Dr Ben Cowell

Dr Ben Cowell is Visiting Senior Fellow in Heritage Management and Director General of Historic Houses. Historic Houses is the business association for independently owned historic houses and gardens across the UK. Ben has previously worked for the National Trust (as regional director for the East of England), for English Heritage, and for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Ben has published widely on historical and heritage-related themes, including a history of the heritage movement, 'The Heritage Obsession: The Battle for England s Past' (Tempus, 2008), a biography of the Georgian writer on landscape 'Uvedale Price: Decoding the Picturesque' (with Charles Watkins, 2012), and a biography of one of the founders of the National Trust, Sir Robert Hunter (Pitkin, 2013). His most recent book, ‘The British Country House Revival’, was published by Boydell and Brewer in 2024.