National Trust

The Disney Golden Pass is not available for purchase sadly, only bestowed on Disney Legends and others deemed worthy by the Walt Disney Corporation.

yep. English Heritage are just as bad too. Got a train to audley end train station to go to audley end house when my son was a toddler. The walk along a narrow, badly maintained path alongside a main road with a pushchair that was too wide for the path was incredibly traumatic. Have they not considered that people might want to, like, come and visit by train then walk a mile or so to get there? Apparently not.

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As others have said better, good in theory, shit in practice

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Definitely this, we got a car last year because of the pandemic (needed to see my dying dad but wasn’t allowed on the trains) and now we have one it’s amazing how much stuff we can do that was off-limits before. These places usually have a section saying “here’s how to get here on public transport” but it reads like an ancient treasure map and sounds like it would take half a day just to make all the transfers work out so we never went before.

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My biggest gripe about the National Trust is that in so many of their car parks, you have to pay for a whole day’s parking. If you want to go to Devil’s Dyke, have a look at the Dyke, and then the (better IMO) view of Fulking Escarpment, even if you got a pint in afterwards, you’re still not going to be there for more than a couple of hours

(on the car front, there is a bus that goes up to Devil’s Dyke, but then we’re onto another moan about the excessive cost of public transport if you have a family, which is altogether different discussion)

Not sure what my general opinion of it is as an adult, my judgement is tainted by the fact that I had to go to a National Trust house most weekends as a kid to make my parents’ membership worth the money and I just have memories of being extremely bored of looking at old rich people’s furniture and being told off for not finding it fascinating

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worth mentioning they don’t just maintain old properties. I worked for them for a couple of years as a part time ranger in Pembrokeshire national park many moons ago. I broadly agree with their approach (to my local area at least) although they are becoming increasingly car park charging bastards in many places that have been free for everyone since I can remember. pros and cons to the charges I’m sure but many locals are not happy in the slightest paying 5 quid to walk their dog on the beach for an hour. Personally I’d have them ban dogs on some of our beaches but that’s just me.

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If anyone could do my research for me and let me know who the best candidates to vote for in the NT council elections (aside from ‘not Stephen Green’) that’d be much appreciated TIA

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Yeah I would love a list of the best slate to vote for if anyone knows if there is one

As a dog owner, I have to say that I agree with the approach in the Vale of Glamorgan where some of the beaches are dog-free during the summer and some aren’t, like how you can’t take dogs to Whitmore Bay or Penarth between (I think, I always have to check the signs) April and September, but you can take them to Jackson’s Bay. It’s just better for everyone, dogs included, because Whitmore Bay particularly gets crazy and not all dogs are good with that level of stimulation.

Have massive personal issues with the bureaucratic regime around heritage and the heritage lobby in this country but actually I don’t think I really mind the NT, but this comes with having very little interest in what they do beyond the basic “preserving old buildings” thing.

Yep the area I’m talking about is a split between council controlled beaches (of which some are dog friendly and some have ban areas during the summer months) and a lot of national trust controlled beaches which are all dog friendly all year round. I’d just like to see some of those NT beaches having partial bans in the summer. not all of them, just a few. But it’ll never happen.

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used to be a member on the 25 and under rate (36 quid a year) and kept doing this til mid 30’s…after that i felt i was taking the piss a little

i am no longer a member

At the moment, I can only tell you who I will not be voting for:

Stephen Green
David Pearson
Guy Trehane
Michael Goodhart
Min Grimshaw
Andrew Powles

(they’re the ‘Restore Trust’ candidates)

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Ditto, although I enjoy them now.

Strong memory of one property (no idea which one) where they’d hidden a Lego man in each room. Actually genius way of making kids look in detail at every inch of an old building.

My mum was made redundant from the old NT as a result of the pando, but as she was due to retire anyway they still gave her a lifetime membership, which also allows her to take a guest for free. Result.

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I would urge people that are members of the NT to read this post in full, apologies for the tl:dr…

I went to find a thread on this to bump because it’s really important. Restore Trust are still there now and they want to do bad things. Telling you the history of a building, where perhaps the original owners were Not Good People is now apparently Woke Nonsense. I like going to NT properties. I like walking round the gardens. I like getting a cheese scone and a cup of tea. And when I’m walking round the buildings, I want to know who owned them/how they came into being. Why wouldn’t I?

On top of that, they’re currently railing against the fact that the NT supported a Pride event, and have tabled a motion for this year’s AGM. They don’t just talk about the cost in the motion, which would allow them to hide behind an apparent veneer of genuine concern, even if we know it would be a bad faith argument. The motion also declares this to be “divisive”.

I suspect the majority of NT members don’t bother voting in the AGM, I’ve never done it before either. But these idiots are relying on that remaining the case. Please make sure you vote this year and keep the Restore Trust bastards out. They’re remarkably cagey about who funds them when asked. Stephen Green, listed above, refused to shake a gay man’s hand because he “knew where it had been” and is a far right nutjob.

If you don’t have the AGM booklet anymore, you don’t need it, just follow the link below to vote and you’ll need to provide your name and membership number (the latter of which is on your card).

https://secure.cesvotes.com/V3-1-0/nt22/en/

Please stop the nutters getting in. I won’t be going back if they do.

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Please do.

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Thanks for flagging this. Done!

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Just done this. Thanks for the heads up :+1:

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A reminder to get your votes in for the AGM to keep the bad guys out. This tweet, the replies (and noting the tweet it refers to) are particularly instructive:

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