- Castle awarded VisitEngland quality accreditation for 10th year running
- Castle will now be entered for the Gold award for overall excellence and ‘Best Told Story’ Accolade
- Award rating reflects the hard work of staff and volunteers
Tamworth Borough Council is proud to announce that Tamworth Castle has retained their official approval as one of the best small visitor attractions in Staffordshire, after achieving the Visitor Attraction Quality Assurance Service accreditation; a quality assessment by VisitEngland, for the tenth year running.
VisitEngland offer a range assessments for tourism businesses in England. Attractions including art galleries, historic houses and buildings are independently visited by an experienced assessor and offered support and guidance to improve their visitor experience.
This year’s assessment visit scored 94%, a 3% increase over the score achieved in 2024, and continuing the upward trend from the original 81% score in 2015.
The assessor commented in their report that the castle provides a “A memorable and enjoyable assessment visit to a well-run historic attraction, where the enthusiasm and commitment of the staff continues to shine through.”
They further added: “The strength of the interpretation and presentation in the castle, and the knowledge and enthusiasm of the staff, have together produced scores which have led to a nomination for VisitEngland's Best Told story accolade. And the high overall score this year also supports a nomination for a Gold award.”
The most notable score was 100% in the staff category. The assessor said: “A particular strength of this assessment visit was again the quality of welcome and interpretation provided by the staff, leading to a perfect score in this section.”
High scores were also achieved in the Cleanliness and Toilets sections, and in the Attraction section.
Additional comments included positive references to the castle website and the ‘very impressive social media engagement, with notable significant increases in followers on both Facebook and Instagram’.
Winners of the VisitEngland Gold award for overall excellence and Best Told Story accolades, will be announced in the Autumn.
Councillor Lewis Smith, portfolio holder for people services, leisure, engagement and heritage, said: “We’re proud to say that we have a VistEngland approval for our wonderful castle, and this high accreditation is a well-deserved recognition of its value, importance and hard work of the staff and volunteers.
“The excellent feedback we receive continues to demonstrate that the castle is all about the people – our visitors, staff and volunteers.”
Book tickets to visit the castle online via: www.tamworthcastle.co.uk.