Past
Present
Future

About Rame Conservation Trust

We care for the natural and cultural heritage assets at Maker Heights, including four Scheduled Ancient Monuments, the iconic Grade II* Listed Barrack Block, the Nissen huts and 12 hectares of rare unimproved grassland, woodland and other habitats.  

A place of outstanding heritage significance, this is a former military site which played an important role in the defence of Plymouth from the late 18th century. 

The heritage assets at Maker Heights are unique, original and, at the present time, largely unaltered. Consequently, Maker Heights is of national importance, and of outstanding significance.

The Rame Conservation Trust was established as a charity in 1997 to protect and promote the heritage assets at Maker Heights for public benefit.

Our purpose is defined within our governing documents.

We promote public access, education, experience and enjoyment to achieve communal value at Maker Heights. We seek new uses for the buildings in our care and through our trading subsidiary, Maker Heights Limited, rent spaces to over 25 artists and small enterprises. Several of these deliver social benefit as Community Interest Companies run by local families.

We welcome enjoyment of this historic coastal landscape, protecting it from development and preserving it for future generations. We helped develop the Conservation Management Plan for the site working with Cornwall Council, Historic England, the Mount Edgcumbe Estate and Evolving Places.

In recent decades, Maker Heights has become home to a creative community, making their own cultural history, much of which has been recorded through the Maker Memories project.

The site is much loved by both the local community and visitors from further afield.

Maker Heights also played an important social historical role in an initiative to provide children from deprived backgrounds respite from poverty. Nancy Astor, the first female to sit as an MP in the House of Commons, set up Maker Camp in the 1920s as a school holiday camp for Plymouth’s deprived children. The camp continued to operate in this way, including through the post-second world war period, until the early 1980s. We continue this tradition today, providing affordable camping for families at Maker Camp.

The Trust aims to safeguard the historical and architectural legacy of the Borough of Rame in Cornwall, including buildings of significant beauty or historical value, for the benefit of its residents and the wider nation.

Meet the Trust

Introducing the Board of Trustees of the Rame Conservation Trust:

  • Chair
    Ursula is a Chartered Environmentalist with 20 years experience in environmental consultancy. She brings her experience of business development and project management to the Trust and has extensive experience working with statutory bodies, voluntary organisations, businesses and the public.

  • Treasurer
    Chris is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Cost and Management Accounts, having spent his working life as a commercial and finance director in international publishing. He moved to the Rame Peninsula 10 years ago and focusses on developing accounting controls to ensure the long-term financial viability of the Trust.

  • Inés is an academic working in research, administration and teaching at the University of Plymouth. She has lived on the Rame Peninsula for 11 years and supports Trust with social media, photographic documentation and has recently joined the working group supporting the Trust’s custodianship of the Millbrook Chapel of Rest.


  • Leon Frey is a field mycologist and writer, with a background in charity and the arts. He is involved in several community projects across the Rame Peninsula, with an interest in the cultural and environmental prosperity of the area.

  • Dick lived on the Rame peninsula whilst at Plymouth Art College and loved it so much he moved here in 1985. His career spanned professional photography, boat-building and running a local construction company. He manages new projects and organises maintenance across the site.

     

  • Andrew’s background was in international business publishing before setting up and running a self-catering holiday business prior to moving to Maker in 2019. Andrew has a particular interest in the military structures of Maker Heights, their history, conservation and promoting public awareness. Andrew is Chair of the Redoubts Working Group.

  • Lyn is an Honorary Member – having invested in Maker Heights at the outset – with a strong conviction that community commons are essential and beneficial. She has a background in the natural sciences, worked in varied scientific and administrative roles, and has raised her family on the beautiful Rame Peninsula.

  • Deborah’s family moved to the Rame Peninsula in 1987. She has been an IT Manager locally and in Manchester, and worked with Amnesty International in London. She loves restoring vintage computers from the 1980s. In 2016, she served as a Trustee and has returned in 2024 to support the Trust’s IT needs.

  • Caroline has a professional background in art, landscape, wildlife and historic landscape, and worked for over 20 years for Historic England. She now works with local community and environmental charities and is keen to see the community fully benefit from managing, using and enjoying Maker Heights.

Documents

Click here to view the governing documents and accounts of the RCT.

Come and visit us soon!