Harlow Consulting volunteers for English Heritage

The Harrogate-based research agency was announced as one of Yorkshire’s ’50 Most Exciting Companies for 2025’ in the Insider magazine annual showcase.

The fast-growing research agency stands out for its focus on giving back to environmental causes and its focus on staff wellbeing.

The team has been assigned two volunteer maintenance days by English Heritage to help maintain Thornborough Henges in North Yorkshire.

The first volunteering day took place on 7 April. The Harlow Consulting team, along with other English Heritage volunteers, were tasked with creating a woodland path within the Northern Henge.

Work involved carrying and placing logs on either side of the path and transporting and raking wood chippings to create a symmetrical path for those visiting the site.

Jennifer Brennan and Clare Vokes established Harlow Consulting in 2019, with a mission to create a business that invested in its people and the planet, while delivering value-driven research.

The pair bought a laptop each and built the business from the ground up. Since, the two female business leaders have been ‘making waves in the world of research’ (Yorkshire Post) and has grown into a 10-strong staff team.

The consultancy works across a range of sectors, specialising in construction, heritage, arts, and healthcare. Clients include Historic Houses, DCMS, Historic England, the NHS, and the British Film Institute (BFI).

James McNaught, Researcher at Harlow Consulting, said: “We work with many organisations in the conservation sector, so volunteering at an English Heritage site close to where we live and work is a tangible way to do a different kind of work to the desk-job. Volunteering outdoors not only helps to support a valuable site like Thornborough Henges, it’s a brilliant way to bring staff closer together working in such a beautiful setting. It gives a mental boost, as well as a bit of a physical work-out.”

Harlow Consulting was highly commended in the Harrogate Business Awards 2023 for the Employee Health and Wellbeing Award.

Thornborough Henges are an important cluster of Neolithic monuments that sit above the river Ure in West Tanfield in North Yorkshire. Three huge circular henges – sometimes described as the ‘Stonehenge of the North’ – were built here about 4,500 years ago.

English Heritage looks after 400 heritage sites across the UK.

Harlow Consulting has set five areas to focus its corporate social responsibility on: food poverty, animal welfare, community, hospice support and environmental causes.

Last year, the team dedicated volunteer days to the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, helping remove invasive Himalayan Balsam from its Staveley Nature Reserve.

The business has signed the Market Research Society Net Zero Pledge and works with Positive Planet to maintain its Carbon Reduction Plan.