Fascinating facts & figures
Fascinating things you never knew about us
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Gravity was discovered on our land
Sir Isaac Newton’s apple tree at Woolsthorpe Manor, Lincolnshire, is believed to be the very one that inspired him in 1665, when the 'notion of gravitation came to mind' after he watched an apple fall. The tree, a rare variety Flower of Kent, fell down in 1820, but is still growing well, having rooted where the trunk touched the ground.
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We love a wet day
Over 43 per cent of rainwater in England and Wales drains through National Trust places and spaces.
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We love a cuppa
Each year, we serve over 3.5 million cups of tea. That's quite a lot of tea.
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We're film stars
The cloisters at Lacock Abbey were transformed into Hogwarts classrooms for the filming of the 'Harry Potter' series of movies.
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One of our wardens lives in a cave
One of our wardens lives in a cave dwelling (Rock House at Kinver, South Staffs). The warden lives in one of the houses built into rock and we open the others to the public.
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We're one big farming family
We’re the nation's largest farmer, with more than 618,000 acres of land and about 2,000 tenants.
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We like to tread the boards
We look after an important and historical theatre – the Theatre Royal in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.
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We like a bit of table dancing
The dining table at Uppark in West Sussex is where Nelson’s future lover, the beautiful Emma Hamilton, is said once to have danced naked by way of an hors d’oeuvre during her tenure as Sir Harry Fetherstonhaugh’s fiesty mistress.
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The drinks are on us
We own and run 61 pubs and inns, including the George Inn in Southwark, featured in Dickens' Little Dorrit.
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We've got the whole world in our hands
Four World Heritage Sites exist on our land by the coast. They are the Giant’s Causeway and Causeway Coast, Dorset and East Devon Coast, Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscapes and Hadrian’s Wall.
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Flooding is a big issue for us
126 of our coastal sites are at risk from tidal flooding and 606km (60 per cent) of our coastline is at risk of erosion.
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We own the UK's oldest nature reserve
We own Britain’s oldest nature reserve, Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire, acquired in 1899. More recently, Orford Ness reserve was the site of Britain’s nuclear weapon testing programme in the 1950’s.
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We protect all kinds of wildlife
Some 45 volunteer toad patrollers help save toads on the North Yorkshire Moors.
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Our first house was...
Alfriston Clergy House in East Sussex, a dilapidated medieval meeting house, acquired in 1896.
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Showing you round our houses
We have 12,000 volunteer room stewards, almost 100 of whom have given more than 50 years service.
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We offer lots of unusual jobs
We have 120 volunteer firefighters, 15 volunteer pilots, two beekeepers and one shepherd.
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We depend on your donations
Some £39 million was gifted to the Trust in legacies alone in 2008, plus £11 million from appeals and gifts.
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We're pretty BIG!
We are the largest voluntary conservation organisation in Europe (recruiting more than one member every minute during the summer months). The only organisation in the UK to have a larger membership is the AA.
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Tapestry tales
A 1m sq of tapestry costs £4,333 to conserve, whereas it costs approximately £26,500 per m sq to weave a new tapestry (according to trials carried out by West Dean College).
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Plants rule
We have 32 Plant Heritage National Plant Collections – making us the largest single collection holder in the UK.
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We beat Cameron, Clegg & Miliband
With 4 million members, we are proud to have about six times more members than all the main political parties put together.
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Stourhead inspired Thunderbirds
Stourhead house was the inspiration for Lady Penelope’s residence in the original Thunderbirds puppet series in the 1960’s.
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We love museums
We look after one in 10 of all the museums in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
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We own the place radio was invented at
The Marconi Centre in Podhu, Cornwall, received the world’s first transatlantic radio transmission in 1901 – an experimental SOS was sent by Marconi himself from Newfoundland to the lonely site on the Cornish coast.
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We helped the Large Blue flourish
We successfully helped re-introduce the beautiful large blue butterfly to England after it was declared extinct in the UK in 1979.
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We have over 60,000 volunteers
We have 60,000 volunteers contributing 3.1 million hours of their time – the equivalent of 1,590 full-time staff.
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Bats love our houses
All 17 species of UK bat have been recorded as roosting or breeding in our places, making us the single most important landowner for bat conservation.
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Butterflies also love us
With 96 per cent of all resident species of UK butterfly occurring on our land we have a huge responsibility for their conservation.
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Village people
We own 59 villages, such as Buttermere in Cumbria and Lacock in Wiltshire.
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We give wigs their own space
We have four closets for wig powdering. Wigs needed dedicated powdering rooms to limit the mess.
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Sense & Sensibility
Our places were the setting for many scenes in the 1995 film version Sense and Sensibility, featuring Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant, Alan Rickman and Greg Wise. Compton Castle in Devon was used as the exterior of Mr. Willoughby’s home, Mompesson in Wiltshire was Mrs Jennings’ London residence and Saltram in Devon was Norland Park, the home of the Dashwoods.
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All that glitters
We own a gold mine - The Dolaucothi Gold Mines in
Pumsaint, Carmarthenshire to be exact! -
We love eclectic collections
We own 49 churches, nine monasteries and eight billiard tables - the one at Tyntsfield is electronically heated.