It takes 23,000 scones...

Repairs and conservation work are part of our work at Charlecote every day of the year. We work hard to get it right, but it's your support that pays for it all.

We love to share our conservation work with our visitors when we can.  At the moment you can see how we care for the 2,000 year-old Greek vases in the library and many of you find this work fascinating.

However, we’re happy to admit that some of our work doesn’t appear very interesting at first glance.  Nor is it an attractive photo opportunity!

We have to paint and repair some of the external woodwork of the house and outbuildings this summer which means ugly scaffolding and fencing are inevitable.

It’s really important to get the colour authentically correct, and this can mean carefully stripping away layers of modern paintwork to discover original paintwork underneath. We were fortunate that this wasn’t necessary this time though.

Work on the Dry Laundry windows requires an entirely different set of skills, and now that the stonemasons have completed their work, we’re awaiting the glass from the glaziers.

Vital maintenance and repairs like these are a crucial part of our ongoing conservation work.  As a charity, we rely on the income from your membership, entry fees and purchases in our shops and tea room to fund these projects.

Raising the money we need for this work equates to selling 23,000 scones in our tea room.  Treat yourself today and you can look at a window frame and proudly say “I helped fix that”.

Did you know that every time you show your membership card on your way in to a property, a donation is given to that property from central National Trust membership funds. The places you visit are where your membership goes.

If you buy a raffle ticket at Charlecote this year, you’re helping pay for the tree work on our historic lime avenue – and preserving all those little ecosystems that depend on the trees.  

If you buy one of the library leaflets, you’re helping us preserve rare and precious books that future technologically-minded generations may look at with wonder.

So we'd just like to say "thank you" for visiting Charlecote - and hope you enjoy your cream tea.