‘The arguments over National Trust wokery are great. We want to provoke debate about culture’
The charity’s chairman defends its right to present new interpretations of history at its properties
On a tour of Stourhead, the 2,650-acre neo-palladian estate in Wiltshire, René Olivieri was told its gardeners once planted a tree knowing it would not be big enough to complete a perfect vista for 300 years.
“Clearly they weren’t doing it for them – they were doing it for us,” he says. “And then it fell down in Storm Arwen last year and Andy Jasper [head of gardens at the National Trust] said that they had planted a little sapling where it stood.
“Somebody on the tour said: ‘But that’s not the same – it doesn’t look the same.’ And Andy replied: ‘Give it time.’
“At that moment I thought that is us, that is the National Trust – give it time. And in 300 years’ time, that sapling will be a glorious thing – our gift to the future.” It is an anecdote that sums up Olivieri’s belief that his responsibility as chairman of the trust is to be a “good ancestor”. But its role as a custodian for future generations is a matter of heated debate.
For a charity known for its tapestries, scones and manicured gardens, it has found itself at the sharp end of the culture wars, facing anger over its “woke” agenda for moves such as “outing” a country squire as gay 48 years after his death, claiming there was no longer a need to conceal his sexuality and linking Winston Churchill to colonialism and slavery. So why is the trust provoking such anger? “I think it’s great,” replied Olivieri, a 69-year-old born in America who spent most of his career at the helm of Blackwell Publishing.
“We live in a free society and the more people talk about why nature matters, why culture matters, why history matters, about how these houses should be curated, how biodiversity should be restored, the better. I am a scientific publisher – I believe in debate. Nothing ever advances without it – there’s never a final answer.”
It is a rare interview for Olivieri, the first major one since he took over as chairman in February, and follows a heated AGM in which management, he says, achieved most of its aims. He wants to listen and regularly engages with people, he says, but he believes that much of the anger at the trust comes from a misplaced fear that it doesn’t care about its properties.
“You can start with me,” he said, sitting in a Georgian house, looking out over its garden. He and his wife, Anne, have spent 15 years lovingly restoring 300-year-old Morton Hall in Worcestershire, which is open to the public for six months a year, and have assiduously researched its history.
Olivieri spends two thirds of his time as a “senior volunteer” visiting historic properties and wants the trust, a charity, to spend half a billion pounds on them over the next five years.
The trust is listening and “open to criticism and advice”, but he wants to “be very clear” that if it “presents something in a way that people don’t like” or say is “not respectful”, their view will not take precedence over what the trust believes is best for the property.
The trust’s motto is: “For everyone, for ever” – and it lives by it.
“It really is important for us to make our places accessible to as many people
‘We’re about opening doors, to every aspect of society. We want everybody to feel they’re part of that history or there’s an opportunity for them to engage’
as possible,” he said. “The demography of this country is changing – we’ve seen that in the recent census. We’re about opening doors, to every aspect of society. We want everybody to feel they’re part of that history or there’s an opportunity for them to engage.”
While some may want to “just enjoy something as an aesthetic experience” the charity wants everyone whatever their background of history to “find something that speaks to them” – whether in the property itself or in the trust’s in-depth online offerings.
But isn’t it this opening of doors, the telling of new histories, that has provoked most anger? The trust’s colonialism and slavery report in 2020 prompted not one but two parliamentary debates over its future.
“The story can always be enriched – it’s another story,” said Olivieri, undeterred. “These houses didn’t live in isolation. They were a part of a larger social and economic fabric. We want all those stories to be told, rather than saying the trust should stop publishing things, stop talking about these things. We should be doing lots of other types of stories and research.”
With its membership approaching six million, it is a “broad church” and needs to cater to all needs. Its aim, Oliveri said, is to make that church even broader. It is holding open days, extending hours, handing out free passes and wants to take conservation and culture into city centres.
“Most of the population lives in urban areas. We don’t want to wait for people to come out to our properties in the countryside, we want to go where people are and create a resource or restore resources within the city.”
The trust has started the work with its “park in the sky” at the Victorian Castlefield Viaduct in Manchester, is working with local authorities to restore parks, and recently ran a competition for unsigned artists to bring music back to Sir Paul Mccartney’s house in Forthlin Road, Merseyside, where the musician lived before he found fame in the Beatles.
The trust is reconsidering its identity in concert with the rest of the sector as society changes and Olivieri, as a one-time interim chairman of the National Lottery Heritage Fund and a member of the Government’s Covid culture recovery fund, is well placed to oversee it.
“Curatorial practice has to evolve in the same way that science does,” he said. He pointed out that major institutions are “changing the way they present stuff all the time”, adding: “Just because we presented something in a way or displayed it in such a way 50 years ago... Things have changed, people are interested in different aspects and we need to respond to that.
“We don’t want to go around and tell people what to think about the past. We see ourselves as opening doors and enabling storytelling. It’s the layering of one story, one interpretation after the other.”
The charity has responsibilities beyond storytelling. It is Britain’s largest private landowner, responsible for 780 miles of coastline, 500 historic properties and two thirds of the world’s population of Herdwick sheep – and one thing threatens them all: climate change. Olivieri is worried about pollution, coastline erosion, biodiversity, flooding, droughts, the condition of the rivers, soil, loss of peatlands and wetlands.
“We want future generations to look back and say we made the right decisions,” he said. That responsibility has embroiled the trust in rows over its politicisation, such as in October when it criticised the plans for growth of Liz Truss, then prime minister, which were described as an “attack on nature”. Olivieri pointed out that the Charity Commission has said it is “desirable for charities to campaign on issues that are central to their charitable purposes” of “looking after land and landscapes for the benefit of people”.
“We work with the Government all the time behind the scenes,” he insisted, but the trust had early indications that Ms Truss’s “sprint for growth” would lead to the watering down of protections it had supported in the Conservative election manifesto.
“Our natural inclination is always to work constructively behind the scenes. We felt we had to send a warning, alongside other charities. We do this when we feel the core charitable purpose is under threat.”
He is no stranger to controversy. He remains chairman of the RSPCA, a role he took on when it was embroiled in rows over politicisation and private prosecutions. Does he see himself as a troubleshooter?
“Let me be absolutely clear,” he said, taking a serious turn. “There is no trouble in the National Trust.”
People may be so concerned about it because, as something uniquely British, it holds a special place in the nation’s psyche. Was that a daunting thing to take on, as an American?
He leant forward and whispered: “I am not American. I am British.” He has given up his US citizenship and believes “the recent convert can be the most fervent”.