Making the Most of my National Trust Membership

This month I ended up with three unexpected days off, when a minibus course didn’t happen for the school I work for! So… I decided to use it as a great time to catch up with a lovely friend in Kent, and then visit some of the wonderful National Trust places down there too, staying in a lovely little summer house via Airbnb for two nights.

So what does National Trust Membership cost?

As a single person, I pay just £8 a month for membership. Most of the standard entry fees are between £16 and £24 per property, so you only have to visit once a month, to save money! There are over 500 places you can visit across England, Wales and Northern Island, and another 100+ places that are run independently in Scotland. So wherever you are visiting, you can be sure there will be somewhere nearby to use your membership! I worked out that over my three days in Kent, standard entrance fees would have totalled £105 for the six properties. My annual membership is £96, so I’d already covered the whole years worth, and saved money in this one short trip!

Why did I get myself Membership?

I bought myself National Trust Membership for my 50th birthday (almost 5 years ago now!) to make me get out and about during Covid, to get my fitness steps in, whilst learning more about history in beautiful houses, and experiencing wonderful peaceful gardens and exhibitions. As someone who usually walks alone, they are also very safe places to walk, relax and read (and I’m less likely to get myself lost than just wandering in local woodland!). I like that I can just be peaceful, or chat to other visitors and volunteers at the places I visit, and I often share the walks with other friends with membership too. They are really lovely places to get together and share.

National Trust in Kent

We have some wonderful National Trust places here in Surrey to visit (such as Polesden Lacey, Winkworth Arboretum, Leith Hill, Clandon Park, Hatchlands etc), but Kent has even more – over 20 properties there!

So for my three days off, I set a plan to see two properties each day. I visited a dear friend Paulene in her lovely home town of Tenterden the first evening before I started my little tour, as it had been way too long since we’d had a good catch up! Lovely to start my little break having a nice meal and natter with her on the Tuesday evening, then a wander around, and breakfast in Tenterden on Wednesday morning.

Day One

So next on the Wednesday, I headed off to Smallhythe Place – which was literally five minutes from my friends house! This is a beautiful little property, which you access via a lovely path leading from the church car park next door, across a little meadow around the back of the church. It was once a medieval shipyard, a working farm, and later the home of Victorian actress Dame Ellen Terry. It is full of charm and history, and has over 9,500 artefacts from her personal and professional life. When she died in 1928, Ellen left all her remaining property to her daughter Edy Craig, who established Smallhythe as a museum to honour her mother, then she gifted it to the National Trust in 1939. It has it’s own beautiful small theatre, which still holds plays, where some very well known actors have performed.

Next it was off to Sissinghurst Castle Garden. The National Trust website describes this place as ‘historic, poetic, iconic: a refuge dedicated to beauty’. And I would totally agree with that. Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicholson fell in love with Sissinghurst Castle and created a world-renowned garden. There is a series of gardens to please everyone here – my favourites were the Rose Garden and the White Garden. There is a fabulous Tower here where you are rewarded for the climb, with stunning panoramic views across the estate, and this is also home to Vita’s writing room. The ‘Big Room’ was their entertaining room, but is now used to home various exhibitions throughout the year, and they often put on lovely outdoor theatre performances.

Day Two

I started Thursday by heading off to Bateman’s. I’d not been here before, so it was fab to go to somewhere completely new. This beautiful house was the family home of world-famous writer Rudyard Kipling (known for The Jungle Book and Just So stories). Built in 1634, this house is Jacobean, has a 13th century working Watermill (which also featured in his stories) and a pretty garden. Bateman’s has 300 acres of High Weald countryside with small fields, hedgerows, ancient trees, hidden ponds and magnificient views across the Dudwell valley. I absolutely loved it here and will definitely be back!

Next on Thursday I visited another new property for me – Bodiam Castle. A stunning 14th century moated castle, with a ruined, open-air interior, that features spiral staircases, battlements and a portcullis. There’s not much by the way of gardens here, but a pretty landscape, and the castle is super impressive and photogenic, and houses a video explaining the history of the place, and lots of interactive features for kids. They also offer some open-air performances here and battlefield demonstrations.

Day Three

Knowing that I sadly had to head home today, on Friday I chose two more properties that would break the journey on the way back. Firstly, I headed off to Emmetts Garden. This is a stunning Edwardian hillside garden with year round features. It’s not huge, but the Rose Garden here was the best I’d seen of everywhere I had visited, and the Rockery here is beautiful too. There is also the North and South Gardens to explore, along with surrounding woodlands. I know having been before that it is wonderful in bluebell season, and it is only a 10 minute drive to my next stop Chartwell, so if you are ever planning to visit Chartwell yourself, you should definitely make time to drop in here too. It really is a very peaceful, serene experience here.

Last stop on my little Kent tour as mentioned was Chartwell. This was the family home and garden of Sir Winston Churchill. The house is filled with treasures, gifts and personal belongings, which are all presented exactly as they would have known it. If you are lucky when you visit, you can also see the Studio, which is the home of the largest single collection of Winston Churchills paintings. Here, interactive displays offer insight into Churchill the painter. The Rose Garden is stunning and was designed by Lady Churchill, and leads into the terrace lawn with views over the estate and surrounding countryside. The Walled Garden is a kitchen garden with walls built by Winston Churchill, surrounded by a beautiful apple orchard and wildflower meadow. You can also see the most beautiful pair of black swans here.

The Benefits of Alone Time

I think it is really important to spend time just with ourselves sometimes. To do things we enjoy, that bring us peace, and to learn and experience new things. I had been to four of these six properties before, but it was lovely to see them all again, and to experience two new places. The joy of National Trust Membership is that I’ll never run out of fabulous places to visit and enjoy!

Whilst it was boiling hot (34-38 degrees that week!) I thoroughly enjoyed going to these places in the daytime, then just relaxing in the little garden with a good book in the Airbnb in the evenings, and as boring as it sounds, actually getting a couple of early nights! As membership got me in free to all the places, and I brought all my own food with me, it really only cost me the two nights Airbnb and a bit of fuel to get places – so a lovely three days away for not much money. It does us good to have a change of scenery sometimes. I need to look at my National Trust map now, to see where to go next time!