{"id":43102,"date":"2026-05-23T19:24:40","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T18:24:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.blogistan.co.uk\/blog\/?p=43102"},"modified":"2026-05-23T19:24:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T18:24:42","slug":"in-defence-of-the-national-trust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blogistan.co.uk\/blog\/mt.php\/2026\/05\/23\/in-defence-of-the-national-trust","title":{"rendered":"In defence of the National Trust"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"A<\/a>
Nymans, a NT garden in Sussex; May 2022<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I’ve been a member of the National Trust, a British conservation charity which maintains a large number of estates including parks, stately homes, gardens and landscapes, since 2019. I’ve spent many an afternoon wandering around some of their homes and gardens in the south-east of England, taking pictures to share on my Flickr account<\/a>. Last week Harry Mount, editor of The Oldie<\/em>, accused the Trust<\/a> of a “catastrophic dumbing-down” by hosting a Pokemon treasure hunt at 15 of their estates including Dyrham Park in Somerset, Sizergh in Cumbria, Hughenden in Buckinghamshire and Winkworth Arboretum in Surrey (archived copy here<\/a>). He also claims that the Trust seems embarrassed about some of its country houses, treating them as “repositories of dull history, which happen to have absolutely fab running-around areas for the kids to have fun in” while their magazine, if it features their country houses at all, presents it as “a backdrop to some carefully curated, supposed ‘adventure'”. Their director of communications and fundraising, Celia Richardson, responded on Twitter<\/a>: “Our Pokemon partnership isn’t unique. From the Van Gogh Museum to the Natural History Museum, & city\u2011wide experiences that lead visitors around landmarks like the Louvre, it\u2019s a global pattern of cultural organisations experimenting with how people encounter heritage”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since Covid most of my visits to NT properties have been to the gardens and parks rather than into the houses; my first trip was to Petworth House in Sussex, which had a formidable collection of bits of Roman statuary, collected on “grand tours” of Europe when that was the done thing among the British upper class, wherever possible assembled into whole statues (photos here<\/a>). Families visit their houses and gardens often, and there are often nature trails and other amusements for children, often with colourful signs and objects that don’t exactly blend into the scenery. Still, as an adult visitor, you can ignore these things and just wander round the park and enjoy the scenery and the trees and flowers and, of course, take lots of pictures. Winkworth is a place I visit often as it’s an easy drive from where I live; I rather hope that the Pokemon event is no more obtrusive than any of their other children’s amusements (the centrepiece will no doubt be in the new visitor centre that’s due open any day now). Running a large park and maintaining a garden does of course cost money and it’s worth noting that the NT maintains a lot of properties that do not charge for access, such as Morden Hall Park in south London. It would be nice for some adult visitors if places like Sheffield Park did not have amusements that stood out from the scenery like sore thumbs, but they have to attract all sorts, including families with children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for the NT’s magazine and the contrast with how private estates present their houses and gardens, the NT does not just run country houses but all sorts of other attractions, including landscapes which are not part of stately homes or formal gardens and where no admission charge applies. Some of their large parks and woodlands could be best marketed to families with children as good places for an adventure (Hatchlands and Winkworth Arboretum spring to mind). Some of the houses are not just showpiece country houses but house art collections and museums; the basement of Polesden Lacey in Surrey features a lot of wartime (as in WW2) technology and thus serves as a kind of museum of that time and of the “below stairs” life that many working-class young people went into then. The NT magazine is not just about old houses but about all the activities they undertake, such as (in the most recent edition) preserving a chalk figure, making their gardens resilient to climate change and some recent digs at the Saxon burial site Sutton Hoo, in Suffolk. There are also features on craft and food as well as promotional features for their\u00a0 attractions, including a production of Othello<\/em><\/a> by The Lord Chamberlain’s Men at venues owned by the NT, including (round here) Hatchlands and Morden Hall Park, which might be more up Harry Mount’s street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They do, however, maintain a few mediocre houses here and there which aren’t cultural treasure troves, just rich men’s houses. Harry Mount mentions Clandon Park in Surrey, an 18th-century Palladian mansion that belonged to a local wealthy family, the Onslows, and was gutted by fire in 2015. I did not get to see this building before it burned down, but it was not my idea of a greatly beautiful building, basically a big red-brick box with turrets. Mount alleges that “rather than rebuilding it with their insurance payout, the brain-numbingly foolish Trust are preserving it as a ruin for ever”; if the building were restored to how it was before the accidental fire, it would not be the house the family that owned it lived in but a replica. That is why the NT chose to use the ruin as an exhibition and event space instead. They already have a proper stately home with a vastly superior garden a few miles down the road at Polesden Lacey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, Sheffield Park, Cliveden, Mottisfont, Scotney Castle and no doubt many other NT attractions are worth the annual membership fees by themselves: well-maintained and curated outdoor and indoor attractions. I definitely don’t get the impression that they are run by morons or cretins; if they were, they would be overgrown and ramshackle by now. I will, I hope, be making good use of my membership fee at a couple of their parks or gardens this bank holiday weekend and if you have one near you, I recommend you make a visit. You won’t meet the executive committee, just the volunteers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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