Skip to content

New education and training centre at Highgrove Estate

  • Education
  • Heritage and Conservation

We are pleased to share that The Prince’s Foundation has announced plans to create a new education and training base at The Prince of Wales’s Highgrove Estate in Gloucestershire. This will complement the work of the Foundation at Dumfries House in Scotland and at Charlotte Road in East London.

The Prince’s Foundation is one of the Prince of Wales’s core charities, alongside The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund (PWCF) and The Prince’s Trust.

The new education centre will provide training courses and opportunities in traditional industries such as woodcarving, stonemasonry and textiles.

The Prince’s Foundation builds its work around its commitment to heritage and conservation. By conserving traditional skills and industries, the Foundation hopes to create opportunities for young people and craftspeople for years to come across the South West of England.

As well as helping people, The Prince’s Foundation is committed to preserving traditional architecture and highlighting the value of such modes of design. This is best evidenced by the careful, thoughtful restoration of Dumfries House and gardens – now a thriving education centre and tourist attraction.

Constantine Innemee, The Prince’s Foundation Director, said: “The aim of The Prince’s Foundation has always been to provide access to training and development in craft skills and other artisanal endeavours that are very often under threat due to lack of knowledge. By developing a new base in the south of England we will be able to offer new opportunities to keep these valuable skills thriving in a part of the country where there is a great deal of talent but where the opportunities to harness and develop them are not always readily available.”

Highgrove is synonymous with craftsmanship and aesthetic excellence. The hope is that this new base within the Estate will allow that influence to permeate every element of the programmes on offer.

At Highgrove, The Prince’s Foundation are also the custodians of the gardens, which HRH The Prince of Wales has brought to life over the many decades he has enjoyed spending time at Highgrove. The gardens can be toured, and all profits raised from garden tours, the shop and café fund the charitable endeavours of the Foundation.

To learn more about The Prince’s Foundation at Highgrove, the plans for the new education centre and their stewardship of the gardens, please watch this video:

If you would like to visit Highgrove, you can find out more and book tickets by following this link: https://www.highgrovegardens.com/

To discover more about The Prince’s Foundation and their mission to build harmonious, sustainable communities, please click here: https://princes-foundation.org/

The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund works closely with The Prince’s Foundation, and looks forward to sharing more of their valuable work in the future.