A dedicated volunteer with 14 years of service has been told he is no longer welcome by the National Trust after a dispute that began when he meticulously documented hundreds of errors on the charity's official website.
The 400-Hour Audit That Sparked a Feud
Andy Jones, a 71-year-old pensioner, had volunteered for the heritage charity across various sites, including the Woolbeding Estate in West Sussex and the Devil's Punch Bowl in Surrey. His unpaid roles over more than a decade involved tasks from gardening and guiding visitors to burning waste.
In November 2024, Mr Jones compiled a detailed dossier highlighting numerous mistakes he had found on the National Trust website during approximately 400 hours of scrutiny. The errors included glaring misspellings such as 'toliets' and 'permananat', the incorrect rendering of Pre-Raphaelite artist Lucy Madox Brown's name as 'Maddox Brown', and various grammatical issues.
He politely sent the document to the Trust's Director-General, Hilary McGrady, asking if she would "be so kind to forward" it to the relevant team. He received no response.
From Silence to a Relationship Breakdown
After hearing nothing by January 2025, Mr Jones sent a follow-up email expressing his sincere hope that his work would be helpful. Again, there was no reply from Ms McGrady, a CBE recipient.
This silence prompted the volunteer to quit his role at his local site and send a strongly worded email to his manager. In that message, which he has since acknowledged was inappropriate, he referred to the "Oirish [sic] Dame" and her "crappy not fit for purpose webs***e".
His manager responded by stating they were "disappointed" by the comments, which they said were "not in line with our organisational values". The manager concluded that the relationship had been "irreversibly" damaged and Mr Jones would not be considered for future volunteer roles.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Mr Jones confessed his language was inappropriate but alleged he was under stress due to a recent prostate cancer diagnosis. He said he still believes in the idea of the National Trust as a "brilliant one" but views senior management as past their "use by" date.
"The organisation needs to be completely re-invented by a new, young, vibrant leadership that brings it kicking and screaming into the 21st century," he added.
The National Trust's Response and a Pattern of Disputes
A National Trust spokesperson stated: "We are always happy to explain our decisions to individuals when it comes to their conduct and the standards we expect but we can’t do this via a newspaper... We can say that no-one would be told they were no longer welcome as a volunteer simply for pointing out grammatical errors on a website and this would not lead to relationship breakdown. Relationship breakdown tends to occur after a series of incidents."
This incident is not isolated. In June of the previous year, thirteen gardeners at Mottistone Manor on the Isle of Wight, with over a century of combined service, were informed their volunteering was paused indefinitely. Managers cited language and behaviour that did not reflect the "respectful and inclusive culture" the Trust aims to uphold, claims the volunteers insisted were fabricated.
The controversy highlights ongoing tensions between the historic institution and some of its long-standing supporters and volunteers over its values and management style.
