By Cindi John BBC News Online community affairs reporter

The visit to Syon House was the last of a series of trips

As well as a tour of the historic house the group will also visit its aquatic and butterfly centres, while the children are looking forward to the adventure playground.

It sounds like an everyday outing, but the 25 people in the group - members of a south London Pentecostal church - are taking part in a pilot project by the Historic Houses Association (HHA) and the Black Environment Network (BEN).

BEN aims to encourage participation of ethnic communities in the built and natural environment and with HHA is running a series of visits to heritage sites for people from traditionally excluded communities.

Frances Garnham of the HHA says the project follows research showing that people from black and minority ethnic groups were seriously under-represented among visitors to historic sites.

It might not be directly our own history but it's interesting to know about the history of where the people are governing you are from Molly Perrineau

"The idea is to try to reach out to communities who traditionally for one reason or another haven't participated in the historic environment before," she said.

Other outings have included members of the Edinburgh's Chinese community visiting Drumlanrig Castle in Dumfries and Bengali, Bangladeshi and Pakistani students from a Birmingham college exploring Tissington Hall in Derbyshire.

'Relevance'

The Syon House visit starts with shrieks from the children - and some of the adults - as they are introduced to animals ranging from locusts to snakes in the aquatic centre.

Before they venture up to the main house group co-ordinator Junie Joseph gives the kids a pep talk, stressing the need not to touch the valuable artefacts they'll be seeing.

But they're all well-behaved during the one-hour tour and eager to show off their knowledge of history to the guide.

Ms Joseph said she was encouraged by the group's reactions.

Culture was not the only thing on the agenda

"They've really had a good time. The tour we had of the house was scheduled for 30 minutes but it lasted more than an hour because questions were being asked and people were so interested," she said.

Initially reaction to the idea of a visit to a stately home, particularly from the children, had been less than enthusiastic, she added.

"Maybe that's because it seems very English and very remote from our culture. But the fact that we're in England means we should be able to access pieces of its history," she said.

'Interesting'

That was a view other members of the group, such as Molly Perrineau, shared.

"I think black, white, whatever, you tend to be interested in history. It might not be directly our own history but it's interesting to know about the history of where the people governing you are from," she said.

Another of the group, Linford Anderson, thought visiting properties such as Syon House would help members of ethnic minorities better understand the culture of the indigenous population.

The Syon House visit is the last in the HHA/BEN project.

However, Frances Garnham of the HHA hopes the Department of Culture's recently-adopted policy to improve access to heritage sites will result in funding to safeguard similar ventures in the future.

Frances Garnham hopes the project can be widened

"The HHA has funded this series of pilots, we're now going to be looking to the Heritage Lottery Fund to widen this project next year and to connect more communities and involve more places."

Ms Garnham said they hoped that in the future they would be able to connect people with the historic environment in a more meaningful way.

"That might be by introducing young people to conservation and archaeology and heritage perhaps doing vocational training.