Tag: National Trust

Birds, beetles and butterflies: conservationists reveal wildlife affected by UK fires

Stuart Mitchell

The National Trust has laid bare some of the varied species of wildlife that have been affected by April’s spate of wildfires. After the driest March in decades, and warmer than average temperatures in April, the UK has had one of the worst fire seasons on record. Fires in recent weeks have included one spanning 1,600 hectares – roughly 400 times the size of Cardiff’s Principality Stadium – at the National Trust’s Abergwesyn Common in Powys, Mid Wales. The blaze damaged vast areas of prime habitat for small mammals and…

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£5m of funding from Garfield Weston Foundation will help ‘turn the tide’ for nature on a huge scale says the National Trust

Stuart Mitchell

The battle against both the nature and climate crises is being stepped up on land cared for by the National Trust at four locations in England, as a new three-year project to deliver landscape scale nature conservation gets underway. The battle against both the nature and climate crises is being stepped up on land cared for by the National Trust at four locations in England, as a new three-year project to deliver landscape scale nature conservation gets underway. Thanks to funding support of £5m from the Garfield Weston Foundation [1],…

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National Trust launches HistoryScapes storytelling app to offer ‘time travel experience’ through voices from the past

Stuart Mitchell

Three National Trust properties, in partnership with the University of Exeter, feature in an immersive new app, HistoryScapes, that brings their estates’ histories to life through the eyes of ordinary people: a carpenter, a mill worker and a broom maker. HistoryScapes is a free app that takes users on GPS-triggered trails at National Trust properties to connect people to landscape heritage. Each trail is led by a historical figure and, inspired by research into them, offers a ‘living history’ format to give visitors the sense of having one foot in…

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Director General marks National Trust’s 130th birthday by unveiling ambitious plans for the next decade

Stuart Mitchell

The National Trust is marking its 130th birthday by unveiling hugely ambitious plans for the next decade and beyond, as it launches a new 10-year strategy. Founded in the late 19th century to preserve the natural environment from the ravages of industrialisation, then adapting to save scores of country houses from dereliction in the wake of the World Wars, the charity is now ramping up its efforts to address the new national need: the climate and nature crises. These plans follow the largest public consultation ever carried out by the National…

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Centuries of colour history to be revealed as National Trust establishes new laboratory to research paints used in the past

Stuart Mitchell

New insights into the colourful world of the past will be revealed at a new National Trust archive of thousands of historic paint samples. The new facility based in Kent has been made possible thanks to funding of £621,962 from the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). Homeowners might ponder what colours their houses were before white and magnolia became so universal, but the National Trust is creating a new laboratory to research paint samples gathered from across its properties to see what the many hidden layers of paint…

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