National Trust - Buckland Abbey — Attraction in West Devon

A lovely place to take the family with some beautiful walks. We enjoyed sitting and looking at the views in the butterfly maze whilst the kids ran around trying to figure it out. I personally don't think there was anything to find but it kept them busy! The buildings are very interesting and displays cleverly thought out. My children were very excited to spot all the shields hidden throughout too. We especially were impressed with the huge statue of Sir Francis Drake which we've seen in Tavistock too. It was lovely to see the period outfits but a few more male ones and possibly examples of poorer clothes would really have made that section stand out.

Only a few things let this place down. I live locally so have visited a few times now. Every time I've been in the cafe I've had to wait at the till for quite a while as staff are too engrossed in chit chat to notice me. On one occasion I had to loudly say excuse me three times before one lady member of staff finally looked my way and stopped her conversation. None of these chats have been about work, I was stood long enough to know! The staff have apologised and otherwise have all been very polite and helpful. I wouldn't mention it but since it has been on more on one occasion perhaps this is something that staff need to be more conscious of.

Another problem is the toilets in the courtyard. The baby changing area isn't in the greatest of positions as it is which I'm aware could possibly be a space issue but the toilets themselves are filthy. I was really hesitant to put my baby down to sort her, not helped by the fact it was so dark by the baby changing area I was concerned it was more dirty than I could make out and when I came to use the loo myself, I did consider holding it until I got home. It did concern me that these were definitely not frequently checked especially considering the current covid issues.

My final problem was on leaving during our last visit we ended up arriving back at our car 10 minutes after closing time. We've never left late before but unfortunately had an emergency toilet situation with one of the kids. On arriving at our car we found the gates shut. My eldest became quite panicked because he thought this meant we were trapped all night. I decided to try and drive up to the gates and thankfully they had a sensor and opened. There were no signs to warn the gate would be shut or that it had a sensor. If we hadn't driven up we never would have known we could get out. I would think it was just me being a bit silly to not know this but there were three other families also there who were stood by their car concerned as to how to get out. One gentleman had walked back to the main site and knocked on doors and searched everywhere for staff whilst another lady called their phones to try and get some help. I obviously completely understand staff need to get home but a simple sign would have saved a lot of worry!

On the whole though I would still go back again as it really does make for an interesting and...

While the National Trust continues to believe that it is open to all, the reality is far different. My review is based mainly on the accessibility of the Trust property and general attitudes to mobility issues which will reveal that the National Trust place policies, which are barriers for some categories of people, above the Equality Act 2010. I have visited a number of the properties and will evaluate them all on the criteria above. Visited on April 25th am with my husband who is an essential carer. On arriving and enquiring about a Tramper, I was informed that I would need to pay £10 to become a member of an organisation I did not wish to become a member of if I wished to use the Tramper - something that had not arisen at 2 other NT properties I had visited. I declined. NT charge high enough membership or entrance fees without milking those who did not want a disability in the first place. To access the cafe from the reception, we had a choice of going down some stairs (not an option for me) or walking the longer way around. To enter the house, we chose to enter by the accessible door (which was labelled as such) to be informed that we had entered the wrong door and we should follow the volunteer to the other side to be registered at the top of some steps. As the stairs were inaccessible to me, I was informed that I could walk the long way around to get to the next level so that I could get up some more stairs. By now this was beginning to feel like a scene out of Alice in Wonderland so left the building after first asking why we had to register when we had already given our details at reception. 'This was a different building', we were informed. Well, we have been in different buildings in other specific NT properties and not had to keep registering each time we did. The cafe was fine as was the bookshop although the toilets in the cafe were tiny and definitely not disability ones which were to be found elsewhere and would involve a longer walk for those who would have restricted walking distance. The lack of insight into accessibility issues is concerning, even more so that you have to pay extra over what is already an extortionate fee to get into the place. It is also on a slope. For me the NT has demonstrably lost its way when it starts introducing extra charges for those who simply wish to see the grounds without all this extra cost. On page 7 of their handbook it states, ' We all have a part to play in making everyone feels welcome. Help us.... for all people where visible and invisible differences are respected and valued.

Well, I did not feel welcomed and my differences were not respected and valued. There are petty policies and stone steps to lower levels without any rails which make what could have been a good experience an inaccessible one. Score 4/10 Thankfully, I can now go onto report on Trelissick, a property where the volunteers really did go the extra mile to make visiting a...

Worst experience of my life- DO NOT ATTEND THE WINTER FAIR.

My partner and I decided to attend the Winter Fair at Buckland Abbey today, and we would highly recommend you never attend it in the future.

First, we had to park 2 miles away at Yelverton Airfield. This was fine as a shuttle bus was in operation, although it was slightly hard to find in the middle of the moors! We joined the shuttle bus, arrived at the Abbey, and immediately the entrance queue was jam-packed. We quickly learnt that we had to pay to enter this Christmas fair, but that card payments weren’t accepted. I don’t know what year the event organisers are living in, but a new separate queue started to form, of people made to wait in the rain until we could be led to the reception to pay by card. Many people were waiting, including several families with small children.

The group finally got taken to site reception where we could pay, and my partner and I went to find some food (this was around 1 p.m.). We learnt that the cafe shut at noon for a 10 a.m.-4 p.m. event. By 1 p.m. all of the food stalls had closed. The only food available was from a small kiosk serving tea, coffee, cakes etc, with an outdoor queue of 20-30 people moving very slowly (in the rain). We gave up on finding any food after queuing for 20 minutes and not going anywhere, and walked around the stalls- which covered a total of 3 rooms. There was a poor selection of items such as home crafts, second-hand books, knitted goods etc, but it was all poor quality, and I doubt there were 40 stalls present as advertised.

We spent a total of 30 minutes there and decided to leave after seeing everything. However, the queue for the shuttle bus back to the car park was 60-80 people long, with families, small children, and dogs being made to queue in the rain. One dog was so restless that the owner decided to break from the queue and play fetch on a nearby plot of grass, at which point a National Trust employee told him to restrain his dog & get back in line, even though the event was advertised as dog friendly!! At that point, so many people in the queue were grumbling, given the poor quality of the event & this individual employee.

As shuttle buses ran every 20 minutes, and seeing as we would have to get the 3rd or 4th bus, we decided to walk back to the car (a 2-mile walk) rather than wait an hour or more. On our walk back, only one shuttle bus went past us, from either direction. So in the half an hour it took to walk to walk to the car, only about 20 people were transported to the the car park. I can only imagine how long it took for those who couldn't walk that distance & had to wait for a bus.

Overall, this Winter Fair charged us for entry, had no card machines available, made us wait in the rain, had no food available, offered poor quality stalls, had rude staff, and then failed to transport us back to the car park 2 miles away. DO NOT...