£10 entry fee!

Have I read this right?

www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-stourhead

£10 to get into a garden?....... each!

.. and the dog has to stay in the car!

 

No idea, that link doesn't work, but I think the NT are having website problems. Googling them hasn't worked either.

NT costs have gone up quite a bit, our local place, Nymans Gardens charge similar.

On the other hand, Arundel Castle charges £15 for the whole castle and grounds or £7 for the grounds only (which are spectacular). That's the Duke of Norfolk setting the prices, seeing as it's his castle!

 

The link has gone!... it was there earlier!

But a tenner is too much to pay, 20 quid for the two of us, just for the grounds!

 

I think that's right, we went May last year knowing the price but joined the NT on the spot as there was a special offer for membership (refunded the entry fee). We are going in two weeks time as being NT members we have free entry as with many other gardens around the country and certainly have had our money's worth.

The grounds are extensive with lakes, many specimen trees, folleys and fantastic vistas.

 

Sounds about right. That's why I rarely bother with National Trust stuff. I fully appreciate that the money has to come from somewhere to pay for what they do, it can't come cheap hiring a team of professional gardeners on a full time basis, replacing plants that have died, maintaining path ways that have to bear the load of thousands of pairs of feet every year. But at the same time the very idea of the National Trust is to protect something for all to see, and with some of the prices they charge they might achieve the 'protect something' aspect but maybe not the 'for all' bit. There's a NT managed park a few miles from us. It's quite cheap, at £6 to park your car and no actual entry fee (just the car parking cost), but its just countryside, and there are loads of places near us where you can park for free that are just as nice.

 

Have you ever eaten in a NT cafe or restaurant, I think they believe we are all foreign tourists that are ripe to be ripped off.

Not been to many of their places as they seem to always have so many restrictions, but where I have been has always been a rip off, especially the gift shops.

Anyway Wisley is just as bad,........ I guess it keeps the riff raff out.

Guess thats me, riff raff and always will be, it keeps me out most of the time anyway.

 

I think the link is now ok.:thumb:

 

One NT place that I have been know to frequent is on the white cliff above Dover docks.

Its been there for years, and I suppose the NT has spuced the place up since they have controlled it.

They have added a gift shop and cafe, along with miles of fencing.:(

Last time I visted the place was loaded with electric fences to keep the ponies that they have introduced in their allotted space.
Dogs on a lead etc.

All in order to maintain a totally un natural land scape

 

Still, count ourselves lucky we have the NT. In Ireland, many of the "big houses" (the mansions of the landed gentry and aristocracy) have been bulldozed, converted into convents (shudder!), left to fall down through neglect, sold to dubious foreigners or just forgotten about because there is no such organisation to do the work the NT do. The closest Ireland gets is the OPW (Office of Public Works), a government office that can only save a tiny fraction of all the historical properties around. Many superb examples of Jacobean, Georgian and Victorian country houses have been lost because of this. The contrast over the border in Northern Ireland where the NT (obviously!) operates could not be greater.

Their prices are high, but they also do a lot of work to preserve what might otherwise be lost.

 

It's elitist! I'm not particularly poor, but i can't justify that amount.. and I was going to go with my Mum, a pensioner who refused to pay that much!

Maybe the NT wants to keep it's reputation as a white, middle class organisation.

 

I would think about joining the RHS - there are now loads of associate gardens all over the country that you can visit for free as a member. I get more than my monies worth out of this alone, then theres a magazine every month and I am also lucky enough to be just a few miles from Harlow Carr gardens

 

If u join the national trust through here:

http://www.quidco.com/national-trust/

U get 20% cashback which makes it cheaper

 

The RHS is good but when we looked at joining it before we went away in July and it was going to cost us £70 for joint membership.We had already joined the NT last year so that we can use the free car parks up in the Lakes so thought that another £70 was out of it oif we joined the RHS.{We already pay RSPB Membership,plus Caravan Club as well}When we visited my sister and her hubby we were going to go to Rosemoor but as it was it chucked it down with rain for most of the day so only visited the gift shop in the end.

It does become quiet expensive if you belong to too many of them and in the end you have to decide what is best for each family.My friend gives me the RHS monthly magazines given to her by her neighbour and they are always nice to read,but then I end up hoarding them:p

It would have been nice years ago to have been able to afford Life Membership of these organisations but in the 80's when the interest rates went through the roof,we couldn't afford the hundreds of pounds for the life membership:(

 

I did mention in my post above that it was free entry for members!

Abottsbury Subtropical Gardens near us down here are charging £9 for entry and you would walk round it in under two hours so Stourhead which as Shiney says can be most of a day, if you want to se it all, isn't so bad.