It’s time for the most important question of the year – which National Trust property has the best Christmas tree?🎄

We asked our regional teams to submit their favourites for a super serious Twitter competition, and now you can cast your votes in this very long thread👇 In round 1 for team @southeastNT we've got...
@BatemansNT (📷Laurence Perry)
Greys Court (📷Hugh Mothersole)
@HughendenNT (📷Hugh Mothersole)
@NymansNT (📷Gary Cosham)
Vote in the poll in the next tweet!

Clean water is fundamental to our lives, but just 14 per cent of our rivers are currently in good ecological health.

For too long, many in government, business and other parts of society have looked the other way as the health of our water has deteriorated. One in 10 freshwater and wetland species in the UK are now threatened with extinction, while future generations of children could be denied the chance to simply paddle in a cool stream or play in the sea.

LGBTQ+ heritage is an important part of the history of the nation. It also plays a vital role in unlocking the histories of some of the places in our care.

Here's a thread on some of those stories 🧵 (1/15)

#Pride2023 Henry Cyril Paget

Known as 'the dancing Marquess,' Henry Cyril Paget, 5th Marquess of Anglesey, was considered the 'black sheep' of the family owing to his eccentric behaviour and love of performance and costume.

(2/15)

This week is #GreatBigGreenWeek, and what better way to mark it than with a celebration of Britain's original smart home, Cragside.

A thread 🧵 Home of Lord William Armstrong and Lady Margaret Armstrong during the 19th century, Cragside remains one of the greenest places we care for.

Embedded into the houses and landscapes we care for are the stories of those who challenged conventional ideas of sexuality.

To celebrate #Pride, we’re exploring these LGBTQ+ histories. (1/13) The white triangle of our flag is from the wall @NTKingstonLacy.

William Bankes profoundly shaped the building, but had to flee England in 1841 to avoid prosecution for same-sex acts. While in exile, he continued to send back works of art to his beloved Kingston Lacy.

Spaces of sanctuary or celebrations of identity; the places in our care are filled with stories of those who challenged conventional ideas of sexuality.

To celebrate #Pride, we’re exploring the LGBTQ+ histories we look after, and the hidden lives of those who shaped them. (1/13) The white triangle of our flag shares a glimpse of the whitewash walls of the cabin at Bucks Mill, Devon.

The summer retreat of artists and life partners, Judith Ackland and Mary Stella Edwards, they visited to paint each year from the 1920s, until Judith’s death in 1971. (2/13)

Want to get some expert autumn gardening advice? Now’s your chance.

Reply below with your questions for our crack team of nature and gardens experts, and we'll answer as many as we can before 1pm. Get the most out of your autumn veggies and look ahead to future harvests. Our nature and gardens experts are here answering your questions.

One morning at a country manor in Essex, the household wakes to find its elderly owner, Emily Inglethorpe, has been murdered. There’s only one man for the job; Hercule Poirot.

Do you fancy following the clues to unravel this mystery? Emily was a wealthy woman, who inherited a lot of money and the manor from her late husband. Her will states that when she dies the estate goes to her stepson, John, but her fortune is hers to bequeath freely. At the moment, the money will go to her new husband, Alfred.

Ready for a scavenger hunt? We want to see your modern (or retro) equivalents of these bank holiday essentials from the 1800s.

A sunny day needs frozen treats, and what better than this Mrs Marshall’s ice cream maker? Share a photo if you’ve got one similar hidden away. How about some jelly for that ice cream? This lion mould would be a roaring success. Let’s see what you’ve got in your cupboard.

Many of the places we care for have direct or indirect links to slavery, including objects made from materials obtained by forced labour.

Today, as we mark the @UNESCO Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition, we take a closer look at these materials. Caribbean mahogany furniture was the height of 18th-century fashion, but this luxury material came at a human cost.

Mahogany trees were felled by enslaved Africans in dangerous virgin rainforest and shipped back to Britain to be made into fine furniture.

Gardens to Greek gods; the places we care for are filled with stories of those who challenged conventional ideas of sexuality.

Today, we’re celebrating #GlobalPride and exploring LGBTQ+ histories at the places in our care, and the hidden lives of those who shaped them. (1/12) Starting us off with the white triangle of our #Pride flag is a snippet of Orlando, Virginia Woolf’s pioneering novel.

Inspired by Vita Sackville-West, with whom she had an intense affair, it’s said to be the ‘longest and most charming love letter in literature’. (2/12)