What's the appeal of National Trust on MN?

[SpringIsSpringing23]

Often people suggest taking kids to a National Trust for a day out. I've been to NT properties. What do children get out of looking around old properties?? Is it a middle class thing? I'm low income working class and nobody I know would suggest national trust for a day out somewhere. Not the cost, just the idea of taking a child around old properties is madness to me.

Genuinely want to know!

@Danikm151 my friend belongs to an NT club in her town, they typically don't have cars and have group visits by mini bus, might be worth looking for one.

I'm high income, former working class. I really like NT places and have took the kids there through their childhoods. I like:

1. the adventure playgrounds
2. nice curated countryside & walks around the gardens
3. ruined castles and abbeys (fountains abbey near us is NT and it is very cool to wander around
4. half term type activities like pumpkin carving or Easter egg hunts
5. when going to NT places that are basically the manor house & gardens I love the idea of how horrified the posh former owners would be that me and the rest of the unwashed are troubling round their house & bedrooms
6. gotta love a national trust jacket potato
7. no add ons to buy like with a merlin pass & it's peaceful

We tend not to bother much with going inside the houses though. Only go in if it starts raining.

It isn’t about money, though @LolaSmiles . Some things are, but a lot of it isn’t. Last time I was at soft play it cost close to £20, and that certainly isn’t the domain of middle class families.

In fact, a lot of the hall markers of MC life are that it is fashionable to be frugal. But everyone insisting on this thread that NT properties are filled to the brim with working class children are ah, possibly not quite correct in their observations.

It is a largely mc pursuit. Of course there are exceptions, but I do think a lot of people insisting they are working class on this thread actually are possibly not.

We have been exploring NT places a bit lately as we have had free vouchers in the paper 😁 We take a picnic & just buy a coffee each for DH & me, so it pretty much just costs fuel.

We are in Essex & there are very few NT properties here, but plenty within an hour's drive. The 2 younger DC (9, 11 with SEN so similar to 9 year old) love running about & trails etc. DS1, 14, is a total history buff so loves going round these places.

It is a largely mc pursuit. Of course there are exceptions, but I do think a lot of people insisting they are working class on this thread actually are possibly not.

There’s working class and then there are the people on the estates where I live. If they went to a NT property, I think they would be asked to leave to be honest.

Working class as in working lower paid jobs and working class as in hanging out of windows shouting at each other and smoking weed on the school run are totally different things.

But 9/10, when I talk about the sort of people I live around on here I either get told I am a snob or that I am making it up.

Mindyourfingers
It's not just about money, I agree. I do think, from my own experiences, that some working class people love a good moan about how certain things aren't for the likes of us though.

I've no doubt that there's more Boden-clad mamas with their nice middle class children eating in the NT cafe than there are working class families, but I find the OP's suggestion that working class children wouldn't get anything from National Trust places to be annoying, and only further presents the idea that working class people are too stupid and uncultured to value anything like National Trust.

It's a pet peeve of mine when people seem to think that working class means poorly educated, not interested in visiting nice places, that working class children couldn't possibly enjoy National Trust/museums/educational and fun days out.

I agrée @Arthurflecksfacepaint Lots of people on MN are described as working class - when actually they're not. Certainly the working class community I grew up in took pride in having a job and keeping your house nice and that your kids were well behaved.

But on the thread topic - I live both EH and NT and we have both. DS loves thé castles and houses now he's older and interested in the history but he always loved the play parks etc.

I grew up in a pit village on the Notts / Derbys coalfield. Grandparents were miners, Dad worked for the NCB when I was a child.

Every weekend we’d be on the bus or train up to Matlock / Bakewell / Cromford and other places, looking at the mills, the Arkwright legacy, cottages etc, the viaducts of the industrial revolution. The great houses, Chatsworth, Haddon Hall, Hardwick Hall. All explained in terms of architecture and the role and history of capitalism and the working class. My Dad considered it working class history.

Great days out walking along Mill streams and along gritstone edges that the millstones came from, with our lettuce and salad cream sandwiches in grease proof paper.

It is true that NT days out are not cheap, and the cafes and shops, and often the activities, can be laughably twee. I still prefer industrial archaeology to chintz curtains to explore. It isn’t a leisure interest if everyone, why would it be?

But why would anyone just write off history or a curiosity about our history and how things came to be as not a working class interest?

I'm not middle class, I'm one of those awful benefits scroungers! We got NT membership when the children were very small because we went for a day out at the beach and the NT had taken over running of the car park. It would have cost £5 to park or we could sign the forms to join NT for £4.95 so I did that with the intention of cancelling when I got home! However, when I realised just how many NT places there were near us I thought I'd go and give them a look whilst I had temporary membership. The children really enjoyed going to these places, so many of them put on activities and trails etc and they love running about outside. My daughter also loves looking around inside the houses.

We ended up keeping the membership and over the years we've had many lovely days out at NT properties where the kids have been entertained for hours and all its cost me is the monthly membership fee of £11 and we can take a picnic/snacks etc. I can't afford days out otherwise, last week my dad took us to a local farm park and it cost the best part of £40 for 4 of us and that was one of the less expensive ones!

Oh, I’m sure that they would get something from it, although it is age and location dependent. We are nt members and I went a lot when my child was a baby. Now he is a toddler I haven’t been much, as the walks would be too long for him and there just isn’t very much to capture his interest. There can definitely be an attitude that running around a NT property all afternoon is a wholesome and healthy pastime in a way that running round a housing estate wouldn’t be!

To give you a completely different reason....Membership makes an excellent countrywide network of available clean toilets on road trips that (mostly) also have a running or walking area for a dog. Completely brilliant for long car trips. Added bonus of a nice place for tea and cake usually.
That said, the NT seem to me to make an effort in places to make it a good day for kids - little ones running round with cardboard swords and that kind of thing.

We did lots of this with DC when young - they loved it. It is great for fresh air, exercise, picnic out and they absorb the history/art if the parent is interested too. They would read the posters up etc and make things, do the trails etc. We would often go with friends so it was great all round for everyone.

We also did try some English seaside piers etc and big chaotic soft plays but to be honest whilst the kids enjoyed it, it was a bit more painful for us. So I would rather they ran around a wood/adventure playground any day and walk them through a historic house which we discuss with them.
My issue with soft play was always certain kids running riot and being ignored. I guess I am really middle class because I am always educating my DC at every juncture, just cannot help it. Some of my working class friends make a lot of fun of this aspect and tell us to just let the kids get on with it.

They are very geared to children nowadays and most of them have a lovley natural style play area somewhere.
Trails esp at Easter and yes the old house which sometimes is far from. Boring eg Snowshill Manor in the cotswolds is amazing.

I took my children to a "boring garden mummy why why".
They were enchanted with it! Hiddcote Manor garden is world famous and they absolutely loved it.

EyesOnThePies, your family sounds very similar to mine - both grandfather's miners but paternal gf didn't want any of his sons going down the pit so made sure they went to evening classes run by WEA so they broadened their horizons and saw that there were other opportunities.

When we went to Cragside, DDad had the grandkids entranced telling them about the scale models of the Armstrong ships there, and how , when he was in his teens working in the shipyards they'd be sent to look at the models and pull out the plans because they'd had a telegram from Hong Kong or Okinawa to say a ship had broken down and what did they need to do to fix it!

You’re telling us you can’t see the benefit of children spending free time exploring in the outdoors, or exploring historic buildings and learning about the people and events that were there?

what's class got to do with it?

Honestly, the posters asking these questions need to give their head a wobble. It is well known that outdoor pursuits and the arts are more middle class activities.
I only have 2 NT places within an hour. One is a coastal house with huge grounds and the other is a rural garden,(which really isn't any nicer than the free parks). You need a car to get to either, and a fair amount of fuel in the tank too. There are no playgrounds in either, so you are going to literally just walk or go into the house. The house tour takes an hour and goes into a lot of historical detail, architecture and restoration practices and local genealogy. It really isn't everyone's idea of fun. The staff in reception/gift shop/cafe have what would be described as a "posh accent" in our county. The cafe is very expensive and serves soft beverages such as 'elderflower and milk thistle spring water'. Cream tea is 'posh' to a lot of people. Activities such as willow weaving and Michealmas singing are not going to appeal to everyone.
The British class system is funny insofar as you could be on benefits living in a sink estate but be from a MC background. All the posters saying "but I'm low income and my dc love nothing more than a NT day out!" are conflating money with class.
I volunteered in my dc's primary school which was very economically diverse and over the years could see what different groups valued. The vast majority of parents who would have been described as 'working class' would not have been prioritising £12 a month on NT family membership. It wasn't because of financial barriers either, they would have thought it was boring, "not for us" and a waste of time.
NT has historically been viewed as a white, middle class activity and they are making efforts to address it.

Makes me laugh that some insist that people who say they are working place but go to NT places aren’t properly working class! I live in a deprived part of a deprived town, don’t own my own home, and I don’t drive. I am forming in the working class camp even if I don’t look or behave like someone from Shameless.
I prioritise NT membership because my local parks are rundown, have broken equipment, are full of litter and broken glass scattered all over and are grim and there are huge issues with county lines etc . We take our own food/drinks and enjoy the safe clean spaces.

Very similar - right down to the WEA!

My Dad worked in an unskilled office / admin based role for the NCB but when pit closures looked inevitable, and wanting to increase his prospects he did WEA courses. Then got into the provision of HA housing, looking to create good quality social housing and in turn eventually became a WEA tutor.

All based on his determination, as a working class lad, to fight for working class communities to have the conditions they deserved / had earned.

This is all true.

But the OP says Not the cost, just the idea of taking a child around old properties is madness to me.

**

I would love to have NT membership, but sadly live in a NT vortex where there really aren’t enough local properties to justify the cost. But I do have Art Fund ,which if you read the small print, does get you into quite a few lovely places for free.

(scowls at places like Kent which has plenty of NT , and some to spare)

I think many on this thread have no idea what constitutes WC and are conflating WC with what is now referred to by social scientists as 'underclass'.

Because it’s culture and heritage and I want to expose my kids to that?

Because it’s beautiful and I want my kids to appreciate beautiful architecture, and a sense of wonderment that humans can be capable of amazing feats?

Because there’s a lot of nature around NT areas and I want my children to be around real nature, not just some parks and football fields?

Because it’s interesting?

I’m probably classed as working class although I have roots in middle class and I’m interested in a lot of things middle class people are too but who gives a damn. No matter your ‘class’ you can still introduce your children to things that will benefit them. Why do you think people take their kids to museums?

Oh well, we go because we are firmly in the middle class bracket. It’s just what we do. Going to NT was part of my childhood, I can’t imagine it not being part of my children’s childhood too. Cultural capital, innit.

It’s also a free / cheap day out once you’ve got membership, loads of different places to explore, great outdoor spaces and somewhere good to stop off for food & the loo on a road trip.

And it’s important to me that my dc understand how to behave in a whole range of situations and places. Useful life skills to be able to be somewhere you wouldn’t choose to be and find something interesting about it.

I joined NT because I grew up in an ex mining town. My parents didn't do anything with me. They were both unemployed. I was left alone every minute that I wasn't in school. We didn't even have walks, trips to the park, beach, nothing. We had nothing! Apart from the weekly trip to Tesco.

I would dread the summer holidays. Long hot days of being stuck indoors. We couldn't play in our garden because it was overgrown and full of dumped cars.

As I grew up I knew that the one thing I wanted for my children was to get out and about, explore and learn. See the world.

My kids childhood is the opposite of mine. I love it. I achieved it despite growing up in deprivation. NT has provided me with an affordable way to provide what it all. 😊

Well yes, if the housing estate I unfortunately live on is anything to go by I would much prefer my children run around a beautiful, historic, safe and clean old property than a housing estate. There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s good to have standards