National trust vs English heritage

[Ricardothesnowman]

What is the difference and which is the best value?

Thanks

It depends on where you live and travel. We have EH as there's only 1 NT we'd visit within reasonable day trip driving distance for us. We also like to visit Northumberland and North Yorkshire so have found there are more places that interest us (roman sites, castles & houses).

It really depends on where you are going and how many places there are around of each and how often you think you will use them. Look on a map at either where you live or if there is a specific place you want to visit and work out if there are actually places you want to visit.
It is a generalisation but NT tend to have more big houses and gardens and EH have a lot of castles but it isn’t exactly like that.

National trust tends to be houses. English Heritage is more ruins. Neither better than the other, just different. I've got lifetime NT membership. But don't really go to ruins.

National Trust also has a lot of car parks in areas like the lake district (although at busy times you have to be there at the crack of dawn to get a space!!), so a membership can save money there.

I want to do lots of short uk breaks in the next few years, so just trying to work out how to do this cheapest.

I guess I should plan my breaks first then decide.

I think houses are more my sort of thing, but ruins are more ds's thing.

We have both , we live in the SE and there are plenty of EH and NT places fairly local but we tend to use NT more so if I had to choose it would be NT .

You could join different ones for different years, you don’t have to join one and stick with it. When I was growing up my parents joined different ones according to where we were going each year and what was around where we were going on holiday.

Where do you live? Bear in mind that for the first year EH membership won’t get you into Cadw properties in Wales (not sure about Scotland/NI) whereas NT will be nationwide. I’ve never had EH membership but we’ve had NT for years, we joined Cadw just before the pandemic, I only renewed for the second year because they knocked the price right down due to covid - one normal year would have been enough, after a few castles I kind of felt castled out , NT membership is more varied and the free parking at beaches is a bonus!

I'm on the south coast, but not particularly looking for local places. We have have wish list of areas we want to go to, all over the UK.

I have NT for a couple of local big houses with parks and car parking at quite a few beauty spots. Not much EH near me but they do manage Stonehenge. I always thought that EH was more big monuments, but that might be just because of what’s local to me?

EH don't charge for children. Each adult member can bring up to six under 18s free of charge. Useful if your children want to bring friends on your day out! First year membership gets half price entry to CADW and Historic Scotland properties, free from second year on. Joint adult membership currently £115, additional 3 months for paying by annual direct debit. Alternatively currently offering 20% off with M and S sparks card.

Check out Historic Houses. We joined a couple of years ago and have found it to be much better value that the National Trust or English Heritage. They have about 300 properties in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, including some fabulous places like Alnwick Castle and Althorp House that are normally very expensive to visit, but free to HH members.
www.historichouses.org/

I have both, but use NT a lot more as we have about 14 sites within an hours drive of us, whereas I'm not sure where the nearest paid EH one is. But it just depends what you have close to you really. My EH its part of a corporate membership which is why I keep it on - plus I really like the historical aspect, whereas NT in a lot of cases is just another old house with some nice gardens/estate to have walk.

@TamzinGrey that looks really interesting!

If you are eligible for a CSSC card, admission to EH is included in that.

CSSC

@TamzinGrey thanks for the link. There are a lot of places near me, and near my sister. Do you think it's worth the money?

We found a good range of EH sites in and near London. They took over from Ministry of Works which controlled a lot of buildings used by Govt in War. Also many sites and ruins that would have been orphaned.
Volunteers at Nat Trust can be officious in my experience.

@Toddlerteaplease Definitely well worth the money. We recouped our membership fee in no time at all by getting free entry to some lovely places that otherwise would have charged us a whopping fee to get in.
Membership also entitles you to an excellent quarterly magazine and free on line lectures.
We've got lots of HH properties in our area, some of which I'd never heard of until we joined.

There are loads round me as well so think I'll give it a go. I'm a life member of the NT but I've done all my local ones a million times!

Thanks for note on Historic Houses.
Also look up ART FUND, they have a 3 month trial membership if you apply in June. Have used it for discounts to many paid for exhibitions and museums.

We have both. We use NT more. Worth noting that some places are free for either NT or EH members. Stonehenge and Avebury are two that I can think of.

There are seven sites which are free to both NT and EH members: Stonehenge, Housteads on Hadrians wall, Hardwick Old Hall, Mount Grace Priory House and Gardens, Fountains Abbey, Dunstanburgh Castle and (I think) Kirkham Priory. I always have trouble remembering the last one 🤨.
Having a SPARKS card will get you 50%off admission at all EH sites until the end of September if you want to try a couple of places before committing to membership.

This is good advice

NT membership can pretty much pay for itself with a well planned trip to the Lakes, Northumberland or Northern Ireland.

I have NT membership myself, and EH through work. They tend to have different types of properties (EH are usually ruins - if you want roofs go NT!) and NY have lots of gardens, land, estates and car parks as well.