English Heritage is to rewrite the histories of its properties to include any links that they may have with slavery.

It said yesterday that it wanted to reveal the often untold "sad" history of great estates and houses whose wealth may have been built on slave labour in former British colonies.
 
Maria Adebowale, an English Heritage commissioner, said the histories of many dynasties had been written for a white, middle-class audience. She said the organisation had a responsibility to cater for a multi-cultural audience and to reveal the true contribution of black people to the nation's heritage.