The Sunday Telegraph reports: ‘ FOR 250 years, the residents of a small Cotswolds village enjoyed views over the carefully designed serpentine lake as they watched herons, kingfishers and osprey. That was until the National Trust was bequeathed the country estate upon which it sits and engaged in what residents describe as acts of “passive vandalism”.

The Sherborne Brook – known as the Broadwaters – is now full of silt, and weeds run rampant, transforming the lake into “a bog”. The boat house and turbine house, once used to power the village, sit derelict.

Relations between the charity and residents have reached an “all-time low”. In a village with a population of little more than 300, a campaign group calling for the trust to act has 140 members. Many more who live in Sherborne, Gloucs, rent their homes or farms from the trust and are said to be “too afraid” to publicly criticise their landlords.’