A National Trust weekend in Shropshire

There's something fulfilling about volunteering, and the National Trust's programmes allow you to fit good work in with a quick UK break

"Hello, my name’s Simon. I’m from London and this is my first time.” It was all a bit Big Brother, entering a kitchen filled with 12 people of all ages and from all parts of the country. Thankfully, that’s where the similarities ended.

The kitchen was the centre of Big Mose, National Trust ‘basecamp’ for our working weekend at a 19th-century villa called Sunnycroft. There are 31 basecamps dotted around the country, mainly converted cottages or apartments or, in our case, a cosy stone farmhouse with comfy bunkrooms.

I quickly learned that I was one of only a handful of newcomers to the Trust experience. In fact, three ladies who’d met on a previous weekend had arranged a reunion on this one. “You get a real sense of achievement, that’s what I like about it,” Lisa, an accountant from Worcestershire and veteran of several previous weekends, told me when I asked her what kept her coming back.

Our volunteer leader Diane had drawn up a cooking and cleaning rota so everybody mucked in from the start. The cooking is based on the Trust’s Basecamp Bistro menu book, which features a selection of hearty British favourites such as bangers and mash and sticky toffee pudding. After dinner, sated and clutching steaming mugs of tea to ward off the cold spring night, we listened as Diane briefed us on the weekend ahead. With a typically British ‘changeable’ weather forecast, we were advised to wear layers.

On with the composting

Waking up the following morning to a bright blue sky, it was tempting to cast this advice to one side. However, by the time we were tucking in to a plentiful fry-up, the clouds had already rolled in.

Sunnycroft was a 45-minute minibus journey away, giving a glimpse of the Shropshire hills and the Georgian houses of the town of Bridgnorth. On arrival we were met by Joel, the head gardener. He gave us a tour of the gardens, which he’s extensively cleared and restored to their Victorian grandeur, mainly through studying old drawings and photographs. There’s even an immaculately manicured, pristine-green croquet lawn.

Joel then listed the tasks he wanted us to complete, which would require splitting into groups. I shied away from weeding and clearing, on account of my murderous non-green fingers. I opted to join a group of four sifting this year’s compost pile and moving fresh garden waste to form next year’s. I reasoned there was little meaningful damage I could do here.

Two of my group were seasoned volunteers but Dawn, a marketing manager from London, was also on her first trip. By lunchtime, when we rejoined the others in the greenhouse to eat sandwiches and share flasks of tea, she confessed she was already hooked. 

The erratic weather duly arrived and led to more costume changes than a Madonna concert. Yet the day flew as we put our backs into it, albeit punctuated by frequent stops for tea and flapjacks. But, by the time we boarded the minibus at the day’s end, we’d created three piles at different stages of composting.

“So, do you understand why we do it?” John, a retired Land Rover engineer, asked me. And as I stretched out my aching limbs on the train back to London I realised I did – good company, the warm glow of good food, and the warmer glow still of helping a very worthy cause.

The National Trust (0844 800 3099, www.nationaltrust.org.uk/volunteering) runs a range of working holidays. You can watch a video of Simon's weekend here