National Treasure

As the National Trust, chief custodian of the nation’s heritage, celebrates its 125th anniversary, we visit three properties that reveal the remarkable breadth of its scope

- Edward Aves

Of the sumptuous historic properties that grace the pages of this magazine, how many would still exist were it not for the National Trust? Without the vision and ambition of this much-loved organization, countless national treasures – now preserved, in the Trust’s words, “forever, for everyone” – would long ago have been scooped up by avaricious developers.

It was with a typically Victorian mix of high idealism and unassailable brio that the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty was founded by a trio of nature-loving philanthropists in 1895. Chief among them was the indomitable Octavia Hill, a pioneer of affordable housing whose experiences of the cramped conditions of herurban tenants encouraged her to seek protection for London’s remaining green spaces. Dismayed by the relentless onslaught of the Industrial Revolution, Hill and two likeminded allies – Hardwicke Rawnsley, a charismatic Lakeland clergyman, and savvy lawyer Sir Robert Hunter – realized that the only way to preserve the places that mattered was to establish an independent charity with the financial muscle, backed by legal powers, to acquire property as it became available.

In its early years, the Trust focused on saving open spaces and rescuing historic properties from demolition, and it was not until the middle of the last century that it began the work for which it’s perhaps best loved today: conserving and restoring Britain’s great country houses and gardens.