Whilst we aim to provide friends and a great many interesting activities for our members, ultimately, the main reason we exist as a Supporters group is to help fund the NT.
There are many groups like ours all over the country who support their local NT properties and projects, and find fun, friends, companionship, as well as education, from the events which the committees organise.
Yes, the National Trust is a large nationwide organisation whose membership fees keep increasing, and yes, they can fund many of their projects from this. But unseen costs arise when caring for older properties (as many of us have found!) and sometimes there are pleasant surprises – which require funding in order to bring them to the wider public.
One such is following the archaeological dig at Fountains/Studley Royal, where they are planning a new Visitors’ centre, and this dig will be covered in detail at our talk from the lead archaeologist in January. However a number of important artefacts have been uncovered that need urgent conservation. From our fundraising this year, we envisaged that we should give money towards the re-planting of trees on the estate but Justin Scully, the Fountains Estate General Manager, has said this tree planting will not now be possible until next winter. As a result, we hope it will be acceptable to members that we direct this year’s fundraising towards the conservation of some of the artefacts found; you can see some of the artefacts at the end of this
Update re the Presentation at 22nd November 2025 Meeting
At the talk in November, we were able to hand over a cheque for £2,500 from your fundraising efforts, to Bec Evans, the acting General Manager at Fountains. This money will go towards conserving some of the artefacts uncovered recently and which are described below.
Forthcoming Activities – Sep 2025
At the lecture at Holy Trinity on Saturday November 22nd, Justin was to give us an update. However, he has been sent to look after all the other Yorkshire NT properties(!) and so Becky (Bec) Evans, who is Acting General Manager in his absence, will talk to us instead. She is taking a lead on the conservation of the artefacts and so will be able to tell us what is needed. Justin will come and talk to us on 28th March, following the formal part of the AGM, and by then will be able to answer the many questions you may have – so come prepared!
