ABSTRACT

The National Trust is a charity set up by an Act of Parliament in 1885. The Trust currently cares for just over 200 historic properties, areas of significant natural beauty and coastline. The Trust’s stated aim is to preserve this heritage forever, for everyone, making public access a key issue. In general, the historic properties are shown very much as the lived in residences they once were, with most of their contents on open display. Preventive conservation is the guiding principle and each house and contents has its own care programme determined by its sensitivity. The environmental controls that it is possible to exert within a historic house are necessarily limited. However, levels of light and relative humidity are regularly monitored and visitor numbers controlled by having closed periods during the winter, when essential maintenance and cleaning can be carried out.