H 8 · National Trust for England, Wales and Northern Ireland
The National Trust is a unique organisation in international terms, and has a very considerable reputation in heritage circles across the globe. The owner of 612,000 acres of land and almost 600 miles of coastline, it is an entirely voluntary organisation, and holds its land inalienably ‘for ever for everyone.’
One of the aims of the National Trust has always been to teach. The founders, profoundly influenced by John Ruskin, believed that the experience of visiting the countryside and seeing old buildings was of prime importance to the whole population and particularly to those living in large cities. The countryside and its buildings were seen as a way of understanding the roots of society and the natural world. Large country houses, whose preservation became an important part of the Trust’s work in the 1940s, had a more limited educational role. This was largely expressed through the guidebooks to houses, which involved much original research and were aimed at an informed audience.
The creation of an education service within the National Trust dates from the late 1970s when an Education Adviser with a broadranging advisory role was appointed. The post of Head of Education was set up in 1988, with the brief of putting education on the Trust’s map. Gradually the staff expanded with the appointment of regional education officers and some property-based officers. The main focus in the early 1990s was on encouraging Local Education Authorities to collaborate with the Trust over learning resources, funding posts and organising INSET days.
Though the organisation steadily became more interested in its educational work, the main purposes of the Trust remained preservation and access: the acquisition and restoration of land and buildings, their presentation and maintenance, and the continuing battle to keep afloat financially. In the past the education staff had some difficulty in making the case within the Trust for educational work as more than a pleasant, but ultimately decorative and expendable, activity. The official line was that educational work needed to be financially self-supporting.
These attitudes have now changed, in tune with the times. For the Trust the provision of the best possible learning facilities for the public has become a core objective. Their Vision for Learning issued in 2004 states that the Trust is committed to:
‘Becoming an organisation dedicated to learning and to creating opportunities for life-changing experiences for those with whom we engage both internally and externally.
Ensuring our properties become spaces where visitors can experience inspiration, relaxation, enjoyment and enrichment.
Enabling visitors and new users to experience and share a sense of discovery by engaging with formal or informal learning experiences at National Trust properties.
Valuing learning for its own sake and for the equality of opportunity it brings in all the work we undertake.’
The National Trust’s work at individual sites is often of high quality. This excellence frequently depends on the enthusiasm and imagination of individual members of staff and particularly those able to use limited financial resources and plentiful volunteers to best advantage, including Education Officers, and individual Property Managers.
What is striking about individual staff members is their dedication to the properties they look after, their individuality and imagination, and their ability to create enjoyment as well as to encourage learning, sometimes in a highly individual way. At best, they are able to create a feeling of joy, something no amount of committee papers or evaluation procedures can achieve.
The Trust employs a central team of advisers and national project managers at central office and fifteen Regional Learning and Interpretation Advisers over eleven regions, as well as numerous full- or part-time Learning Officers. The theme of the Trust is that ‘Everyone is engaged in education’.
As a private charitable trust which receives no public funding (other than grants from English Heritage for properties previously belonging to the State, or the Heritage Lottery Fund for restoration projects), the Trust is obliged to charge. It currently offers schools or other bodies Education Group Membership, which allows a wide range of activities for a small annual subscription. Family activities are charged at cost.
The National Trust exerts a positive force for learning in the example it sets through its development of craft skills, both on crafts people and on the building industry.
As the Trust puts it, ‘Learning is at the heart of everything we do.’
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'The National Trust will become an organisation committed to learning and will create opportunities for life-changing experiences for those with whom we engage both internally and externally. Through their engagement with the National Trust people will acquire a sense of discovery and the enthusiasm for sharing it. This will embrace the emotional and spiritual sides of life while also stimulating intellectual development. Within the Trust, and in our work with others we will value learning for its own sake as well as the equality of opportunity that it brings.'
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