English Heritage Membership

I know this doesn't answer your questions, sorry.

But I don't know of any reason that you have to get membership before you start visiting places. Unless it is unstaffed there is always a place to buy tickets on arrival, there are rarely queues at English Heritage places, and you will always have the opportunity to convert your entry that day into a membership before you leave - or you can do it before you enter.

You can "visit" all of the EH sites online, and plan your visit. Is there a reason you think it best to get before you leave?

You don't have to live in the UK to be a member. It let me go through the whole process without any problem and I'm in Oregon USA. Just put in your address in the US (or whatever country you're in). For the US you put your zip code in the section that says 'post code'. What are you having trouble with?

EDIT: Or as Nigel says, just buy it at the first property you want to visit.

When you are on the form for membership you may be confused by the look up bar for "UK addresses only". All that does is look up the house number and complete the form for you. It is only for UK addresses because the post office look up API only works with UK postcodes.

If you go a little further down the form you will see country and look in there ane USA is a choice. Just put your zipcode where it says post code. Complete the full address without the look up and you will be away....

But I still don't see why you would want to start your membership before you arrive.

https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/overseas-visitors/

Hi Berry. We bought a regular membership to English Heritage when we needed a longer period than what was covered by the Overseas Visitor Pass. You have two choices:

1. Buy the membership when you visit your first English Heritage site. There is usually no line. If Stonehenge is your first site, there might be a long line. You will get a nice booklet about English Heritage that will allow you to plan your visits. The only disadvantage in doing it this way is that you may be asked why you are still using your temporary card by the end of your trip.
2. Buy the membership before your trip. If you have a lot of lead time, you will get your permanent card before you leave. It took quite a while. Our card came after we returned home.

In our case, I bought the membership before we left home. I didn’t know it would be so easy to get once we arrived in England. We got our temporary card and the book at our first site.

The book was much easier to use for planning than the website, which I found frustrating as my UK geography was not real strong. Maybe the website has been redone since our trip. It’s been a few years.

We loved having the pass and used it many times during our trip.

We just enjoyed an Overseas Visitors Pass recently and thought it was a good value. Though the surprise of having to pay for parking at more than one locations put a small sour note on the whole thing. Despite that it was nice to check out many places without considering the admission, we just went.

Considering the wealth of world class museums that you can enter for free at the British taxpayers expense I feel complaining about paying for parking at a few places sounds very entitled.

Much less hassle to just buy it when you arrive at the first destination that is designated English Heritage.
There are two major, large organizations that have been entrusted with the care of properties of note in the UK. English Heritage is one. They tend to care for ancient properties such as prehistoric sites, ruined castles, and historic places where things like battles took place. The National Trust cares for properties that are of note in literature, architecture, art, and have royal connections in more "recent" times. At least that's the sense I get from the many properties I have visited.
Both have countless properties and sites. Passes for one are not good at the other so make sure to purchase the one that makes the most sense with what kinds of things you want to see.