Celebrate the ideas and innovation of our heritage by discovering the stories of inventive genius associated with our properties.
From notable thinkers and ground-breaking advances, to bizarre contraptions and eccentric ideas, many of our properties and inhabitants were well ahead of their time.
Watch the films:
The National Trust is home to many beautiful objects, but when you scratch below the polished veneer, you discover that we look after a whole range of oddities, from the curious to the downright ridiculous! Here are five short videos of things you would never expect to see on a day out with the Trust:
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Here’s a selection of other innovations on display:
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Cragside, Northumberland
The revolutionary home of Victorian inventor and landscape genius, Lord Armstrong, was called ‘the wonder of its age’. |
The first house in the world to be lit by hydroelectricity, it is crammed with gadgets and fascinating objects, from electric gongs to a primitive dishwasher.
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Standen, East Sussex
See how the Victorians tried to take the back-break out of life with an exhibition of wacky inventions. |
Marvel at self-pouring teapots, ‘mouse-proof’ organ pedals and the extraordinary ‘Wristlet Route Indicator’ - an early 20th century forerunner of satellite navigation. From the collection of modern-day private collector, Maurice Collins.
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Fox Talbot Museum, Wiltshire
The former home of the pioneer of photography, the museum offers an intriguing insight into the development of early photography. |
Visit the exhibition gallery and see ‘Idylls of the King’, a series of striking images by the ‘queen’ of early photography, Julia Margaret Cameron.
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Woolsthorpe Manor, Lincolnshire
Birthplace and family home of scientist Sir Isaac Newton, it was here that he developed his remarkable work on light and gravity. |
Visit the famous apple tree, hear talks about Newton’s life and learn about his ideas in the hands-on Science Discovery Centre.
With its use of traditional and 21st-century technologies to light, heat and power the mill, and a visitor centre with interactive displays, this is the place to be inspired by green living at its best.
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2 Willow Road, Hampstead, London
This extraordinary house was designed and built in the 1930s by one of the leading architects of Modernism, Ernö Goldfinger. |
See iconic examples of his Modernist furniture and accessories, plus artworks by his contemporaries such as Henry Moore and Max Ernst.
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