The National Trust
Lyme Park - beautiful grounds and an interesting house
At last I managed to have a few days away! 
Sunny Derbyshire our haven of choice this weekend.
We stayed in the gorgeous Ollerbrook Cottages just outside Edale. Not too far from Buxton.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!
We stayed for the long weekend – doing Poole Cavern (and a massive walk up a bloomin’ huge hill!), the small guage steam railway at Leek, and Lyme Park (the image on the left)
#Rant#
Now we in Yorkshire are a canny folk – not too loose with the old purse strings, BUT I REFUSE TO PAY STUPID AMOUNTS TO WALK ROUND A GARDEN!! 
I know most of us think that a paltry £8 for a visit to the house and garden at Lyme Park, is a small amount to pay, but this seems to be the exception for most Country Estates.
We WERE going to visit the Museum of Childhood at Sudbury hall, but check out these prices:
Gift Aid Admission (Standard Admission prices in brackets):
£7.10 (£6.45), child £3.60 (£3.27), family £17.80 (£16.18), Groups (£6.10).
Museum [only]:
£7.60 (£6.90), child £4.40 (£4), family £19.60 (£17.81), Groups (£6.80).
Joint [both museum and House]:
£13.20 (£12), child £7 (£6.36), family £33.40 (£30.36), Groups (£12.50).
So for myself and my GF (not being members of The National Trust) it was going to cost £26.40 if we gift aided the entrance fee, or £24 if not.
WHAT!!?!!?!?!! I can get in to a bloomin’ theme park for less!! (in case you were wondering Gulliver’s World is near Matlock and ONLY £11.50, each adult, to get in! 
).
That’s a SILLY amount of dosh to charge – especially when MOST museums in England are FREE!!!
On the subject of ‘Gift Aid’ too – why would I pay 65p more to ‘gift’ the entrance fee when there are few National Trust properties near here? My money will go into some HUGE pot to paint something NOT LOCAL TO ME as there is a dearth of National Trust properties near here (Leeds). Apparently the extra makes the entire entrance fee a gift (and eligible for the tax relief) so why ask for so much more? 
Also – some your National Trust donations are going towards buying farms in the Peak district, and renting them back to their original owners at stupid rates!
The National Trust just seems like it’s lost it’s way a bit and become one huge money making machine…
#Rant over#
We DID have an excellent time though – needless to say, I only paid 2x £7.20 (the NON gift aid entrance fee) to see Lyme Park, and when asked “Did I want to join [The National Trust]?” I replied:
“I’d HATE to!”
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I know what you mean – we were in Barnard Castle over Easter: £8.00 each to walk round the ruined castle in the town (a NT property) – we didn’t bother as it would have taken us about 20 mins.
It’s effin’ extortion!
Money grabbing…
(at this point Simon was disconnected due to excessive trauma!)
Well i agree, but sadly i was born into the whole ‘national trust’ palava. my parents have a family membership to the national trust, and since i was born intil now, the age of 14, i have been to countless places around britain, which even having gone to many of them multiple times, i still find highly excruciatingly boring. someone should bomb the national trust.
The N.T are money grabbing thieves. £4 a head to cross a rope bridge, £6 just to park a car, no discounts for students or those with a low income, and then the cheek to ask if I wanted to join. I crossed the same rope bridge many times for free before the N.T took possesion.
They’re are a bunch of greedy ****’s [who] do not care about anything but themselves; they should all be shot