Went to Speke Hall for the first time in years yesterday. Since I last visited it’s become National Trust-owned, and now costs £9.80 to walk around the smallish gardens where it was previously free. It’s a significant green space in Speke and I think it’s a shame that local families who don’t have upwards of 30 quid are locked out.
Also looked around the old tudor house and found myself vaguely irritated by how well-staffed it was by volunteers in every room wanting to chat to me, was sort of relentless, there was about a dozen of them.
very very little interest in stately homes, but I do like going for a nice long walk in beautiful scenery. And my favourites are the sites where property isn’t involved at all (e.g. wicken fen, hatfield forest, dunwich, brancaster). Obviously better if it was all publicly owned, but, generally speaking, would much rather they had this land than a property developer.
The original concept was incredibly democratic, to take these incredible homes and all this private land that was owned by the wealthy and powerful and make them open and available to the general public. It’s a good instinct and every time another duke is forced to sell up his palace should be celebrated.
But like you say, how democratic is it in practice when the running costs involved mean a ticket price that then prohibits a lot of people from taking part.
I’m a member and we’ve got pretty good mileage from it in the past couple of years. Need to remember to vote for the pro-Woke slate in all this election stuff.
Biggest issue is their cafes don’t have Coca Cola products.
Yeah, they’re very underwhelming. We’ve learned to always take a picnic, which is part of the fun in itself, though that will be less tenable now with the weather.
yes, the lack of concessions or free spaces for those who can’t afford it really feels elitist. i used to work for them as their city curator, and whilst my role was about bringing free events and spaces to everyone, it was a rare post and it was city events rather than their properties. The curators at the properties were very peeved about my role and the fact i had curator in my title, even though i was literally curating events.
Appreciate that is still a bit pricey, and unaffordable for many, but if you use it twice a month or so (which I reckon is our average) it works out as pretty good value.
Despite nearing the age where I should have opinions about the National Trust and living in an area where most cars are adorned with the hallowed sticker, I have absolutely no opinion on the National Trust.
Another thing, I hate how the properties are basically just for car users. Don’t think they put any money into improving public transport options but worse, if you do manage to get there by a combo of bus/taxi/long walk even the walk from the main roads but on the NT grounds are abysmal for walkers, cars everywhere, no paths that make sense until after the car parks, never felt safe the times I’ve been with M. Come and 3njoy the green spaces! But make sure you don’t arrive in an eco way as we’ll make it awful for you, cheers!
Quite a few English Heritage places will let you in free if you’re an NT member, which we were pleasantly surprised to find out, when we went up to Hadrian’s Wall this summer.
They tried to turn the car park at Bolberry Down into a pay & display one but if you’re in the know you just park round the corner from the main car park in a little clearing and they never check it. Chumps.
