My week in the Enterprises and Marketing Team by Lilly

July 7, 2026 | Holkham voices | 5 minute read

Monday (Marketing Team) :

When I first arrived at Holkham we all met up at the estate office where we had an introduction to Holkham with Lucy before we got introduced to the relevant teams. I was with the marketing team on Monday and began the day with a videocall with Clem for us to complete the weekly content and sense check, in which  we checked the Holkham, Pinewoods and the McDonnell websites for any updates and accuracy. Afterwards Emma and I went on a short walk around Holkham Hall to get a gist of the area, even though I have been to Holkham before it was nice to get a refresh of the area.

When we came back up to the office we started to design beach hut signs for Pinewoods, which was a fun, simple activity to do. The design included the Pinewoods logo, a beach hut, a QR code to scan which takes you to the website to hire the beach huts. We also designed table talkers for the Courtyard Café advertising ‘a great day out for less’ highlighting the 15% off on certain activities at Holkham in line with the government summer saving scheme. we created both of these on InDesign. They were really fun to design and I enjoyed being given the creative license to help choose the images, there were so many to choose from!

Tuesday (Marketing Team) :

In the morning when we went to the Café to put the table talkers out that we had designed the day before; we replaced some old ones that needed updating. We then had a meeting with James, the Courtyard Café Manager. I was able to be part of the discussion regarding new designs for the sandwich labels, it was fascinating to get an insight into this collaborative approach to working in department which helps to support others.

Afterwards I was able to help to proofread the what’s on newsletter, this is an email which goes out to Holkham’s database of over 50,000 people to inform them of news and upcoming events.  Luckily we found some links didn’t take you to the right webpages and a couple of typos which were easy to sort.

I then sat with Jo, and we scheduled a post for Holkham’s Instagram about a competition to stay in Holme-next-the-sea, where one lucky person could win a week in Holkham’s caravan park in Holme for six people. We used Canva to design the post for the competition, helping design it on Canva  which was really user-friendly platform.

After lunch Jo and I went down to the Beach Café to take some photos and look at Holkham’s new ‘Bin-Land’ which is a waste separation station for visitors. The bins looked very smart and it will hopefully help people separate their rubbish more effectively. We also captured some behind-the-scenes of the Beach Café Team making food for use on the website and social platforms. We then went onto the beach to take some nice photos of the beach huts before returning to Holkham for the end of the day.

Wednesday (Retail Team) :

On Wednesday I was with the retail team down in the gift shop, where I got to interact with Holkham visitors and serve on the tills which I really enjoyed. The gift shop was quite open so it was easy to navigate where everything was placed in the shop, especially when helping to restock the shelves. In Holkham they seem to have a never ending stock of a lot of products which is really good.

I briefly met artist Georgie Baskerville as she came into drop off some off her artworks for Holkham.

On Wednesday afternoon I was taken on a Tour of the Cellars of the house, which was great  . Our tour guide Mike was really good at explaining the history of some of the rooms and the people who lived there. During the tour we saw a window and chairs from the Tudor era and some historic sewing machines – which was fascinating. As I take history for GCSE I enjoyed the Cellar Tour and learning about the history of Holkham. Mike told us about how in one room they used to kill live eels and it was a young child around the age of 14 who’d prepare them for dinner!

Thursday (Retail Team) :

On Thursday I helped to restock items in the Giftshop and sticker new products. We also changed the artwork in the cafe to some of Georgie Baskerville’s other work which she dropped of on Wednesday. Serving on the tills helped push me out of my comfort zone as talking to the customers was good for me as sometimes I struggle talking to new people.

Friday (Retail Team) :

On Friday when I arrived I met (the lovely) Kevin who works in the gift shop, I was able to help with a stock count of the cards by Georgie Baskerville, Ed Stokes and Karen Adams. I also went out to restock some pots and get the plant area tidied up by removing any old stock and facing up the products. I went on a walk during my break around Holkham park which was nice way to spend my lunch break in the gloomy weather.

Overall my week at Holkham has been really good and I learned a lot of skills like how to use tills and speak to the public, as well as how Holkham has certain artists who come into to put their work. I really enjoyed my week here and I would happily come again for work experience if I ever needed to.