Last year my partner and I were so incensed by the appalling treatment of local farmers in the National Trust’s underhand land grab at Thorneythwaite Farm, Borrowdale, exacerbated by director general Dame Helen Ghosh’s “rewilding policy” in which “farm subsidies should be changed to promote wild flowers, bees and butterflies, over food production” that we were forced to cancel our membership of the Trust.

Now we have the ridiculous removal of ‘Easter’ from their annual egg hunt.

People join the National Trust to visit its houses gardens and parkland and celebrate our glorious past – not disown it, as is increasingly evident by the continuing dumbing down the history of their country houses. All of which, albeit sadly, confirms we did the right thing.

It is not Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus or Jews who have a problem with Christian traditions – as people of faith, they respect them.

Integral to our nation’s history is its Christian heritage, witnessed by the many fine churches and chapels attached to country houses in the care of the National Trust.

Of all bodies the National Trust should know this and celebrate it.

We have, however, joined the National Trust for Scotland instead, who continue to celebrate, not delete, our history and religion and which provides all the same benefits as NT England (UK and worldwide) and at a lower membership cost.

If enough NT members follow suit, we hope Dame Helen and her ‘disown the past’ minions will come to their senses and allow us to return to the fold we have been driven from and let everyone, of whatever faith, or indeed none, enjoy a happy Easter.

Patrick Tracey
St Edmunds Park
Carlisle


Got something you want to say? Need to comment on a burning issue or get something off your chest? Write to The Editor, The Cumberland News, Newspaper House, Dalston Road, Carlisle CA2 5UA or email letters.carlisle@cnmedia.co.uk