To ask if you went to NT properties as a child...

[LisaJool]

And if you think they made a difference to you?
Went to my first NT stately home today, and judging by admission prices I can see why NT is often trotted out on MN as being very middle class. Forty minute house tour which was great (for me), but not convinced it would be enjoyable for young children.
The grounds, whilst vast, weren't much better than (free) parks and there was no play equipment, so again, not sure it's a great thing for dc to look forward to. Despite being in the middle of nowhere, a lot of the other visitors were mums with several dc, and I sort of wondered what the appeal was? Why would you pay to walk around a park when you can go to a free park that offers better facilities?
I do realize the memberships work out much cheaper, but still I'm rather perplexed about the appeal. Is being a NT member a status thing?

Mine liked it enough to take our adult memberships now they are adults. They also out of choice visit castles, cathedrals and museums. National trust membership is relatively cheap in the sense you can use it dozens of times a year to get good money's worth

Yes, I went a lot as a child. Mum loved history and was good at retelling the information on the signs so it was exciting to listen to. Plus, the more we went, the more it all fitted together and made sense. So it wasn’t a story in isolation, it was “Do you remember this person? We saw his picture with the dog in that house. Well, this is his son, who…” And history at school made more sense because I had lots of ‘hooks’ to hang the new information on, and I could visualise things.

Which means both my sister and I grew up loving history, so we both have family membership! My two both enjoy going round NT houses. They are both into history and the eldest says it is by far her favourite GCSE subject. She describes it as feeling real because she’s seen a lot of the styles etc they talk about. “It’s not just reading about how someone lived, you can really see it because you’ve been to somewhere like it.”

We are local to Lanhydrock and frankly that by itself pays our membership. We go round the house maybe once a year, but we use the grounds a lot. They are huge - there’s a massive range of places to walk from really short strolls to hikes that take a few hours. There’s an adventure playground that my youngest still likes, and there are cycle trails that they love to ride. We might only pop up for half an hour but membership makes it easy to do that. And that’s before you even start to think about parking for coastal walks (Bedruthan Steps) and holiday days out.

And that’s before you even start to think about parking for coastal walks (Bedruthan Steps) and holiday days out.

Ooo. When I was little, we used to go on holiday to Bedruthan Steps hotel every year. Long car drive there, sister being sick, mum and dad arguing because dad wouldn't stop, me wanting to wee every hour. Ah, happy days. 🤩

I think it depends where you live. We used to live close to about 3 decent NT properties - massive play areas, gardens, places to walk, picnic etc. We went at least twice a month so really got out money’s worth.

We’ve moved recently and there’s only one NT place nearby and it’s only OK. So we cancelled our membership.