Since our first holiday together in 2014 Michael and I have been proud members of The National Trust. Our first visit was to Agatha Christine’s Greenway House near Dartmouth in Devon.

Having always enjoyed studying History, I went on in 2009, to study Education and History prior to training to be a primary teacher. It was during my degree that I completed a unit of Country Houses and visited Donnington Hall near Lincoln and Burghley House near Stamford. Little did I know back then that this would be the start of over 30 different visits to historical properties.

Since purchasing our caravan in July 2020 we hope this will mean that we can use more of our trust membership. When ever planning a trip in the UK we always grab the map to see the nearest trust properties, but having the caravan means we find those hidden gems whilst on our travels.

The National Trust isn’t just about country houses and castles, they run a vast collection of other properties, including The Workhouse – Southwell. We enjoyed this visit as we were able to take part in a unique tour, seeing areas that you wouldn’t usually see.

If your heading to places such as Dorset, the National Trust own many of the coastal car parks in the area, including Studland Bay. Having a Trust membership gives you free parking at all of the car parks around the country which can actually save you a great deal of money. While the Trust produce a member sticker every year due to on going fraudulent usage you now are required to scan your membership card on parking ticket machines to get free parking.

We have created this Google Map of all the National Trust properties we have visited, if you have any questions about visiting these please get in touch.

Please note, this blog post is not endorsed by the National Trust, we have written it to share our enjoyment of belonging to it.