The latest UK Heritage Pulse survey shows how June’s extreme heatwave impacted the sector. June’s amber and red weather warnings pushed temperatures into the high 30s celsius, affecting the UK’s heritage sites. The latest UK Heritage Pulse survey asked people across the sector how the heat affected their buildings, collections, staff and visitors. They replied that:

• Three in four sites were directly affected
• The largest and most-visited organisations felt the impacts most
• Energy and welfare costs went up
• Visitor numbers went down
• A slim majority still felt ready for the next one (which ironically came the next month in July).

The most common on-site effect was the immediate cost of coping: 46% reported increased energy use for cooling and climate control. Difficulty maintaining stable environmental conditions (37%) and higher water consumption (35%) were the next biggest impacts, with a quarter of organisations noting stress to natural or outdoor environments from scorching and drought.

These findings broadly reflect a rapid online survey by the IHSO project of industrial heritage sites in England, except for one significant difference. The weekday timing of the June heatwave (Tuesday 23 to Friday 26 June) meant that most wind and water mills, smaller industrial manufacturing sites, and smaller heritage railways were closed or not running services. Thus, roughly 50% of industrial heritage organisations were directly affected, compared with 75% across the wider heritage sector. More on this in a blog post later in the year.

Uk Heritage Pulse is on online collaborative data and insight project for the UK’s heritage sector that seeks to inform strategy, recovery and, reinvention. It is funded by the National Heritage Lottery Fund and Historic England, and supported by heritage organisations across the UK.

More details on the UK Heritage Pulse Survey website here: Heritage in the heat: what June’s heatwave meant for the sector – UK Heritage Pulse