Should I renew my National Trust subscription?

We are planning on joining 'Historic Houses', which has lots of private properties around the country. Lots around us in N Yorkshire & Co Durham. It's £128.00 for two but for us it's better value than NT.

Sewingpruso

We need all the protection possible for our countryside and houses...the NT is one of the few ways we can enjoy it..

Not if you live near me. Although they are maintaining the house they have recently closed a bridge with immediate effect that crosses a river in the woodland.They have also fenced off another bridge and removed stones from a set of steps and fenced them off. It has effectively closed off walks in the woodland and closed out locals. This is not protecting the countryside. NT blame the cost for closing the bridge but surely maintaining these areas is what our fees are paid for not to pay the CEO £200,000 pa.

My OH volunteered for them pre Covid. They stopped giving a sandwich and a drink and only offered a biscuit and a drink to a full day volunteer like him. Then he saw them throwing into a skip a lot of furniture that if it were to be offered the general public would have snapped up and it would have added to the NT coffers. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

We've been members for years & have a lot of NT properties close to us. We visit the nearest one often with our son and his family - great for country walks at any time of the year and an excellent play area for the DGSs. We have day trips to visit properties further afield and try and make sure we take opportunities when away on holiday. We were at a wedding recently and managed to detour slightly on the way home to see Cliveden- magnificent and worth the sub for sure. We also belong to RHS which for us is also good value for money.

We've been members on and off over the years, when our children were young my parents used to pay for it for us as a Christmas present.

We rejoined a few years ago as our daughter and her family live very close to a lovely property which puts on a lot of family activities, so we go there quite often.

I hadn't realised we could use our cards in other countries, so thank you to everyone who's posted about that!

I stopped renewing when they went totally woke. Give us the history sure but don't push your politics on us if you want our money.

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This thread has given me a nudge to go and see some more NT properties. Earlier today a visit to this beautiful Elizabethan house at Montecute, Somerset, scones and tea in the cafe afterwards.

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.

I belong to the Art Fund which in has been renamed The National Art Fund. I gave up our National Trust membership,when we gave up driving but kept our Art Pass. We can go to lots of places that don’t need us to drive. Not necesssarily art galleries. There is Charles Dickens house in Doughty Street which we love and you can have a lunch in the basement and imagine what it all must have been like in those days. See his desk on which he wrote many of his books. The membership issues with a book full of places you can visit. Also it allows you free membership to Kensington Palace , plus half price entry to other exhibitions at the National Galleries and so many others.

Try ringing them to negotiate a better price. I did a couple of years ago and got a good discount.

Sf101 echoed my sentiments exactly. Go woke, go broke.