National Trust recommendations North West

[florenceandthemac]

Can anyone suggest the best NT locations in the North West, please? Planning to visit one at the end of this month

Tatton definitely is NT! Depends what you want to do @florenceandthemac and where you’re based/travelling from. I suggested Chatsworth because it’s a knockout and had everything the NT has but bigger and better.
Lyme Park- deer park, where they filmed Colin Firth in a pond for P&P, amazing location on the edge of the Peak District
Tatton - rare breed working farm, lovely gardens, big events, next to Knutsford ( Mrs Gaskell’s ‘Cranford’)
Dunham - house, gardens, great grub, spot the WAGs walking the cockapoo
Quarry Bank - small, historically significant ‘working’ mill and apprentice house, muddy walks through woods
Little Moreton Hall is a wonky delight (but the famous knot gardens got battered by blight and are being restored).
If you want something a bit different how about the new Castlefield Viaduct garden in Manchester City centre, combined with a walking tour of the city?

Here's Beatrix Potter's house.

www.nationaltrust.org.uk/hill-top

Do they not have the cardboard castle room?
It’s been through so many incarnations. Not bad for a folly that pissed off the man’s wife so much she refused to ever set foot in there Rather characterless inside, as you’d expect.
If you have NT membership anyway it’s a handy parking place for a walk down to Windermere.

Definitely north east!

Little Moreton Hall is a beautiful black and white house.

Biddulph Grange is a lovely garden.

Quarry Bank Mill is a very interesting day out.

If you go for a National Trust place, please check the website for opening hours. Many properties close at the end of October or go to very reduced opening hours. Also, sometimes the houses are closed and only the grounds are open.

Tatton definitely is NT!

I think it's partly NT, partly not so there's a charge to park.

Rufford is small - can be a good combo with a walk along the canal, or a visit to Mere Sands Wood wildlife trust reserve, and/or Martin Mere WWT.

Tatton is NT, just due to an arrangement with Cheshire county council,vyou have to pay tob take a car in.

It is a cool story 😀 But they’ve got rid of all the kiddy stuff apparently. I love
locally and haven’t been for a while due to them changing the inside… lots of renovation going on at the beginning of last summer too.

Defo worth parking there and walking/riding in the area. Even getting the ferry from there.

I live in the north west and Little Moreton Hall is my all time favourite BUT it is two hours from where I live so you do need to narrow down the area.

Speke
Rufford
Dunham Massey
Lyme Park
Tatton - used to be £7 for members to park but that was a while back
Formby woods (no house but lovely beach and squirrel woods, often fills up in the summer)
I'll be looking into some of the others, thanks!

Really enjoyed Quarry Bank

I'd also like to go to Paul McCartney's childhood house too.

We went to Quarry Bank earlier this year and absolutely loved it. The gardens were absolutely beautiful too to sit and have a picnic.

We did the Beatles houses tour earlier this year - highly recommended, it is fascinating, the guides know so much about them.
The morning tours depart from Speke Hall so if you book one of those you can combine the two.
We’d hoped to do that, but it was Easter weekend and Speke Hall was mad busy, so they changed it to the station instead - a bit disappointing, but we were able to change to an afternoon tour and spent some time in the city centre beforehand.

I love Dunham Massey, Quarry Bank is my husband's favourite. Also Lyme, Speke, Biddulph Grange (but that's heading south a bit)

I used to live not far from Tatton and Dunham Massey.
Tatton you do need to pay for the car park and it's gone up again since I moved two years ago.
It's now £8 to get in if going during the week and £9.50 at weekends/ bank holidays.
That's extortionate in my opinion.
You can park on the outskirts of the park and walk in, but you'll have a good half and hour- 40 min walk to get to the house, cafes/ restaurant/ toilet etc so bare that in mind if planning on avoiding the ridiculous car parking fee.

Apologies that should say half an hour but my phone thought it best to change an to and.