Far be it for me to criticize The National Trust’s method of showcasing a prehistoric monument to the public ... but antiquarian-minded visitors here are clearly of very little – if any – consequence to them.
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Slightly unfair. I'm a volunteer with the NT in a region where there's a similar Iron Age hillfort which despite regular cutting-back over many years still became somewhat overgrown with bracken/brambles etc in one particular section such that proper clearance work got beyond the capabilities of us ordinary folk with our brushcutters and strimmers so outside contractors with heavier-duty equipment were required. That was very expensive where budgets for conservation work were being squeezed but eventually funds were found (largely via grants from other heritage organisations, I understand) and the work was done. Sadly, like most things nowadays, it's more a question of availability of resources than indifference.
To be clear, my comments here are SPECIFICALLY about how I perceived Midsummer Hill under NT guardianship... and I stand by what I said.
However, looking at the wider picture, I would like to know how the NT rationalises the published objective to "End unequal access: Remove physical, social, and ECONOMIC barriers so that nature, beauty, and history are accessible to all communities" with a blanket imposition of scandalously extortionate car park fees, so as to obviously EXCLUDE those on lower incomes? I mentioned this to an 'official' at Bodbury in Shropshire a year or so back... why are you so elitist? Her straight-faced answer was ... 'so join. It's ONLY £100'.
Fair enough, point taken. The place I mentioned is open access so the issue of car-parking fees doesn't arise but the plain fact is that it costs money to maintain/conserve these sorts of sites where there's only so much that can be achieved by volunteer (aka unpaid) labour, work which we undertake with great love and respect for each particular site. Big houses and other such attractions can generate income to support the costs of maintenance; hillforts can't.
You and your unpaid volunteer colleagues have - and will always have - my upmost respect. However, until the NT starts to practice what it preaches and introduces a parking policy at its sites that does not utterly contradict its stated aims, I will never become a member. To actually publish its income from Non Member car park fees would be a start.... I know a number of people - myself included - who no longer visit The Lake District primarily due to the NT's stranglehold there.