Our history

The idea of the National Trust is born when Octavia Hill, one of our founders, is asked to help preserve Sayes Court garden in south east London.

A short expressive name is needed for the new company, Sir Robert Hunter suggests National Trust.

Within a few weeks of the National Trust being registered under the Companies Act, it was given its first place five acres of cliff top at Dinas Oleu in Wales.

Alfriston Clergy House in Sussex.

We acquire our first nature reserve with the purchase of two acres of Wicken Fen, near Cambridge.

Commitment to great buildings is confirmed with the gift of Kanturk Castle, in what was to become the Republic of Ireland.

Nationwide campaign launches to raise funds for the purchase of Brandelhow on Derwentwater. Many contribute to the appeal including the daughter of Queen Victoria, Princess Louise, and factory workers in the Midlands.

This year also saw us acquire Barrington Court, a sixteenth-century country house in Somerset.

Blakeney Point, Norfolk, acquired for its value as a coastal nature reserve.

Great Gable, in the Lake District, is presented to us by the Fell and Rock Climbing Club as a memorial to members who had been killed in the Great War.

Historian GM Trevelyan uses his friendship with the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, and with the author John Buchan, to gain support and boost falling membership numbers.

Under the chairmanship of critic and journalist John Bailey, we receive more sympathetic coverage from the press than at any time in our history, before or since. On 25 October a letter in The Times, appealing for funds for Ashridge in Hertfordshire, is signed by Stanley Baldwin, Ramsay MacDonald and Herbert Asquith.

Over 1,400 acres of farmland around Stonehenge is bought after a national appeal.

Beatrix Potter uses the income from her children's books to support our work in the Lake District. As a result, Monk Coniston Estate, near Coniston Water, is acquired.

The Marquis of Lothian proposes that we should be able to accept the gift of country houses, with endowments in land or capital, which would be free of tax. These new powers are provided in the National Trust Act of 1937.

Following the gift of Quarry Bank Mill and Styal Estate in Cheshire, we get involved with sites of major importance for their industrial archaeology.

Lord Lothian bequeaths his Jacobean house, Blickling, in Norfolk.

A campaign with the aim of acquiring unspoilt coastline which might be at risk.

We reversed a decision to turn Sutton House, owned since 1936, into flats and devote it to cultural and educational uses for the benefit of the community in Hackney.

We hit the 2 million members mark more than the combined membership of all the political parties.

The Snowdonia appeal is launched by Sir Anthony Hopkins. The Lake District appeal, begun three years earlier, reaches its target of £2 million.

A modern-movement house in Hampstead, 2 Willow Road, designed by Erno Goldfinger in 1938, is acquired.

Our Farming Forward initiative is launched, at the time of the foot & mouth crisis, reaffirming our commitment to preserving both natural beauty and a viable economy in rural areas.

The Victorian country house, Tyntesfield, near Bristol, is put up for sale. Within 100 days we raise £3 million from over 50,000 individual donors and secure a grant of £17.5 million from the National Heritage Memorial Fund.

We purchase Red House once owned by the designer William Morris, who was a friend and supporter of Octavia Hill.

We move to our new central office Heelis in Swindon, bringing staff from four central offices under one roof for the first time. A small office in London remains.

The total number of volunteers working for the Trust, donating what Octavia Hill called gifts of time, exceeds 50,000.

Following a massive appeal that raised over £3 million from thousands of people, charitable trusts and companies across the country, Seaton Delaval Hall in Northumberland is saved for the nation.

Dame Helen Ghosh takes over from Dame Fiona Reynolds in late 2012 as our new Director-General.