Hannah means business at historic cathedral
One of the region’s major visitor centres has a new woman at the helm.
Hannah Ellis has been appointed as head of enterprise at Durham Cathedral – where she is tasked with helping the cathedral to recover from the economic impact of Covid-19 and boosting visitor numbers.
Hannah joins the cathedral team from her previous role as regional manager at Save the Children and will oversee retail, catering, group travel, events and venue hire.
She said: “I came to Durham as a student in 2007 and I loved it so much that I stayed here.
"I’m delighted to be joining the cathedral team and looking forward to maximising the enterprise opportunities to ensure its sustainability for future generations.”
Since reopening to visitors in May, the cathedral has welcomed over 198,000 people through its famous North Door – higher visitor levels than pre-Covid in recent weeks with Luke Jerram’s visual art installation, Museum of the Moon, currently on show.
The Very Reverend Andrew Tremlett, Dean of Durham says, “Durham Cathedral is one of the region's key visitor attractions and a major place of worship.
“With visitors once again able to physically come to Durham and enjoy all the cathedral has to offer, this role plays a key part in understanding the cathedral as being both a living, working church and a business, needing to generate income to support its mission and ministry, as well as support the conservation of a much loved UNESCO World Heritage Site.
"We are very much looking forward to welcoming Hannah into her new role,” he went on to say.