Jersey Heritage is celebrating a double national award win for its visitor sites following the announcement of this year’s prestigious VisitEngland Accolade Awards.

For the second year in a row, Jersey Museum, Art Gallery & Victorian House won the top ‘Gold Accolade’ award for overall excellence, alongside the likes of the Jorvik Viking Centre in York, the Frameless Immersive Art Experience in London and Yorkshire Sculpture Park in Wakefield.

The Gold award is the highest award and recognises outstanding visitor experience across the board, including service, presentation and visitor engagement and was presented to only 21 visitor attractions.

In addition to ‘Gold’ for Jersey Museum, Hamptonne Country Life Museum also won the ‘Welcome Accolade’ for ensuring every visitor feels welcomed and valued. The award is testament to the hard work and dedication of the front-of-house team, who go the extra mile to ensure a memorable visit for all guests.

All six of the charity’s visitor sites – Jersey Museum, the Maritime Museum, La Hougue Bie, Mont Orgueil, Elizabeth Castle and Hamptonne – attained VisitEngland’s ‘Quality Rose Marque’ and received high assessment scores.

Louise Downie, Jersey Heritage’s Director of Curation & Experience, said: “We are over the moon about winning ‘Gold’ again for Jersey Museum. Together with the lovely feedback we regularly receive from visitors themselves, it is confirmation that the improvements we continue to make at the site – home to our flagship exhibition ‘La Tèrr’rie d’Jèrri’ and our new interactive ‘Playing with Light’ exhibition – are benefiting the people who come to discover Jersey’s incredible history.

“Our staff work hard across all our sites to maintain high standards and to provide a wonderful experience for our visitors. We are delighted for the team at Hamptonne for their well-earned ‘Welcome’ award as well. “

The VisitEngland Visitor Attraction Accolades 2025-2026 cover all aspects of what makes an outstanding visitor experience and there are 73 awards in total. They are given to participants in the VisitEngland Visitor Attraction Quality Scheme (VAQAS) and follow an independent assessment carried out at each site earlier this year. The assessed tourism attractions range from historic houses, gardens, country parks and farm attractions, to galleries, museums, churches and cathedrals.

VisitEngland offers expert advice, support and quality assessments for tourism and hospitality businesses in England. However, Jersey Heritage has been signed up to the quality assessment scheme for a number of years and is held up to the same standards.

The 2025-2026 Accolades were presented at a celebratory lunch at the British Motor Museum in Warwickshire.