General manager to leave National Trust Fermanagh after 27 years

Leaving his position as General Manager at the National Trust Fermanagh, where he oversaw Florence Court, Castle Coole and Crom, Jim spoke to The Impartial Reporter about his time working across the estates, sharing his highlights and fond memories.

However, his connection with the National Trust began long before he moved to Fermanagh 27 years ago.

Originally from Coleraine, Jim started volunteering with the National Trust during his teenage years.

“I was volunteering at an early age and when I was in my 20s, I won a travelling fellowship that took me off to Canada and that was through the National Trust. I kept getting more interested in it and more involved.

“My wife Ange and I, we actually met through volunteering with the National Trust and at that time we lived in Bath,” said Jim.

Together Jim and Angela went on to Claydon, a National Trust property in Buckinghamshire and in 1994 they moved to Fermanagh, where Jim took up the manager role at Florence Court.

Living in Florence Court

“We thought that we would stay here for three to five years but we’ve been here really ever since,” said Jim with a laugh.

When the Chestnutt family first moved to Fermanagh, they took up residence at Florence Court House.

“We lived in Florence Court House for 12 years when we first came here, and we brought our children up here. When we came here our eldest was two and our youngest hadn’t been born so she was born when we were at Florence Court,” said Jim, describing his time living in the beautiful 18th-century manor house as “very special”.

“It was a privilege to have that time here. Florence Court holds a special place in our hearts for all of us, including my two girls.”

Talking about how his role developed, Jim explained that when he first came to Florence Court, there was a manager for each of the three properties in Fermanagh.

“Then about 20 years ago the manager left Castle Coole and I was asked to look after it until they got a replacement. That went on for a few years and a replacement never came so that became permanent.

“Then a few years after that the manager at Crom left and then we created the Fermanagh portfolio, so the team that we have now, we are across all of the sites really and I’m general manager for the three,” explained Jim.

Highlights

Commenting that he has a “huge number of highlights” from his time working across the Fermanagh sites, he added: “Everything that has happened here has been only made possible through so many other people playing their part.

“We’ve amazing staff, volunteers and partners that all work together to make big things happen. Looking back, each of the three places had their own highlights.

“For me one of the big ones was the return of the original furnishings of Florence Court around 20 years ago,” said Jim.

He explained that when Lord and Lady Enniskillen left the estate in the 1970s, the house was empty.

“They owned the furniture, and they took it with them. Then 20 years ago there was an opportunity to re-acquire the collection for Florence Court.

“And that was an amazing time when we were actually reinstating a historic country house in Ireland, when so many would just lose the collections forever.

“But yet we managed to get the bulk of the family things back to Florence Court. That meant that we could now tell the story of the family in a more authentic way, having everything back to where it came from,” he said.

He went on to outline some of the other developments at Florence Court, including the partnership with the Forest Service which enabled the visitor centre to be built and offered access to the wider site, and more recently the Kitchen Garden project.

“And at Crom, Crom is so much about the quality of nature value, increasing access to it and its presentation has improved over the years with outdoor holidays, camping and glamping,” said Jim.

He reminisced over the events that the National Trust hosted, particularly at Castle Coole including Proms in the Park, the Royal Garden Party and the Antiques Roadshow, to name but a few.

“So, there’s been a lot that has happened in my time,” he said.

Something new

Noting how he feels “really privileged in life” to have been able to do something that he loves and to be able to do it for so long, he said: “I’ve never wanted to do anything else so it’s great to be able to do that and leave it when I still love it.”

“I’m leaving on a very optimistic note because I think Fermanagh is on the cusp of moving forward and realising even more potential and I’m really encouraged that my successor is from Fermanagh.

“I’ll always be connected, hopefully, with the National Trust in some way. I’m not ready to hang my boots up, I’m looking forward to taking on something new,” Jim told this newspaper.