The National Trust is a very important organisation.
It was founded on 12 January 1895 as the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, which is still the organisation’s legal name. The founders were social reformer Octavia Hill, solicitor Sir Robert Hunter and clergyman Hardwicke Rawnsley.
The first place given to them to care for was five acres of clifftop at Dina Oleu in Wales and their first building was Alfriston Clergy House in East Sussex, which was due for demolition and bought for £10.
In 1899 they added their first nature reserve, buying Wicken Fen near Cambridge.
Now they own 330 historic houses, 200 gardens and parks, 896 miles of coastline, much of it prehistoric, and millions of valuable books, ornaments, paintings, sculptures, and much more.
But all this vast collection costs a fortune to maintain so your visits and donations are very important. Helping to preserve the past for the future!
And they’re always desperate for volunteers.
People use their membership in different ways.
We always see local members walking their dogs. There are beautiful peaceful places to enjoy and enough land to let them go on different walks every day.
Our family always stops at National Trust properties with land when they’re travelling on a long journey. They can stay there for a rest for as long as they want to. Parking’s free for Members. They can exercise Stormy the dog, use the loos, and have a picnic or eat in the restaurant or café there.
We visit local properties every few months as the seasons change.
Some of the gardens change drastically from month to month.
There are always events taking place, for instance for Halloween and Christmas.
Some of the Christmas decorations were well worth travelling to see!
We recently visited Sheffield Park Gardens. Autumn was just beginning and changing the colours of the trees.
They always have things to do on their walk; games to play and signs to read.
Each place has a second-hand book stall, which I always make for.
There are plenty of seats where you can sit and watch the wildlife around the lakes, which was full of swans, ducks and geese. But they all seemed to get on well together.
We sat on one of the picnic benches to eat our food, and then we went home.
But we’ll be back to see their Christmas event.
Nationaltrust.co.uk/help-centre
Enquiries@nationaltrust.org.uk
0344 800 1895
Payment is monthly or annually.
We use it a lot so it’s great value for money.
