlands Safari Park near Kidderminster. We had a great day and the particular highlight was the drive through the safari enclosures - lots of animals, lots of healthy/active animals, and the ability to actually feed some of the animals. Both Annabelle and Louisa were enthralled to see such a wonderful variety of animals in such pleasant surroundings - despite the crowds and the convoy of cars, it was very impressive - most particularly the white lions and giraffes - especially as we virtually drove through the legs of a huge bull giraffe!

We missed the leaders debate on Thursday evening as we were invited to join the Ridge party at the Oxfordshire Community Foundation Gala Film Premiere for "Beyond the Pole" directed by David Williams and starring Stephen Mangan (Green Wing), Helen Baxendale (Cold Feet and Friends), Rhys Thomas (Fast Show) and Alexander Skarsgard (True Blood). It was an excellent film that I would recommend - funny, moving, sad and thought-provoking in a "climate change/global warming sort of way.

Roger File (our Property guru) and I lunched yesterday with our friends from Cornbury and Great Tew - both these near neighbouring estates share many of the same issues that we face here at Blenheim and it is valuable to chat through such issues and to better understand the threats and opportunities that we all face moving forward.

On the football front - the anxieties caused by following "your team" were never more highlighted than by the Spurs performances in the last week or so. Beaten badly by "relegated" Portsmouth at Wembley in the F A Cup Semi-Final last Sunday and then a storming victory over North London rivals Arsenal 3 days later! The high's and low's - next up Chelsea at home and Manchester United away - it doesn't get any easier on the nerves!

The warmer weather, the blue sky and the sunshine (despite the threat of volcanic ash invasion!) lifts our spirits and visitor numbers have been good through the school holiday week - hopefully we will have a strong weekend and that the tone will now be set for a positive few weeks into the summer.

Have a good weekend - enjoy the weather - a good forecast for once!

Re-capturing our mojo!

2010-04-07T02:16:00.000-07:00

Sheryl Cole has apparently re-captured her mojo following her split from Ashley - apparently some dance instructor may have helped this turnaround!

Blenheim Palace needs to re-kindle it's mojo after some mixed results over the 4 day Easter holiday. Overall customers were broadly flat year-on-year but the mix was heavily skewed towards annual pass holders with a worrying year-on-year drop in paying customers. The buzz that existed a year ago around the annual pass product - and the very positive word of mouth recommendation - seems to have faded and we need to take steps to understand what is going on and what we can do about it.

Easter falls early in the season and thus it is an early opportunity to test performance - with plenty of the season ahead of us if action needs to be taken.

We are going to quickly survey those annual pass holders who visited us over the Easter weekend (nearly 7k in total) and find out everything we can about their visit and their feelings; and we are also going to reach out to those annual pass holders from February and March 2009 who have not as yet sought to renew for 2010 - in order to understand their feelings and their motivations with the summer months ahead. Armed with feedback from these quick surveys (hopefully as early as next week) we can then look at some tactical steps to make sure that we pick up the pace through April and into the key summer months.

We are not dispirited - but we are very determined to understand what we can control., what we can influence and what we can drive forward.

We want our mojo back and we will go out to get it!

The Easter Egg hunt was very popular and the egg supply just lasted until around 4.30pm on Easter Monday - excellent planning or just plain lucky! My girls enjoyed searching for the clues and managed to find them all with hardly any help from Daddy - who was secretly armed with the answers in case of a crisis!

Annabelle came back from her Choir Tour to Portugal last Wednesday evening in excellent spirits and clearly enjoyed the trip - very excited though to be home and it was good to see her.

We had a good day out on Sunday and took my mother out to lunch at the Sheene Mill Restaurant in Melbourn - great for her to see the girls and good to see that she is recovering well from her recent operation. Tracy then spent a couple of days with the girls at her parents in Abbots Langley and came back yesterday - I came back on Sunday so that I could do some work on Easter Monday; look after the cat and keep an eye on the builders - such responsibility!

So finally the suspense is over and Thursday 6 May 2010 has been confirmed for the General Election - no doubt the country will go into meltdown for 4 weeks which is never good for tourism but at least the phoney campaigning can now stop and they can get down to some serious stuff - including the Leaders TV debates (on Thursday 15 April at 8.30pm on ITV; on Thursday 22 April at 8pm on Sky; and on Thursday 29 April at 8.30pm on BBC) which should make compelling viewing. Cameron goes into them with everyone expecting him to score heavily (so he has everything to lose) whilst Brown goes into them with everyone expecting him to hit the floor (so anything positive will be hailed as a triumph) whilst Clegg will come across well but will that really influence voters away from the main two parties - fascinating stuff.

And so we will hunt for answers regarding "our mojo" - if you are a current annual pass holder, or even more relevant if you are a lapsed annual pass holder, then let us know what you think as you are vital to our success and vital to the future health and stability of Blenheim Palace.

Watch this space and watch the bounce back!

Sunshine - please!

2010-03-29T06:55:00.000-07:00

Computer at home is poorly so this update has had to be delayed into Monday - hopefully the engineers will soon get us fixed at home - something to do with the mother board (whatever that is!) and/or the power supply - as Tracy is going bananas without access to her emails!

Last week was incredibly busy - highlights included:

>> 8 of the 10 staff team briefings - each of an hour duration with lots of questions and feedback. Hopefully valuable and inspiring for all of those present - only Operations and Blenheim Hospitality to go - phew!

>> Delivered one of the Oxfordshire Economic Partnerhip monthly seminar's at Oxford Brookes on "Marketing and Managing Blenheim Palace" - pathetically small audience (which depressed me hugely) but I hope that those present felt it was worthwhile

>> Attended a managers meeting for the Treasure Houses of England - always valuable to sit around the table with colleagues/managers from the other 9 Treasure Houses - we all learn so much from each other.

>> Attended an Historic Houses Association/English Heritage dinner at the House of Lords - only a very select few present and very honoured to be invited as a guest of the HHA. Lots of interesting ground covered and hopefully relationships between these organisations will be even stronger going forward. Tourism and "our heritage" are rising up the political agenda - finally!

>> Attended an Oxfordshire 2012 Torch Relay committee as we try to understand the opportunities that may exist to get the torch relay into and through the County. Hopefully Blenheim Palace, as a world heritage site, and Iffley Road, as home to the first 4 minute mile, are strong assets in bidding for the torch relay - we shall have to wait and see!

.........and socially the week included:

>> Watching both my girls perform in the Stagecoach production of "Billy Elliott" on Friday evening - one was a ballet dancer and one was a policeman!

>> Watching (finally!) Avatar in 3D - what an amazing film!

>> Attending the Gala Finale Dinner of The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival in the Great Hall at Christ Church College and hearing Lynne Truss give a very entertaining after dinner speech. A wonderful evening - good food, good company and a stunning setting steeped in history.

>> Getting up at 2.30am on Saturday morning to get my daughter Annabelle to her school for 3.15am so that she could leave with her Chamber Choir colleagues to go off to Lisbon, Portugal for a short choir tour. Amazingly uncivilised time to depart - but Annabelle went off with a huge excited smile on her face and we look forward to welcoming her back home on Wednesday evening - no doubt tired but hopefully in one piece!

And so we are counting down to Easter and hopefully the weather will be kind to us as it is such a vital 4 day period that can set the tone for the whole year.

The forecast does not give rise to much optimism with talk of snow, etc but hopefully it will be dry and good fortune (and some sunshine) will favour us as everyone descends upon us to hunt for easter eggs at the Pleasure Gardens.

The "Hare-Brained Hunt" here at Blenheim Palace should be fun for all the family - come and join us!

Have a restful week and an enjoyable easter!

Baaathing sheep and straining dogs!

2010-03-22T07:51:00.001-07:00

Apologies for being late with this but the weekend raced by and Monday arrived before I had time to hit the keyboard! Part of the explanation may also lie behind the fact that we were out at a party on Friday night (yes I can still party even at my age!) and out for dinner on Saturday night (to The Crazy Bear in Stadhampton for a delicious thai meal with old friends from Hertfordshire) and driving children around to parties and sleepovers for any spare time in-between!

Highlights from last week included the CLA Oxfordshire Branch 'Question Time' event at Millets Farm near Witney which I was asked to chair! I think the event was a success and it was interesting to co-ordinate the questions and answers (some planted!) amongst the panel which included the CLA President plus four prospective parliamentary candidates from Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Green parties - and to make sure that everyone had a equal slice of the action! Feedback has been positive (but I don't think David Dimbleby need lose any sleep!) and hopefully those who attended went home happy - they certainly went home well fed and watered after a delicious spread was provided for everyone by the team at Millets Farm. As to whether it will influence voting tendancies in Wantage or nationally only time will tell - frightening to think that the election in all probability is a little over 6 weeks away!

Fresh from Question Time success, it was into London on Wednesday to visit the first day of the "Best of Britain and Ireland Travel Trade Forum" at Olympia where we were sharing a stand with colleagues from Bicester Village and Bicester Hotel, Golf and Spa - this show was previously the British Travel Trade Fair ("BTTF") held at the NEC in Birmingham and this was the second year of the re-born/re-branded event. It was far too quiet and I was grateful for the fact that we were sharing our stand with two other partners as this helped to spread the cost (but hopefully not to dilute the message) and I do think we will need to analyse the event costs and the event returns carefully to support such decisions for the future. As I have said before, I think people are working differently and using other channels to source and secure business - the days of such events could be numbered unless we and others can see good leads, capture good enquiries and real firm business arising from our time and effort to be there. Interesting to chat to colleagues and to see what others think as there is a risk of a "me to" attitude being taken to attend rather than a decision based on sound business logic.

All of this was wrapped around British Tourism Week ("BTW") which seemed to come and go with very little fuss - not sure whether anyone would have really noticed it was BTW but hopefully messages reached the appropriate corridors of power (e.g, Westminster) and hopefully awareness surrounding tourism and it's importance will have been rammed home where it matters!

The week ahead is dominated by Staff Briefings - this round is on a team-by-team basis so Roger File (our Property guru) and I will attend 10 presentations to update all staff on how we have performed and our targets going forward - a very useful opportunity to get out and talk to everyone face to face, to answer any questions and concerns, and to hopefully inspire everyone on the opportunities that lie ahead.

The weeks always start with an Operations meeting on a Monday morning which is attended by all customer facing teams - highlights this morning included the figures for the weekend which were "just about OK" given the horrible weather on Saturday but also anything "out of the ordinary" is raised. The report from Sunday included the following incidents (i) One of our sheep diving into the Lake and needing to be rescued!; (ii) A dead rabbit in the Secret Garden that needed to be quickly and discretely removed and (iii) some hot tea being poured onto a dog - which was fine after some first aid and some TLC.

Another entertaining day at Blenheim Palace!

The staff briefings finish with a line which says "......and above all ENJOY working in this remarkable place!" We are very fortunate to have an excellent team across all areas and I believe we are very fortunate to work here - Blenheim Palace, with all it challenges and excentricities, gets inside you and no two days are ever the same!

Through all the high's and the occasional low's we are helping to keep this priceless world heritage site standing and vibrant for future generations to enjoy - not a bad task even on a wet day or on a day when sheep are trying to drown themselves and dogs are trying to bathe in hot tea!

Onwards and upwards!

Creating our destiny!

2010-03-14T10:34:00.000-07:00

What glorious weather and what a perfect springlike Mother's Day - Blenheim Palace was busy with families celebrating together and both lunches and teas were heavily subscribed - but numbers were slighlty down year-on-year which was disappointing.

We lunched with Tracy's parents over at The Butchers Arms in Priors Hardwick and had a delicious meal (they were incredibly busy - thank goodness we were in the first wave/sitting as I am sure the staff would have been suffering by the time the 2nd and even 3rd wave of guests arrived!) but our thoughts were also over in Royston with my mother who had to pop back to hospital with some post-op problems - thankfully merely a small infection and so she is back home both resting and continuing her recovery. She had lunch with my sister Tricia so hopefully will have still had a happy day despite her obvious worries.

Last week was busy at work but also productive. We had Jac Windsor back with us doing another burst of strategy work around the visitor business - important to set out our future path and to try to control some of our future destiny. Jac lead the previous work 5 years ago whilst with Eden McCallum but now had joined PricewaterhouseCoopers - who the Estate have used for many years for accounting + audit services - a small world but great to connect again with Jac. This first early burst of strategy work - phase one - has already achieved a great deal in only a few days and hopefully the final outcome will be a valuable template for the next 5 years or so. A very interesting time to dwell on the success of the Annual Pass scheme; to review visitor segmentation and how to look after the "Friends" scheme; and what targets to set for the business alongside what agreed development agenda. Exciting stuff!

Thursday saw me over at Burghley House in Lincolnshire for an HHA Seminar looking at house opening and connecting with the public. I chose to travel to Burghley House via Royston so that I could call in and see my mother on the way and I got there in time for the lunch break - this worked as I was speaking at 3pm to the audience of about 100 HHA owners and members. It was a very successful event which I think was valuable for everyone present and should help everyone to better control their future destiny - my talk appears to have been well received and it was nice to be the last main speaker of the event - a good chance to wrap up much of what is needed to "Build a Fruitful Relationship with the Visitor" - which incidentally was the title of my talk! I love the opportunity to give talks and presentations - with the one caveat that I am comfortable with the subject matter - and it is always flattering to get positive feedback from the organisers and from those in the audience.

Incidentally - the "caveat" reference above is being tested next week as I have agreed to chair a CLA Question Time session over at Millets Farm near Witney with the CLA President, Ed Vaizey (MP for Wantage) and the prospective parliamentary candidates for the Wantage seat from the Labour, Liberal Democrats and Green parties. Should be an interesting couple of hours - I will report next week assuming I survive the ordeal.

Next week is British Tourism Week - a very important few days to showcase this important industry and to continue the drive to get the Government (and indeed all parties) to better value all strands of tourism activity - and to mould/adjust taxes, etc to boost and support tourism rather than to put barriers in the way at every turn! Hopefully the message will finally get through as we try to shape the future and our destiny.

Must go outside and see if the new moon is visible on this beautiful clear evening - my late father always wanted to avoid seeing the new moon through glass as this brought bad luck for a month!

Superstitious - yes of course I am - and we all need all the help we can get in helping to create and shape our destiny!

Have a great week and be lucky - be very lucky!

Springtime at Blenheim Palace

2010-03-07T09:14:00.000-08:00

What a glorious week - lots of blue sky; a springlike feel in the air; and many more visitors each day into Blenheim Palace. It is frustrating that the weather is such a strong factor in our trading success or failure - but we certainly walk with a spring in our step when the weather works in our favour which has been the case since March arrived.

The week has gone well - my mother came through her operation on Tuesday in good spirits and has today gone home to carry on her rest and recuperation. I went over to see her at the Nuffield Hospital in Cambridge on Wednesday and she looked remarkably well given that her 3 hour operation was only 24 hours earlier. She will need to take it steady for the next couple of weeks - not an easy task as she hates being idle and hates being dependent on others. Together with my sisters we will do our best to make sure she does as she is told - for once!

On Thursday, I attended the latest Oxford Inspires Cultural Platform at the Said Business School in Oxford. The event was very well attended - not surprising really - as the guest speaker was the author Philip Pullman. He spoke passionately and eloquently about the breakdown in some of our core values - citing school lunches as an example as to how children now eat from a self-service cafeteria (or even take their own packed lunch) whereas in the past they sat at tables with elders or teachers to supervise conversation, manners, etc. A small example but I do share Philip Pullman's concern at the loss of pride in our core values - wherever I go I see graffiti and litter, I hear swearing, I witness bad manners and I see broken signs, traffic cones lying around and general neglect. So much more needs to be done to better showcase ourselves - especially with 2012 looming - and we should all take greater pride in presenting any areas that we can control or influence in a better condition - but ultimately the uplift in core values needs to be driven from a generational perspective - good manners (especially good table manners), respect and good behaviour begins at home and if we can inspire our children to aspire to improve then I believe society's core values will be uplifted.

Incidentally, there is an opportunity that Oxford Inspires and the emerging Destination Management Organisation ("DMO") for Oxford and Oxfordhire could end up co-joined as one organisation to deliver the cultural and tourism programme across most of the county. A great prize and a great opportunity - watch this space!

Tuesday sees the Churchill family descending on Bladon and Blenheim Palace for the private funeral of Winston Churchill - Tory MP, journalist and grandson of Britain's wartime leader - who died on 2 March 2010 aged 69 after a long battle with cancer. It must have been difficult for Winston to carry the name of his famous grandfather but he made his own mark through a varied life and he accomplished a great deal. Tuesday will of course be a sad day for the family.

Today we have welcomed the Tombling family from North London to Blenheim Palace - they will forever be known as our "100,000th annual pass holders" and we gave them a special day with our compliments to mark this milestone - hopefully they will spread the word and tell everyone about our "Buy One Day Get 12 Months Free!" amazing ticket deal for 2010!

Enjoy the rest of the weekend and hopefully the fine weather will last into the week ahead and through to Mothers Day next Sunday.

If you are still looking at ideas for "Mum" then bring her to Blenheim Palace for the day and enjoy springtime at this wonderful world heritage site.

Goodbye February; Goodbye Rain?

2010-02-28T11:07:00.000-08:00

What a horrible wet, windy and miserable weekend to finish February - visitor numbers have suffered as have spends in our shops and cafes - but it is no surprise that numbers are low in such weather and given the extensive live sport on TV to keep people at home - assuming of course you like a diet of rugby, football and winter olympics!

Roll on March and hopefully better weather as our start over the first two weeks has been decidedly average - as they say, things can only get better!

Last week raced along with a few interesting occasions including a visit on Tuesday to Confex at Earls Court. This event for years has represented the main show in the UK for the Conference and Events business and I have attended in some guise or other for more years than I can remember. This year we were merely represented on the Sodexo Prestige stand (as they carry out all of our catering at Blenheim Palace) and the show on the Tuesday/the first day was worrying quiet. The aisles were too empty and a number of regular exhibitors were not present this year - the doom merchants would cite the economy as the primary reason and I have no doubt that this was a huge factor - but I also think that people are generally working in different/smarter ways to engage with clients and to secure business. Familiarisation visits; one-to-one meetings and the power of the website (and other more modern media streams) are replacing the traditional slog (and expense) of standing at trade shows for days on end. We enjoyed a reasonably good Confex over the three days but it has in the past been much stronger - does this signify a turning point in how we do business? It will be interesting to watch and see.

Wednesday saw Roger File (our Property guru) and I joining the Carter Jonas conference at Blenheim Palace where we talked to them before lunch before hosting them on a tour around the Estate after lunch - Roger and I hosted a coach each as we visited the Bottling Plant and various development sites in varying stages of completion. All went well - well, all finally all went well! The coach route took us out of Combe Gate on the western side of the Park - a gate which normally works on the button press of a remote control - simple! - but on Wednesday the mechanism was faulty and the gate was locked with a huge chain and padlock. No problem, Roger gave me the four digit code - with various complicated instructions about what to squeeze and when! - and I got out of the coach to quickly open the gate at around 2.09pm - or so I thought. Unbeknown to me, the gate code had been changed at 2.00pm and a message had been left on my phone which was on silent in my pocket! I radioed Roger - with a slightly desperate tone in my voice - to find out that the code had changed. Roger supplied new code; Graham, one of our excellent managers, arrived on cue to open the gate and we carried on with our tour. The 50 on my coach thought it was very funny to see the CEO temporarily locked in; the 50 on Roger's coach were highly amused to hear the slight strain in my voice over the radio; and generally it was an entertaining moment for everyone on our radio system. Ho ho ho - we did laugh!!

On Thursday morning it was into Oxford early to attend the County Council/City Council Business Breakfast - a good gathering and a very valuable opportunity to network with colleagues in the public and private sectors. Especially important as the emerging Destination Management Organisation ("DMO") for Oxfordshire moves closer - exciting/interesting times. We are going to host the next Business Breakfast at Blenheim Palace in June - frightening to think that this will be AFTER the General Election which is now only a few weeks away. Poll predictions are swinging fast and furiously - it should be an interesting campaign.

The week ahead looks busy both at home and at work. The builders arrive to start work on the long awaited kitchen project (so we need to prepare ourselves for many weeks of chaos!); various meetings should move the DMO forward and most worryingly my mother goes into hospital for a fairly major operation on Tuesday. She is a remarkably tough 85 year old and I am sure she will be fine - but it will be a relief to know she is through the operation on Tuesday and I will go over to Cambridge on Wednesday to see her. Luckily my sisters both live very close to my mother so they are able to be more "on-site" if needed.

Roll on March; roll on some sunshine and lets hope the week ahead goes well - especially for my mother.

High's and low's

2010-02-20T01:56:00.000-08:00

What a frustrating week - such a variety of high's and low's amidst generally depressing weather!

The high's included enjoying "Les Mis" in London on Wednesday with Tracy and the girls (such a powerful and emotional musical) and a number of very positive meetings for future events at Blenheim Palace - including the first Orvis Fly-Fishing Fair to be staged on Sunday 11 April 2010. There was also a very positive meeting to look at the future restoration of the Willis Organ in the Long Library at Blenheim Palace and some fund-raising efforts to be launched over the coming months.

The low's, apart from the weather, were particularly centered on Thursday - when it also managed to rain virtually all day. They say things come in three's - well that was certainly true on this particular day.

Incident one was two of our retail staff crashing one of the staff cars into a tree into the Park and writing it off - the car that is! Thank goodness both members of staff survived virtually unscathed, as did the tree, but the car is a mess. Still not entirely sure what caused such an outcome as no other vehicles appear to have been involved - but not a good start to the day.

Roll forward to lunchtime and incident two. I was concluding a lunchtime meeting with Kelvin Thomas (the Chairman of Oxford United Football Club who are closing in on promotion from the Conference) when Grace from the office ran into the dining room at The Bear Hotel (where we were lunching) to announce that there was a fire at the Palace and the fire service were on site! I can move fast when I need to and so I departed quickly from the Bear (promising the staff that I would return later to pay - which I did!) and I raced over to the Palace to catch up with the incident. About 10 appliances were in the Courtyard and the full evacuation procedure had run smoothly - within minutes of my arrival (no connection) it was determined that there was no fire and that the incident was indeed merely a false alarm - caused by burnt toast in one of the flats on the west side of the building. The all-clear was given and staff/visitors were allowed back into the building - panic over! Much will always be learnt from such rare incidents - access to keys, the whereabouts of residents in the staff flats, etc are all ways that we can improve - but fundamentally the evacuation procedures where handled superbly by all of the staff on site and the response from the fire service was first class.

Having returned to The Bear Hotel to settle my lunch bill, the day was finally topped off around 5pm when incident three was reported from our retail team. They feared that some French school children had stolen some books from The Churchill Shop next to the Palace and our review of the CCTV footage proved that their fears were correct. We will trace the group, we will sent them the footage and we will hope to get a sensible response from them with regard to the behaviour of a few members of their party - but a depressing end to a long day and not the first time that we have had problems with groups of French school children!

Friday seemed to pass off very smoothly after the challenges of the previous day and some blue sky and sunshine was even spotted - let's hope the weather maintains a more spring like air for the weekend so that we can get a final positive half-term surge before the children go back to school on Monday.

The high's and low's of life do excite and challenge us every day - but it is true that Blenheim Palace creates so much diversity and opportunity because there is so much going on each day around the Palace and around the estate.

It certainly is a wonderful place to work and it is a wonderful place to visit - we hope to see you soon and at least we got everything out of the way last Thursday!

Have a good weekend.

Up and running!

2010-02-14T02:51:00.000-08:00

And so we are now open and visitors are returning to see the Palace and to see the stunning photographic exhibition (depicting the winning gardens from the Historic Houses Association/Christie's Garden of the Year Award from the last 25 years) in the Long Library - always good to get re-open and to see everyone slightly relax and go back into the normal mode of daily business.

Visitors yesterday seemed in good spirits (although it was very very cold!) and hopefully the warm glow from Valentine's Day will produce another good crowd today.

Despite it's size and scale and despite it's battle victory connections - Blenheim Palace exudes a romantic air - perhaps best typified by Sir Winston proposing to Clementine Hozier here in the Temple of Diana. The Saloon table is laid for a romantic dinner for two and hopefully many visitors will enjoy either lunch in The Orangery or a Champagne Tea in the Water Terraces - both memorable ways to connect with Blenheim Palace.

Today is an interesting day as it is the first day when annual passes from 2009 could be out of date - we launched the "Buy One Day - Get 12 Months Free!" offer on 14 February 2009 and our desire into 2010 is to get as many of the 98,000 annual pass holders to come back and re-join as well as continuing to spread the word and to find new members to experience and enjoy everything that Blenheim Palace has to offer. We still believe that it is a powerful offer - especially for those who live within an hour of Blenheim Palace - and hopefully this offer (and it's focused promotion through press, radio - and even maybe regional television) will drive good results for us this year.

The plans for the season are exciting and we have a full calendar of events - hopefully something for everyone and for every taste - and we are looking forward to lots of sunshine - yes, I am an optimist!

Most children are now on half-term and thus work pressures need to be balanced with entertaining the family at home - Tracy has a busy week with the girls - various trips out and sleepovers/play dates, etc - and on Wednesday we are taking them to see "Les Miserables" - one of the best ever London shows and one which we hope they will enjoy. Annabelle sang "Castle in the Cloud" on a couple of occasions at school last term and thus seeing it sung as part of this musical on the London stage should be especially powerful for her.

Enjoy half-term and don't foget to enjoy Blenheim Palace - now "up and running" for the 2010 season!

One week to go!

2010-02-06T01:41:00.000-08:00

Life at "the Palace" is a hive of activity as the countdown to the 2010 season reaches it's last week.

High level/low level cleaning is reaching a crescendo (not sure if cleaning can reach a crescendo but it feels as though it is?!) and everything is being cleaned, polished and painted ready for the doors to open next Saturday. There is always excitement around opening and there is always a keen anticipation for the months ahead - we have the same excellent core team in place and we go into year two of the annual pass scheme.

A year ago we were treading unknown ground with the annual pass scheme as it was a totally new initiative & product for us to trial; this year we open with 98,ooo annual pass holders out there and the uncertainty this year surrounds how the scheme will perform in year two. We are maintaining the scheme pretty much unchanged - a very clean and simple message - "Buy One Day - Get 12 Months Free!" - and we hope it will be popular again with high levels of renewals and high levels of new subscribers driven by positive word of mouth.

We have produced an excellent annual pass holders booklet which summarises a whole raft of initiatives, discounts and offers across the year - there really is a wonderful array of ways for an annual pass holder to connect with us and to derive excellent value from the relationship.

We hope year two will exceed our expectations - watch this space!

We are also looking to refresh and re-launch our "Friends" scheme and to run this through our charity - the Blenheim Palace Foundation - which will be very tax efficient through the gift aid scheme and which will allow us to demonstrate a direct linkage between our Friends support and the extensive repair and restoration agenda that lies ahead. Friends will have a dedicated hospitality space on site as well as a special programme of evening lectures and talks - we hope this 'product' will appeal and that "Friends" numbers will grow over the coming months.

We open with a 6 week exhibition in the Long Library showing an amazing collection of photographs depicting the winning Gardens from the last 25 years of the Historic Houses Association + Christie's Garden of the Year Award. Around 80 framed photographs, commissioned from a number of the country's leading photographers, will grace the Long Library and will look stunning - a "must see" once we get open next weekend.

At home, the girls are working hard at school and making us very proud with their achievements whilst Tracy is hard at work planning our forthcoming project to refresh/enlarge our kitchen. Only 7 years in the planning and now finally about to become reality - will be glad to get it underway and to get it completed - and to maintain our sanity throughout!

The weather yesterday felt positively spring-like (but the forecast talks of more snow and ice - aaaarrrrgggghhhh!!!!) and we hope to launch next Saturday with a positive start which then carries us through with positive momentum for the whole season.

Come back and see us very soon; use and renew your annual passes; explore and connect with the updated Friends scheme and make full use of everything on offer this year at Blenheim Palace.

We need your support and we value the contribution that you make to the long term restoration of this priceless world heritage site.

Busy times!

2010-01-23T00:32:00.000-08:00

Too long has passed since I last was able to blog - apologies for that but it has been a busy two or three weeks.

Our week in Lech, Austria was just perfect - all four of us had a great week's skiing and all four of us returned unscathed - well, apart from a bruise the size of Africa on Tracy's leg from a mightly crash into one of her ski school colleagues! Both girls were brilliant in adapting to their full week of ski school and they exceeded expectations in the end of week ski school races with Annabelle winning Gold and Louisa winning Silver - they were so chuffed!

We returned to a snowy Britain - in fact much more snow fell here than in Austria that week - and we have been hard at work in preparing everything for opening on Saturday 13 February 2010 and in preparing generally for the season ahead.

The calendar of events for the year ahead is virtually complete but we still hope that a larger corporate booking or two, plus some potential film location business, may be achievable.

Work surrounding the emerging new organisation for Oxfordshire to drive forward tourism is progressing well and the next couple of months will be critical to determine whether this baby will be born and as to whether it will thrive - hopefully the private sector will engage with enthusiasm!

The last week has been dominated by my birthday and by the ongoing work to get the papers ready for our next Trustees meeting in early February. Turning 53 does not really seem much cause for celebration but, as always, Tracy and the girls have spolit me with lots of presents and we are off to London this weekend with the girls to see "Billy Elliot" and to do some other fun things.

And finally, yesterday saw closure on the prosecution of one our former employees for fraud. This has been one of the most depressing things that I/we have had to deal with - the fact that she is now behind bars for an 18 month jail sentence is some comfort but it has been distressing at so many different levels. The support and work from Thames Valley Police has been fantastic; the resolve and grit demonstrated by all of our employees has been impressive; and the determination to get justice and to recover a substantial amount of the money stolen has been appropriate given the huge breach of trust. This has hurt us all but we have a fantastic, loyal and dedicated workforce on the Estate and in a strange way it has actually made us all stronger and even more united us in our resolve to drive the business forward to new heights in 2010. This chapter is closed and we move on.

2010 is going to be an interesting year at many different levels - world cup; general election; new DMO for Oxfordshire; year 2 of our Annual Pass scheme; and so much more.

Please engage with Blenheim Palace in 2010 - we need your support and we value your input.

Have a great weekend.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T04:16:00.000-08:00

Christmas has flown by in a blur and 2010 has already arrived - best wishes to everyone for a very happy and prosperous new year.

We have had to do an early christmas clearance at home as we head off to Austria tomorrow for a week on the ski slopes - everyone very excited but tinged with sadness to see cards coming down and a sorry looking christmas tree stripped bare of its sparkling lights and decorations and already banished to the rubbish heap at the end of the garden.

Hopefully we will survive our week in one piece and we will post again when the real work for the year ahead starts from 11 January onwards.

Much was achieved in 2009 despite the gloomy predictions a year ago; lets hope that we will all fare well in 2010 and lets hope that we all enjoy much happiness and success.

Cheers one and all - be happy, have fun and be safe!

Not many "sleeps" to Christmas!

2009-12-18T06:16:00.000-08:00

This time of the year adopts a rather unreal feel as the "big day" looms closer and less work seems to be done each day!

The excitement is building in the Hoy household and my girls break up from school today - not a moment too soon as they are both pooped after a long and busy term.

This week alone has seen the following highlights:

>> Monday - Seasonal Staff Christmas Lunch in the Orangery. An excellent and well-earned opportunity to say a very big thank-you to the army of part-time staff who work within Operations and Retail. Every one of them makes a full contrinution towards delivering a wonderful experience to every visitor - their knowledge, their passion and their loyalty towards Blenheim Palace is first class. We again thank them for all their hard work through a busy year.

>> Tuesday - sneaked off to London to do some shopping - but don't tell the wife in case she gets too excited!

>> Wednesday - a busy day in the office - "Secret Santa" visited and delivered a much needed new pair of skiing socks (will be put to good use in the New Year) followed by a lunch out in Woodstock with the Marketing Team to say thankyou for all their hard work this year. The evening saw us heading in to London to see Annabelle sing with the Dragon School Choir in the Nordoff Robbins Christmas Concert in St Luke's Church, Chelsea. A fantastic event - with stars such as Alexandra Burke, Bill Nighy, and many others performing - but the real stars were the Dragon School - of course! Annabelle was very pleased to get Alexandra Burke's autograph and is very chuffed to have sung on the same stage as an X-Factor Winner!

>> Thursday - a day of mixed emotions - started in the dentist's chair, continued with the Christmas Managers Lunch (at which the Hoy Christmas Quiz was "enjoyed" by all - well by most anyway!!); carried on with the Middle School Christmas Concert at the Dragon (with Annabelle both singing and playing!) and ended exhausted on the sofa watching "Gavin and Stacey"

>> Friday - and into Friday when the girls break up from school. Both are on sleepovers tonight (but Annabelle has another Chamber Choir Concert at St Andrews Church in Oxford beforehand) ahead of the Dragon Sale back at school tomorrow. This event raises a staggering £100k or so for charity in 4 hours - amazing generosity - but Tracy will be glad to get it behind her as she is involved in running the sale for the first time this year. We are both off to a lovely party near Cheltenham this evening (weather permitting) so she can forget about the sale for a few hours!

After Saturday, Tracy and the girls can rest up until the "big day" and the "sleeps" countdown gets very exciting!

The year has flown by but I hope that everyone reading this has a well deserved break over christmas and that the christmas and new year time is both happy and rewarding for all.

Enjoy everything and re-charge batteries ahead of the new year challenges.

Many thanks for all the support that we have enjoyed from so many sources this year - not least the 97,000+ annual pass holders who have connected so positively with Blenheim Palace in 2009 - hopefully your new year resolution will be to connect again in 2010.

Take care and have fun!

Last weekend - the 2009 Awards!

2009-12-12T00:43:00.000-08:00

As we enter the last weekend of the Palace season, it is appropriate to look back on a busy year and to reflect upon the highlights - and challenges - through the year.

A summary of the 2009 Awards follows:

The Newcomer of the Year Award
Awarded to the amazing Annual Pass Scheme that has blown us all away during 2009. We are currently at around 95,000 members since this was launched back in February - a fantastic achievement and a very positive relaunch of our local profile - we hope everyone will re-connect with us and with an Annual Pass in 2010.

The "bounce-back" Award
Goes this year to the International Horse Trials held in September which "bounced back" from a washed-out event in 2008 - 4 days of fine weather delivered a very successful horse trials from everyone's point of view.

The "Little and Large" Location Award
Goes to 2oth Century Fox and their filming of Gulliver's Travels here at Blenheim Palace. Jack Black will star as Gulliver when this film launches Christmas 2010 but the real star will be Blenheim Palace - we enjoyed having them with us and we will enjoy being portayed as the Lilliputian Palace - home to Billy Connolly (King) and Catherine Tate (Queen)

The Umbrella Award
Is shared between a very wet Triathlon in June and the whole month of November - which was apparently over 200% up on the 27 year average for rainfall! The Triathlon was a phenomenal success despite the weather - but we hope for slightly better weather in 2010.

The "Wish you were here" Award
Goes to the "Festival for Heroes" event which tried to stage a concert in June to raise monies for the Royal British Legion but which failed to sell enough tickets and which ended up being cancelled - a great shame as it would have been a great day and it would have helped a very worthwhile cause. Maybe they will try again?

The "don't mention The Caravan Club" Award
Goes to The Camping and Caravanning Club who held their annual "Feast of Lanterns" rally at Blenheim Palace in August - a very well organised event and a great pleasure for us to host them this year.

The "could have done better" Award
Goes to Lancelot "Capability" Brown for not building the crest of the Blenheim Dam slightly higher (in the 1760's) so as to ensure compliance with the Reservoirs Act 1975! But he does get many commendations for the excellence of everything else he achieved!

The Environment Agency Award
Goes to all internal and external staff who worked on the restoration work surrounding the Blenheim Dam - a well organised and a well delivered project that has secured the future stability of the Dam for many future decades. Well done to Roger File, Chris Keeler and everyone at Bentleys.

The "cool dude" Award
Goes to Sean - the Bentley's Site Manager on the Dam Project - totally unflappable - and now on his annual sojourn in the Caribbean

The Bravery Awards
Tony White's wife and family, Paul Duffie, Veronica Thorneloe, the Frost Family - our thoughts and prayers are with them all as they remember loved ones at Christmas

The PR Award
Goes to David Cameron - our local MP - for quickly involving the Chinese Ambassador in a tree planting ceremony here at Blenheim last month and quickly naming the tree as the "Chinese Friendship Tree" - inspired thinking and we look forward to many visiting groups for China to see the tree as it grows!

The list could go on - but it has been a very memorable year where much has been achieved. We started the year not quite knowing what would happen but a combination of the "staycation" factor alongside the strength of the annual pass offer has delivered some fantastic results.

This has stretched our resources at times and it has certainty stretched our staff resources (and their patience!) through a long season - a huge thankyou to all of our staff for their huge input in delivering such high levels of customer service excellence throughout the year.

And so the Palace closes on Sunday evening and we then have two months to deep clean every nook and cranny - to both pass and satisfy any Ducal inspection - before we open again on Saturday 13 February 2010!

And so the cycle continues ...........

Great man!

2009-12-03T00:23:00.000-08:00

Since my last post, the anniversary has been and gone surrounding the birth of Sir Winston Churchill.

On 30 November 1874, 135 years ago, Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill arrived into the world here at Blenheim Palace - Blenheim's most famous son actually arrived several weeks early as his parents, Randolph and Jennie Spencer-Churchill, were weekending here at Blenheim - a very happy "accident" from our point of view and one that we 'celebrate' as actively as we can.

Much has been written about Sir Winston and he was of course voted as "our Greatest Briton of all time" in a poll conducted a few years ago. He was also the first man to be made an honorary citizen of the United States - by an Act of Congress on 9 April 1963 just two years or so before his death in January 1965.

His curls are on display in the Palace alongside other exhibits surrounding his very close ties with the Palace and with the family but it is on the wider international stage that his fame will stand forever.

He entered parliament at the age of 26 in 1900 having already distinguished himself as a soldier in several wars - he proceeded to hold a number of important ministerial posts over the next 55 years.

When World War II came to Britain in 1939, his authority and his oratory held great sway and his time as Prime Minister (1940-45) helped to turn the tide - who will ever forget his "We shall never surrender" speech on 4 June 1940 following the evacuation of trapped Allied Forces from the beaches at Dunkirk.

Sir Winston achieved so much and he possessed a sharp wit; he achieved a world reputation not only as a gifted strategist and inspiring war leader but also as a great orator, a talented painter and a stylish writed with a profound sense of history.

History will forever record his importance on the world stage and his influence today is as powerful as ever - his connection with Blenheim Palace (he was born here; he proposed to Clementine here; and he is buried nearby in Bladon) still acts as a powerful magnate to so many.

We receive many visitors from North America, and increasingly from the Far East/China, all hungry to explore the Churchill connection and we hugely value every visit and we strive to make every visit as memorable as we can. Indeed a recent delegation from China suggested that we should drop any reference to Blenheim Palace and merely promote Winston Churchill!

The Churchill influence also manifests itself in other powerful ways.

I met this week with a serving RAF Officer who wants special permission to propose to his girlfriend in the Temple of Diana in the Formal Gardens to the south of the Palace on one of our remaining open days before christmas - this is where Sir Winston proposed to Clementine on 11 August 1908. I need to be careful not to spoil their surprise by revealing too much, but both of them are serving officers in todays armed forces and they are both still hugely influenced and inspired by Sir Winston Churchill and his heroic deeds - wartime deeds that is not just the 'getting engaged bit!'.

We will make a very special exception for these special people - we feel it is our duty to do so - partly in memory of Sir Winston but also in recognition of the many challenges faced today by our armed forces around the world - and particularly in Afghanistan.

We will make it a very special moment for them and one that they will remember forever - I am sure that Sir Winston and 'Clemmie' would approve - and of course I hope his 'intended' says yes!

What a special time of the year as we remember a Great Man.

The Annual Cycle

2009-11-27T00:05:00.000-08:00

As we head out of November and into the final month of the year, it is frightening to think how fast 2009 has raced by - just where has the year gone? - and that 2010 is virtually with us.

We are heavily into setting our budgets for April 2010 to March 2011 and we are hard at work sorting out our leaflets and our marketing materials to support the 2010 season - but before that we have a few weeks left before we close followed by a very hectic two month period when the Palace is closed (mid-December 2009 to mid-February 2010) and this heralds the annual deep clean when we try to reach every part - however high, low or hidden - and leave it sparklingly dusted, polished and gleaming ready for the new season.

2009 will always be remembered for the sensational success of the annual pass scheme; for the significant surge in visitor numbers (an extra 200k in the year!); for a number of iconic and memorable events and for the extensive location filming for 'Gullivers Travels'.

Looking into 2010 we start again from zero visitors and we must now be looking for a minimum of 500k visitors to maintain momentum from the current year and to maintain performance - sounds daunting but I have no reason to believe that the annual pass scheme will be any less successful in year two and thus this must represent a realistic and achievable target.

Next year will for certain see a General Election and a Football World Cup - who will win in each case and how will these "events" impact upon the country's mood and desire to enjoy their leisure time? General Election's can distract the country and World Cup's can either absorb our total attention (at the exclusion of all else) or it can put us into a deep depression! We shall see what evolves and I shall resist trying to predict outcomes or winners + losers!

What will the weather be like in 2010; what will happen to the strength of the pound, where will bank interest rates track during the year; and how will the recovery from the economic downturn pan out into the coming year - all factors that we cannot control but all factors that may (or could) (or will) have a significant influence on the performance of our visitor business through the coming year.

All of our managers are knee deep in budgetting - they love it really! - with excellent support and encouragement from Dominic and his team - and it will be tough to keep the focus on cost containment/control after such a positive year of trading whilst also driving repeat/new income streams for the business.

It will be interesting to see the first cut of the budget figures next week and to get an early insight into how things are looking - our progress over the last seven years has been exceptional but we cannot rest on our laurels and we must continue to push for 'growth with stability' so that we can continue to reinvest in the repair, restoration and conservation of this unique world heritage site for future generations to enjoy.

2009 has been a ground breaking year for so many reasons but that year - with only a few weeks to go - will soon be consigned to the history books and then we face the new challenge in making 2010 even more impressive!

It never ceases to amaze me how hard everyone works across the Estate and how unified we are as a team in both understanding the challenges across the business and in supporting + encouraging each other to drive the business forward - we are very fortunate to have such a talented and dedicated workforce at every level.

And so we must focus back onto the tail-end of the 2009 season - the Palace stays 'dressed for christmas' through to Sunday 13 December with our theme "Christmas Nostalgia - Toys, Treats and Treasures" bringing the Palace State Rooms to life and the fnal weekend (12 + 13 December) will see lots of choirs and singing in the Palace to give the season a good sewnd-off!

Our shops are full of wonderful gifts for christmas and from Tuesday we start selling our home-grown christmas trees - if you want to buy a "Blenheim" tree then call 01993-813196 or visit christmastrees@blenheimpalace.com to place your order.

Christmas is coming and so is the next year - enjoy this special time and thanks for all your support!

Wow! What a week that was!

2009-11-20T05:06:00.000-08:00

Since I was last able to write early on the morning of Friday 13 November, it has been an extremely busy few days - a brief summary follows:

>> Friday 13 November

A wet and windy day (highly appropriate for Friday the 13th) heralded the arrival of various dignitaries to celebrate our various awards this year - but particularly the Siver Award for our Green Business Tourism Scheme entry. Lady Penny Cobham (Chair of Visit England) and John Williams (Chair of Tourism South-East) joined the Duke in welcoming David Cameron (our constituency MP) to Blenheim Palace for these celebrations. At the last minute we were notified that David Cameron was being accompanied by Her Excellency Madam Fu Ying, the Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to the UK - she apparently wanted to shadow a British MP to see how they worked in their constituencies. Now this was a huge opportunity and after discussions surrounding Plans A, B and C, we eventually agreed to go ahead with the planned tree planting despite the rain. An inspired David Cameron (down to his shirt sleeves in the rain!) set about the tree planting and then invited the Ambassador to join him to signify the "Chinese Friendship Tree" at Blenheim Palace. A plaque will follow (well why wouldn't we!) and hopefully many thousands of Chinese tourists will flock to see the tree at Winston Churchill's birthplace! What had seemed a wet and miserable day turned into a triumph and everyone went away inspired and happy.

>> Saturday 14 November

A calm/sensible day which culminated in a delicious dinner at The Grove Hotel in Hertfordshire where we met up with the Keane's and the Woodies - very old and very special friends from our Knebworth days. The Grove Hotel was heaving - wedding, parties and diners everywhere you looked. Almost too busy with car parks overflowing - but who says there is still any recession?

>> Sunday 15 November

An early return from Hertfordshire in time to get Annabelle to school for the Chamber Choir to perform in the Sunday morning service. Always moving to see Annabelle sing and she is thoroughly enjoying being in the Choir - they have lots of exciting engagements including being in the final 6 for the BBC Songs of Praise School Choir of the Year and also a choir trip to Portugal next Spring - lucky girl!

>> Monday 16 November

Tracy and I headed into London for a special treat - we were invited to attend the Christies Dinner in their Great Rooms off King Street. A stunning evening where we were also able to see the HHA/Christies 25th Anniversary Garden of the Year Award Photographic Exhibition - some amazing photographs and an amazing exhibition - which incidentally moves to Blenheim Palace for 6 weeks when we re-open on 13 February for the 2010 season - assuming we can figure out how to display it!. With Victoria very very kindly looking after our girls at home, Tracy and I spoilt ourselves by staying at the fabulous Goring Hotel in Beeston Place. One of London's hidden delights and without doubt one of London's finest hotels - we had a wonderful evening and just for a change it was nice to pamper ourselves!

>> Tuesday 17 November

Attended the 36th AGM of the Historic Houses Association at The QEII Conference Centre in Westminster - an interesting and valuable day to network with owners and colleagues from across this important and valuable heritage sector. Saw many friends and enjoyed a very positive day - rushed back to pick up Annabelle from school at around 6pm as the choir were putting in extra hours in readiness for the BBC challenges that lie ahead next week!

>> Wednesday 18 and Thursday 19 November

Up to Castle Howard in Yorkshire for the annual Treasure Houses of England Owners and Managers meeting and AGM. 450 mile round trip (carefully avoiding A1(M) closure courtesy of sat nav route through Doncaster and Selby) for a very positive gathering - for once our stunning performance this year through our Annual Pass scheme put us top of the class for visitor performance - something which both the Duke and I quietly enjoyed! We were looked after in sumptuous fashion - black tie dinner on Wednesday in The Garden Hall at Castle Howard; overnight at The Worsley Arms Hotel in Hovingham, meeting on Thursday back at Castle Howard in The Long Gallery followed by lunch in the Grecian Hall prior to departure and the long drive home.

Got back to Blenheim Palace just in time to attend the christmas reception for our press/media contacts as well as for our Friends of Blenheim Palace. A warm and friendly event which seemed to be enjoyed by all of those present - well done to all of those here at Blenheim Palace who worked hard to set up and deliver this important annual event.

>> Friday 20 November

And so the cycle completes and I am back at my desk and finally able to catch up on emails, etc. Today is the first day of our "Living Crafts for Christmas" event - we pray for sensible weather as we have to park cars on grass and nobody wants the underfoot conditions to become too severe. Last nights rain has not helped but we will keep our fingers crossed!

Phew - what a busy days - but throughout I have been inspired by how positive, how generous, and how engaged everyone is with regard to moving themselves and their business interests forward through the remainder of 2009 and into 2010.

Hopefully the "Chinese Friendship Tree" will flourish - and hopefully our fortunes will flourish alongside it!

Have a good weekend

Christmas is coming!

2009-11-12T23:12:00.000-08:00

October half-term out of the way, children back to school, in the midst of a very wet November and the christmas decorations are once again adorning our gates, courtyards and Palace.

Saturday sees the launch of our Palace Dressed for Christmas season with our theme "Christmas Nostalgia - Toys, Treats and Treasures" bringing the state rooms to life. Many toys have been kindly loaned to us (or should that be 'invited to stay') and loads of teddy bears, meccano, lego, cars, etc are carefully positioned amogst the trees and decorations so as to enhance a magical time to see Blenheim Palace. At this time of the year we are open Wednesdays to Sundays inclusive (through to Sunday 13 December) with various special christmas highlights for all to enjoy incding the "Living Crafts for Christmas" event from 20-22 November, Handel's Messiah performed in the Long Library on 6 December, and Festive Music and Carols over the final weekend - 12-13 December.

A great time to visit Blenheim Palace - and don't forget that the shops are full of tempting christmas gifts and our christmas trees are also on sale through most of December.

It has been a busy week having been away in Cornwall for a few days.

Cornwall was great fun - we rented a big house in Gillan (near Helston on the Lizard) with 2 other families from school and it was great fun throughout. 6 adults and 6 children got on brilliantly and we had great days out to the Maritime Museum in Falmouth, to St Ives, to the National Seal Sanctuary in Gweek, to St Michael's Mount + Porthleven and down to LIzard Point for some bracing fresh air! The slightly dodgy weather seemed an irrelevance and the evenings were filled with laughter and games (particularly some very feisty rounds of Scattegories!) - plus lots of food, wine and too much washing-up!

The only slight disaster occurred on the Thursday when all 12 of us were having fun on a large kids playground near St Michael's Mount (as you do!) and inspired by yours truly the adults were trying to run up a childrens slide - very irresponsible! All achieved it (eventually!!) but R (to maintain his dignity!) decided that it would be clever to moonwalk or surf back down the side and he ended up in a heap at the bottom with a badly damaged, bruised and swollen ankle. Not sure anything has broken but it was still very swollen (and turning a wonderful shade of deep purple) by the time we left on the Saturday - his wife, T, was singularly unimpressed as she was most likely going to have to drive all the way home whilst R "rested"! If only grown-ups could behave better!

A great week with fun people - would be good to return as Cornwall is such a pretty county and it was blissfully quiet having missed the main half-term crowds.

It has been a productive week but also a sad week as Remembrance Day this year seemed to carry so much more significance with Afghanistan dominating the headlines each day and all three remaining First World War veterans having passed away in the last year. So important that we never forget their sacrifices.

The weather forecast is dire for the next few days - hopefully we will all survive and that the weather will be kinder for our festive craft fair next week - this event needs fine weather and dry conditions for car parking - fingers crossed.

Have a good weekend and I will update you next Friday on a very busy week that lies ahead.

Have fun.

Half-term; Halloween and holidays!

2009-10-30T00:24:00.000-07:00

The mild weather has given us a very strong half-term week with many visitors enjoying spooky Palace tours; ghostly trails around the Pleasure Gardens and (most spectacularly) the amazing autumnal colours and hues throughout the Park. We hope the dry mild weather will last through to the end of the weekend but the forecast implies rain + gales are on the way - of course they are as the Hoy Family heads off to Cornwall on Saturday for a week's holiday!

On Tuesday we "celebrated" the completion of the extensive works surrounding the Blenheim Dam and Cascade and we had a photocall with the press so that the Duke could thank the contractors/project team and so that we could announce that the area is open again and visitors can complete the walk around the lakeside and see the "new" cascade. I say "celebrated" but that may not really be the most appropriate tag as we have had to sink around one million pounds of our hard earnt money into ensuring compliance with the wonderful Reservoirs Act 1975 - with no government support or grant money available for this world heritage site - shameless! Roger File - our property guru - has led this project with great skill and all of our on-site teams (particularly Chris Keeler and his maintenance team) have supported brilliantly. The area looks fantastic and well worth a visit - and it came in under budget - phew!

Wednesday morning saw a crew from GMTV on site doing some live links from Blenheim Palace to showcase the mild weather and the stunning scenery - well I say 'live links' but it actually became a 'live link' (singular) as any slots between 7am and 8am seemed to get lost in the ether and we ended up doing one extended piece/interview at around 8.40am. Those that saw it say that Blenheim Palace looked amazing - strangely silent about my appearance - maybe it was my wrong side!! Always fun to get a chance to do "live TV".

Yesterday it was over to Broadwell (near Stowe-on-the-Wold) to give a talk to the North Cotswold Probus Club - a mixed "Ladies Day" gathering and a very full room to entertain. I hugely enjoy giving talks to Probus Clubs as the members are almost without exception absolutely charming - and in most cases they have had fascinating careers and they remain very interested and willing to learn/explore new things. Yesterday was no exception as they were a lovely audience but I am kicking myself that I was unable to stay for lunch due to meetings back here at Blenheim Palace as they had a mobile Fish and Chip Van delivering them their lunch. I had to walk out of the Village Hall past the Fish and Chip Van parked up outside to get to my car - the smells, the wafting aroma of fish and chips; the hint of vinegar - yum yum - it did smell delicious! I drove back to Woodstock feeling very very hungry.

And so I need to get my desk and inbox reasonably clear today as we are off down to Cornwall on Saturday morning for a week - bizarrely my girls get two weeks half-term holiday - and we have rented a lovely house on the south coast and a couple of other families from school are joining us - 6 adults and 6 children in total - should be fun! Lots of long walks and sightseeing - hopefully the weather will not be too unkind.

Tomorrow - halloween - is our wedding anniversary! 11 years ago Tracy and I got married and we had a very special day despite the fact that it rained cats + dogs for most of the day!

Here we are and 11 years on and our wedding anniversary again lands on a Saturday - lots of memories from that special day - not least Tracy arriving 30 minutes late for the service because she forgot her flowers and had to go home to get them! Not sure what the vicar thought as Tracy and her father in a vintage car drove into the church car park and (without stopping or saying anything!) drove out again to return to our home to get her flowers - whilst inside a nervous groom plus 200 guests were waiting patiently! The vicar kept his silence but he must have thought "she's done a runner!"

It all ended very happily and we will celebrate tomorrow!

Have a good weekend and I will write again after our short break in Cornwall.

Keeping everyone happy!

2009-10-23T00:42:00.000-07:00

With around 85,000 annual pass holders now subscribed since we launched back in February 2009, the scheme has been an unqualified success and we have had lots of very positive feedback - we are though facing our first real challenge as we tackle the forthcoming Living Crafts for Christmas event which takes place from 20-22 November 2009.

This event, a high quality christmas crafts event with around 100 exhibitors, is staged in marquees sited within the courtyards adjoing the Palace and as such it is the only event in our calendar where space constraints exist and where we need to work hard to protect flows, to avoid congestion and to ensure a safe environment exists for everyone.

It would be grossly irresponsible of us to blindly go forward into this event without considering how our high numbers of annual pass holders will connect with us over these three days and as to how this will impact upon the running of the event - we believe high numbers will attend and we have thus taken the difficult decision to restrict free entry to annual pass holders to AFTER 3pm each day and to ask them to purchase Park and Gardens tickets (albeit at slightly reduced rates) if they wish to visit before 3pm. We have extended the show opening times to 7pm on the Friday and Saturday in order to increase the access times for annual pass holders and we hope all round that we can keep everyone happy and safe.

Inevitably we are being shouted at by some but I believe it would be irresponsible not to have take some pro-active steps to "manage" capacity and flow at this important event - we apologise for causing any inconvenience but we hope the vast majority will understand what we have done and why we have done it.

It is a great christmas craft show and hopefully many will attend - and hopefully everyone will go away happy!

In the spirit of keeping everyone happy, we are always very willing to receive fam trips and other groups into Blenheim Palace as we are immensely proud to showcase this iconic world heritage site and to sow the seeds for future business generation.

This week we have received two such groups into Blenheim Palace:

>> On Tuesday we had a very high powered fam visit from top Chinese Agents organised by Trafalgar Tours - including Freddy Li (Regional General Manager for Greater China and Korea for Qantas Airways Limited) and Eric Li (Executive Director for Charming Holidays Limited). It was fascinating to meet with them all and very encouraging to hear their very positive predictions for growth in traveller volumes from China into 2011 and beyond. It has been a market that has been predicted to grow and to grow fast - so we await their arrival and we will give them a great welcome! The Chinese market has a very strong affinity with Blenheim Palace through their interest in Sir Winston Churchill - a very strong hook and one that also plays very positively into the North American market.

>> On Thursday we hosted a study tour from the Society of Local Council Clerks who were ultimately on their way to Daventry for their 35th Annual Conference. I gave them a talk on Thursday and started by informing them that I was also a Council Clerk! One of the quirkier sides of my role here at Blenheim Palace is that I am Clerk to the Blenheim Parish Meeting (which covers the area enclosed within the Park Wall) and as such I have responsibility for around 30 or so people and I control a healthy budget of £0! This compares with those that I met with on Thursday, who were mainly from America, with populations under their control (in one case) of up to 18 million people and a budget responsibility up to a maximum in one case of £1.1billion! Rather puts the Blenheim Parish Meeting in its place! They were a charming group and I have no doubt that Blenheim Palace left them very happy as they headed north for their three day conference.

Children across the country are breaking up for half-term and hopefully many will head to Blenheim Palace for some halloween fun. There is lots going on including a Ghostly Trail at the Pleasure Gardens which will be fun for everyone.

It only seems 5 minutes since they went back to school and already they are virtually into half-term and christmas is around the corner - time flies by but we must all make sure we take time to enjoy everything happening around us and to stay happy - life, after all, is too short and we each owe ourselves that pleasure!

Have a good weekend.

Positive vibes - onwards and upwards

2009-10-15T23:19:00.000-07:00

It has been a busy and productive week - as well as a week that we are glad to put behind us!

The Trustees meeting on Wednesday - an autumn delight - went well and all of the various budgets and reports were duly endorsed by the Duke and everyone else. Always pleasing but such gatherings are stressful as you can never totally predict the mood or outcome from the meeting and there is always the risk that they can stray off at tangents into unplanned territory which can open up other issues, etc. Thankfully that did not happen on Wednesday and everyone was in good form - I must pay huge credit to Dom (the bean counter) and Roger (the property guru) for all their hard work and support both prior to and during the meeting - they put in a vast amount of work preparing papers for the meeting and it is always a relief to get 'sign-off' - such a relief that we always reward ourselves with a nice lunch and a glass of wine afterwards. This week we headed to Langan's in Stratton Street and had a delicious lunch - but then we all felt uncomfortably stuffed as we travelled back on the train later in the afternoon! Working hard now to get the minutes written and dispatched whilst the meeting is fresh in mind - this also provides closure and peace of mind before we have to focus on the next meeting!

Wrapped around the Trustees meeting have been some other interesting meetings in a busy week. Over at The Compleat Angler Hotel in Marlow on Monday for a Tourism South East BBO Sub-Regional committee meeting and then on Tuesday over to the Williams F1 Conference Centre in Grove to meet with private sector tourism businesses to get them to pledge support to the emerging Destination Management Organisation ("DMO") for Oxfordshire. Slightly disappointing turnout but those present seemed positive and hopefully we can maintain momentum and get this exciting new tourism delivery structure in place for summer 2010.

On Thursday we had our quarterly catch-up meeting with our catering provider, Sodexo Prestige, and it is always useful to focus on their prior performance and on the forward pipeline of activity as this is such a fundamentally important part of our business both for day catering and for conferences + banqueting. They are doing very well in a tough year - the surge in visitor numbers through our annual pass scheme has boosted their day catering revenues whilst strong wedding business has helped to offset a significant drop in conference and banqueting business - but there are signs that this area is beginning to slowly recover. We are an important contract for Sodexo and we are a tough client to please as we expect a 5 star service in every area - but they are working hard and we are making good progress in lifting standards in many areas. Our challenge to them is to lift the day catering standard so that we become a destination for the quality of the food on offer - we are not there yet but we are moving positively in the right direction.

Today we say farewell to the site foreman for Bentley's on the Dam Project as he heads off to his winter sojourn in the Caribbean - tough life! The dam project has slightly overrun timewise (by about 2 weeks) but has come in well under budget which is pleasing - and at least we now know that we are compliant with the Reservoirs Act 1975 and that "1 in 10,000 year flood risk" - phew!

At home it is very tense and exciting as Annabelle enters her last day as a 9 year old - the big "10" arrives tomorrow and she is VERY excited. We have finally relented and she will get her very own Pink iPod tomorrow - with "Annabelle Hoy - Princess of Pop" - on the back! To add to the exitement we are taking Annabelle and 8 friends on a very special birthday trip tomorrow afternoon - we are going to The Sound Cube in Watford where they get the chance to make a record and a supporting dance video. Annabelle has chosen "Toxic by Britney Spears" as her song and they have all been practising hard learning the lyrics - should be a fun day and I must resist muscling in and cutting a Chas 'n Dave number or similar at the same time!! Louisa - Annabelle's sister - and I are in charge of judging the 9 of them and we have created some fun awards which Louisa must assess - she will be Simon Cowell for the day!

Life as ever is entertaining and varied - lots of forward planning for next year but with an eye on closing out this season on a high. We will finish very close to 550k visitors and 100k annual pass holders - amazing numbers that could not have been predicted last January as we sat down to plan some front foor marketing plans for the season! I doubt if there are many businesses that have so radically transformed themselves in such a short time in the current trading climate - the challenge now is to look at the shape and delivery for 2010 to maintain and grow further!

Well done to all the Blenheim team - the support from the Duke and from the Trustees endorses and recognises everyone's hard work and commitment across every sector of the business - we are very fortunate (or should that be "they" are very fortunate) to have such a talented and hard-working team at every level!

Onwards and upwards!

Tussaud's + People

2009-10-08T23:30:00.000-07:00

My 5 years with The Tussauds Group - from 1997 to 2002 - were some of the best years of my working life and they certainly were some of the most influential years in terms of shaping my career path.

I initially joined Tussaud's as Head of Operations (and ultimately Head of Retail as well) at Warwick Castle where I learnt a great deal about the running of a highly successful visitor attraction as part of a global multi-site group; and then in early 2000 I was given the chance to go down to Baker Street as General Manager for Madame Tussaud's and the London Planetarium - a huge honour, a big responsibility and a great opportunity.

The Baker Street operation was the cash cow for the business with c.2 million people snaking their way through the building each year - and the infamous queue outside the building!

I learnt so much during my time at both sites and I certainly would not be here today at Blenheim Palace if I had not served my time with Tussaud's - it gave me a point of difference and it added some commercial experience to my farming and land agency roots.

The most value though comes from the people and the connections made with a top organisation - many of whom are still on the radar today and many of whom we still engage with through our work here at Blenheim Palace. They really are a top bunch of very talented people.

We had a reunion/gathering in London on Wednesday evening and it was SO good to see many of them again - too many to mention them all but great to see Mike Jolly (former Chairman and Chief Executive of the Group) and Sarah Montgomery (former General Manager at Warwick Castle) - both will always be a very important part of my career and I owe them both a great deal. Sarah for employing me at Warwick Castle in the first place and Mike for everything through my time with Tussaud's and then for pointing the headhunters in my direction when the Blenheim Palace job was being recruited - I value both for their continued wise counsel and advise.

I was sad to leave Tussaud's in 2002 but Pearson owned the company when I joined in 1997 and then the venture capitalists arrived the following year and the tone and culture inevitably began to change. Despite delivering budget and driving the business forward, it was clear that I was not one of their appointments and when "your face doesn't quite fit" it is time to be pragmatic and move on - which is what I did in early 2002 before joining Blenheim Palace early the following year - the interim period was spent with the National Museum of Science and Industry (Science Museum, etc) but that is for another day.

I have been so lucky in my career and my Tussaud's time will always be some of the best and most valuable years of my life - both for what I learnt and for the people/connections that I made.

People shape our lives and that certainly has been true for me.

Back here at Blenheim we have dispatched the papers out to the Duke and the Trustees ahead of our autumn meeting with them next week - always a huge relief and a huge credit to Dom (bean counter) and Roger (property guru) for all their input and support but I lay awake last night worrying that our wonderful Royal Mail could still screw everything up. We will cross our fingers that all of the packages reach their destinations otherwise next week could be rather interesting!

Time prevents too much of a review of the last week but suffice to say that "Bike Blenheim Palace" was a huge resounding success - this home built event has rapidly (only it's second year) grown into a meaningful part of the cycling calendar. The Brompton Bike World Championships and the Time Trials were all fully subscribed; the new Sportif and Cyclocross events went well and overall we had around 7,500 people on site. Lots of people worked their socks-off in delivering the event but particular praise and credit must go to Paul Orsi (our Head Forester turned Rural Enterprises Manager turned Event Supremo) and his brilliant Rural Team for all their hard work and dedication around the event - the success is down to them with huge support from Operations, Retail, Catering, Marketing and everyone else!

Again people shape what we do and what we deliver - we have an exceptional team here at Blenheim Palace and they should be very proud at what is being achieved day-to-day and year-on-year.

Have a very good weekend

Just blogging!

2009-10-01T23:42:00.000-07:00

Reunions are great fun and I had the chance to go to an old friend's silver wedding anniversary party last Saturday (a long slog to Cambridge and back in the same evening) and linked up again with a handful of friends from my school days. Adam, Johnny, Tim and I were in East House together at The Leys School in Cambridge from 1970-1974 (or thereabouts) and it was wonderful to catch up with them again and to remember some of the highlights (and challenges!)from those days so many years ago. True friendship survives time remarkably well and although we only see each other at such events every 5 years or so, it is just as if we were still sharing studies and classrooms and enjoying each others company much more frequently.

I mentioned in a previous blog that my daughter was now bringing home latin prep which was somewhat challenging given that my last exposure to latin was probably 37 years ago. Indeed I will never forget being met by my latin master - Mr Eric Southern - at the door into the examination room for my Latin O-Level with the words "Oh Hoy - I see you have bothered to show up - bit of a waste of time really!" But I showed him with a (very) narrow Grade 6 "O" Level pass - that 'success' meant a lot to me as he was probably right - my latin skills were far from brilliant and I probably was heading for a fail without his inspired and motivational intervention!!

I still look back on my school days generally with very positive and happy memories and I see that same fire and enthusiasm in my girls as they return each day from school.

Annabelle did get elected onto the Middle School Council after a quick fire campaign persuaded all the boys in her class to vote for her - she is very chuffed and very proud!

Here at Blenheim Palace, September has closed with excellent visitor numbers - up 55% year-on-year - and correspondingly strong performances in retail and catering. The highlights in the month were the "dry + sunny" horse trials and a hugely successful Literary Festival. Into October, with the weather threatening to turn cold and wet on us, we look forward to Bike Blenheim Palace this weekend and a ghostly halloween at the end of the month!

The year (as always) is flying by and my paper this morning is carrying headlines around christmas cards + postal delivery - how depressing - but then I touched on that same subject last week with regard to election manifestos and the desire to be first and be early!

We are I suppose no different as we had our staff christmas party planning meeting - which I have the honour in chairing - this week and big decisions need to be made - none bigger than selecting the theme! We have narrowed it down to three choices - will it be "Dress to Impress!" or "School Disco!" or "Woodstock '69" - various staff will be surveyed on this and we hope to come up with the right choice that pleases the majority! I will confirm the chosen theme in a later blog - so you will have to be patient!

Lets hope that the weather holds for the last big Park event of the year this weekend and I hope that many people will be here "on their bikes" to enjoy this wonderful world heritage park.

Whatever you are doing this weekend - make it a good one!

Election fever!

2009-09-24T23:35:00.001-07:00

The one certainty looking into 2010 is that a General Election will be held and just like christmas cards and Easter Eggs appearing in shop windows, the early manifestos are landing on board/committee desks for sign-off, for approval and for launch. With around 8 months to go - good money on Thursday 6 May 2010 - it does seem excessively early but then the Government is frozen into inactivity so I suppose everyone may as well look forward and plan accordingly! There does seem to be an absurd desire to be "first out" in this respect - presumably in the belief that this will help shape policy.

In the last week alone I have seen documents from the National Farmers Union, the Country Landowners Association and the Historic Houses Association - all promoting their corner across their sector area. I fail to understand why industry sectors do not try to work more in harmony to structure one powerful manifesto rather than allowing a plethera of weaker manifestos to sit on the table with little chance that their demands will be taken fully on board. The Tourism Alliance exists (yes it does what it says on the tin - it tries to be an alliance across the tourism sector) and a strong and focused manifesto from them should be all that the tourism sector promotes - a clear set of demands carefully articulated and structured for the benefit of the industry. Will that happen - I doubt it, as every component part of the Tourism Alliance will no doubt also feel that it is their duty to churn out their own manifesto document (if only to justify their existence) which will then dilute the impact of the alliance document and the overall messaging. Let's wait and see but I am sure there are many many more manifesto documents in the pipeline!

On the election front, my 9 year old daughter has decided to run for office. Well actually the Middle School Council at school where she feels she can "represent" her class mates in a fair and balanced way. She has to make her campaign speech on Saturday morning to get chosen as her classes candidate and then elections will be held - probably this won't make the national news but I will let you know how she gets on.

It has been a strong week here at Blenheim Palace with good daily numbers - over 1,000 visitors each week day - in fine early autumn weather. The Horse Trials and Lilliput Lane event areas are virtually clear from their events and we have a very short breather before the Bike Blenheim Palace - "A Festival of Cycling" - event on Sunday 4 October. Numbers for this look very good so we pray that the weather stays settled and fine - for at least another week! Get the bike out of the garage; get the tyres pumped up; and get here to Blenheim Palace to enjoy a wonderful opportunity to cycle around the Park on that one day.

The Independent Woodstock Literary Festival last weekend has been hailed as a great success with around 100 talks/events from a wide range of literary stars across 4 days - ticket sales were healthy and the event has now established a good loyal following - certainly an event that is rising up the league table of "literary festivals" in the UK.

Autumn is a wonderful time to visit the Palace, Gardens and Park as the seasonal colours can take your breath away. The golden Palace, the rolling landscape, and the great lake spanned by the Grand Bridge contrast beautifully with the autumnal border of majestic oaks and chestnuts (not forgetting the "Harry Potter" cedar tree - but that stays very green!) turning from amber to golden brown over the coming weeks.

A perfect time to visit - we hope to see you here soon.

A week on ......

2009-09-17T23:32:00.000-07:00

It is clear that writing a blog is no guarantee of reality - even one week on we are faced with the fact that Spurs did not beat Man U (much to the "bean counter's" delight next door) and that England did not bounce back against the Aussies in the One Day series. Indeed Spurs now go to Stamford Bridge where a second defeat on the trot must be likely (how quickly that bubble has burst!) and England are 6-0 down against the Aussies with only pride to play for in the final match at Durham on Saturday.

Staying with the sporting front, the world of FI is in turmoil with the meltdown at Renault. Flavio Briatore and his Director of Engineering have gone and the team are in shame for conspiring to crash one of their cars to facilitate victory for Alonso. Too much money swills around F1 which makes rational thought sometimes impossible - it drives teams and individuals to make irrational calls of judgement and to break the rules. Victory for the sponsors must come at all costs within a sport that is pregnant with excess - no doubt the sport will try to polish its image and bounce back but you can't help wondering how much else goes on that we are not aware of or which has not yet surfaced?

Back here at Blenheim (and into a more realistic world) we are basking in the success of a dry and very successful horse trials last weekend - Mandy Hervieu can take great pride in delivering a great event and in re-moulding and re-shaping much of the event from 2007. The additional things to do and see have lifted attendance significantly and have provided an excellent platform for 2010 and beyond. Well done to all concerned.

This weekend we are very busy with a multitude of different events taking place - in no particular order we are a primary venue for The Independent Woodstock Literary Festival (with a wonderful array of speakers - from David Cameron to Zac Goldsmith; from William Shawcross to Julian Fellowes; and many many more); we are hosting the Lilliput Lane Annual Collectors Fair, a Riding for the Disabled Event today and charity runs/walks on Saturday and Sunday for the Woodstock Harriers and Combe School; as well as prestigious dinners and functions throughout the weekend. We like to keep ourselves busy (!) - good luck to all across our Operations, Retail and Catering teams and thanks in advance for all your hard work in delivering efficiency and customer service excellence at all times. We have a great team in every area.

At home we are finally getting back into the swing of the girls being back at school and trying to get into a workable routine to accommodate homework, music practice, school clubs, tennis and swimming lessons and stagecoach. Already they look exhausted but hopefully they will get into their stride as it is a long term! My 9 year old has launched into latin this term and it certainly took me back to my school days when I helped her with her latin prep on Wednesday!

This week we have sadly lost Keith Floyd (who enjoyed a drink or two or three in the kitchen) and Patrick Swayze (will pottery ever be the same again after that infamous scene with Demi Moore in Ghost) - at breakfast on Tuesday in the Hoy Household Mr Swayze was described as a gorgeous hunk (I suppose the fact that he was once voted the world's sexiest man is some small justification for this) by my wife (!!) but at least it was encouraging (perhaps promoted by my loud and immediate protests) that both my daughters quickly endorsed the fact that I was a much more impressive hunk! Where would we be without the unquestionable love showered upon us by our children - thats not to say they are of course absolutely right in their judgement!

With so much activity going on around Blenheim Palace and Woodstock this weekend it will be busy but hopefully fun and problem-free - enjoy any connection you make with us and stay in touch - we hugely value all the support we get in trying to keep this wonderful world heritage site restored for future generations.

Have a good weekend and a great week

Sporting Fruit

2009-09-10T23:23:00.000-07:00

Sporting pursuits have been a strong feature of the last week and will dominate the next few days as the Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials take place under blue skies and glorious weather - a marked contrast to the mud and gloom 12 months ago. The site looks amazing and we should have a fantastic event weekend.

The week has seen mixed sporting fortunes at home and abroad - Andy Murray crashed out of the US Open to a Croatian; England stormed into next years World Cup Finals with a thumping victory over Croatia at Wembley; England's ladies failed at the final hurdle against the old enemy, and England's cricketers (without a Croatian in site) lost again to Australia in the One Day series.

I was invited down to the Rose Bowl in Southampton to watch the ODI on Wednesday and it was fun to watch my first day/night match. Still not quite sure I approve of players in pyjamas with a white ball and a black sightscreen but it was an entertaining and jolly day despite the result. We had the mandatory streaker (not one of our party!) who was spectacularly tackled - despite his fairly unmemorable tackle! - by a security guard before being led away to raucous jeers by the police; we had numerous "super heroes" entertaining the crowds by running like banshees through the grandstands - Batman was rather portly and slow; Buzz Lightyear rather shy and reserved; and Superwoman far too hairy for anyones liking (both chest and chin!)

The atmosphere was great throughout - despite a rather dull and one-sided match - but it does stagger me at the quantities of alcohol consumed - and the money spent - at such occasions. In just the area around us, people must have consumed upwards of 15 pints through the day (at times we felt like we were on a rollercoaster as we continually had to let them out to release the previous intake and purchase the next batch!) but what does distress me is the language and general tone with some people as the alcohol fuels their spirits - with young children nearby, the language drifts into the gutter. Quite how such standards can be addressed I don't know but such people are hardened drinkers and gamblers - how do they fund such pursuits as they must be spending vast sums each week - following England or their team - whether football or cricket. I know this all sounds very prudish but I have never condoned such language or such loutish behaviour - it spoils the occasion for so many others, it influences the young in earshot, and we seem powerless to influence change going forward. The English abroad - and indeed the English at home - have a reputation that needs polishing and improving - lets keep the good spirits and the healthy banter - but lets drop the alcohol fueled bad language, anger and abusive behaviour. End of speech!

So England's cricketers go on to Lords 3-o down in the 7 match series - of course mathematically they can take the series 4-3 but they were outclassed by the Aussies on Wednesday in every department of the game - most sadly, the Aussies "wanted" it more than England - they fielded with passion and energy throughout whereas England looked slow and listless - why is that given the money they get paid and the expectations of the watching public? I think we deserve better - watch out for the fightback!

Away from sport our attention today turns to fruit! The Worshipful Company of Fruiterers - whose motto is "God gives the increase" - are here at Blenheim Palace today presenting an Apricot Tree (the Duke's choice) to the Duke of Marlborough. Annually, the Company recognises the winning HHA/Christies Garden of the Year with the gift of a fruit tree and today around 100 members will attend a lunch in the Orangery as the tree is both presented and planted. The Livery Company was founded back in 1463 and it does a vast amount of good work within the fruit trade - it is also a very active charity carrying out much good work in and around the City of London.

Good luck to all on every front - whether sporting or non-sporting - the weather forecast is great for the weekend and it should be a good one!

Who knows - Spurs may even beat Man United for once!

That was the week that was!

2009-09-04T00:20:00.000-07:00

The last week has seen the end of August (and summer!), preparations for the annual Horse Trials, my wife is a year older and we remember the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of WWII.

The August Bank Holiday weekend ran smoothly with a wonderful turn out of classic cars and a good crowd - the weather certainly affected attendance but the month overall has been amazingly strong - up 52% on last year. For the first year for many we have 'banked' very good numbers across the critical June to August period and this should now hold us in good stead for the rest of the year - the primary driver continues to be the annual pass scheme and we now have nearly 75k annual pass holders on our database. The target was always to hit 100k in the full year and this looks as though it could be achievable - an amazing outcome and great to see the Palace and Gardens busy every day - sometimes even despite the weather!

There is now a brief interlude on the events front until the International Horse Trials take place next weekend - the site is a hive of activity and the ground (touch wood!) is in superb condition at this stage. The memories of last years muddy cancellation are horribly fresh in the mind and we are all praying that the event is luckier this year as everyone - especially Mandy Hervieu the Event Director - has worked incredibly hard to 'recover' the event from last years cancellation and to deliver it successfully this year. The signs are all reasonably positive - weather permitting! It is a fantastic event and one of the crown jewels in our events calendar - even the non-horsey person has a vast array of things to do and enjoy - not least the shopping arcades!

The week saw my wife get a year older - always potentially a stressful occasion but at least she can take comfort in knowing that I am 10 years ahead of her! We had a great day out in London with the girls and I hope that we celebrated her birthday in fine style - and the highlight was seeing the matinee performance of Oliver! - what a fantastic show - great songs, great sets and great actors. Memorable stuff - I strongly recommend it to anyone.

This week many have remembered the 7oth anniversary of the declaration of war on Germany back in 1939 - a sobering reminder of those darks times. Neville Chamberlain set up a War Cabinet with nine members including two new ministers - one of them being Winston Churchill as the First Lord of the Admiralty - and it was only a matters of months until he took the helm of the coalition government on 10 May 1940 following Neville Chamberlain's decuision to stand aside - and the rest, as they say, is history.

Important to never forget our past as this has helped to shape the world we live in today - and even more important to remember that our actions and decisions today will shape our future and the future for our children.

Easy to be negative in the current climate of war and debt - but we must all work hard to shape the future as we can all make a difference - the glass is half full not half empty!

Have a good week!

"Classic" Occasions

2009-08-27T23:55:00.000-07:00

The bank holiday weekend looms - normally heralded as the final fling of the summer holidays before the days start to shorten and autumn rolls in - and hopefully the weather (at least in the south) will support a "classic" british bank holiday for everyone - assuming of course that the extensive road works and predicted traffic congestion around the country will allow anyone to get anywhere!!

Our "classic" event here at Blenheim Palace is a two day Classic Car Show on the Sunday and Monday - a fantastic line-up each day of iconic vehicles evoking memories of a past era. The event is organised by Andrew Greenwood - a wonderful Yorkshireman who I have known for many many years as we used to stage similar events during my time at Knebworth House in Hertfordshire during the 80's and 90's - indeed this is the first year that we are looking to repeat a very success formula as the classic car shows at Knebworth over the August Bank Holiday weekend were always very popular and well attended.

The National Feast of Lanterns (organised by The Camping and Caravanning Club) took place last weekend and they should virtually be clear and off site by close of play today. This very "classic" british event - with 2,500 units and around 8,000 people - was a huge success and I was very honoured to be asked to give the official opening address at their ceremony to declare the rally open last Friday.

That ceremony was then followed by the Club Chairman's Dinner in the Indian Room at the Palace - a very "classic" setting by the Water Terraces - and I had the immense pleasure of sitting next to David Bellamy OBE who is the President of The Camping and Caravanning Club. David is a fascinating man to sit next to - very engaging, very interesting and great fun. At 76 he is still very active across the globe promoting and progressing his variety of issues - many environmentally based - and indeed he was off to Australia a few days after we met. He has written at least 45 books, he is President, Vice-President, Trustee or Patron of at least 28 organisations and he has a variety of Honorary Degrees and Awards - not a bad collection for someone who trained as a botanist at Durham University! A very "classic" british author, broadcaster and campaigner and it was a joy to meet him.

To more mundane matters - Spurs still sit at the very top of the Premiership - 3 games, 3 wins - but how much longer will it last? Memories are being evoked back to the "classic" double winning Spurs side in the 1960/61 season (Danny Blanchflower, Dave Mackay, Jimmy Greaves et al) as that was the last time Spurs won three games on the trot at the start of a new campaign .......... I wonder if League and Cup glory beckon in 2009/10 - we can but dream!

And finally my lovely wife and little girls have returned from a two week trip to America where they were staying with my wife's sisters - lovely to have them all back home!

Enjoy the bank holiday weekend and make it a truly "classic" occasion by visiting Blenheim Palace.

Sunshine (and showers!)

2009-08-21T00:28:00.000-07:00

So much for the blisteringly hot summer that we were promised earlier in the year - even this week we have ebbed between a very hot mini heatwave on Wednesday into a breezy, wet and almost chilly Thursday - it could only happen in England. The impact on our numbers is huge - over 3,000 on Wednesday and less than 1,500 on Thursday - very hard to get staffing levels right with such extreme variances!

Many will feel cheated having been lulled by the forecast, by the exchange rate and by the credit crunch into a "staycation" summer - but still I sense that spirits generally are positive and that everyone is out there determined to make the best of it and to have a good time.

This weather - as long as it does not get too wet (and then muddy!) - works reasonably well for us as the forecast is not strong enough to drive people onto the coast or onto the sun lounger in the back garden but it is good enough to support a fun family day out - just somewhere like Blenheim Palace!

We have traded well through August with some busy weekends and with some exceptionally busy weekdays. We are enjoying seeing many of our annual pass holders returning frequently to connect with us and we now have well over 60,000 members with that total growing daily.

How we manage that database going forward is an interesting new challenge for us and we are looking to fill a new post - Head of Membership - as we go into 2010 and beyond. Details of the role can be found on our website and we hope that there will be someone out there with strong experience in this field who can drive this forward for us with regard to membership retention and membership gowth.

This weekend we are hosting the Camping and Caravanning Club Annual Rally - the National Feast of Lanterns - with over 2,500 caravans (and an estimated 8,000 people) on site. This has been 5 years in the planning and I am sure they will have a great weekend based here in the Park - they have a varied programme of events and activities and the northern end of the Park is a sea of caravans and motor homes. Hopefully the weather will be kind as the last time we hosted a major caravan rally - for The Caravan Club - the event was virtually washed out by heavy rain and the whole area became a sea of mud!

The southern end of the Park is already changing appearance as the early preparations for the International Horse Trials get underway - this prestigious and important event takes place from 10 to 13 September and we hope to avoid any repetition of the cancellation last year due to persistent rain and dangerous conditions.

Before the Horse Trials and in the centre of park between the two larger event areas, we have the August Bank Holiday weekend with a two day Classic Car and Motorcycle Show - always popular to see such stunning vehicles lined up on display.

All these memories of bad weather after past events are depressing - a positive attitude is required in order to push away the rain clouds and to secure good weather for these important events. They say lightning doesn't strike twice - fingers crossed!

Impossible to close this blog without a quick glance at the Premier League table - as a life long Spurs supporter the sight of Spurs at the top of the table (albeit after only 2 games!) is pleasing on the eye - probably won't last long but still better that last season when they were bottom. How quickly fortunes can change - as long as of course several millions have been spent in the transfer window!

Enjoy the weekend ahead and enjoy whats left of the summer - and don't forget to include a visit to Blenheim Palace within your "staycation" plans.

Woodstock - 40 years on!

2009-08-14T00:53:00.000-07:00

It seems impossible not to write today about the 4oth anniversary of the Woodstock Festival which was held from 15th to 18th August 1969 - not actually at Woodstock but at Bethel in Sullivan County some 43 miles southwest of Woodstock, New York.

The iconic and now infamous event - billed as "The Woodstock Music and Art Fair presents An Aquarian Exposition in White Lake, NY - 3 days of Peace and Music" - was set-up with the expectation of selling around 80,00o tickets; it actually sold around 186,000 tickets; but an estimated 672,000 attended as the fences and controls failed to handle the crowds that arrived. Reportedly over a million people had to turn back because of traffic chaos and congestion!

3 days of sex, drugs and rock 'n roll followed as those present enjoyed 32 acts (some of the greatest names in rock) - Jimi Hendrix closed Woodstock with a memorable performance of The Star-Spangled Banner but this took place at 9am on a Monday morning as the event horribly overran due to a multitude of delays and poor weather - sadly many had therefore left by then and missed what was called "the greatest single moment of the sixties" by the New York Post.

The success - or perhaps that should be notoriety - of the festival has arguably fuelled every outdoor rock event since 1969 - it was the precursor for Glastonbury (now in it's 39th year) and it no doubt inspired Freddie Bannister to persuade David and Christine Cobbold to host their first concerts at Knebworth in 1974 with his "Bucolic Frolic" event headlined by The Allman Brothers Band.

My time at Knebworth (from early 1985 to late 1997) enabled me to engage with some amazing events and some entertaining people. The first concert that I was involved with was the Deep Purple event in Summer 1985 - my last was the two day Oasis event attended by 125,000 people each day. I learnt - and saw - a great deal; certainly a chapter or two in my memoirs if ever written!

I am now here at Blenheim Palace alongside this Woodstock - it still amuses us that people get the two confused - there must be an opportunity to capitalise on the linkage more than we do - now there's a project for the 50th year anniversary in 2019!

Everyone has heard of "that" Woodstock - around the world it had an impact on social behaviour that still has influence today - indeed the recent inauguration of Barack Obama got the headlines "Washington's Woodstock"!

Back to 1969, Chip Monck was the lighting director for the festival and became the last-minute master of ceremonies when Michael Lang (the co-promoter/organiser) clapped him on the back and said "We haven't hired an MC - you're it!". Amazingly his first act was to get over 500,000 people to pick up all their belongings and move back 10 steps - some metal sticks and a clothes line were then erected as the stage front barrier and remarkably this flimsy barrier was not breached over the whole three days of the event - such was the "relaxed" nature of the event throughout. Not sure that the same could be achieved today.

For those who attended back in 1969 and for those whose lives were changed by the greatest music festival in rock 'n roll history - enjoy the memories - even if they are somewhat hazy!

Refreshed

2009-08-07T00:44:00.000-07:00

Apologies for the long silence but now back from a relaxing two weeks on the Algarve where the weather was glorious - hardly a cloud in the sky - sadly the same cannot be said for the weather back here!

Portugal was glorious and we had a great time enjoying time by the pool; time on the beach; wonderful restaurants; and time out a two very busy water parks! As I hurtled town the Torpedo ride at "Splash and Slide" head first on a small rubber mat (yes it does conjure an interesting image!) I did wonder whether I was losing my senses but I survived - as did my little girls who seemed to have endless energy for every ride in the Park - however fast, twisty, dark or dangerous. The Water Park experience is quite an eye-opener - a sea of flesh with every size and shape on view - but everyone relaxed, good humoured and having fun under the clear blue sky and hot sun. Shame that the English climate does not really support such outdoor Parks!

We travelled back last Saturday and it was a very smooth and efficient journey. We left where we were staying around 5pm and via Faro Airport and courtesy of Easyjet we were landed back at Luton by 11.30pm and home soon after 1am. Very convenient and a sensibly short flight to find such fantastic beaches and such reliable weather - I am a fan of Portugal and the Algarve as it ticks so many boxes - if the lottery numbers come up then I would certainly look to buy something out there so that we could go down there more frequently. If only .....!

Blenheim Palace has traded well during my two weeks away despite the weather being decidely iffy on many days - yet again powerful evidence of the strength of our "Buy One Day - Get 12 Months Free!" offer. Tracking life on a blackberry down on the Algarve is actually quite comforting as you know what is happening day-to-day, you can help/comment if needed, and you don't come back to any horrors or surprises - and even my wife now tracks her emails and messages on her blackberry throughout our time away so I feel less guilty!

We go into our second Jousting weekend of the year with the "Knights of Royal England" performing two displays each day for the next three days - together with falconry displays and other attractions including archery and face-painting - it comprises one of the strongest offerings for a great family day out. The weather forecast is encouraging so we hope for a busy weekend.

Beyond this weekend we have much to look forward to as we head towards our late Summer, Autumn and Christmas programme - so having returned fully refreshed from Portugal we look forward to continued successful trading and to seeing lots of our Annual Pass Holders returning on many occasions to enjoy everything on offer.

And if you were expecting a postcard - then it must be caught up in the Royal Mail dispute!

The Blenheim Palace A-Z

2009-07-17T00:02:00.000-07:00

A - Awesome, Annual Pass, Awards, Action, Amazing and Assured.
B - Big, Beautiful, Battle Proms, Britain's Greatest Palace, Bold, Books and Banquets.
C - Classic Cars, Class, Caring, Calm, Cool, Canapes, Concerts, Change, and Children.
D - Dam Dams, Dukes, Daddies, Dedication, Depth, Dynamism and Detail.
E - Excellence, Energy, Experience, Edge, Emotion, Events and Eventful.
F - Fun, Frustration, Flu, Families, Friends, Funding and Fabulous Food.
G - Gasping, Gardens, Gullivers Travels, Greatest, Graceful, and Groups.
H - Happiness, Honesty, Holidays, Heroes, Hampers, History and Humour.
I - Integrity, Industrious, Idyllic, Iconic, Invaluable, and Incomparable.
J - Jousting, Jaunty, Joy, Jumps, and Judgement.
K - Kids, Kiosks, Keen, Keys, Knowledge, and Kindness.
L - Links, Litter (not!), Lambs, Lakes, Languages, Lawns and Lens.
M - Music, Magic, Mesmerising, Manners, Mums, Margins, Memories and Moles.
N - Notable, Noise, Neighbours, Nations, Nature, and Numbers.
O - Organised, Oxford, Oxfordshire, Opportunity, Optimism, and Oaks.
P - Portraits, Palace, Politeness, Professionalism, Passionate, Publicity, and Portugal!
Q - Queues (not!), Questions, Quirky, Quotes, and Quality.
R - Realism, Rain, Rare, Receptive, Reflective and Remarkable.
S - Sunshine, Showers, Sharing, Scale, Schools, Staff, Scandal, Stunning and Symbolic.
T - Treasures, Traffic, Tourism, Touchable, Tastes, Tradition and Trust.
U - Unique, Unusual, Unparalleled, Unforgettable and Urbane.
V - Vision, Visibility, Vitality, Value, Vast, Vulnerable and Vocal.
W - World Heritage, Wonderful, Winning, Weddings, Walks and Woodstock.
X - Xmas, Xerox, Xylopia and XXXXXX.
Y - Yes, You, Youthful, Yew and Yield.
Z - Zeal, Zest and Zenith.

...... and you mave noticed that Portugal was slipped into the "P" line - off on holiday for a couple of weeks but hopefully Blenheim will enjoy unbroken sunshine and lots of visitors whilst I am away.

Will be in touch again soon.

Inspired

2009-07-09T23:29:00.000-07:00

What a busy week - but also what an entertaining mix!

A brief summary:

On Monday we held our summer trustees meeting here at Blenheim Palace - always a slightly stressful occasion but important to review and sign-off the prior year accounts and to look in detail at the current year and the future strategy. For the first time for a while we had new trustees present and thus the meeting lasted longer than normal as more background explanation was needed - but generally the meeting went well and we are in reasonably good shape into the current year thanks to the success of our "Buy One Day - Get 12 months Free!" marketing initiative - with now well over 50,000 annual pass holders signed-up! Did we inspire our trustees - I hope so!

On Tuesday a few of us were invited over to Pinewood Film Studios to see the Fox/Gulliver's Travel crew and to catch-up with their work - very inspiring to see their base and to see some of the sets that they have build in the studios and back lots at Pinewood. What an impressive place - an absolute maze of activity and buildings - stuff for the next Harry Potter film being build over there; scenes being shot over there for "The Clash of the Titans" remake; and scenes for "Gulliver's" being shot over there. We left inspired.

On Wednesday, we hosted a conference at Blenheim Palace during the day for Vision XS Limited surrounding PR, marketing and media services for the leisure/visitor attractions industry - a strong delegate list heard a strong panel of speakers and I was asked to say a few words of welcome at the beginning of the day. The organiser had forgotten to tell me that he had offered a bottle of champagne to any speaker who dropped a "Michael Jackson" reference into his talk - which slightly explained why the chairman for the conference announced that it would be a "thriller" of a day - so I missed out on that opportunity. The day went well and Blenheim Palace certainly inspired those present. In the evening we hosted a gathering for Oxfordshire Tourism - a great opportunity to get everyone together and to talk about a proposed new structure for tourism across the county - the aim was to inspire everyone about the new vision and direction - did we succeed, only time will tell but I hope so because the county needs a new tourism direction and this is a prize that we should all capture going forward. Watch this space!

On Thursday it was into London for a Treasure Houses Managers meeting during the day - London was heaving and hot but it was great to see the other managers from across the other houses and to share with them our experiences as we track through 2009. Always inspiring to share time with our colleagues and particularly pleasing for the first time for a while to be the best performing Treasure House across the group in terms of year-on-year visitor numbers - inspiring even! Back to Blenheim Palace in the evening for an important social gathering for the "Friends of Blenheim Palace". About 160 attended and it is so important for us to keep strong connections with this important group - they are our ambassadors, they help us preserve and maintain this important world heritage site and they are our connection with our local community. Inspiring to meet them all and hopefully they left inspired and more strongly connected with us going forward.

And into today - Friday - where the diary is slightly less manic. That said, we do have a number of Royal Horticultural Society Council members attending this afternoon as we seek to further progress discussions surrounding a possible joint venture with them here at Blenheim Palace. This could be the most inspiring development opportunity for many years at Blenheim Palace - fingers crossed that they leave inspired and they they continue to motivate and inspire their colleagues to move this forward.

We aim to inspire (and where appropriate to be inspired) every day - the inspirational Blenheim Palace makes this easy and the quality and excellence of our hard working staff rises this to new levels every day.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to make this such an inspiring week.

Fine Margins

2009-07-02T23:39:00.000-07:00

We held our annual staff briefing last night after work - an excellent once a year chance to get everyone together in one place and to talk about the successes (and challenges!) across the business as we move through the summer months - and to then adjourn for some drinks and canapes and some team bonding!

Always a very valuable gathering but tempered on this occasion with the news that Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe - Commanding Officer of the 1st Battalion of the Welsh Guards - had been tragically killed in Helmand province in Afghanistan by a roadside bomb. Rupert's mother, Veronica, is one of our Head Guides within the Palace and many of the Palace staff knew her son very well. He was clearly an inspirational leader of his men and he will be hugely missed - our thoughts and prayers go out to Veronica and her family - yet another serving member of our brave armed forces who will not be coming home to his parents, wife and young family. Very very sad; just why are we in Afghanistan anyway with over 170 UK troops killed to date - it seems such a pointless conflict? Answers please on a postcard.

It is no doubt blisteringly hot in Afghanistan at this time of the year but it feels as though it has been equally hot here in the UK this week - but thankfully the heatwave is forecast to break today which should give us slightly cooler weather for the weekend. Unlike me to seek cooler weather given the needs of our business (dry weather essential!) but it can just get tooooo hot and that has been the case this week with people either on the beach or in the back garden. We have traded well but numbers have dipped as everyone has naturally become very lethargic - slightly cooler temperatures and the very slight risk of some rain will actually help our numbers - yes I know, we are very fickle and we are never totally happy with the weather card that we are dealt! Fine margins - too hot we suffer; too wet we suffer!

We have also had to work in these temperatures - not much fun. The main Estate Office is in a converted cottage at the entrance into the Park and it is a building that seems to have no air at all on a hot day - it is a furnace - especially upstairs where two or three of us sit. Every year we dust off "Project Nancy Boy" - an aspirational plan to install air-conditioning - but then we remember the cost, the time it would take to get it installed, the fact that we would probably need planning permission, and by that time the weather has cooled and we live through to another summer! The long range forecast seems to imply a "long hot summer" - could this be the time for "Project Nancy Boy" to become reality? Watch this space?

In complete contrast, space within the Palace itself is luxuriously cool even on the hottest day - the Duke's office on Tuesday was like walking into a fully air-conditioned room even though the temperature was entirely natural due to the stone construction of the Palace and the depth of the walls - they really did know how to build in the early 18th century! It is perhaps something that we should talk more loudly about in a heat wave - visit Blenheim Palace - a really "cool" place or "Britain's Coolest Palace" or "Chill Out " at Blenheim Palace!

We were pleased on Tuesday to get the bundle of papers out to the Duke and our Trustees for our meeting with them on Monday - always a slightly stressful time but the pack looks strong and we have lots of positive news to report so hopefully we will have a good meeting with them - but the margins surrounding success and failure are also very fine -we expect a good meeting and I will report next week on how we fared!!

We go into today and the weekend with "Murray-mania" dominating the sporting headlines - good luck Andy but it certainly gets tough from here in with Roddick and Federer in the way of a Grand Slam title - not least the first British finalist at Wimbledon for 71 years. Good luck also to the British Lions as they try to salvage some pride in the last test against the Springboks - it has been a weird series as the Lions dominated the second half of the 1st Test and the first half of the 2nd Test and yet they lost both games - albeit by a whisker in both games. The results could so easily have gone the other way and we could so easily have seen the Lions winning both tests but that is the roll of the dice - that's how fate determines such matters however fine the margins.

Back in Helmand province, you wonder how fine the margins were to have avoided the most recent tragic loss of life - leaving earlier or later; taking a different route, etc - rest in peace Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe - we will support your mother, wife and family in any way we can at this very sad time but through their grief I am sure that they are also bursting with immense pride at the glowing tributes for all you have achieved in your short life.

Invincible?

2009-06-25T23:49:00.000-07:00

My bedside clock radio clicked on at 6am this morning with the news that Michael Jackson - the King of Pop - had passed away - apparently from a heart attack - but what a shock. I only saw Jackson perform once - at Wembley Stadium several years ago - and he gave an awesome and utterly mesmerising performance as he rattled through his iconic back catalogue of hits - a memorable concert and now never to be repeated. The planned O2 concert series was due to be his swansong but now the world will mourn a music legend - albeit a slightly flawed music legend. His last album was titled "Invincible" - sadly he was not.

At least this will push politics (and politicians) from the front pages for a while! In that vein I had an opportunity last week to attend at Business Leaders surgery in Witney with David Cameron - our constituency MP and leader of the Conservative Party. Always interesting to connect with "the local MP" and David Cameron is particularly impressive with his infectious energy, enthusiasm and knowledge both across his patch and (obviously) into the wider sphere of politics. It was good to have the chance to probe him on tourism related matters as it is a powerful driver of revenue for this county and for this country and it was good to be able to remind him that we continue to knock on the funding door as we strive to restore and conserve this unique world heritage site here at Blenheim Palace. There is no doubt that the air of invincibility surrounding MP's has been massively dented by all that we have read over recent weeks and it is going to take time - and strong resolve - from all of those within politics to win back confidence across the country and this is unlikely to be achieved until a general election is called so that everyone can have a chance to vote in those people who they want to trust and represent them for the next term of government - and vote out those that they don't!

Last week ended with the Oxfordshire Business Awards dinner at the Oxford Thames Four Pillars Hotel and 11 of us attended from Blenheim Palace as we were shortlisted for an award in the Property and Construction Category. The evening was hosted by Adrienne Lawyer - a very feisty TV presenter - and we were all delighted that we won our award category for the unique quality surrounding the restroration and delevopment of the Blenheim Palace Sawmills Site near Combe. A good night was had by all (and an especially merry night was had by some!) and it was excellent to come home with another prestigious Oxfordshire Business Award for the wall. This one means more than most as we dedicate it to our late colleague Tony White who passed away in March - the Sawmills was Tony's last project which he had virtually completed before he left us - I am sure Tony was with us last Friday and I am sure he would have smiled as the award was won. We will give the award to Mary, his wife, as a lasting tribute to Tony's achievements here at Blenheim Palace.

Life through this week has been dominated by preparing for our Summer Trustees meeting in July - accounts are being audited, reports written and a pile of papers finalised for distribution ahead of the meeting. Always a stressful time (especially for Dominic with all the accounts preparation) and a meeting that we are always pleased to get behind us - but the positive trading performance that continues into June means that we can be on the front foot with a very positive story when we meet with them next month. Always sobering to remember though that none of us are invincible - but we have a great team here and everyone works amazingly hard to succeed and to deliver/exceed the high standards that we set for ourselves in every area of the business.

The other interesting aspect of the week has been watching Lord Blandford on the "Famous Rich and Homeless" programme on BBC One - not really his finest hour but very much his personal decision to take part in the programme. The plight of the homeless was certainly painfully showcased across the two hours - and it is frightening to hear some of the stories as to how people slip so easily into that sad and tragic world - none of us should lose sight of this part of our society and we should all remember that none of us are invincible.

On that sobering note - have a good weekend!

Gambling

2009-06-19T00:03:00.000-07:00

As I sit here on a glorious Friday morning - with a clear blue sky and a good forecast for the Father's Day weekend - all seems well and we should be in good shape for the vital summer months to come.

But are there dark clouds around the corner as various facets out there gamble with their destiny?

The news that oil refinery workers across the country are on wildcat strikes this morning is far from encouraging and past experience tells us that this could very quickly escalate into something much more serious - and damaging for us all. Add the postal workers disputes and the ongoing tube issues in London and my fears for a summer of crippling strikes are I hope overstated. The various sides are gambling their cards - lets hope we don't all suffer as a result and that common sense prevails.

Then there are the growing statistics surrounding swine flu - to date the media are handling it very responsibly - taking the sad first UK death and the upgrading to a pandemic in their stride - but how long will their nerve hold and for how long will life carry on unaffected if the numbers continue to grow - especially into the more dangerous winter months?

The world of Formula 1 is gambling with its destiny on the eve of the showcase (and last) British GP at Silverstone - there is so much money slushing around the world of F1 racing that you sort of hope that they are not shooting themselves in the foot (or should that be wheel?) by virtue of their resistance to a budget cap - albeit quite a healthy budget cap! Hopefully they will not gamble themselves into oblivion as I am enjoying FI back on the BBC!

And what on earth is going on with MP expenses - just when we thought it was safe to open our papers again to read real news we are faced with vast blocks of blacked out text, etc. We now all know what "redacting" means (but I had to loook it up!) and the whole issue again has exploded - how can we take this seriously when honesty and openess is needed and promised - and we get vast swathes of blacked out text - what is going on? If I was a gambler, this could be the final straw for an impatient electorate!

And on the subject of gambling, my wife and I had a great day at Royal Ascot on Tuesday and we actually backed 4 winners! But given that the extent of our ambition is to bet £5 each way and given that we tend to play fairly safe - we come away with only a small pot of winnings which was quickly lost on tea, racecards, drinks, babysitter, etc! It is frustrating as we backed an Aussie horse in the second race which romped home as favourite - on the basis that it had not come that distance just for the ride - but I singularly missed applying the same logic in the last race as a horse from America romped home at 33-1 - what an idiot as that would have been an excellent end to the day and would have left me well up overall - but hey - thats gambling!

And so into the weekend - good luck to the British Lions, good luck to Jenson Button and Brawn in his home GP, and good luck to all fathers - enjoy Sunday - it's the one day in the calendar when we really can sit back and be waited on by friends and family with a clear conscience!

And on the subject of gambling - Wimbledon have given up gambling on the weather and have invested heavily in their sliding roof for Centre Court - don't you just know that we will now have a glorious two weeks with no rain!!

Frustrated?

2009-06-12T00:28:00.000-07:00

No this is not an opening for a chatroom or for those who need special help - merely an expression to recognise that not everything goes our way and that things take time.

Frustrated that the weather was so awful last weekend for the Mazda Blenheim Triathlon - but amazed at how the Park survived; amazed at how quickly the organisers (IMG) cleared away from site - they were completely gone by Monday night; and hugely impressed by the herculean efforts of all of the 5,000 athletes in the conditions they faced - especially the in-house talent - well done Dom and Roger in particular!

Frustrated that we are the only UK world heritage site that cannot apply to the Heritage Lottery Fund for funding support - because we are privately owned. I attended the latest All-Party Parliamentary World Heritage Sites Committee meeting at Westminster on Tuesday afternoon and listened to a presentation from the Chief Executive of the Heritage Lottery Fund where she talked passionately about the support they have given to world heritage sites since they were formed - impressive figures given that £284m of lottery funding has gone to world heritage sites since 1994 - but not one penny to Blenheim Palace! Frustrated does not begin to decribe it - downright annoyed and angry would get closer. Having been inscribed as a world heritage site as one of the first batch in the UK back in 1987 (there are now 24 UK world heriage sites) it seems totally unjust that we are singled out in this way because of our ownership - world heritage status should command some special support and recognition irrespective of ownership - we will keep talking and lobbying to anyone who will listen - if only to ease our frustration!

Frustrated that change takes time - especially where that change involves a multitude of public and private sector partners. We are on the cusp of an exciting step forward regarding the future managaement of the tourism function across Oxford and Oxfordshire - but inevitably there are a lot of partners that we need to take with us on this in order to capture the prize of a county-wide partnership or organisation to drive this forward. We will get there and I am confident that the end result will be hugely positive for everyone with an interest in tourism across the county - but it is frustrating that we can't move faster!

Frustrated probably does not adequately explain how Frank Lee Morris and Clarence and John Anglin were feeling on this morning in 1962 - probably more like nervous anticipation. On this day 47 years ago they finalised their famous escape from Alcatraz using dummy heads (made of soap, toilet paper and real hair) in their beds, sharpened spoons to cut through the walls in their cells, and a homemade raft to complete their escape. They were never re-captured but we will never know what actually happened to them - it is felt most likely that they were drowned or eaten by sharks - or maybe not?

Frustrated that are best efforts to establish a strong annual music event at Blenheim Palace are continually being thwarted - Wakestock in 2008 succeeded in part but the organisers did not feel able to return this year; "Festival for Heroes" tried and ultimately failed amidst a very cluttered festivals calendar. Hopefully they will return in 2010 and we can then establish a powerful event with them and help good causes at the same time - we will do our best to turn this into reality next summer.

The above has helped to ease my fustration - what is the saying "A problem shared is a problem halved" - and I now look forward with anticipation to a strong weekend where visitors can enjoy "Britain's Greatest Palace" and a great day out - and the forecast is reasonably good as well!

Memories

2009-06-05T00:41:00.000-07:00

Life is full of memories - recent and past; good and bad - but we can never change what has gone before and we must never forget from where we have come.

69 years ago over 558,000 Allied soldiers were recovering from completing the trauma of being evacuated back from Dunkirk in an operation (code named Dynamo) that Winston Churchill called a "miracle of deliverance".

4 years later in 1944, over 130,000 British, Canadian and American soldiers were on the eve of the D-Day landings onto the Normandy beaches. Operation Neptune was launched in the early hours of 6 June 1944 and this paved the way for the end of the Second World War. From the defiance expressed in 1940 came optimism with Churchill declaring that the Normandy invasion was proceeding in "a thoroughly satisfactory manner".

Winston Churchill was born here at Blenheim Palace in November 1874 and many powerful memories exist with regard to his very special connection with this place.

Memories surrounding the use of the Palace through the Second World War are equally vibrant and these were brought vividly to life this week with a number of photographs received from Graham Ellis who was evacuated here to Blenheim Palace with nearly 400 Malvern College schoolboys from October 1939 to Summer 1940. The pictures are amazing from 70 years ago - some even in perfect colour - the temporary huts in the Great Court; the black out screened entrance to the Palace; the cars and lorries from the time including the Duke's Lagonda; the railway set in The Orangery; the Merryweather steam fire pump; the Junior Training Corp parading in front of the Palace and a wonderful picture of the 10th Duke on the front steps of the Palace saying farewell to the school in Summer 1940 and thanking them "for not wrecking the place!"

Graham Ellis recalls various stories from this time - "Perhaps I should mention the huts. Living in a hut is a special experience be it at school or in the services. People rant on about 1947/48 winter being cold but it was not a patch on 1939/40. The huts we lived in and worked in (sleeping and eating only in the Palace) were lit and heated by gas. In the winter with the heat full on we worked in overcoats, mittens and balaclavas to keep warm. The huts had a lining of ice on the inside - on a good day at about 4.30pm or so drips of condensation would begin to fall down on your papers. I got chickenpox and was consigned with many others to the San in the Home Farm. This was pre the bath hut and I was told to have a bath before I went in the bath allegedly used by Churchill, I felt very privileged!. Its funny how odd memories come back - like seeing a huge collection of kippers on the steps up to the Great Hall cooking in the hot sun, they were there for hours and by the time we got them they were well and truly off!"

Thank you Graham for these wonderful memories and for evoking and maintaining the very special relationship that still exists today between Blenheim Palace and Malvern College - we will never forget that special year in our history.

With Malvern College departed, MI5 moved in to occupy the Palace for the rest of the war although much less is known from that "secret" time - other than the amusing anecdote that the buses/taxis used to pull up at the Palace gates and the drivers used to shout "Anyone for MI5!" - so much for the secret Secret Service!

Moving to the present day, memories of Dominic (our talented bean counter aka Finance Director) competing in last years Triathlon are still painful as he struggled manfully through the swim phase for the first time. Hopefully months of training plus the experience gained last year will set him up well for tomorrows challenge - good luck Dom we will all be cheering you on and good luck as well to all of the other staff who are competing - Nick, Anita, Roger, Hannah and any I have forgotten. The weather forecast is poor but it should be a great weekend of sport for the 5,000+ athletes who are due to compete!

The dawn brings the daily challenges - whether Operation Neptune 65 years ago or merely the 2009 Triathlon - but everything creates it's memories and every day is precious and memorable.

The Promise

2009-05-29T00:11:00.000-07:00

We all rely upon promises made and we suffer from promises broken.

Weathermen (and weatherwomen!) promise much (often enhanced by a side remark from a newsreader - such as, "So I should stay in tomorrow - or similar!") and this can hugely influence how everyone plans their days out - especially over a bank holiday weekend. Much was promised over the Whitsun weekend in terms of good weather and indeed Saturday and Sunday lived up to expectations - but Monday was forecast as being overcast with an increasing risk of heavy/thundery downpours. The weather maps showed Oxfordshire disappearing under a swathe of rain and this was all enough to kill off our Bank Holiday Monday business - even though the day turned out pretty well and we only had a few drops of rain! A promise broken that hurt us - or at least a promise that could have been more accurately presented!

Despite this, numbers over the three days were massively up year-on-year (over 100% up year-on-year) so we can't complain too much and everyone enjoyed the new "Art, Design and A Taste of Summer" show - especially my girls who quickly disappeared into the "Chocolate Heaven" marquee!

On Tuesday it was down to a packed Wembley Arena to see the Girls Aloud "Out of Control" Concert - what a fantastic show and what fantastic performers - great fun! They started and finished with "The Promise" - yes, one of their singles for those not in the know! - and they delivered a great show for their army of fans. I think I was virtually the only male there and the level of wild screaming was at fever pitch all evening - but my little girls (Annabelle 9 and Louisa 6) had a great half-term treat and a memorable evening watching Cheryl and the girls perform. What a buzz it must be to go out on stage in front of your screaming fans - maybe I should do X-Factor (in the "very old category") and launch my career - but then again maybe not - and thats a promise!

On Wednesday I travelled north into Warwickshire to give a talk to the Stour Valley Probus Club and met lots of interesting retired gentlemen - all of whom had a keen interest in Blenheim Palace and what we are doing across the Estate. They all promised to visit Blenheim and they promised to read my blog - in return I promised them a mention - so I have delivered my side of the bargain and I hope that they read this and let me know!!

Yesterday The Duke and Duchess finally received the Historic Houses Association/Christie's Garden of the Year Award from the President and Deputy Chairman of those organisations and over 80 high profile guests enjoyed a wonderful celebration lunch in The Orangery following the formal presentation of the award in the Italian Garden. Lots of press attended and they have promised lots of excellent coverage - we hope they deliver as the exposure for the gardens - and for the gardening excellence on show - will be valuable for us going into the summer months. We are all so proud to receive this highly prestigious award in its 25th year and the weather was kind to us after much rain on Wednesday - the weather forecast promised and the weather delivered.

The forecast for the weekend is for excellent weather (fingers crossed!) so hopefully we will be busy and sales of Blenheim Palace ice-cream and pimms should hit record levels! I promise you that Blenheim Palace and its surrounding Gardens and Parkland look sensational at this time of year - please do visit and enjoy this tranquil inspiring world heritage setting - there is no finer place on a glorious summer weekend and I promise you that Blenheim Palace will amaze you if you have not been before - as will our "Buy One Day - Get 12 Months Free!" offer which continues to go from strength to strength.

I promise to write again soon - have a good weekend!

Gardening Excellence!

2009-05-22T05:41:00.000-07:00

On Monday evening, my wife and I were very lucky to be able to attend the Gala Preview evening at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show - the weather held fine (just!) and despite being borderline freezing cold for May, it was a wonderful evening.

This show is the ultimate "best in class" and it reaches world class levels of horticultural excellence. For someone without a green finger or toe on either hand or foot, it is always good to see such effortless talent displayed for all to enjoy. Some of the show gardens were trully inspiring - the Eden Project Garden, the Perfume Garden, and the Daily Telegraph Garden all stood out amongst an impressive selection. The Gold Medal proudly displayed on the James May Plasticine Garden also caught the eye - sad that it was only made out of plasticine but you had to smile! And finally, did the organisers find the second gnome that was apparently smuggled onto site and onto one of the gardens - strictly taboo for any gnome to be seen on site and an annual battle!

One small aside made me smile and restored some faith in the world of celebrities - at least in part. My wife and I were in the queue to enter the show and to have bags checked, etc when a large rolls royce pulled up near the entrance gates. Cliff Richard and Cilla Black got out of the car and were greeted by a couple who were clearly waiting to meet them. Entrance tickets, etc were exchanged and all four of them then without hesitation strolled back past us to the back of the queue in order to take their turn to enter. Well done and thanks to them both - so many would have just entered!

Well done to the RHS for another stunning sell-out Chelsea Flower Show and for maintaining such fantastically high standards - I am sure many returned home with grand designs - me, I think the plasticine could work well!

Staying with the theme of gardens excellence, on Thursday next week we receive our Garden of the Year Award from the Historic Houses Association and Christie's - we are so proud to receive this prestigious award in it's 25th year and it is a wonderful credit to Trevor and Hilary Wood (our Head Gardeners) and their excellent and highly dedicated team. Thursday is for them and I hope they will bask in the attention they deserve - and hopefully the surrounding publicity will drive yet more visitors to see our wonderful gardens.

We go into another bank holiday weekend with a brand new craft show - "Art, Design and a Taste of Summer" - on offer for our visitors. The site looks fantastic, the line up of exhibitors is very strong and there is lots to see and do each day - add fine weather to this mix and we should have a very good weekend?

Fox have now moved off site after three weeks here filming scenes for "Gullivers Travels" and it is nice to have our car parks and courtyards back in our control and clear of film company clutter - that said, we enjoyed having them with us and they were highly professional at all times. Hopefully the film will be strong and good for Blenheim Palace when it launches in Summer 2010 - we will have to wait and see!

The sad news of the week was the cancellation of the planned "Festival for Heroes" outdoor concert which was planned to take place on Saturday 20 June 2009 to raise significant monies for the Royal British Legion. Despite herculean efforts from the organisers, the ticket sales were poor - no doubt reflecting the economic times that we are all trading in at present - and this has led them to take the painful decision to pull the plug. Very disappointing for all concerned but hopefully we may be able to resurrect this for 2010 - fingers crossed - as it would have done so much good in so many areas.

Works on the Blenheim Dam have started (more on that in future blogs) and Dom + Roger continue to push on with their punishing training schedule ahead of Saturday 6 June 2009 when they compete in the Blenheim Triathlon - huge respect and admiration - well done to both!

Have a great long relaxing sunny bank holiday weekend - and enjoy delivering your own version of gardening excellence!

Ants Nest!

2009-05-15T08:05:00.000-07:00

Wow - what a busy week - full of diversity and full of lots of people very energetically going about their business - hence the ants nest analogy!

Fox have carried on filming all week (despite the attempts of the weather to disrupt scheduling, etc with the odd sharp shower!) and we are virtually at the end of their stay here at Blenheim Palace. It is a very large crew and it has been impressive (if not slightly daunting!) to watch the hard work being applied by the various skilled technicians on site - hopefully the end product will justify the time, energy and investment; and hopefully Blenheim Palace will be magnificently showcased when "Gulliver's Travels" launches in Summer 2010.

The last two days have seen them filming inside the Palace (yes, that was a basketball hoop that appeared in the Long Library in front of Queen Anne!) and we took the difficult decision to close the Palace to the public on these two days as it was impossible to run both operations side by side. The response from our visitors has been on the whole fantastic and I apologise for the disruption and inconvenience that has arisen - such decisions are always a difficult balance but hopefully they have been taken in the best interests of the Palace and its future.

The film company pull off site early next week and we then face the challenge in re-presenting every area of the Palace, Gardens and Park in pristine condition ahead of the next Bank Holiday weekend - yes, another one is already virtually upon us.

I was very lucky on Wednesday to be able to look down from a penthouse balcony onto the emerging Olympic site - what an amazing construction site. It looked like a crazy ants nest - with activity in every direction and with flashing yellow hazard lights on millions of dumper trucks, etc and with people moving and working in every direction. It looked very inspiring and the assurance that everything was on time (not sure I heard mention about budget!) was encouraging to hear ahead of their frenetic run in to 2012. The facilities will be world class - but I remain to be convinced that the legacy plan is robust enough and that the fantastic structures can secure meaningful, worthy and sustainable uses going forward. Much of the Athens Olympic site is lying unused, derelict and neglected - that risk must be avoided in London.

The opportunity to see the Olymic site - via East London's waterways into Prescott Channel - was facilitated through the 61st ALVA (Association of Leading Visitor Attractions) Council meeting which I attended as a representative of The Treasure Houses of England. The excellent day culminated with dinner at the Hall of the Waterman's Company and we were treated to a wonderful spread and excellent hospitality - formed in 1555, The Company of Waterman and Lightermen of the River Thames are steeped in history including the latest winner of the Doggett Coat and Badge!

The weather forecast is not great - and an inch of rain last night is not good for tourism (but great for farmers as my late father would have said and as the Duke said this morning!) - but hopefully the weekend trading will be strong as we move forward from the filming disruption and positively into some strong summer events - starting with a new craft show - "Art, Design and A Taste of Summer" on the Whitsun weekend - sunshine please and lots of it!

Good luck to Paul Orsi (our Rural Enterprises Manager) who is running this weekend in the British Heart Foundation - Blenheim 10k Bolt fun run to raise money in memory of our dear friend and colleague - Tony White - who passed away recently. Go Paul - we are all proud of you!

And so the ants carry on bustling away - I am sure the olympic site will only get busier as every day draws the site closer to Summer 2012 and I hope that Blenheim Palace will continue to enjoy success and lots of bustling activity through our strong connection with our growing annual pass database and through our excellent special event programme to be rolled out over the coming weeks.

And its off to the Chelsea Flower Show (another very bustling site) on Monday - but more about that next week!

Storm clouds

2009-05-08T07:56:00.000-07:00

Friday afternoon and we are sat here with fingers crossed that the clouds will clear and that the high winds will drop - all necessary to support the second night shoot in the Palace Great Court for the "Gulliver's Travels" production by Fox. They shot through the night last night and the weather did everything possible to conspire against them - wind + rain is far from ideal if you are filming a delicate banqueting scene outdoors and everyone is dressed in period costume with extensive hair and make-up creations! But they got through last night just about OK and we just hope that all of their hard work is rewarded this evening with workable conditions for what they require.

The Great Court looks absolutely amazing - very heavily dressed with additional trees and foliage and a massive banqueting table - and the Palace is very heavily lit with flambeau's on the roof to add atmosphere and effect. It is an absolutely stunning set and we are excited about the positive exposure that we will enjoy when the film finally launches next summer. It is a great fun production but the quality and professionalism of everyone (and there are lots and lots of them!) employed on set is amazing - an impressive industry and this is real five star top quality.

The "stars" appear very happy and their frequent appearances in Woodstock and around the Palace are hugely entertaining for visitors and for locals alike - they are with us through next week as well and we enjoy having them with us.

The week has raced by after the bank holiday weekend - despite all necessary prayers having been offered, the bank holiday weather was decidely dodgy - the sunshine on Saturday turned to rain and cold weather by the Monday but our numbers were very strongly up year-on-year mainly due to a large take-up from our annual pass holders. The connection with Blenheim Palace from this new "audience" is very powerful and we expected the jousting weekend to be popular - but probably not that popular as thousands arrived on the Sunday and Monday despite the less than perfect weather. We handled the crowds reasonably well (thanks to an amazing effort from everyone in Operations, Retail and Visitor Catering - well done and thanks to three great teams!) but there was still inevitable congestion from having so many people on site each day - we need to work on some logistical improvements for the next jousting tournaments in August 2009 in order to better cope across site and to deliver a better experience for everyone. That said, we have only had positive feedback from visitors with some wonderful unsolicited emails and letters - this means so much to everyone as it is all too often these days that we are quick to criticise but slow to praise. Thank you to those who took the trouble to give us this feedback.

The jousting entertainment went well with 6 shows over the three days - they do give it everything (as evidenced by the dislocated shoulder on the first day to one of the young knights!) and I am sure they go home black and blue. The knights that is - not the horses! The falconry shows are always an excellent curtain raiser for the jousting and hugely popular - but for the first time this year the first day saw the very first bird leave the handlers arm and diassapear out of sight over the distant trees like a rocket - not good for a spectator show and not a good start! Any amount of high pitched whistling and shouting failed to get it to return although various other high level passing birds were wrongly identified by the optimistic falconer as he tried to hold it together. It was eventually caught later on using a tracker device but not quite what was planned! That said, the overall quality of the 6 falconry shows was amazing and everyone was spellbound as bird after bird performed athletically (or should that be balletically) above their heads.

The week has seen the licence application for the "Festival for Heroes" Concert on Saturday 20 June 2009 granted by the local authority after a successful consultation period which attracted no objections from those in the locality - a very pleasing outcome and clear evidence that this well intentioned event (targetting to raise £1m for the Royal British Legion) has good local support. It now needs to drive its marketing awareness and to push ticket sales along towards the capacity limit of 29,999 persons attending - lots of activity to come on this front over the coming weeks.

And so will the storm clouds move away to support the filming - clouds appear to be moving - sadly still driven too fast by strong winds - but there is still time for the wind to drop.

If only we could control the weather - life would be so much easier - especially for the leisure industry!

Hollywood knights!

2009-05-01T06:22:00.000-07:00

Blenheim Palace has been transformed into a Hollywood film set as Fox commenced filming here yesterday for their new blockbuster - "Gulliver's Travels" - for release Summer 2010. A huge basketball court has appeared inside The Great Court which is totally confusing and mystifying our visitors - especially those from overseas - but we hope that the buzz and excitement caused by the huge film crew plus lots of very famous "faces" wandering around will help to mitigate any concern from visitors that their visit has been affected. Was that the "Big Yin" over there; did I hear someone say "Am I bovvered?"; is that a "Young Victoria"?; sounds like "King Fu Panda" is in the Great Court??? It is always a fine balance - there is no doubt that it is very instrusive but it also a glimpse into a fascinating world that is rarely seen and the revenue from their time here plus the profile gained around the launch of the film next summer are both big positives. With over a £1m to be spent on the Blenheim Dam restoration this summer, we need revenue opportunities like this despite the inconvenience that may arise. Heather Carter (our unflappable Head of Operations) is doing a fantastic job to balance our customer service delivery alongside the operational challenges - and her team are responding magnificently. Fox are with us for another couple of weeks so this is just the start - but we will work very hard to satisfy everybody wherever possible.

Having achieved a successful Easter weekend, we are again heading into a bank holiday weekend and (thank goodness!) the weather forecast is reasonably positive. We are hosting the "Knights of Royal England" here for three days of spectacular jousting tournaments on the South Lawn. A really great family event with two jousting displays each day (at 12.30pm and at 3.00pm) and two falconry shows beforehand at 12.00noon and 2.30pm each day. The South Front of Blenheim Palace sits as a magnificent backdrop for the jousting and hopefully everyone will have a fun time - armies of young soldiers - "Soldiers of the King" - are created and swords + shields are seen in abundance. Not a time to turn your back on the young army as you tend to get prodded!

Slightly bizarrely, we are being used by the BBC Politics Show on Sunday for their live regional broadcast - and they have requested to be positioned right by the jousting arena! So as they cut to the regions "live" at 12.30pm, the mounted knights will be entering the arena to a blast of noise - maybe this means that politics can move to the "tilting arena" and MP's can in future battle it out through a jousting tournament - best man or woman wins! Makes the voting system much easier!

The past week has seen the usual mix of diversity - on Monday we had a catch up on the forthcoming Triathlon (6 + 7 June) with IMG (the organisers) and numbers are at record levels with over 5000 people entered - including our intrepid FD whose training regime (and damaged thumb) causes us growing concern! On Tuesday I chaired an Oxfordshire Economic Partnership Tourism Task Group meeting with excellent representation from across the county - interesting times as we look to harmonise the tourism assets across the city, districts and county. Watch this space for more news as there does appear to be a unified determination to take this forward into a new workable structure that must be good for everyone connected with tourism.

Best wishes to all for an excellent and relaxing bank holiday weekend - hopefully watching the jousting at Blenheim Palace under clear blue sky!

Awards and Presentations

2009-04-25T01:46:00.000-07:00

A week of awards and presentations!

On Tuesday afternoon it was over to Witney for a "public" gathering regarding the "Festival for Heroes" concert application (for up to 29,999 persons to attend a one-day concert here on 20 June 2009) - a useful opportunity to present details of the event and to answer questions - or should that be - alleviate fears and concerns! The hoops surrounding such processes do seem to get more bureaucratic each year and it does lead one to fear the day when such events will become unviable due to the legislative burden and the compliance obligations. Let's hope sense prevails over time because our special events programme is vital to our long term survival - especially given the lack of any external funding support for the restoration and conservation of the Palace and its environs. It is not in our interests to run bad events - we will always strive to run events that are fully compatible - both internally with all that we strive to achieve and externally with our local community.

On Thursday it was up to York for the Enjoy England Awards for Excellence where we were shortlisted in the "Large Visitor Attraction of the Year" category - together with Harewood House in Leeds and the Science Museum in London. The awards evening was held in the impressive National Railway Museum and the host for the evening was the hilarious Michael MacIntyre who had everyone in stitches with his sharply observed take on life around England - great fun and a great talent. As we sat under the shadow of the "Winston Churchill" steam locomotive (which seems like a pretty good omen!!) we eventually ended up winning the Silver Award - of course we were gutted not to win the Gold Award (which incidentally went to Harewood House - one of our Treasure Houses colleagues - well done to them) but we were also very proud to get this close and to win such a prestigious national award. A great credit to everyone! We drank some champagne; congratulated our rivals and other winners; and vowed to return and win Gold very soon!

On Friday it was back down to Blenheim Palace to help support everyone with the Annual Heritage Awards presented by the Duke to various schools and school children in recognition of their amazingly talented work submissions which are received by the Education Department following their school visits to Blenheim Palace. This is a wonderful event which the Duke clearly thoroughly enjoys - and to see the pride displayed through Head Teachers, Teachers and Parents is fantastic as their children go up to receive their awards from the Duke. These awards epitomise everything good about Blenheim Palace - it is such a wonderful resource for all ages and the quality of work produced is outstanding - Blenheim clearly reaches them all so strongly and inspires such vision and creativity in their work. Well done to Karen Wiseman and Antonia Kearney (our highly talented Education team) and to all of the Guides and Operations staff who work so hard for this big day in their calendar. It was a great success all round - and the yummy tea was demolished - hardly a chocolate brownie in sight - but I do hope that children were not being sick in the back of cars as they were driven home!!

Tonight sees the annual Churchill Memorial Concert in the Palace with around 200 people attending - the address this year will be given by Sir Christopher Meyer (former British Ambassador to the United States from 1997 to 2003 and currently Chairman of the Press Complaints Commission) - hopefully once again this high profile event will raise good money for lots of worthy local causes.

Fox move on site on Sunday for three weeks filming activity with "Gullivers Travels" - should be fun but operationally challenging!

Numbers have stayed strong through the week and April is beating all records as our "Buy One Day - Get 12 Months Free!" campaign continues to connect strongly - all looks promising but then it is raining this morning - the weather always has the ability to "dampen" our enthusiasm and remind us that it can all be too fragile!

Hopefully the blue sky and sunshine will re-appear very soon - together with our smiles!

Easter, Heroes and Awards

2009-04-17T06:44:00.000-07:00

Another week has passed (weeks at Blenheim Palace seem to pass quicker than anywhere else!) and we can reflect on the Easter weekend.

Despite praying for blue sky and sunshine, we ended up with a fairly miserable 4 days of weather with blue sky only making a first appearance around lunchtime on Easter Monday. Despite this we traded very strongly and the "Butterflies and Bunnies" Easter Egg trail at the Pleasure Gardens was hugely popular - my little girls avoided getting lost in the huge Marlborough Maze and needed only a little help from mummy + daddy (and anyone else they could find to ask!) - they are though still buried under the weight of chocolate at home! The 4 days of Easter 09 saw visitor numbers 80% up on the snowy conditions of Easter 08 - a fantastic outcome given the overcast conditions and this continues our strong trading performance since opening in mid-February. This represents our highest Easter attendance at least back to 1997! The "Buy One Day - Get 12 Months Free!" offer is still connecting very strongly with all of our visitors and we have a growing army of annual pass holders that we hope will connect with us very strongly over the coming months - all very exciting and very positive.

Today has seen the exciting announcement and launch of the "Festival for Heroes" one day concert on Saturday 20 June 2009 - 10 acts have been announced (including Gabrielle, Lulu, All Angels, Blake, Escala and The Automatic) and the one day event will target to raise substantial monies for the Royal British Legion and for Soldiers of Oxfordshire. Very worthy causes that we are pleased to help support and a wonderfully eclectic all-british line-up that everyone should enjoy watching on the day. It does feel very appropriate that Sir Winston Churchill's birthplace should host this event in support of our armed forces and hopefully ticket demand will be strong and the event will meet its targets.

This does virtually now complete our events calendar and we are going to have a very busy summer with "something for everyone" to enjoy through the year - we do though need good weather to ensure good ground for all of our events so the prayers continue for lots of blue sky and sunshine! Our full events listing can be found on the "Whats On" pages of our website.

We have also signed contracts for some major location filming to take place here in the coming weeks - this will be very high profile for Blenheim Palace; very exciting and buzzy to have them with us for around three weeks, but very challenging in delivering excellent customer service to our normal day visitors alongside the filming requirements. We like challenges and I am confident that we can deliver through the excellence and dedication of our staff. It will be a "giant" of a movie when released in Summer 2010.

Next week will be exciting as we go up to York on Thursday evening for the Enjoy England Awards for Excellence event. We are shortlisted in the Large Visitor Attraction category of these highly prestigious national awards and we hope to be able to report success. Everyone has their fingers crossed as this would mean so much to The Duke and to the whole team to receive such recognition.

We hope the weekend weather will be kind and that the annual OX5 fun run - to be started by David Cameron MP who will then also take part in the run - will raise lots of money for local causes.

Life at "Britain's Greatest Palace" rolls on - and we remain pleased to be still in reasonably good shape with lots to look forward to over the coming months.

Praying for a sunny Easter

2009-04-09T07:55:00.000-07:00

Back from the Austrian slopes just about in one piece - despite a mighty crunching fall on day one in near blizzard conditions - and now heading into our first bank holiday weekend of the 2009 season.

Easter is such an important milestone (albeit frustratingly the date is such a moveable feast each year) and the weather can so dictate how we perform. Hopefully the snow during Easter 08 will not repeat and hopefully the slightly dodgy forecast for Easter 09 will edge in our favour with more blue sky + sunshine than black clouds + rain! Time to keep fingers crossed and we hope families will be tempted out to enjoy our Great Blenheim Palace Easter Egg Challenge - "Butterflies and Bunnies Trail".

Our visitor business continues to perform very strongly into April and we are significantly ahead of last years performance - this bodes well for the year ahead and helps support performance within our shops and catering outlets. All very positive given the general economic malaise - we are delighted to be offering such a strong value-for-money offer in these tough times and to be able to connect so positively with so many families across Oxfordshire and beyond. More than 20,000 annual passes have been created since we opened on 14 February and we look forward to converting many more day tickets over the coming months.

The increased business does put pressure - I hope positive uplifting pressure - onto all of our staff and I would pay enormous credit to their enthusiasm, their hard work, their professionalism and their continued efforts throughout each day. We do take great care every day to offer the best customer service experience possible from receiving the first visitor in the morning to waving goodbye to the last visitor in the evening - we do not always get this 100% right but everyone (without exception) tries very hard and takes great pride in acting as ambassadors here at "Britain's Greatest Palace". My continued thanks are extended to each and every one of them for their hard work - they are all exceptional individuals.

Future business prospects continue to evolve in a positive manner - contracts are virtually signed for a major filming contract here at Blenheim Palace in the coming weeks and an application has been lodged with West Oxfordshire District Council for a licence to allow up to 29,999 people to attend an outdoor one day "Festival for Heroes" event on Saturday 20 June 2009 where hopefully significant monies will be raised for the Royal British Legion and for the local Soldiers for Oxfordshire campaign. More news on both will follow imminently and hopefully the "Festival for Heroes" event will be fully announced immediately after Easter - exciting times all round.

This last week has also seen a successful first sale here at Blenheim Palace for Lyon and Turnbull plus the launch of our new Trout Fishery initative - an example if needed of the hugely diverse world that exists across the Estate on a day to day and week to week basis.

Blenheim Palace and its surrounding Estate are totally unique and it is an absolute pleasure to work here - the place gets totally inside you and it is an immense honour to be responsible, along with everyone else, for the management and future conservation of this wonderful world heritage site.

Enjoy Easter - eat lots of chocolate - and I hope I can report a successful weekend when I next write!

Going downhill - fast!

2009-03-27T03:02:00.000-07:00

Another Friday arrives and I am rapidly clearing my desk before heading off to Zurs in Austria for a week's skiing with my wife and family - second year on the slopes for the girls and hopefully they will come on leaps and bounds (well not literally!) this time around - 40 cms of snow fell in the resort yesterday so conditions should be excellent.

We have all continued to support Mary, Dominic and Tanya in every way we can as they prepare to say goodbye to their Tony - I am very distressed that I cannot make it to the funeral on Tuesday but I know in my heart that Tony would have expected me to stick with Plan A and to go skiing with my family - but my thoughts will be with Tony's family and friends and with my work colleagues on Tuesday for what will be a very sad occasion - but what must also be a positive (and happy if possible) celebration of a great man who will never be forgotten.

'British Tourism Week' has flown by - commencing last Monday with an "Explore Oxfordshire" exhibition at the Barcelo Oxford Hotel which was preceded by a Tourism Business Breakfast at which I was asked to speak - always good to have an opportunity to "promote" Blenheim Palace and to also highlight the enormous tourism potential that exists across Oxford and Oxfordshire - so many strong brands, strong personalities and strong businesses - hopefully we can better harness and focus these opportunities for the County moving forward. Does 'British Tourism Week' make a difference - I remain to be convinced as to whether it has any effect whatsoever but at least an attempt by VisitBritain to raise the profile should be applauded and supported - especially during these challenging times.

Much of the week has been dominated by discussions surrounding world heritage site funding - the All-Party Parliamentary World Heritage Sites Group met at Westminster and was addressed by Barbara Follett MP, the Minister for Tourism, and it is always good to have a chance to interface with the Minister regarding key issues - and to be able to reiterate our view that we are badly treated here at Blenheim Palace in that we are the "only" UK mainland world heritage site that is ineligible to apply for any external funding (from the Heritage Lottery Fund in particular) due to our status as a privately owned site. This seems to us grossly unjust - world heritage status (granted here at Blenheim Palace back in 1987) should represent something very special and should be acknowledged as such through appropriate funding support. We are making lots of noise on this; we are being listened to very sympathetically in most quarters (for which we are most grateful) but it will take more time for funding changes to be introduced to level the playing field across all UK mainland world heritage sites - but we won't stop trying!

The week ends with plans being finalised for a premises licence application to be submitted to our local authority regarding a one day concert/event in June 2009 - this will raise money for a very worthwhile national cause and could be an exciting event in our summer calendar. Time is very tight for the licence to be sorted; artists to be contracted and tickets to be sold but the organisers are very focused and we are doing everything possible to support their efforts. As I have said before, watch this space and we will tell more on this when we can!!

And so it's off home to pack with time running out - reality will hit on Sunday morning when I realise that I should have done some exercises before launching myself down the slopes - the old bones will no doubt ache but hopefully we will all return in one piece!

Life goes on

2009-03-21T03:03:00.000-07:00

Another week comes to an end - what a strange few days and what a roller-coaster of emotions as we all begin to come to terms with losing Tony White - our dear friend and colleague.

The fine spring weather has enabled us to trade very strongly in the visitor business this week and the year-on-year growth remains impressive on the back of our "Buy one day - get 12 months free!" campaign. The daily visitor numbers are now being boosted by the returning annual pass holders and we hope the coming months will see them connecting strongly with Blenheim Palace and acting vocally across the County as our Ambassadors - we are delighted to have received such a strong response and the viral campaign seems to be gaining momentum as everyone realises there really is "no catch" and it is a great value added offer at a time when everyone is having to be that little bit more careful with what they spend, where they go, etc.

The week has seen good progress on negotiations and planning around film location work here in late April/early May - now looking very positive and hopefully will go to contract within a week or so - a "giant" of a film that should be good for us when it is released in Summer 2010.

We have also made good progress moving forward plans for an outdoor one day concert in June - the organisers are talking to potential artists to hopefully enable a launch early next month but they are leaving it late and their success (or it's success) will totally depend on the strength of their line-up when announced. Watch this space.

The weather forecast is good for the weekend so we hope for good numbers and we have sold-out for Mothers Day lunches in The Orangery - hopefully lots of families will enjoy Blenheim Palace and it's award winning gardens before the weather turns (and the snow returns - surely not!?!?) next week.

Life goes on and we all go about our roles in managing this wonderful Estate and doing our part to ensure it's long-term restoration, survival and growth - but everything is now tinged by the sobering reminder about how fragile our lives are and how we must live for today.

We will do that - but also with an eye on having to plan for tomorrow and the future.

They broke the mould!

2009-03-19T01:21:00.000-07:00

Our lives are so fragile and none of us know what lies ahead of us - the terribly tragic loss of our Construction Manager, Tony White, on Tuesday evening (apparently from a massive and unexpected heart attack whilst out with his dogs) has shocked us to the core.

On Monday evening I attended a seminar at Unipart (ran by Business Link) and the keynote speaker was from Olivier Mythodrama Associates regarding "Inspirational Leadership" - all based around Shakespeare's Henry V. One part of that story was the journey that King Henry undertook through "the dark night" and part of that process was to download and listen to someone close - his sounding board - in this case "Gloucester".

Tony White inspired all of those around him and he was a sounding board and close friend to so many people - he was a truly wonderful remarkable man who will be missed by all who met him. Our heart and prayers go out to his dear wife Mary and to their children, Dominic and Tanya, at this sad time and as they try to come to terms with their immense loss.

There will only ever be one Tony White - they literally broke the mould - he was a "diamond geezer" and we will miss him immensely. His laughter, his smile, his generosity, his kindness, his zest for life, his top skills within the building trade and so much more.

Life will never be quite the same after such a sudden loss - but I do know that Tony would expect us to "get on with it" and to not make a fuss - so we will try to do that in honour of his memory but with very heavy hearts and with so much sadness.

Rest in peace Tony - you will never be forgotten.

Glass half full!

2009-03-14T03:34:00.000-07:00

Blenheim Palace and Formal Gardens have now been open for 4 weeks of the 2009 season and the early indications are (perhaps rather surprisingly) positive with visitor numbers up year-on-year for that period.

We haemorrhaged visitors through the summer months in 2008 and the months from then through to mid-December 2008 when we closed were tough as the global economic issues hit hard across most sectors - including leisure trips and tourism.

In response to this we prudently cut hard into our costs through quarter four 2008 in order to re-shape ourselves and to prepare for a tough 2 to 3 years trading as the world economies re-stabilise - we also wrote cautious budgets for the 2009 season with all of this in mind. The final piece of the jigsaw was a radical message and our "Buy one day - get 12 months free" marketing campaign was devised and launched from opening on 14 February 2009.

Initially launched exclusively with the Newsquest Oxford Group, the response has been very strong - albeit operationally very challenging from an IT and fulfilment perspective on site but our staff were brilliant in coping through everything thrown at them!

So where does this leave our view of the 2009 season - there is clearly a hunger for high quality "value for money/value for time" experiences and I am confident that Blenheim Palace - "Britain's Greatest Palace" - can deliver on that as one of the very special treasure houses within the heritage sector.

Other positive indicators, aside from the glorious summer that we are certain to enjoy (!), are:

>> A raft of national awards delivering high profile PR - national finalist in the Large Visitor Attraction category at the Enjoy England Awards for Excellence 2009; winner of the Historic Houses Association/Christie's Garden of the Year Award 2008; and shortlisted as the "most coach friendly tourist attraction" within the UK National Coach Awards 2009.

>> The weaker pound has a double benefit - we are more attractive to our overseas visitors and domestic business may be more inclined to holiday at home this year - emerging focus on "staycations" - although it is a dreadful word!

>> A strong events calendar with some good new events including an emerging outdoor concert in June - watch this space!

>> Strong supporting business - a big film booking is about to confirm for May (again, watch this space!) and there is a good pipeline of other enquiries despite the challenging economic outlook.

The global impact is clearly very severe and almost everyone has been affected in some way or other other - but I do believe that there is a determination to "get on with it" and to enjoy ourselves despite the many current challenges - for instance the crowds at Cheltenham this last week, the rapid sell-out for Glastonbury (before any acts were announced!) and the remarkable response to the 50 Michael Jackson dates - for that reason we are determined to adopt a "glass half full" attitude and to drive ourselves forward on the front foot through 2009.

For the sake of the challenges we face in restoring and conserving this wonderful world heritage site - including substantial money on the Blenheim Dam this summer - I hope I am right!