Sudbury Hall turned into ‘theme park’ for children

James Beal | The Times | 29 October 2022


This article was first published in The Times on 29 October 2022.

The family of a baron have accused the National Trust of transforming his historic property into a “theme park”.

The grade I listed Sudbury Hall, in Derbyshire, has been made into a children’s attraction with photo-booth, mirror ball and speech bubbles placed next to portraits.

The 17th-century country house was donated to the National Trust in 1967 after the death of the 9th Baron Vernon.

It reopened last weekend, after being closed for more than two and a half years, as The Children’s Country House, marketed as a first-of-its-kind heritage experience.

The trust has turned the ground-floor saloon into a room in which youngsters can dress up and dance. It has a mirror ball and a neon sign with the words “Party like it’s 1699”. There is also an escape room experience.

The National Trust worked with 100 “ambassadors”, aged up to 12, on the design. Sudbury Hall was already home to the trust’s Museum of Childhood.

Joanna Fitzalan Howard, the daughter of the 10th Lord Vernon, accused the trust of turning the hall into a theme park in a “major exercise of dumbing down”.

After being given a private tour of the alterations, she said: “The changes at Sudbury Hall have taken place without consultation in the locality or with the donor family. The donor, my father, understood the house would be cared for as a historic property, and it deserves to be, given the extraordinary quality of its interiors, but it has now been turned into a child-centred theme park.

“This is inappropriate and sad. Children are already excellently provided for at Sudbury by the Museum of Childhood housed in the Victorian wing.”

The house is now split into three zones. The escape room area has challenges and riddles inspired by the hall’s use as an evacuation centre for children during the Second World War.

The National Trust said: “In offering new ways for children to learn about the history of Sudbury Hall, we have taken into full account views from many different people, including the property’s historic family. The Children’s Country House experience is designed to tell the story of the Vernon family in depth.

“An insinuation that the National Trust is dumbing down is simply wrong. Items such as the speech bubbles contextualise the sitters, while children can learn about the hidden symbolism in historic portraits and create their own.”

In recent years the trust has made changes that critics have called “woke”, including adding Winston Churchill’s home to a list of buildings linked to slavery and colonialism.

A pressure group called Restore Trust was established to remind the charity of its original purpose of protecting the nation’s heritage. The National Trust is preparing to face its critics at its annual meeting in the Bath Assembly Rooms next Saturday. Restore Trust has put forward a proposal on whether the charity’s chairman should be allowed to cast proxy votes.

Under the rules, members who choose not to attend the AGM can give their discretionary vote to the chairman to use as they “think fit”. Last year 149,086 such votes were cast. In previous years these have been used against member resolutions that the trust opposes, including two of the proposals by Restore Trust last year.

The Restore Trust wants the system to be abolished, saying that if members do not feel they can vote, they should simply abstain. The trustees have recommended that members vote against the proposal.


This article was first published in The Times on 29 October 2022.

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