Cycling UK Forum

I like the national trust, it started by acquiring Dinas Oleu, the Citadel of Light, above Abermawddach, but I thought it was rather upper-class, lots of stately homes and high prices, good parking for vehicles, nice tearooms and gift shops but many properties otherwise hard to reach

Plenty of stately homes are not kept by the NT, mind, many are private or run by other organisations

Now the Guardian reports that the NT is promoting places of conflict and protest, Tolpuddle Martyrs, Peterloo Massacre

Plus One?

We won't be renewing this year, not for any principled position, but tbh because we don't use our membership.

I was a member of the NT fore some years but dropped my subscription when I realised we'd not visited any of the properties for 2 years.
I still think they do a good job albeit some of the helpers were a bit stuffy.

A great national institution. Not perfect, nothing is, but we would be poorer without it.

francovendee wrote:I was a member of the NT fore some years but dropped my subscription when I realised we'd not visited any of the properties for 2 years.
I still think they do a good job albeit some of the helpers were a bit stuffy.

It's a challenge inherent in having a volunteer workforce.

We've been members for some years, but now we've "done" all their properties within a reasonable day trip (by car, alas) it's becoming less good value than it was. Still a good cause though.

I used to be a member but stopped when I ran out of local ie an afternoons trip, places to visit.
The best was Wakehurst Place where all the plants are ( that is NT?)

I volunteered for several years and am still a member. I am happy to pay my dues because I consider it a good cause: we all decide which causes we support. This is one of mine.

A little off topic but for a few weeks in 2010 I was a volunteer 'Room Guide' at a National Trust property, a castle in North East Wales. What always struck me as very odd was the way that many of the visitors didn't bother looking at the contents of rooms before taking photographs but instead would walk around looking more-or-less permanently through their camera viewfinders. Seeing things through their cameras .... bit like in that film 'Peeping Tom'.

Doing my own straw poll amongst 'older' visiting couples, many of whom were retirees, I was surprised that many returned several times on consecutive weeks, some traveling a fair old distance.They came not because of any real interest in the antiques or interest in the building but because "it's somewhere to come".

So, amongst many other things, the NT serves a vital national role of keeping unimaginative retirees away from 'Jeremy Kyle' and 'Cash In The Attic'.

Pity they didn't think to cycle instead

Which castle in NE Wales, may one ask? Are Cadw and the NT separate organisations?

Horror - retirees have cheap NT membership and drive to properties several times a week

When visiting museums and the like I love to listen to the guide and ask questions, if there is a small guidebook I often buy it, not a coffee table encyclopedia mind

The very popular Chirk Castle it was, and no CADW and the NT are completely different organisations. CADW seems to specialise in fallen-down monuments and, of course, entirely Welsh ones, whereas the NT is a UK, Wales, and NI-wide organisation. NT for Scotland is a bit different, I think.

I was not so much 'shocked' that retired people were visiting NT properties so much as surprised that they continued to visit the same one time after time. There are, after all, lots of properties within easy driving radius of Chirk ... a couple of couples even drove-up regularly from south of Birmingham but only ever visited Chirk.

As I say, thank goodness the NT can provide an alternative to the horrors of daytime television. However, if talking to these people taught me something it's that when I retire I need to think of something more productive to do, and frankly more enjoyable, than continually repeating visiting the same old NT property, museum, etc.

A wise man once said that one should not retire FROM work until one has found something to retire TO.

Cyril Haearn wrote:Which castle in NE Wales, may one ask? Are Cadw and the NT separate organisations?

Horror - retirees have cheap NT membership and drive to properties several times a week

When visiting museums and the like I love to listen to the guide and ask questions, if there is a small guidebook I often buy it, not a coffee table encyclopedia mind

there is a catch

"If you’re 60 or over and you’ve held an individual or joint membership for at least five of the last ten years, you’ll be eligible for the reduced fee."

so they get you for atleast 5 year at full price hmm thats me out

Hello all, The N.T. have been "Downmarket" for years. Remember for well over 20 years on has been able to visit former council semi in Forthlin Road, Allerton, Liverpool? Childhood home of Macca, Sir Paul McCartney.
Not all about Tudor Piles! TTFN MM

'Pop stars' are the only outsiders admitted to the upper class

I used to work for the NT, what seems like going down market has been happening for many years but its just a way of trying to get people from all walks of life interested in history not just the properties. The NT and others do a fair job but to do so means making it 'popular'
Don't forget all NT properties are open one day a year for free, if you have never been to one then try it and see, on your bike of course
Pat