Protection racket

Katie Jarvis relates the 125-year history of the National Trust in six Cotswold treasures

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It’s 125 years since a certain redoubtable trio – social reformer Octavia Hill, solicitor Robert Hunter, and Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley – met in London, at the office of the Commons Preservation Society. The three came from very different backgrounds. Octavia had inherited from both her parents a sense of responsibility for the less privileged in society; but her father’s devastating bankruptcy had been compounded by his idealism and radical views. Octavia was far more of a realist.

Canon Rawnsley, a Lake District clergyman, was a staunch campaigner for good causes above and beyond his parish remit. And Sir Robert Hunter, distinguished Solicitor to the Post Office, was possessed of a sound legal brain. What united them all was a fierce desire to counteract the 19th century’s thundering ‘progress’ through some of the most beautiful swathes of England. As railway lines joined isolated beauty spots; as houses began to cover untouched meadows, the three joined forces to create a body that would dedicate itself to protecting historic sites and natural heritage for the benefit of the nation: The National Trust.

Today, the Trust has under its care magnificent stately homes, humble anachronistic properties representing a lost way of life, stupendous gardens, stunning coastline and internationally important swathes of countryside over the length and breadth of England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Among them are beautiful, quirky and important Cotswold sites that help to tell the story of the National Trust over its 125 years.

THE HOUSES: