The National Trust Flashcards

Question

100th anniversary of the NT, 1995

Answer 1

subject to a range of trenchant criticisms, in particular in the book Gilding the Acorn by Paula Weideger. These criticisms again centred on issues of openness and purpose e.g. • What has happened to the Trust's campaigning spirit? (roads, public access) • The country houses cost too much (£33 million each year + £5 million in restoration costs: Gardens, land and coastline costs £25 million). Would that money not be better spent elsewhere? Can the poor really afford to visit their properties? Weideger now criticized the National Trust from a new angle. Whereas previously it had been attacked for being too concerned with the interests of a few aristocratic members, now it was being criticized for being so concerned with the views of the public that it was unable to campaign on any issue. As she declared in the independent: ‘The National Trust seems to stand for nothing more than holding on to the riches it has. It appears to be afraid to stand up for anything lest in so doing it offend someone and lose financial support or future gifts of property.’

Answer 2

BM est 1903 * Oldest/longest/ most continuous journal written in Eng about fine arts - aimed at art connoisseurs, art historians * More educational approach to why we should be preserving country houses * Treasures for the nation - permeate ideas of who we are * Written during the war (WW2) - country houses = big part of how we're trying to define ourselves as a nation * Trying to couch argument in populist terms - everyone's ppl * Arguing 4 state intervention to preserve buildings - extraordinary * House taken over by state as posh social housing? Former owners pay money to state but allowed to live on * More extreme than just national trust - which is private but state-supported * Alternative solution - transform house into museum. Ones that are really precious/ special could be preserved w contents. E.g. Holburn in Bath - domestic collection. Preserved as museum. Museumification only poss 4 tiny minority. If lack distinction and made into museum just fell into disuse * 1960s utilitarian times - best way 2 keep buildings alive = by turning to modern-day use * Interesting bc written in middle of war, anticipating post-war time when will have 2 make decision about buildings

Answer 3

* Professor of fine art at the Slade. Written num of books on evolut of country house * Writing 4 the Architectural Review * Writing in context of exhibition Erica spoke to us about - Destruction of Country House Exhibit * Questioning * Review of the exhibition * Great concern of mid-70s. Oil crisis and dropping shares. No longer sufficient funds 2 maintain great country estate * Labour v supportive of country houses (unexpectedly) * 70s financial crisis v diff to postwar * Response to this - 1974 v and a Destruction of the Country House exhibition - one of most influential exhibitions ever put on. V dramatic display. Designed by Wade - incredible display. V dramatically conceived exhibition, to awaken nation to threat of losing country houses * V diff mindset to Daily Express article - these are our heritage * Rational for exhibition - few realised scale of loss of country houses * Exhibition - queues formed. In last week Queen, Lord Mountbatton, various govt ministers, all visited * Falling porticoes * Politically - awkward time. Just b4 general election which brought in Labour govt proposing enormous wealth tax which would've made holding onto these houses impossible * Already social shift around preservation of country houses but still v bold of the v&a to hold its exhibition * Mark's article - all responsible 4 country houses, all need 2 preserve heritage * Mark - reaches similar conclusions to Burlington * Even if country houses preserved, problem of how they should be used * How does one keep them living and relevant? * School - but cost of radical change in character and contents * Museum - total preservation at cost of total death * Radical solution * E.g. Mutual Householders' Association * Hard 2 make case in mid-70s for why state shld bother providing subsidies if houses not going to be used * Need to think creatively * Unlike burlington - no case for state support unless houses going to be used for something

Answer 4

The history of landscape conservation = a quintessentially political process NT late-Victorian approach to conservation - making private purchases for public purposes - proved inadequate after the FWW: the price was too high, the challenges too daunting, the State increasingly ubiquitous. So conservationists had willy-nilly to act politically: to recruit a political constituency, to lobby the state, to make choices and tactical decisions Victorian values remained paramount - Ruskin and Morrise, Arts and Crafts - widest impact came in form of commodities for industrial production and suburban consumption. Handicrafts like basketry and pottery for urban home decoration Liberal minority took spiritual message of Ruskin to heart Revulsion from infernal city and all its works Built environment hardly interested them Urge to protect open country from the influx of the masses Identification of conservation with agriculture Interwar yrs. Fears of conservationists exacerbated - Urban sprawl Intellectuals' apocalypticism climax after 1929, when crisis of countryside overlapped w economic and political crisis in cities, This brought new layer of intellectuals into conservation orbit - Oxbridge aesthetes Countrified aesthetes even less interested in developing pop following than had been old-style conservationists - Waugh and hist friends wrote off the Ruskin and Morris tradition entirely as a dismal, tasteless popularisation that preserved only the cheap and useful in rural life. Waugh, Labels, 1930 - defended his 'detestation of quaintness Waugh's classicism offered approach to preservation more attractive than the liberal faddiness then prevalent, causing more country-house owners to take preservationist approach to their homes This sparked influx of landowners into NT Mid-30s clearing of crisis atmosphere Ruskinian currents in early Labour. Incr staunched in fav of bread-and-butter issues 1932 Planning Act - Gave considerable, but still only permissive, powers (and no money) to local authorities that wished to preserve historic districts, regulate traffic and land use, and even to purchase exurban land for recreational purposes. Made poss for the 1st time some fruitful collaborations between urban and rural populations e.g. Herbert Morrison's green-belt scheme National Park movement as another sphere of collab between urban and rural Growing popularity of urban amenity knock-on effect in stimulating urban tastes for rural amenity as well Planning Act 1947 - virtually nationalized all development land, to permit the measured and rational reorganization of the citiwa 1949 National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act In contrast to durable postwar welfare state, nearly all of the Labour conservation program of the late forties either quickly dismantled or proved eventually an obvious failure National Land Fund practically smothered at birth Principal use in 1950s = to assist NT purchases of country houses. Capital sum cut by 80% in 1958 National Parks Commissions left intact, and 10 of the 12 parks envisaged established, but in name only: no planning controls imposed on the local authorities concerned, and hardly any central govt grant made available for recreational devel Postwar burst of urban devel revived old conservationist horror at urban life 1953, when central govt grants finally available for preservat of historic builds, these were consciously directed away from cities and toward country houses, windmills, watermills. Little attempt to save town centres Reopening of gulf between country and city = tragedy for old town centres Country house business form strength to strength Access to open countryside probs diminishing, as commercial agriculture moved into woodland, heath moor Farmers destroyed 1/4 of England's hedgerows and 1/3 of small woods in 50s and 60s, acc to one critic Reaction to this debacle began in early 1960s and continues to this day along wide front Govt turned around from 1963 onward to support recreation in nat parks and new leisure-oriented country parks 1959, £40,000 grant denied; ten yrs later millions being piled on Urban amenity mvmnt came of age late 60s Conservation areas date from 1967: thousands were designated in the first decade, and the Historic Buildings Council had its budget vastly augmented to serve them Veritable mania for the preservation of historic buildings in both town and country since the mid-seventies Discriminations of the conservation mvmnt meant some things well preserved: country houses, forest, some national parks Other things shamefully neglected or botched: town centres and town planning in general What had seemed, in the early seventies, to be the start of a multivocal public debate over land use and planning, with a rich variety of interests now properly represented, quickly degenerated into a political paralysis, a lack of any policy now being widely accepted as a wiser or at least safer successor to the misadventures of the fifties and sixties In place of conservation we need a landscape politics, because the whole of society shapes the landscape, whether conservationists will or no.

Answer 5

1st largely urban preservaitonist body, est 1937 in weak response to such cardinal acts of vandalism as the razing of Nash's Regent Street

Answer 6

Study planned autumn 1972 for publication autumn 1974. Main objects = to draw attention to the importance and problems of British country houses in the context of European Architectural Heritage Year Future of country houses in private ownership is constantly threatened by existing taxation on capital and income Situation that appears to be developing into a major crisis Demolition of upwards of 340 notable country houses in England, Wales and Scotland, loss of contents of 40 other houses in England, since 1945 Even more country houses saved from disaster in yrs after 1945 through the recovery of the economy, determination of owners to win through, support of Historic Buildings Councils since 1953, Land Fund, National Trust, development of tourism Despite apparent success of 1955-65, economy that supported country houses could not withstand additional burden of capital gains tax introduced in 1965 combined w rocketing land values after 1970 and a decline on the stock market 2nd part of study - tries to correct widely-held misconceptions about the resources of house-owners who are also landowners, showing how their nett return from an estate is often well below 1% after tax and how often capital can only be generated by the sale of land that in many cases will reduce the viability of an estate Tourism alone cannot solve all problems Most houses not enough visitors to cover outgoings Conflicting elements of tourism and preservation Steep rise in repair costs To meet costs, and provide cash for estate duty, CGT or estate devels, owners may have to look to incr vulnerable collections Exemption from estate duty less effective defence in face of inflation NT, HBC, LF coping so far, but certainly couldn't cope w crisis brought about by measures to be covered in Green Paper If estates broken up as a result of the punitive combination of existing and impending taxes, 1st victims will be historic houses and their contents. Thus nation will have to bear full cost of anything it wishes to preserve Vast majority of visitors would regret that the traditional owners had been driven out, and enjoy visit less 1200 houses lost in past century Surely appallingly iconoclastic as well as economic nonsense to destroy the existing balance - originally envisaged by the first post-War Labour Government and encouraged by its successors - in order to sink a small group of people?

Answer 7

Wilmington, Delaware At the Winterthur Museum, Costumes of Downton Abbey, an exhibition of forty historically inspired costumes from the television show ‘‘displayed and supplemented by photographs and vignettes inspired by the fictional program and by real life at Winterthur,’’1 was the most popular exhibit in the museum’s sixty-three years of public opening 5 Back in the United Kingdom there has been a surge in visitors to country houses. According to a 2013 report from VisitBritain, almost one in three tourists who visit the UK go to see an historic house or castle. Visit England identifies ‘‘The Downton Effect’’ for a ‘‘revived interest in stately homes,’’ The real Downton Abbey, Highclere Castle, home to the Carnarvon Family since 1679, is a Jacobethan masterpiece designed by Sir Charles Barry.11 The house opens to the public for seventy days every year and last year was fully booked through advanced ticket sales. Robert Compton, the President of the Historic Houses Association, concludes, ‘‘Downton has done us all a great service because it’s reminding people about our heritage. It’s bringing history to light.’’ Families lived and loved, thrived and died, often over multiple generations. Country houses are able to create an emotional link with visitors in a way that museums find very hard to do with their audiences. However, many critics— of whom Laurajane Smith has been most vocal—have observed that this is an emotional link that is only available to a select few rather than create a new curatorial direction, what Downton Abbey has done is to accelerate existing trends in the presentation and interpretation of country houses. After all, showing servants’ quarters is nothing new. Erdigg Hall was acquired by the Trust in 1973, not for its architectural importance, or its contents, but because of the existence of extensive sources about the servants who worked there.26 Since re-opening in 1977 visitors have entered not through the main entrance into the piano nobile, but instead start their experience downstairs in the servants’ quarters. at Ickworth in Suffolk, the National Trust, beginning in 2010, invested £744,000 ($1,198,520) to re-create the domestic service areas. The question, therefore, of what to do with the collections is the greatest challenge facing curators, owners, and managers of country houses that open to the public. In the post-Downton world where human stories and personal narratives dominate, what role does the art and material culture that comprises these houses’ collections play? There are different strategies available: the room guide (the staple and backbone of the National Trust and other publically accessible properties); the guidebook, which has undergone a considerable broadening of focus away from high art towards social history in the past quarter of a century; and increasingly the turn to digital. This need not be a significant financial investment in new technologies and software. For many visitors, a simple re-tweet from a heritage property, or a cleverly crafted hashtag, is enough. This action breaks down barriers and creates a sense of community and conversation between the ‘‘provider’’ and the ‘‘customer.’’ we must be careful not to exaggerate the impact of Downton Abbey. Many country houses have seen a steady decline in footfall over the last decade. Those that have bucked the trend have been ‘‘those that continue to take a degree of risk in terms of innovation and diversification.’’

Answer 8

You get a few stuffy critics writing in The Times about Disneyfication, but the vast majority find it hugely desirable to be able to walk into a country house and actually sit down on the chairs, and actually handle the books, and actually participate in something. So what if it’s a replica rather than the real thing?33

Answer 9

Est December 1948, concerned w fiscal and financial aspects of maintaining this part of the national heritage

Answer 10

The early years to 1917 show spatial bias in favour of the far south and Cumbria (plus Norfolk which contained one large property, Blickling). This largely reflects the origins of the founders and their close associates and benefactors (a south-eastern bias in membership still persists).' By 1937 the Trust's growing status in these areas was augmented by substantial holdings in recreational areas such as Derbyshire and North Wales. During the period 1938-1957 selective development continued in the aforementioned areas, but was augmented by the acquisition of a very large number of stately homes and gardens, through government legislation favouring donations to the Trust Since 1957 most of the earlier modes of acquisition have continued, but the Trust has become more selective in two important respects. Firstly, it is increasingly inclined to reject donations which are of limited heritage interest or which lack an adequate maintenance endowment. Marginally-funded cases may be accepted on the basis of quality (rather than location); but many stately homes needing repair and maintenance at current prices can no longer be seen as desirable windfalls. Instead, the Trust campaigns for government assistance to private owners landholdings were increasing rapidly, albeit selectively, through 1978. The persistent coastal bias was counterbalanced by the acceptance of five large windfall estates in a variety of inland locations The great majority of properties (not all) have a recreational function; and in the context of a 'leisure society' it is the distribution of recreational opportunities which is central to the Trust's geographical impact, even though recreation is not its prime raison d'itre. Growing pressure upon its resources has caused the Trust's approach to evolve, from early passive preservation to active conservation today. In this context it has recently engaged Wye College to produce a series of studies on optimal land management in some of its key properties. Despite its far-reaching significance, the National Trust is relatively deficient in an increasingly important field of conservation: townscape and urban land use. It was founded at a time when the task of conservation appeared to be the salvation of a traditional rural England from a rapidly encroaching urban wasteland. Furthermore, it has always had friends in high places and was soon looked upon with favour by the landed classes, who were willing and able to donate mainly rural properties; this pattern was entrenched by the legislation which has brought so many stately homes and gardens to the Trust since the late 1930s. Urban conservation in England is superficially catered for by such bodies as the Civic Trust (1957), and by the Civic Amenities Act (1967)