£500,000 community share offer opens for Ashton Court Mansion
People across Bristol, North Somerset and beyond are being invited to become part of its future
Last updated 19 hours ago
People across Bristol, North Somerset and beyond are being invited to become part of the future of Ashton Court Mansion, as a major new £500,000 community share offer opens, to bring the iconic building into community ownership.
The offer, which will run until the end of the year, is from Ashton Court Mansion Trust, the charitable Community Benefit Society established to restore, regenerate and operate the Grade I listed Mansion, for public benefit.
Shares will be available from a minimum investment of £100, with each investor becoming a member of the Trust and having an equal democratic say in its future, through the principle of one member, one vote, regardless of the number of shares held. The £500,000 raise is a crucial step towards enabling the Trust to take on a proposed 125-year lease of Ashton Court Mansion, from Bristol City Council.
The Council will retain the freehold of the Mansion and the wider Ashton Court Estate, while the Trust would take responsibility for managing, maintaining and restoring the Mansion under the long-term lease.
The share offer starts ahead of a Bristol City Council decision in November on the Trust’s proposal for a 125-year lease of the Mansion. A positive decision would enable the Trust to move towards taking on the building, but the lease can only proceed after this if the Trust has raised the funds needed to operate it sustainably.
That makes the community share offer a critical part of securing the Mansion’s future: the Council’s backing and a successful fundraise are both needed before the Trust can take on long-term responsibility for the building.
The investment raised through the community share offer will provide the start-up and working capital needed to establish the Trust as a sustainable organisation, expand public access and community activity at the Mansion, grow its commercial income and build the capacity needed to secure the major grants and institutional funding required for its restoration.
Ashton Court Mansion Trust Chair, Simon Cook MBE, said: “This marks an important moment in the long story of Ashton Court Mansion. For generations, people across Bristol have known and loved Ashton Court, but much of the Mansion itself has been inaccessible and without a sustainable long-term future. This share offer gives people the opportunity to do something very tangible about that. We are inviting people to become members of the organisation that will care for the Mansion, help us secure its future and play a part in bringing this extraordinary building back into the life of the city.”
Around three quarters of Ashton Court Mansion is currently derelict, with much of the building having been closed to the public for decades. The Grade I listed Mansion is also included on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register.
The scale of the challenge is significant. The Trust’s current business plan estimates that the full regeneration of Ashton Court Mansion could ultimately require investment of around £20–£25 million over a period of up to 20 years.
Rather than attempting to restore the entire building at once, the Trust is proposing a phased approach, bringing individual rooms and wings back into use as funding becomes available.
Its first five-year regeneration programme is currently estimated at approximately £12 million, with major institutional funders expected to provide the majority of that capital and the Trust raising the balance through public fundraising, donations and match funding.
The initial £500,000 community share offer is separate from that major capital programme. Its purpose is to provide the financial foundation from which the Trust can operate the Mansion, grow its income and community programme, and successfully pursue the major heritage funding required for restoration.
Vice Chair of Ashton Court Mansion Trust Josh Nesfield, said: “The £500,000 is what unlocks what comes next, giving us the working capital we need to secure the lease, begin opening more of the Mansion, build a sustainable organisation and start applying for the significant funding, that will be needed to restore this building properly.
This is not about asking the public to somehow fund a £20 million restoration themselves, it is about creating a strong, community-backed organisation that can make that restoration possible.”
The Trust has already begun testing how the Mansion can work as an active public building and, since taking responsibility for the Mansion under a temporary tenancy in May 2026, accessible areas have been re-decorated and used for events including filming, private hire, exhibitions, art classes, orchestral rehearsals and weddings. Public tours have also begun, while several thousand visitors entered the Mansion during the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta in August.
The Trust has also begun developing a volunteer community around the building. Its business plan identifies an existing group of 30 Friends of Ashton Court Mansion volunteers, alongside around 80 additional volunteers already recruited, with an ambition to build a volunteer base of around 200 people.
The Trust’s long-term vision is for Ashton Court Mansion to become a financially sustainable heritage venue where commercial activity supports public access and community benefit.
Its proposed programme is built around five areas: heritage and conservation; culture and arts; skills and heritage crafts; food, growing and cooking; and nature, outdoors and biodiversity.
Future plans include increasing public access, workshops and courses, guided tours, exhibitions, community events and volunteering, alongside commercial activity including weddings, filming, artist studio rental and private hire.
As restoration progresses, the Trust also hopes to create artist and maker workspaces, education and museum spaces and overnight accommodation associated with events. The organisation estimates that its core community programme alone could create more than 15,500 opportunities for people to participate, during its first five years.
The Mansion has already attracted support from the heritage funding sector. The Architectural Heritage Fund has awarded development funding towards preparatory work, while the Trust has also received funding from the Reach Fund to support development of its business plan and community share offer.
The Ashton Court Mansion community share offer opens today (Wednesday 21 October) and will run for two months.
For more information and to invest, visit: [www.fundsurfer.com/ashtoncourtmansion](http://www.fundsurfer.com/ashtoncourtmansion |newtab)