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.
The Trust is signing up half as many now than prior to the pandemic, while trying to recover from a big cash shortage - having fallen £213m short of its target for the year as a result of the pandemic – equivalent to almost £600,000 every day.
Although the extent of the closures is not completely clear, with the National Trust declining to give a full breakdown of its properties' current status, review websites show many complaints about full and partial closures.
"My wife and I were very disappointed that the upstairs of the house was closed due to the lack of volunteers to supervise visitors," one man said of the Vyne, a former Tudor palace visited by King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.
"After a journey of two hours to get there it was a waste of time and petrol."
One period property enthusiast, Dee Bond*, recently embarked on a tour of National Trust homes in the west of England and Wales.
She found that large parts of properties including Upton, Charlecote Park, Erddig and Wittick Manor were completely shut off to visitors.
"We went all the way out to Wales, which was a bit out of our way, because we remembered it being so good for having the upstairs and the downstairs," Dee said.
"There was no notice saying it was closed. We later found out it was only open three hours a day.
"When we got there the servant's quarters were open, but nothing of the upstairs at all. The whole point is seeing the upstairs and downstairs.
"They said 'there are no volunteers so it's not open.' No one apologised."
Dee was also disappointed to find Charlecote Park - which was used as a location in Amazon's The Spanish Princess - largely closed and dust covered, despite no warning in the National Trust handbook.
Attingham Park, Quarry Bank and Sudbury Hall also proved to be only partially open.
"The whole of the main house is closed at the moment until September 17," Dee said of Sudbury Hall, which was used for the interior shots of Pemberley House in the BBC’s 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Erle.
"That was a disappointment"
Denise Edwards, general manager of Hardwick Hall, was candid with the Mirror regarding the difficulties they've faced getting back to full steam.
As well as pushing for Bess of Hardwick's magnificent Elizabethan property - which featured as the Malfoy's house in the Harry Potter films - to be made into a Lego set, she is contending with running a big country pile with 360 volunteers compared to 600 pre-pandemic.
"It has been difficult," Denise said of the volunteer shortage.
"A lot of our volunteers are later in life, and two and a half years has aged some of them. People have re-evaluated how they spend their time.
"Some say they missed their families so much during their pandemic so they're seeing them now."
Denise says that when the house rather than just the grounds reopened post-lockdown, some visitors were in tears, so overwhelmed were they to be allowed back.
The unshuttering process was slow, with certain rooms closed off at certain times due to Covid protocols and a lack of people to man then, partly due to social distancing.
"There hasn't been a week when somebody's not had Covid," Denise said.
"Most days the house is fully open, when its not its because someone calls up last minute."
Denise partially agrees with criticism levelled by Restore Trust that some of the social aspect of becoming a volunteer has gone, in part due to Covid, and in part due to the nature of the modern world.
But she says there is much to be hopeful for going forward, and that "there is a huge light at the end of the tunnel now."
"We've spent a million on building repairs at Hardwick and the scaffolding will start coming down in a fortnight," she said.
"And then we have the Christmas light experience with holograms telling the story of Bess."
The National Trust is upfront about what it calls "one of the biggest challenges it has ever faces", and how the pandemic led it to furlough 81% of staff, before making 1,700 redundant.
This year it has hit 20 million visitors, which is only eight million shy of pre-pandemic levels.
As the recovery continues, it has urged people to volunteer so it can continue to look after its enormous portfolio of properties and keep as many of them open as possible.
To find out about volunteering opportunities, click here.
