National Trust visit spoilt by overzealous staff or AIBU?

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Visited a beautiful NT country house today. Huge 17th century house with Capability Brown landscaped parkland. The house has lots of art by Van Dyck - one of my favourite artists and I was really looking forward to spending a couple of hours with DH wandering around in the beautiful spaces enjoying the peace and quiet. However, every time I stopped to look at a painting one of the staff would come up to me and start talking. This happened several times in every room we wandered into. I totally get the enthusiasm and expertise of the staff but I wasn't really interested in hearing about the Civil War etc., I just wanted to enjoy the paintings in peace. We do visit NT properties occasionally but have never found this to be a problem before.
The staff just seemed to be unable to read my body language as I was trying to walk away or indicate that I didn't want to talk or listen to them by not responding or engaging with them. Short of telling them to shut up it was impossible.
It was a very quiet day with not many visitors so they were probably bored but it was way too much for us.
AIBU by being a miserable bugger (I know I'm quite unsociable at times) or should I be allowed to wander round in peace? Perhaps they should give out 'don't talk to me' badges with the tickets if you want to be left in peace!

Amazing amount of ageism and snobbery on here!

I have to say I find museums and NT places much more pleasant to visit in the UK, despite overenthusiastic volunteers at times.

In some overseas museums they seem to assume you're going to steal or damage something and follow you round. Italy seems to be particularly bad for this.

It’s like in America when you just want to eat out and talk quietly to your family and some overhyped waiter wants you to tell them your whole life story (for fear of not being tipped). Unable to understand body language or even words. It’s SO SO annoying!

We were once relentlessly pursued through the vast grounds of an English Heritage property by a volunteer who was on his day off (and just looking for a victim). Our mistake had been pausing to admire a mature tree.

This seems common with many venues, including English Heritage.

It's easy to suggest 'ripostes' for the OP but when you're in the moment and put on the spot, most people want to avoid anything confrontational (like asking to be left alone.)

The volunteers are clearly trained to do this so speaking/contacting the management of the site is the answer.

We recently went to an EH site -mainly to walk the grounds - and the initial 'greetings' when we bought tickets were slightly OTT (the site has just opened for the spring season) and felt insincere.

When we left, the volunteer at the gate asked if we'd enjoyed our walk.
I felt that was intrusive. sometimes I go for walks in the countryside when I'm dealing with difficult stuff, and don't want to talk to anyone.

All they need to say is 'Goodbye, thanks for visiting.'

Nice passive aggressive attempt to make me feel bad for sharing my actual experience. Of course it wasn’t every volunteer who was annoying but enough of them were that we took to avoiding them. That’s just a fact. I appreciate the intent but after too many people wanting to explain their personal interpretation of every painting in the Ferens or tell me who Phillip Larkin was, we started muttering “oh fuck there’s another one, let’s go” whenever we saw the blue. Great if people found them helpful but the simple truth was they actively put us off visiting places in Hull.

That’s happened to me before, they’re really bored volunteers

I find the same thing annoying too. I just want to take in the pictures, admire the furnishings, and take in the views. If I want to know the history of the room or anything else I am capable of asking. I wish they could just quietly hovver, as I am too polite to tell them to go away. 🙃

I haven't been to a NT property in about 8 years. Had a horrible experience where we were totally ignored. We walked in and went to counter to pay, one person paying but two women on the tills so we stood next to these people in front of the woman not doing anything, I assumed she wasn't actully taking money so waited. Other people joined the queue and the people who came after us was served, I thought maybe the woman serving assumed we were being dealt with by her colleague. She was very chatty with both couples going in. So then she stared to serve the third lot of customers so second lot who came in after us. I said, "Am I invisible?" She tutted and the people who she had started to serve apologised. She was really short with me, didn't point out where to go as she had with previous customers.

We came to the conclusion my husband wasn't welcome due to colour, it was a very white part of the country. I'd have told them to stick it but we were meeting people inside but vowed never again.

I get your experience was annoying even though it was the opposite of mine.

I had a very long conversation about storks with an EH volunteer. It was interesting, tbf, and I found out quite a lot about storks, much of which I've forgotten. But I could see why he was volunteering - very much a people person who wanted to share his knowledge.

I've also come across some amazing NT volunteers who were fantastic with a friend's neurodiverse teenage son, who was asking all sorts of questions I doubt they were used to. And ultimately, if they are a bit intrusive and I don't want them there, I start telling them about the intricate details of my history PhD and wait until they edge away.

I dread and loathe this. I feel pounced on. It’s as if they can;t ready your body language as you stiffen and turn away. The first steward who accosts me gets a smile and the merest nod while I to look away and don’t engage. By the time I get to the last room I can be positively rude and put my hand up to stop them before they speak and then I feel really mean by the end. And this is an experience I have paid for.

Take some brochures from a national double-glazing company and pretend to be the local sales rep. When the volunteers start talking about the age of the property, thrust a brochure in their hands and talk incessantly about how you can save the NT millions of pounds a year in energy bills through installation of a UPVC triple casement flush system. “You buy one, you get one free.”

Oh God yes this. We love visiting NT gardens but whenever we go into a property we get accosted. Worst was the room assistant who had made a mental judgement that we were "nice" and shared her awful opinions re the travelling community. 😔.
I get that some of them are a bit lonely and it's their day for going out to chat to folk, but when it's my day off and I just want a day where I don't have to talk to people....

Well think about it t'other way round. This person isi giving time freely and has taken more time to be trained, to learn about the place and the artefacts, furniture, history, and has done lots of reading about it on top. And is passionate about the place. To me that doesn't mean that they are 'bored' - but because they so love the place, are prepared to give their time and share knowledge. If you spend 1 day a week standing around- I am sure you'd rather feel that you were of some use and could help, than ... being bored.

Just be polite and say thank you, and quietly say you enjoy visiting with your own thoughts. No need to be so rude.

And sorry, NT would not survive if it had to employ staff to cover all the sites and houses.

Other heritage organisations and museums manage to take the visitor experience and interpretation side of the role seriously and train the volunteers for it, so I really don’t know why the NT can’t- assuming your description of NT volunteer training is what they actually do rather than guesswork?

I totally disagree that the model of using volunteer room stewards, shared by visitor organisations and independent museums the world over, is exploitative. The reasons it is so common is that it allows places to open and events to take place that would simply not be cost effective with all paid staff. Volunteering is a two way street and people do it for all kinds of reasons. One of my fellow volunteers was a retired headmistress in her early 90s who went out and did voluntary work somewhere every day of the week. Another is a young disabled woman who is now doing a degree as a result. My sil is now a curator at the museum she started volunteering at before she was able to go back to work after dcs.
As has been raised on this thread, there are certain issues that come with using volunteers, but many of these can be addressed if you take their role seriously and give them full training, which it sounds like the NT may not always be doing.

Omg op we've had this. Dh and I have been NT members for years but haven't been for a while because of this. The last place we visited was so bad I wrote to NT complaining and suggested (as someone else has already suggested) that they have a small red clip on badge that guests can wear if they want to be left alone. I never heard back 😄

You are missing the point. I don’t want to have to say this in every room at every visit.

Indeed. And you can guarantee that if you said it to ten NT volunteers there would be at least one who would get huffy.

I bet the other guests just love listening to you perform the contents of the guidebook!

I think it would be worth giving this feedback to NT. They should train volunteers to ask 'Would you like to know more?' And let visitors know that all they have to say is 'No thank you' and no offence will be given. They should also train volunteers to read body language, so that even if you say yes to wanting to know more, if you take a step back or glance across the room, it is time for them to say - nice chatting to you, enjoy the rest of your visit.

I'm a frequent NT visitor and when I'm bored of listening to someone .......... I say 'You're so knowledgeable, I could listen to you all day, but I'm afraid I've only got half an hour and want to make sure I see as much as I can, so I'll have to move on now. Thanks so much' - and walk away briskly. Works every time and no one's feelings are hurt in the process

@EnidSpyton I do this too. Polite, friendly and clear

It's a shame to see people so dismissive of volunteers who kindly give up their free time to support a charity

Witnessed at NT property last summer.
Volunteer to young lady "Do not touch that harp".
YL "I had no intention to, I play harp myself and was just admiring it".
Volunteer "Well you won't be playing that one".
YL "No, I charge £300 an hour".

I still think cutting them short with 'thanks for the info, I'm just looking' and walking away is a perfectly fine response in this situation.

I think National Trust volunteers are wonderful. We are members and visit National Trust properties a lot. I have never had any of the problems described here (maybe we are just lucky).

We sometimes take our parents with us and they couldn’t be more kind. My MIL is deaf and my father is in a wheelchair and they are always helpful without being fussy or patronising.

The volunteers also work incredibly hard behind the scenes, litter picking, gardening, cleaning, carrying out research, etc. The National Trust would not survive without them.

Plus they do some of the most amazing Christmas displays - looking at you Avebury!

Yes, we had this in a seaside museum in Spain, the steward was literally a few paces behind us wherever we went in any given direction. Seriously love, I have no interest in adorning my home with your herring fishery paraphernalia!