Should I renew my National Trust subscription?

NO. They have lost direction and have become far too "woke". They are not fulfilling their original remit & people who donated their estates to them in good faith must be turning in their graves. It is the same reason why I now refuse to buy a TV licence. I am not giving a brass farthing to the BBC. Their behaviour is atrocious. And, no, I am not a complete Luddite, otherwise I would be writing this using a quill pen!!

Our DD cancelled her membership as most properties operate a no dogs policy, Even those which say dogs welcome only allow dogs in the car park. I know it is not appropriate to take dogs into a house but there should be some consideration for dogs in gardens /countryside
I assume that NT members are responsible dog owners and would not allow dogs to damage a garden
The post has made me consider our membership. We have a senior, joint membership. We do live about an hours drive from any NT property and quite often use it for car parking as due to health issues now we do not go far or walk far. Has anyone else found a lack of seating in NT houses.?

We cancelled our membership this year as we now have a dog and most NT places were not friendly. Fair enough, but when I phoned up to cancel our membership I was very surprised that they didn't ask for any reason why we were cancelling. I would have thought feedback would have been useful.

I cancelled my EH membership when I was no longer in a couple. I just couldn't afford the individual membership and like others have said, I had visited all the sites so often I got bored with going.

I saved a lot of money as I've only been to NT and EH sites a few times in three years- the membership just isn't worth it for me...

We don’t seem to get our money’s worth from ours. However we have used it more this year as we holidayed further north. I do look on it as a Charity donation though, and we are more likely to just go for an hour, rather than a big effort ‘day out’ every time. I think they do fantastic work.

How timely! Thank you for pointing out the discount I've just told my husband and he came back happy saying our payment was due in 4 days time and we have our discount! Of course, we could have had it years ago if we'd known

I have just renewed mine more out of habit than anything else as didn't use pass at all last year. Probably should not have bothered.

lolarabbit

You might be interested in the Art Fund pass. It's not a dissimilar amount of money from memory but we get a lot more value from it. Several of the National Trust properties near me are included along with some English Heritage places and a huge array of galleries and museums such as Chatham Dockyard, some free, some half price. I'd never heard of it before but am a real convert now.

Me Too !
Art Fund subscription is definitely better value and I use mine all the time. As for the National Trust, English Heritage et al , their political posturing and misdirection really puts me off , too much talk, too little conservation.
After some investigation I’ve decided to concentrate on local charities , the big beasts pay their directors insane amounts but treat their ‘front of house’ mainstays appallingly .

Recent correspondence from NT Scotland. You don't get the England handbook, but all the info needed is online. It's about £104 per year for joint senior membership, £66 pa for single senior membership, so not a lot of difference. English Heritage seems to be much better value if you have these located nearby - and you can take up to 6 children with you free!

With a National Trust for Scotland membership you have unlimited access to all the places in our care. You can also use your membership to explore places cared for by National Trust organisations around the world with the International National Trusts Organisation (INTO). This includes National Trust properties in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Italy, Ireland, Canada, Australia and more. Link: www.nts.org.uk/support-us/become-a-member/membership-faqs

When visiting a National Trust property worldwide, it’s recommended that you bring both members’ membership cards if you have a joint or family membership. Without both cards you may either be charged or refused entry.

I’m at the point where our NT membership is almost ready for renewal. Shall probably renew, but out of habit really. Hardly any NT properties within 60/90 minutes of our house and those that are, we’ve already been to and we prefer to go to places we haven’t already visited, if poss, although many of them are definitely worthy of a second/multiple visits. I do love going to an NT property. Never thrilled with the cafe food, but it’s passable and the cakes are good. I also like the concept of keeping the NT properties going for the future. That is until every bit of our lovely country is gobbled up with more and more housing.

Your money,your choice but sounds if you don't want to or you would'nt be asking

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My husband bought me a Lifetime Subscription about a decade ago. It actually really annoyed me as we didn't visit enough to warrant the expense of it, but he thought it was a worthy cause.

Move on just a few years and we stopped going as we were enraged at just how political it had become and how it had treated the few volunteers we knew.

So, unfortunately, they have our dosh but not our loyalty and further custom.
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Your U.K. NT card also allows you entry to properties managed by the Barbados National Trust on the island.
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I did actually join English Heritage once but the transaction didn’t go through. Which is lucky because I haven’t been to one of their properties since. They do a few reciprocals with the NT; I think Lindisfarne is one of them.

I too had a really big think about whether to renew this year. We didn’t seem to use it much last year. In the end I decided to go ahead and renew, mostly because the single entrance fees are so expensive now and because I love to visit our local one (Mottisfont). And I made a resolution to use it more - we’ll see how that goes!

I have friends and this year they are going on their walking holiday taking in routes as often as possible where NT properties are located in order to use the car parks. Cheap all day parking.

Our annual membership is up for renewal this month. As I have become a carer for my OH (Alzheimers) in the past year, we decided to retain his membership, and I get in free with my Carers card. I have also applied for a companion card from the NT, so he could take another person in too We are fortunate in being surrounded by so many properties in Kent/Sussex, so we get good use out of the membership. What I have saved will probably be spent in the cafes and shops!

If you are not getting your moneysworth why bother?

We pondered over renewing but decided to as Studland, Dorset have 3 carparks to use. Corfe Castle and Kingston Lacy are the nearest places to visit. So, we didn't renew our Historic Houses. Actually, it takes away the pressure to feel we should be visiting places.

It seems like people are wanting to find justification/support for their decision not to renew their NT membership. This puzzles me - if membership isn’t working for you anymore then stop being a member. why is this hard?

We still get good value from ours. The cafes are definitely not what they were, but our nearest is defo not plant based - bought GS a ham sandwich last Monday.
We got our AGM info by post last year, and I’ve turned up several times without my card and they always find me on the system.
I know there is a lot of noise about it being ‘too woke’ - the Telegraph have an ongoing thing, but I can’t say that it has made any difference to me as a visitor.
We are happy to support NT who still play an important role in preserving buildings and contents, training people in heritage skills etc.
But if we get to the stage when it’s not vfm and budgets are tighter we will not renew.

I wouldn’t - i find the staff really rather snooty and patronising

my conscience and I are having a tussle. DH was ill last years so never used it once. not been this year yet either. and the v snotty volunteer who was impatient when I couldn't find my card almost made me cancel instantly. Im carrying on for now as its my charitable contribution but I'm very irritated with NT not valuing their subscribers.

A worthy case and happy to renew year after year.
Nobody has ever been 'woke' (mind you I feel the same as Cathy Burke on this one) nor snooty or patronising either. A privilege to be a member for over 50 years.

I wouldn't consider NOT renewing, the conservation work they do is well considered and well researched. I breathe a sigh of relief when I hear of another purchase of wildflower meadow. I have every confidence in how they work with local farmers and the way in which they are preserving so much for the future and not just living in the past.
I have visited all our local NT properties and visit new properties whenever the opportunity arises.
At our most local NT property, an adjacent closed campsite has been purchased, the entrance has been remodelled and completely relandscaped for the less able and the cafe has been reinvented to a high standard. Exactly what a forward thinking organisation should be doing.

We've been members since Noah was a lad, but considered dropping it due to wokeness (seem to remember that volunteers were going to be dropped if they wouldn't wear a gay pride lanyard). However, decided to keep it so we could vote if necessary. Also members of Historic Houses and Art Fund.