The people behind NT Research 👀
We've had a great time at Killerton this week. The team there told us all about how they're restoring woodlands and hedgerows on a vast landscape scale.
We're excited to help plan the research needed to make this beautiful place accessible to everyone.
🌳Professor Rosie Hails (NT's Nature and Science Director 🌿) will be speaking at this summer's Exeter Climate Forum⛅, which has at its heart the Exeter Climate Conference.
🗓️29 June-1 July 2026, University of Exeter, Streatham Campus🏛️
🔍Read more about the event/sign up: exeterclimateforum.com 🌤️
'The Secret Lives of Paintings' is open at Stourhead, Mere, Wiltshire every day until November. Find out more: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/wiltsh...
Have you visited 'The Secret Lives of Paintings' yet? 🎨🖼️🔍
Discover new findings about Stourhead's most intriguing artworks in this year's exhibition. Even in the 18th century, pictures weren't always as they seem.
Sharing research with visitors = our favourite thing.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
#BeMoreFern 💚🦕
Last week our 'Knotted Histories' team with @ox.ac.uk took samples of the carpet at Knole (best known as Vita Sackville-West's house). They're hoping to find out when and where the carpet was made.
Spot the hidden parrot photographed by postdoc researcher @emilylsteve.bsky.social 🦜
An ancient mosaic showing a bear, walking from left to right across a plain white background. The bear's limbs are somewhat elongated and he wears a rather world-weary expression.
It's World Bear Day, so here's a bear who's had it with all this.
#MosaicMonday
Dr Stephanie Pratt shares findings with National Trust staff and academics. Behind her is a large (as tall as she is) 17th century wooden panel painting representing 'America'.
Visiting academics take a closer look at a large panel painting representing Summer while Lydia, Collections and House Manager at Dunster, shines a torch on the painting.
Dr Clare Taylor presents findings on a set of gilt leather wall hangings representing the story of Anthony and Cleopatra. The colourful wall hangings hang behind her. We can see Anthony, with long curling brown hair and leather armour, contemplate the sword which he will use to take his own life.
Last week Dr Stephanie Pratt, art historian and cultural ambassador for the Crow Creek Dakota Nation, and Prof Clare Taylor @openuniversity.bsky.social visited us at Dunster Castle.
Their work on Dunster's collections will help us tell new stories for everyone - lots of questions still to answer!
The Monk’s Garden at Avebury Manor, Wiltshire in Spring, with stone walls enclosing smaller areas of planting and topiary bushes with the Manor behind. ©National Trust Images/James Dobson
On the theme of #MedievalMarch we’re exploring some of the gardens in the care of the National Trust with medieval features.
Original gardens dating from this period are rare, but some individual elements such as walls, dovecotes and fishponds, still remain.
Find out more here: bit.ly/40BMoj9
A view of an archaeological trench with a group of archaeologists in hi-viz clothing, located at the bottom of a stone and vegetated cliff with the historic castle at the top
An aerial image of an archaeological trench surrounded by grass and some boulders, with a group of archaeologists working and wearing hi viz vests
A woman and a man are looking at some archaeological finds in the hands of the man
March 5th is #CornwallDay, so we're resharing the opportunity to see St Michael's Mount on #DiggingforBritain.
A team from Durham University and the National Trust were searching for evidence of Bronze Age tin processing on the island.
You can watch it on BBC iPlayer: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...
And research into Cornish grasslands is proving that hemiparasitic plants improve bee and butterfly numbers.
Hemiparasites take some of their nutrients from other plants. They slow the growth of grasses, giving other plants and their pollinators space to thrive 🐝
📸National Trust Images/Gesine Garz
It's Cornwall Day 〓〓 so we're celebrating some Cornish research!
Art historians working on the 17th-century Long Gallery ceiling at Lanhydrock have found that its pictures - which show stories from the Book of Genesis - came from books printed all over Europe.
www.plymouth.ac.uk/research/his...
🌿 Discover how research is shaping the future of our work!
We’re proud of our research collaborations that help us protect nature, heritage, and historic places for everyone.🏛️🌳
🔍Explore our current partnerships and learn how we work together to create impact: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/who-we-are/r...
This painting, 'Stourhead in its Infancy', shows the Wiltshire estate in the early 1700s - or does it?
New National Trust research has shown that all's not what it seems!
See for yourself in the new exhibition 'The Secret Lives of Paintings', at Stourhead from 14 March.
📸National Trust Images
Sound on 🎧to join our collaborative PhD student Ruth on her research trip to Tyntesfield last week!
This silver-covered prayer book was copied in France in the early 16th century. We think it's probably the National Trust's most beautiful medieval book...
@openuniversity.bsky.social
📸Daisy Gibbs
Presenting the Proceedings of the NT PhD Conference 2025! 🎉
Inside you'll find papers by our talented collaborative students, exploring topics like neurodiversity in heritage and women in 19th century libraries.
Download from our Research Repository: nt.iro.bl.uk/concern/conf...
Artists Paints, Pestle & Mortar Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire ©National Trust Images/Peter Greenway
🗓️On 10th March at 6pm, #NationalTrust conservation scientist Valentina Risdonne chairs an online webinar 🖥️ on 🏡'Interiors, Exteriors & Sculptures'🏛️as part of Discovering #HeritageScience series 🔍during #BritishScienceWeek ✍️Register & see more webinars here: nationaltrust.webex.com/webappng/sit...
Photo credits: Ken the volunteer diver - shared with permission
🤩Throwback to last summer🌅 when Ken the diver joined a group of volunteer researchers to gather fortnightly data from beneath the waves 🌊on the health of seagrass meadows🌿 at #StudlandBay in Dorset - seahorse sightings included 🐟+🐴 More details at www.dorsetcoasthaveyoursay.co.uk/studland-bay... ⚓
A gingerbread man in a Christmas tree at Blickling Estate, Norfolk ©National Trust Images/Rob Coleman
🎶On the Tuesday before Christmas Research at the National Trust gave to me
🎵A 500 year wait for Buckland music
🎲20+ new games for Avebury stone circle
🌿£3m for 3 transformative Green Corridors
🐾8 Paws for Thoughts Recommendations
🌳5 Be’s for Urban Trees
…and nature recovery with BVLOS drones🎶
Festive Christmas decorations in the Octagon Room at Basildon Park, Berkshire ©National Trust Images/Megan Taylor
🎶On the 6th day before Christmas, Research at the National Trust gave to me 🎶
⏱️17 micro internships
🌱9 Seed Fund projects
🌳6 years as an IRO
👏5 PhD completions
🙌3 newly externally funded projects this year
... and a Strategic Partnerships #KnowledgeExchangeUK Award 🎶
KE Awards 2025 winners image. Credit: Knowledge Exchange UK
Congratulations to all the winners of the 2025 Knowledge Exchange Awards!
These projects demonstrate exceptional achievements in knowledge exchange, innovation and collaboration, showing how research collaboration deliver benefits for people and the economy.
Explore: www.ukri.org/news/ukri-ce...
We're so privileged to be part of this partnership, and very proud indeed of our colleagues at both institutions who have made it happen 🙌🌟
Onwards and upwards!
This fantastic recognition highlights the strength of our partnership and our shared commitment to advancing knowledge exchange. A huge thank you to everyone who supported us along the way.
Congratulations to all the winners and well done to the KE UK team for hosting such a fantastic event!
The award recognises our collaborative project 'Shaping Landscapes for People and Nature to Thrive: A Strategic Partnership', which is helping to transform how landscapes are managed, boost biodiversity, and empower people to play an active role in caring for the natural world.
🎉Exciting news! 🏆Together with our research partner the University of Exeter, we have won in the Strategic Partnership category at the #KnowledgeExchangeUK Awards! Read more about the work researchandinnovation.co.uk/creating-rea...
🤩Excited to be heading to the KE Awards 2025 tomorrow! Our partnership 🫶with the University of Exeter has been shortlisted as a finalist in the KE Awards 2025!🏅See ke.org.uk/news/finalis... Read about the partnership: researchandinnovation.co.uk/creating-rea... #KnowledgeExchangeUK #KEUK #KEAwards25
@kerrylouisehistory.bsky.social this made us think of you!!
We're proud to be a partner on this project, which is bringing the stories of carpets to life - they're much more than just somewhere to put your feet 👣
Humanity's future depends on strong, resilient ecosystems.🌳🐿️🐝🌱🦋
We've written a report with partners including @newcastleuni.bsky.social @nhm-london.bsky.social @zslofficial.bsky.social presenting a big-picture ecosystem approach to restoring nature.
Read it here: www.ncl.ac.uk/press/articl...
A graphic card with a painting of a person connected to the earth by Ria Poole and the words 'Biodiversity Parliament 2025. Is Nature for all? Exploring Environmental Justice.' displayed on the front.
as well as finding quicker better & more creative ways to build positive visions of environmentally just #futures.
#renewparliament2025 | #renewbiodiversity | #isnatureforall?
