SAVE at 50! - three conversations with pioneers in conservation

If you wish to register for this series after 27-May-25, please e-mail webinars@martinrandall.co.uk

This year the conservation campaign group SAVE Britain’s Heritage celebrates its 50th anniversary. Ever since it was set up at the height of the 1970s, SAVE has been a fearless, untiring champion of endangered historic buildings. In celebration, Martin Randall Travel has arranged this series in partnership with SAVE and will be sharing proceeds with the charity.

Established by a group of journalists, planners and architectural historians, SAVE fights to save properties which are threatened with imminent demolition, collapse or simply left callously to fall into irreversible decay in the hope of obtaining a lucrative planning permission.

Its determination and persistence has led to the successful rescue of mighty Wentworth Woodhouse in South Yorkshire, one of the finest and grandest Palladian houses in England, as well as a reprieve for 400 terraced houses in Liverpool condemned to demolition but now repaired as family homes thanks to a hard fought public inquiry which it won.

The three ‘in conversation’ illustrated talks are led by SAVE’s director Henrietta Billings and will focus on Marcus Binney, SAVE’s founder and president and five ‘Big SAVES’ that define the organisation’s history; writer and commentator Simon Jenkins on the seminal 1974 ‘Destruction of the Country House Exhibition’ at the V&A, and the early days of SAVE; and Emma Bridgewater founder of the world renowned ceramic company and brand on the adventures of bringing the potteries back to life in 1980s Stoke on Trent.

They take place every Tuesday from 27th May to 10th June 2025 at 4.30pm (London) and, including Q&A, will last just under an hour. They are available for viewing for eight weeks after the last episode is streamed (5th August 2025).