The National Trust was founded in 1895 by three campaigners who believed that nature, beauty and history are for everyone. Rapid industrialisation at the end of the 19th century was threatening to sweep away the country’s heritage and destroy its remaining natural landscapes. Between them, our founders campaigned against this threat, laying the foundations for an organisation to look after special places for everyone, for ever.
Today, we’re Europe’s largest conservation charity, working to protect nature and care for the nation’s treasures, making them accessible to everyone. We operate in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
We look after more than 250,000 hectares of land, over 28,000 historic buildings (stately homes, pubs, lighthouses, workhouses, industrial buildings and more!), over 780 miles of coastline, over 200 gardens and historic parks, and close to 1.5 million objects and works of art. Each year we welcome millions of people to our places, many of which are free to access. We’re a registered charity, and all this work relies on the generosity of our millions of subscribing members, volunteers and other supporters.
To care for these places well and for the benefit of all, we need in-depth knowledge and expertise – whether to shape visitors’ experiences of our landscapes, properties and collections, or to make sure we can protect historic sites and open spaces for future generations. Research is the route by which we increase this knowledge and expertise, to meet the challenges and opportunities that we face. Research takes place in many forms across the Trust, through the hundreds of research projects that we lead, partner on or host at our places each year.
In 2019 we became an Independent Research Organisation. This status is only awarded to organisations with a strong capability to deliver high-quality research. Since then, our research ambition has increasingly focussed on co-designing and leading research to meet our strategic priorities.
In 2025 we launched our new ten-year strategy People and Nature Thriving (2025-35). At its core, the strategy has three ambitious goals for 2050 that we'll work towards over the next decade:
to restore nature – not just on National Trust land, but everywhere;
to end unequal access to nature, beauty and history;
to inspire millions more people to care and take action.
Covering image credit: ©National Trust Images/James Dobson