Well, a trip to Knole Park and House on Sunday resulted in me joining the National Trust - again! Got a fairly good deal though. As it's "end of season" the costs were a lot lower than usual and we saved about £25 with my son's student membership included. And we got 2 Car Park stickers!

 Andy

Best thing we did was to join the NT, during out holiday in Dorset we more than got our money back, and we make a point of visiting a Trust place at least twice a month it doesn't just have to stately homes, there are wonderful gardens and ruins too.

Next year we may have to decide whether to go NT or EH as there are equal amounts of both.

I'm a member of the NT and EH. Both have some lovely properties dotted about the country!  I love ruined castles ...so for me the EH probably has the edge. But Baddesley Clinton, Packwood house and Calke abbey are fairly local to me and all NT places, and are WELL worth a visit!  EH have Kenilworth castle and Ashby de la Zouch castle around here! i visit them quite often!

A place well worth visiting is owned by both NT and EH, both own one building, its Hardwick hall!  theres an old hall and new! both very old though, but one has been left in ruins, the other is furnished etc ...great day out!

One criticism, NT volunteers can be a little ...'snooty' towards people sometimes!!   i've no idea why!  maybe the grandeur of the properties wears off on them a bit!!

I've noticed that Jason. I had an interesting "Discussion" with a lady of advanced years at Knole house about wearing my camera ruksack on my chest! And leaving it with a lot of expensive camera gear inside. However, I managed to negotiate the house without knocking anything over, crashing into things or even people!

Andy

We have visited all of the above too...we are now travelling farther afield, we open a page in the NT book and off we go, as long as we can do it in a day.

The comment Jason and Andrew made about the snooty volunteers, I can honestly say we have found them all lovely, we nearly always visit places on the M/Bike, and if it's a pay and display carpark, the attendant shows us where to put the bike so as it isn't in a car space, that way we don't have to pay.  We have walked around the many houses with our bike gear on and have aleays been welcomed with a smile, we have met a lot of fellow bikers at NT and EH properties and all have been made very welcome.

We have been refused entry, wearing bike gear, to a cinema tho'..I have no idea why.

Another very good membership is the RSPB

Something which has not been mentioned is copyright issues with pictures taken on National Trust property. The National Trust website states that photographs may be taken out of doors for private use (and indoors at the Property Manager's discretion). If anyone wishes to sell or publish the photographs, then the National Trust should be contacted.

I have always assumed that it is OK to upload photos taken on National Trust properties to the main PoE site, without permission, but I am not so sure now as to whether this constitutes 'publishing' .  Uploading to the 'photostockbritain' section would certainly be problematic, since images uploaded there are clearly for sale. 

Has anyone contacted the National Trust over copyright issues?  Or am I just being paranoid?

Good Day. Everyone have a good day!!

Juju

Good Day! It calms the nerves when it sounds with good news! Enjoy the evening!

Juju