National Trust shortage of volunteers sees iconic period homes close their doors

Director of Restore Trust, Zewditu Gebreyohanes, spoke to the Daily Mirror on 16 September 2022 about how a shortage of volunteers is leading the National Trust to remove access to some of its properties. Read an extract below.

Visitors hoping to take in the beauty of some of Britain's most iconic stately homes have had their days out ruined by properties largely shut amid a volunteer shortage.

The National Trust is known the world over for the magnificent period properties it looks after, with more than five million members supporting its roster of 200-plus historic houses.

Each year millions of people visit its properties, which star in period dramas such as Brideshead Revisited and Jane Eyre.

This summer visitors have complained that the beautiful country piles are not as accessible as they once were, with many of them partially or completely shut to the public.

The Trust has told the Mirror that reopening following the lockdowns has been a big challenge, with 1,700 staff losing their job during the pandemic and tens of thousands of volunteers not returning.

Zewditu Gebreyohanes is the director of Restore Trust, an organisation set up to push for reform within the National Trust.

She told The Mirror: "The closure (sometimes full and sometimes partial, with floors/rooms closed off) of NT properties, which has become a nationwide issue following the pandemic, has been caused it seems by a shortage of volunteers."

According to the organisation, there are 15,000 fewer volunteers at the National Trust now compared to before the pandemic, when 65,000 people donated their time.