Buses that serve National Trust properties

[Rail Ranger]

The Journey Planner at www.traveline.info uses postcodes and gives walking times from bus stops and railway stations. The desired distance from the nearest stop/station can be adjusted.

 

[urbophile]

re Kedleston Hall quote as above from their website:

<<As a thank you for arriving car-free, enjoy a free hot drink from our restaurant when you show your bus ticket with the day’s date on it.>>

Bearing in mind the high proportion of visitors of pension age, I wonder if you qualify by showing your concessionary travel pass .Visited the RHS Bridgewater gardens recently and they give a significant discount if you arrive by public transport (which few other people appeared to do, although a bus runs to the door every 30 minutes)

 

[Rail Ranger]

A significant issue is that people who visit National Trust properties are predominantly couples and families, many of whom tend to have cars. The people (like myself) who rely on public transport outside London are predominantly single people.

 

[hdennis13]

Glendurgan Cornwall is served by OTS 35 falmouth to Helston M-Sa and OTS 63 falmouth to trebah.

Trengwainton Cornwall is served by First Kernow 17 St Ives to Boscaswell daily

Trevithick Cornwall is served by Go Cornwall bus 493 Trueo to Feock M-Sa

 

[JD2168]

Clumber Park In Nottinghamshire:
CP1 - return trip run by Stagecoach East Midlands (Worksop) from Worksop to Clumber Park & return, ends at the beginning of September.
Sherwood Arrow - Worksop to Nottingham journeys serve it but there is a lengthy walk to the main area.

 

[stevieinselby]

It's scandalous though that the National Trust, which blows its own trumpet over caring for the environment, gives little help to those needing or preferring public transport. Even if it's not possible to print up to date details in the handbook, they could at least give some basic suggestions, and fuller details on the website. We investigated getting to Attingham Park near Shrewsbury the other week; managed to discover one bus that stops in the adjacent village, but no indication on the website how easy or far it is to walk from there to the entrance..

The information is available on their website. People would be upset if they were looking at a handbook that told them a place was accessible by bus only to then find out that the bus no longer runs. If it turns out that people are also upset by having to look on the website (which they will almost certainly have to do to get other information prior to their visit) then the NT just can't win.

 

[Flange Squeal]

Between Guildford and Leatherhead, NT properties at Clandon Park, Hatchlands and (with a longer walk) Polesden Lacey are served by Falcon Buses route 479 between Guildford and Epsom. Runs half-hourly Mon-Sat and hourly Sundays.

Also in this sort of area and surrounds...

Box Hill is served by a double-run on Metrobus 21 (Crawley to Epsom) two-hourly Mon-Sat.

Winkworth Arboretum is served with stops right by the entrance gates by Compass Travel 42 (Guildford to Alfold/Cranleigh) roughly two-hourly Mon-Sat.

Petworth House has a bus stop close to a pedestrian entrance to the grounds served by Stagecoach South 1 (Worthing to Midhurst) hourly Mon-Sat & two-hourly Sunday or Compass Travel 99 (Chichester to Petworth) roughly two-hourly Mon-Sat.

Hinton Ampner has a bus stop on the main road at the start of its driveway served by Stagecoach South 67 (Winchester to Petersfield) two/three-hourly Mon-Sat or three trips running four-hourly on Sundays during the summer school holidays on Bluestar South Downs Rambler (Winchester to Petersfield).

Selborne Common has a bus stop at the start of the footpath leading to it in Selborne Village served by Stagecoach South 38 (Alton to Petersfield) two/three-hourly Mon-Fri.

Around a 5 minute walk from the Hindhead Crossroads bus stops is Hindhead Commons & Devil's Punch Bowl, served by Stagecoach South 19 (Aldershot to Halsemere) hourly Mon-Sat & two-hourly Sunday or 23 (Liphook to Haslemere) two/three-hourly Mon-Sat.

 

[YorkRailFan]

Stagecoach's 173 stops at the bottom of the driveway for Castle Drogo on route between Moretonhampstead/Chagford and Exeter.

 

[Dai Corner]

It's scandalous though that the National Trust, which blows its own trumpet over caring for the environment, gives little help to those needing or preferring public transport. Even if it's not possible to print up to date details in the handbook, they could at least give some basic suggestions, and fuller details on the website. We investigated getting to Attingham Park near Shrewsbury the other week; managed to discover one bus that stops in the adjacent village, but no indication on the website how easy or far it is to walk from there to the entrance..

I've never been there but it took me about 10s on Google Maps to find the nearest bus stop was right outside the entrance. A couple more clicks showed me that the 96 bus from Shrewsbury takes about 17 minutes and runs every two hours. The NT website informs me that it's then half a mile to walk to the visitor centre.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

It's scandalous though that the National Trust, which blows its own trumpet over caring for the environment, gives little help to those needing or preferring public transport. Even if it's not possible to print up to date details in the handbook, they could at least give some basic suggestions, and fuller details on the website. We investigated getting to Attingham Park near Shrewsbury the other week; managed to discover one bus that stops in the adjacent village, but no indication on the website how easy or far it is to walk from there to the entrance..

Not sure that's an entirely deserved criticism.

They actually pay for specific services (such as to Wallington Hall) and as noted, several places will provide incentives. At Shugborough, not only do they specify on the website about where buses come from/go to, they have a link to the Good Journey website and even offer you to "Enjoy a free hot drink when arriving by train, bus or bike, with a valid train or bus ticket or bike helmet."

Perhaps it's more an oversight on their part with Attingham Park and that a nicely worded email suggesting that they could update the site might help?

 

[Dai Corner]

Perhaps it's more an oversight on their part with Attingham Park and that a nicely worded email suggesting that they could update the site might help?

Sending them a draft wording and undertaking to monitor changes in the bus service and update as necessary would be even better. I wouldn't assume NT staff have much knowledge of or interest in what is probably a very niche way of visiting their properties.

 

[TheSel]

For a year or two before the pandemic, there was a bus service at the weekend operated by Stagecoach Manchester from Hazel Grove Park & Ride to Lyme Park, Cheshire. The NT had some involvement but I can't remember exactly what.

Unfortunately when the visitors started to return after the pandemic, they didn't reinstate this and instead put forward a plan to dig up a huge area of grassland on the western edge of the park to install a gigantic car park - a plan which thankfully was eventually abandoned

The park does remain served by High Peak route 199, as well as TfGM's route 360 (although perhaps that doesn't count - it only passes through once a day, at 5:37am, and the park doesn't open until 8:30!). But the dedicated shuttle bus still has not returned.

Going back even further, there was a Summer Sunday / Bank Holiday Monday Stockport - Lyme Park service that ran into the grounds. Worked by Greater Manchester Transport's Stockport depot, it was booked for Bristol VR operation, due to the low hanging trees on the approach road. Image [mine] below shows GMT 1408 in the grounds on a wet Bank Holiday Monday in May 1985.

 

[RDP]

A few from Kent.

Buses 4U run a summer Saturday service SCNT Oxted-Ide Hill serving Chartwell, Quebec House and Emmetts Garden.

In addition to the Summer Sunday service to Chartwell Stagecoach London service 246 Bromley-Westerham serves The Green only a short walk from Quebec House.

Other services serving The Green or the Kings Arms at Westerham for Quebec house are Go Coach 1 from Sevenoaks, Metrobus 236 Oxted-Lingfield, 594 and 595 from Oxted.

Redroute Buses service 308 Gravesend-Sevenoaks stops on the A25 near Oldbury Camp.

Arriva Kent Thameside services 414 and 414A Dartford-South Darenth serve St. Johns, Jerusalem at Sutton at Hone.

Autocar service 210 Tonbridge-Chiddingstone Causeway serves Toys Hill.

Stagecoach South East service 312 Tenterden-Rye serves Smallhythe Place.

 

[Stephen1001]

It's scandalous though that the National Trust, which blows its own trumpet over caring for the environment, gives little help to those needing or preferring public transport. Even if it's not possible to print up to date details in the handbook, they could at least give some basic suggestions, and fuller details on the website. We investigated getting to Attingham Park near Shrewsbury the other week; managed to discover one bus that stops in the adjacent village, but no indication on the website how easy or far it is to walk from there to the entrance..

I've never been there but it took me about 10s on Google Maps to find the nearest bus stop was right outside the entrance. A couple more clicks showed me that the 96 bus from Shrewsbury takes about 17 minutes and runs every two hours. The NT website informs me that it's then half a mile to walk to the visitor centre.

Since Attingham Park has been mentioned, it's perhaps worth pointing out that the 96 isn't the only option: there's also Regional Transport's Shrewsbury and Ironbridge Sightseeing Tour, which goes into the estate's grounds and stops by the main building. Runs three days a week from April to September, mostly with an open-top Scania but two days a month using heritage buses (an AEC Routemaster and a Leyland National).

 

[The exile]

Sending them a draft wording and undertaking to monitor changes in the bus service and update as necessary would be even better. I wouldn't assume NT staff have much knowledge of or interest in what is probably a very niche way of visiting their properties.

They used to have someone whose precise role it was to encourage that "niche".

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

They used to have someone whose precise role it was to encourage that "niche".

Probably one of the near 1300 redundancies in the aftermath of Covid.

 

[The exile]

Probably one of the near 1300 redundancies in the aftermath of Covid.

The one I’m thinking of (a former colleague) would probably be well into his 80s or even 90s by now…

 

[duncombec]

A few from Kent.

Buses 4U run a summer Saturday service SCNT Oxted-Ide Hill serving Chartwell, Quebec House and Emmetts Garden.

Thanks for this - hadn't realised this was "a thing"/ However, as the service number suggests (Surrey Connect National Trust), it has to be pre-booked, and the journeys are skewed one way (four out mornings, four back evenings), so you can't really use it to visit multiple properties over the course of the day, or necessarily connect at Westerham (it doesn't appear to serve anywhere except Oxted and the properties in question).

 

[Galactic142]

A few from Cumbria:

Hill Top (aka Beatrix Potter’s house) – Reached by the 525 (Sawrey Ferry – Hawkshead).

Allan Bank Grasmere – 555/599 stops in the village a short walk away

Wray Castle – 505 stops by the gates

Townend (only open certain times) – 508 stops close by

Aira Force – 508, 509 and UB1 all stop by the car park

Sizergh Castle (and Low Sizergh Barn farm shop across the road) – 555/X6 both stop nearby, but getting there can be a surprisingly nasty walk. Southbound on the A591 is OK (although I once had a driver tell me he’d never picked anyone up from the stop before!) but I once alighted at the a northbound bus stop on the A591 – never doing that again! It drops you straight onto a busy trunk road with no pavement and you have to try and cross 4 lanes of busy traffic to get to somewhere safe. There are, however, much safer bus stops in either direction on the A590 just before the roundabout, which Sizergh is maybe a 5 min walk from.

 

[cjhollyway]

TfGM route 280 from Altrincham operates daily to Dunham Massey.

Funnily enough we tried the 280 a fortnight ago (Thu 14 Aug), so here’s a mini trip report !

We were meeting a friend staying in the area for lunch at Dunham Massey, so I thought we could try getting there by bus (we’ve gone by car on various previous occasions)

I knew it wasn’t far from Altrincham, so I only looked up the departure time. The service is only 2 hourly, so a bit restricted I expect for many visitors, but the 11.40 am departure fitted with our plans so we arranged to reach Altrincham bus station in time for a comfortable change to the 280.

The little Bee Network 14-seater departed on time, and we proceeded through prosperous suburban Altrincham. 5 people were on board. We got chatting to a very friendly man who was a volunteer at DM, on his way to his afternoon shift in the shop.

He normally went by car, but his wife needed the car today for some special reason, so he had travelled by bus from his home in Sale and changed to the 280. So it seemed the bus journey was a bit of a novelty to him too.

Anyway, he mentioned there was a stop outside the main entrance to DM, and was in full flow describing that we were nearly there when the bus came to a halt at a stop alongside the estate wall. This was a whole 11 minutes into the journey.

After a minute or so, our guide couldn’t see the reason for the delay, so walked up to the driver, who explained that we were waiting time and that he would be here for the next 7 minutes ! His driving had been absolutely normal for the conditions – not particularly fast, not particularly slow. Traffic was weekday-morning normal and we had waited at a couple of junctions so it hadn’t felt like an ‘all lights in our favour today’ kind of journey.

Our new friend looked a bit incredulous at what he had been told, and the driver pointed as if to prove himself to a big countdown clock on his ticket machine, showing 6 mins 40 seconds more to wait. He also said, in the manner of a parent saying things could be worse, that ‘it always happens here – sometimes it’s 10 minutes’.

Our guide said that it was ridiculous for us to sit here for 7 more minutes, one stop prior to the main entrance, and suggested we walk along a path he knew through the grounds to the entrance and he would show us the way. The two other people on the bus, also visiting the NT property, decided to join us for this unexpected hike and all 5 of us left the bus, the others tutting at the general ridiculousness and inconvenience of an 8 minute wait after a 10 minute journey.

I asked our guide about his plans for the return journey and he was quick to reassure me that his wife would be coming to pick him up by car..

I also had a look on bustimes.org after the event and saw that the scheduled time of arrival at the Dunham Woodhouses terminus was 12.02, three minutes after our 11.59 timing point !

Maybe a topic for another thread , but I was wondering if this is a record for slack journey - 8 minutes wait after 11 mins travelling, ready for the last 3 minutes in motion ?

Regardless of that, it hardly encourages people to use public transport – and judging by how busy the car park was compared to the 2-hourly bus, making the bus attractive is certainly something that’s needed…

 

[daodao]

Funnily enough we tried the 280 a fortnight ago (Thu 14 Aug), so here’s a mini trip report !

We were meeting a friend staying in the area for lunch at Dunham Massey, so I thought we could try getting there by bus (we’ve gone by car on various previous occasions)

I knew it wasn’t far from Altrincham, so I only looked up the departure time. The service is only 2 hourly, so a bit restricted I expect for many visitors, but the 11.40 am departure fitted with our plans so we arranged to reach Altrincham bus station in time for a comfortable change to the 280.

The little Bee Network 14-seater departed on time, and we proceeded through prosperous suburban Altrincham. 5 people were on board. We got chatting to a very friendly man who was a volunteer at DM, on his way to his afternoon shift in the shop.

He normally went by car, but his wife needed the car today for some special reason, so he had travelled by bus from his home in Sale and changed to the 280. So it seemed the bus journey was a bit of a novelty to him too.

Anyway, he mentioned there was a stop outside the main entrance to DM, and was in full flow describing that we were nearly there when the bus came to a halt at a stop alongside the estate wall. This was a whole 11 minutes into the journey.

After a minute or so, our guide couldn’t see the reason for the delay, so walked up to the driver, who explained that we were waiting time and that he would be here for the next 7 minutes ! His driving had been absolutely normal for the conditions – not particularly fast, not particularly slow. Traffic was weekday-morning normal and we had waited at a couple of junctions so it hadn’t felt like an ‘all lights in our favour today’ kind of journey.

Our new friend looked a bit incredulous at what he had been told, and the driver pointed as if to prove himself to a big countdown clock on his ticket machine, showing 6 mins 40 seconds more to wait. He also said, in the manner of a parent saying things could be worse, that ‘it always happens here – sometimes it’s 10 minutes’.

Our guide said that it was ridiculous for us to sit here for 7 more minutes, one stop prior to the main entrance, and suggested we walk along a path he knew through the grounds to the entrance and he would show us the way. The two other people on the bus, also visiting the NT property, decided to join us for this unexpected hike and all 5 of us left the bus, the others tutting at the general ridiculousness and inconvenience of an 8 minute wait after a 10 minute journey.

I asked our guide about his plans for the return journey and he was quick to reassure me that his wife would be coming to pick him up by car..

I also had a look on bustimes.org after the event and saw that the scheduled time of arrival at the Dunham Woodhouses terminus was 12.02, three minutes after our 11.59 timing point !

Maybe a topic for another thread , but I was wondering if this is a record for slack journey - 8 minutes wait after 11 mins travelling, ready for the last 3 minutes in motion ?

Regardless of that, it hardly encourages people to use public transport – and judging by how busy the car park was compared to the 2-hourly bus, making the bus attractive is certainly something that’s needed…

Thanks for your report. I live too close to Dunham Massey for the bus service to be of use to me when visiting the estate.

The Monday to Saturday daytime frequency on service 280 will be increased back to hourly from 1st September 2025.

 

[James H]

Kingston Lacey is served by the Dorset Community Transport 88 which runs three days a week.

We used this bus a couple of months ago and were the only passengers at Kingston Lacy, though one other lady did travel on both trips, alighting and boarding nearer Wimborne.

Although the website says the bus is cash-only, the driver does in fact have a handheld Ticketer machine capable of taking card payments.

Like another venue mentioned upthread, Kingston Lacy gives you a free hot drink if you show your bus ticket, which nicely offsets the fare.

 

[gingerheid]

In the Cambridge Area...

Anglesey Abbey: Served by the hourly T4 and T5 services to Cambridge, Addenbrooke's, Newmarket and Soham
Houghton Mill: Frequent busway services to Cambridge, St Ives and Huntingdon are about a 10 min walk away.
Wicken Fen: No reasonable regular options, but it is in the T6 demand responsive area (with Ely and Soham, which have railway stations)
Wimpole: No reasonable regular options. The T10 demand responsive area has a virtual stop at Arrington (maybe a half hour walk away) and is in the same area as Cambourne, which has regular bus services. I would not recommend the walk from the Wimpole bus stop on the main road as being safe.

 

[Teds]

In the Cambridge Area...


Wicken Fen: No reasonable regular options, but it is in the T6 demand responsive area (with Ely and Soham, which have railway stations)

The virtual bus stop is on the main road rather than in the NT car park which is closer to the visitor centre. There doesn't seem a good reason for this because, as a virtual bus stop, the bus only goes there if there is a booking. (Information from reception at Wicken Fen).
The Trust do provide good information about the demand responsive service on their website for Wicken Fen.
Although not National Trust, Greater Anglia have agreed to sponsor an experimental minibus service to access the WWT at Welney from Ely station which begins on Tuesday 2 September. The bus is free but needs to be booked with a link from the Welney website. The Welney site is in Norfolk (just) so is not included the area of the East Cambridgeshire demand responsive service.

 

[DunsBus]

In the Peak District, service 272 serves Mam Tor and the top end of the old A625 - the "Broken Road" - on Sundays.

 

[Jan Mayen]

Wakehurst. Formerly Wakehurst Place. Owned by NT, operated by Kew Gardens, served by Metrobus Route 272.

 

[py_megapixel]

In the Peak District, service 272 serves Mam Tor and the top end of the old A625 - the "Broken Road" - on Sundays.

As well as Winnats Pass which is also managed by the NT. The open top Peak Sightseer buses also serve both of those places.

Then there's the Longshaw estate, which is served by the 272 (all week) and Peak Sightseer but also the 65.

 

[philjo]

Anglesey Abbey now has 2 bus services passing Lode. The Tiger T5 runs hourly to Cambridge Drummer Street.
The Stagecoach T4 from Newmarket has changed route compared to the old 11 service and now runs on via Fulbourn to Addenbrooke’s Hospital bus station.
The bus stops are only.2-3 minutes walk from the main car park unlike some properties where you have a long drive to negotiate from the bus stop


I walked 4.5 miles from Waterbeach station to Anglesey Abbey yesterday then caught the bus back into Cambridge afterwards.