Over-nighting on National Trust property (1 Viewer)

JurassicCoastin

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Hi All,

In the many kind welcome messages I had when I joined this site, the idea / issue of over-nighting on National Trust land was raised several times. I promised I would escalate this and thought I would start a new thread to keep you up to date.

There's 2 angles to this, firstly is the existing infrastructer & policies the Trust has at property level and the second is our 'Outdoor Nation' campaign running in 2011.

I have spoken with the Head of the Outdoor National campaign and he has sent me back the following answer:

This is an idea that definately needs follow up and one or two others have already suggested. Some properties do allow motorhomes to park overnight in their car parks and this seems to be done on ‘as asked’ basis and for varying small fees......
...... My feeling is that we want to be sharing a positive ‘we are going to try and welcome you’ message and be finding out from them what they need and encouraging them to contact properties and ask if they can stay and to spread the word on places where they have stayed

So, there you go! A very positive answer I think!
Now I need a bit of help from you guys - if you have (with permission!) stayed at a Trust Property, please let me know & I'll add it to the list we will compile from contacting all of our properties.

Obviously this could take some time so kicking the list off by asking you will generate results more quickly I think.

I have also made a suggestion of the Trust attending a cople of the Motorhome shows to engage both Members & non-members and, once we have a better idea of our strategy I think this might come to fruition.

I will compile the list on my blog site at www.ntjurassiccoastin.co.uk and keep you all updated.

Ben
 

hilldweller

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I have spoken with the Head of the Outdoor National campaign and he has sent me back the following answer:

This is an idea that definately needs follow up and one or two others have already suggested. Some properties do allow motorhomes to park overnight in their car parks and this seems to be done on ‘as asked’ basis and for varying small fees......
...... My feeling is that we want to be sharing a positive ‘we are going to try and welcome you’ message and be finding out from them what they need and encouraging them to contact properties and ask if they can stay and to spread the word on places where they have stayed

So, there you go! A very positive answer I think!

Ben

Forgive me for being negative but not to you of course.

So a "head" of National Trust ( sounds well paid ) is asking US to tell HIM which National Trust properties will have us.

I'd be inclined to say "get your act together and YOU tell US where we are welcome to stay overnight and we will".

Thanks for your efforts Ben, a lot of good could come out of this.
 
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JurassicCoastin

JurassicCoastin

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Forgive me for being negative but not to you of course.

So a "head" of National Trust ( sounds well paid ) is asking US to tell HIM which National Trust properties will have us.

I'd be inclined to say "get your act together and YOU tell US where we are welcome to stay overnight and we will".

Thanks for your efforts Ben, a lot of good could come out of this.

Hi Brian, sorry, perhaps I didn't explain that very well...

William is heading up the Outdoor Nation Campaign and has has said he will contact properties asking about facilities.

We have over 300 houses & gardens, 700 miles of coastline and many 'outdoors' properties. I'm sure you'll appreciate, in order for us to collate this information will take time and I felt that the experiences of the members on this forum make help us kick-start the list, allowing us to get the information as quickly as possible.

I would say we ARE getting our act together, we we're looking to encourage and welcome members & non-members who would like to visit us and I had hoped that the forum members here would be happy to share positive experiences on Trust Properties alongside our work too.

In my job, I work in Partnership with many organisations to try and get the best amount of useful information and we often ask people to assist us in information gathering. Without the help of the Motorhome community (who will hopefully benefit from this!) we would still get all the answers, it may just take a lot longer!

In such a large organisation as ours, we are constantly being asked for specific information from all sorts of user-groups (for want of a better phrase) and we'll always endeavour to find out the info but this has to run alongside our day-to-day work too...

I hope that clarifies the reasons I asked for some assistance from forum members

Ben

(Edit: I should also add - I joined the forum because I had a few questions about the motorhome I drive & a few people specifically asked about over-night parking. I didn't join to 'push' the Trust on anyone & I hope no-one feels that would be the case)

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Carol

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Ben thank you for the positive approach you are taking it is appreciated, don't think this counts but with the RSPB which we are members we have asked on their sites if we can stay, and each time been allowed stayed on a couple overnight with no problems, look forward to following the thread.
 

pudseykeith

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hi Ben. Jim the leader floated the idea last year that the fun could start to some how establish a series of Certified Locations. Could the NT maybe encouraged to licence some of there appropriate properties to be run by the Fun. We have a realy good record for doing thing right and having a very resposible membership. In these austeer times they may welcome the revenue that this could create. :thumb:

PK and Rosalie
 
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Hi Ben Altho I live in France I do manage to get myself, wife and van over to the UK on occassions and if we could park on NT land that would be great.
Goodluck with your project in trying to get us parking

Bill :thumb:

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Jim

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hi Ben. Jim the leader floated the idea last year that the fun could start to some how establish a series of Certified Locations. Could the NT maybe encouraged to licence some of there appropriate properties to be run by the Fun. We have a realy good record for doing thing right and having a very resposible membership. In these austeer times they may welcome the revenue that this could create. :thumb:

PK and Rosalie

Thanks guys.

Yes, We would be pleased to use our exemption to create 5 van certified locations on trust owned properties. I would be happy to chat to the trust or write to them about the prospect. Just give me a shout Ben. :thumb:
 
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JurassicCoastin

JurassicCoastin

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Hi All,

Thanks for all the info!

Carol - I'll mention about the RSPB - we work closely with them (& many others) so might be able to get some useful info...

Jim - Thanks - I'll PM you as I think this may be a good way forward...

Thank you to everyone else who has contributed... I'll keep you updated.

Ben
 

sedge

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Well I for one think it's brilliant.

A lot of NT properties could do with more than a day but clearly they aren't just going to allow it everywhere - eg Studland.

As NT members, we look forward to hearing more.

We did comment to each other last year that there was one part of the garden at Anglesey Abbey that would make a totally brilliant rally field!!! LOL

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JurassicCoastin

JurassicCoastin

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Well I for one think it's brilliant.

A lot of NT properties could do with more than a day but clearly they aren't just going to allow it everywhere - eg Studland.

As NT members, we look forward to hearing more.

We did comment to each other last year that there was one part of the garden at Anglesey Abbey that would make a totally brilliant rally field!!! LOL

Thanks Sedge,

Yes, you're right, please don't anyone be under any illusion that suddenly everywhere will be 'fair-game'! Studland is a great example of where there are all sorts of external agencies / authorities who have a massive say over what we do and it's unlikely we could sort out anything there (but we shall see!!)

Ben
 

Jim

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If you need to present to someone, or a board of someones, about the benefits of allowing parking at some NT sites, and the limited impact of modern self sufficient Motorhomes then I would be more than happy to help.

Thanks
 
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As a NT member I also think this would be brilliant, long standing RSPB member and wasn't aware some reserves if asked would allow overnighting? If anyone would like to pm me with details I'd be most obliged.

ATB

Stewart:Cool:
 
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JurassicCoastin

JurassicCoastin

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As a NT member I also think this would be brilliant, long standing RSPB member and wasn't aware some reserves if asked would allow overnighting? If anyone would like to pm me with details I'd be most obliged.

ATB

Stewart:Cool:

Hi Stewart - it's amazing what you find out sometimes isn't it?!!

I imagine the RSPB have some sites similar to us, where it's not advertised but can be privately arranged on an ad-hoc basis.

Ben
 

hilldweller

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Hi Brian, sorry, perhaps I didn't explain that very well...

We have over 300 houses & gardens, 700 miles of coastline and many 'outdoors' properties. I'm sure you'll appreciate, in order for us to collate this information will take time and I felt that the experiences of the members on this forum make help us kick-start the list, allowing us to get the information as quickly as possible.

I understand that but like many in here I worked in computers and the above is just a trivial scrap of data that would fit on a mobile phone today. Which means to me that the NT way behind in it's computer skills.

I have no doubt resources are tight and you do a grand job of your main task of keeping the sites going but we live in an internet world and if you want to get the best out of it you need the data. On here we are all used to going on the ACSI, CC C&CC sites and getting all the data we need, you have now identified a weakness in the NT that needs plugging to improve your revenues.

Aren't all NT units on an email system ? I would have thought a single email "do you allow overnight parking ?" could solve this problem in 24 hours.

I hope you take this as constructive criticism.

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I have spoken with the Head of the Outdoor National campaign and he has sent me back the following answer:

This is an idea that definately needs follow up and one or two others have already suggested. Some properties do allow motorhomes to park overnight in their car parks and this seems to be done on ‘as asked’ basis and for varying small fees......

That might explain why, when I visited one of the NT's buildings last year, there was a VW campervan parked by itself in the overflow parking zone. I did wonder, but there were no signs and I assumed overnighting was banned.

I thought about mentioning this in my initial posting, but not being aware that NT sites allowed this, I decided not to in case it dropped somebody in it :Smile:

Now I need a bit of help from you guys - if you have (with permission!) stayed at a Trust Property, please let me know & I'll add it to the list we will compile from contacting all of our properties.
I suspect (but I hope I'm wrong) that everybody has assumed, like me, that overnighting was not allowed and not asked to stay.
 

Carol

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One-man-(Neil) its always worth asking, I have asked in some very unlikly places and never been told no, but then Ed always says I am to cheeky for my own good.:Smile:
 
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JurassicCoastin

JurassicCoastin

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I understand that but like many in here I worked in computers and the above is just a trivial scrap of data that would fit on a mobile phone today. Which means to me that the NT way behind in it's computer skills.

I have no doubt resources are tight and you do a grand job of your main task of keeping the sites going but we live in an internet world and if you want to get the best out of it you need the data. On here we are all used to going on the ACSI, CC C&CC sites and getting all the data we need, you have now identified a weakness in the NT that needs plugging to improve your revenues.

Aren't all NT units on an email system ? I would have thought a single email "do you allow overnight parking ?" could solve this problem in 24 hours.

I hope you take this as constructive criticism.

Hi Brian,

I understand what you are saying, and if someone were tasked specifically with getting & collating this information this 'trivial srap of information' could reasonably quickly be gleaned.
As I mentioned before, with over 300 built properties in our handbook, each with it's own unique facilities, restrictions due to building status etc I'm sure that virtually every email we receive back with be along the lines of "Yes, but..." or "No because..."

Personally, I would rather we spent the time asking the right question and getting the right answer and I certainly wouldn't be able to handle the 300 email replies to the question in less than 24 hours.

I'd say our IT infrstructure is very good but collating data about all of our properties does take time.

I hope you take that as a consturctive reply to your contructive criticism :Smile:

Ben

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JurassicCoastin

JurassicCoastin

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That might explain why, when I visited one of the NT's buildings last year, there was a VW campervan parked by itself in the overflow parking zone. I did wonder, but there were no signs and I assumed overnighting was banned.

I thought about mentioning this in my initial posting, but not being aware that NT sites allowed this, I decided not to in case it dropped somebody in it :Smile:

I suspect (but I hope I'm wrong) that everybody has assumed, like me, that overnighting was not allowed and not asked to stay.

Hi Niel,

Well hopefully we'll be able to clarify the situation a little and you'll be pleasantly suprised by the answers!

I'm sure there will be properties that will allow ad-hoc overnight parking but aren't terribly keen to have it publicised.

Always worth contacting a property directly and asking - the worst they can say is no!
 

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It will be great if such information can be made available by the NT.

It's now more than 4 years since I e-mailed the NT asking for parking information for motorhomes (including any provision for (or ban on) overnight parking) and I never received an answer :Sad:

More power to your elbow Ben :Smile:

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Jim

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Once you decide on the few properties that would allow overnighting, you cannot just allow it, its against the law. However a few organisations, of which we are one, could exempt you from the law. The couple of other organisations that could offer the same, set down strict criteria and are pretty infllexible with their requiremnents; however we are more than happy to work with you, working around your concerns and requirements for each property. Let's hope things can progress. :thumb:
 

alcorn54

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This is great

This is exactly why I joined this site, constructive talks both from members and associations to benefit motorhomers.

The national trust has some beautiful locations and properties all over the UK and I for one would use many of them if allowed .

It would be great to park up in some of the more rural car parks/sites on the coast especially,it would be a kind of semi wild overnighting without the restricions of a camp site . I for one would follow all rules and restrictions to be allowed utilize some of these sites.

Please keep up negotiations and talks it can only benefit all of us!.

Alan
 
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JurassicCoastin

JurassicCoastin

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Once you decide on the few properties that would allow overnighting, you cannot just allow it, its against the law. However a few organisations, of which we are one, could exempt you from the law. The couple of other organisations that could offer the same, set down strict criteria and are pretty infllexible with their requiremnents; however we are more than happy to work with you, working around your concerns and requirements for each property. Let's hope things can progress. :thumb:

Thanks Jim.

Just to keep everyone updated, Jim has kindly offered to give us some advice and I have forwarded his detials to my colleague who is heading up the 'Outdoor Nation' campaign.

I'm sure we'll be able to get a positive outcoe out of this, but it won't happen in 24 hours!

Bear with us and I think both parties will benefit!

Ben

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One-man-(Neil) its always worth asking, I have asked in some very unlikly places and never been told no, but then Ed always says I am to cheeky for my own good.:Smile:

Totally agree Carol - what have you got to loose in asking?!, irrespective if it's an NT property or anywhere else.

:soaobox:

But....they're private properties aren't they? So I would never have even assumed you could stay overnight. They have gates with wardens and opening/closing hours. And everything I've read and seen in my brief motorhoming life so far has indicated that

private car park = no camping

which is usually displayed on a big sign in the car park. This is the first time I've had it confirmed you can do this, along with Carol's experience with RSPB site(s). We obviously have different mindsets.

OK, so I admit I'm not the sort of person who takes a chance, tracks down someone, and asks...more fool me. But I can't be the only one who assumes this...in fact this thread proves it by the responses I'm reading. Which is a shame because there's a real opportunity being missed here :Sad:

Also.....hey, I'm on a roll now...in my example, I was already booked at a C&CC site about 20 miles away for a few nights so it didn't matter, but in theory I could have used the NT car park instead of the last night at the C&CC as a stopping off point on my way home. But to do that I need to know ahead of time. The site was already booked.

There are going to be people in this group who are really comfortable wildcamping and willing to "wing it" by turning up at these places and asking, knowing that if they're refused, they'll drive on and find somewhere else...and do this for several days. And there are others like myself (hey...maybe just myself) who don't have full facilities on-board and therefore might need to mix sites with wild-camping/overnighting....but to do this I have to book ahead. And to do this I need information.

I'll go and lie down in a dark room now...thank you for reading this far :roflmto:
 
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Hi Stewart - it's amazing what you find out sometimes isn't it?!!

I imagine the RSPB have some sites similar to us, where it's not advertised but can be privately arranged on an ad-hoc basis.

Ben

Hi Ben

Been a member "man and boy" (46 years) tempted to email them and make the suggestion, there always on the look out to make more money.

Stewart :RollEyes:
 
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JurassicCoastin

JurassicCoastin

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:soaobox:

But....they're private properties aren't they? So I would never have even assumed you could stay overnight. They have gates with wardens and opening/closing hours. And everything I've read and seen in my brief motorhoming life so far has indicated that

private car park = no camping

which is usually displayed on a big sign in the car park. This is the first time I've had it confirmed you can do this, along with Carol's experience with RSPB site(s). We obviously have different mindsets.

OK, so I admit I'm not the sort of person who takes a chance, tracks down someone, and asks...more fool me. But I can't be the only one who assumes this...in fact this thread proves it by the responses I'm reading. Which is a shame because there's a real opportunity being missed here :Sad:

Also.....hey, I'm on a roll now...in my example, I was already booked at a C&CC site about 20 miles away for a few nights so it didn't matter, but in theory I could have used the NT car park instead of the last night at the C&CC as a stopping off point on my way home. But to do that I need to know ahead of time. The site was already booked.

There are going to be people in this group who are really comfortable wildcamping and willing to "wing it" by turning up at these places and asking, knowing that if they're refused, they'll drive on and find somewhere else...and do this for several days. And there are others like myself (hey...maybe just myself) who don't have full facilities on-board and therefore might need to mix sites with wild-camping/overnighting....but to do this I have to book ahead. And to do this I need information.

I'll go and lie down in a dark room now...thank you for reading this far :roflmto:

Hi 1_man,

Sorry, I should have made it clearer what I meant regarding NT properties & asking 'on-spec' - there are some (Stourhead being one example) that I have been told does allow overnight parking and therefore it may be worth asking them.

I didn't mean to confuse the discussion about NT or other organisation's properties and 'private property' (in fact, after I posted that I thought about editing it incase it had caused confision!!)

I'm looking to produce a list of NT properties that you can contact in advance and make a booking for an over-night stay, I was merely agreeing with Carol that, sometimes, there's no harm in asking!

Hope that clears that up.... :Smile:

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...don't think this counts but with the RSPB which we are members we have asked on their sites if we can stay, and each time been allowed stayed on a couple overnight with no problems...

It counts as far as I'm concerned...respect :notworthy:

There are a number of RSPB sites I would like to visit this year....heck, I do volunteer work on one (no on-site staff though, which could be a problem)....and it would be great to add them to my list of possible stop-over points.
 

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Like everybody else here - and as a NT member - I'd enthusiastically support the proposal to allow occasional overnight parking at Trust properties. However, I can't help wondering if there might be a conflict of interest from the Trust's perspective, given it already promotes some 50-odd camping and caravan sites?

"Get back to nature with the National Trust by camping at one of our 50 camping or touring sites located on National Trust land throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland....."

Link Removed

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-holidays/w-camp/w-camp-list.htm

Additionally, I believe that the Trust's current bylaws prevent overnight parking on its property.
 

motor roamin

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Ben

Thanks for your efforts I have never stayed on a NT property as I assumed (and I teach people to never assume :Blush:) that it was not allowed.

I fully understand the problems that it could cause, having lived on Dartmoor and seeing what some idiots can do and leave behind them, thankfully these are in the minority. As I posted previously it could bring local job's and a few more coins into the NT coffers.

I would also like to offer any help I can to further the cause.

As you know we are a life members of the trust and have often thought of many missed ways of the trust earning more money with little or no impact.

Once again many thanks Rick & Rosie.

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