Mottisfont National Trust visitors criticise car park 'carnage'

One dad-of-two, a National Trust member, who took his young children to see the Christmas display at Mottisfont this week said the queues were still huge and that the car park “was carnage”.

He visited at 10.50am on Monday, December 18 and said it was so busy they decided to abort the visit rather than risk queuing in the cold with two children.

The parent, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “The place was carnage. They should have someone on the car park waving people away. Instead people were getting there, driving in, and causing more of a problem as they were being forced to do a lap of the car park just to get out. There were cars parked everywhere, on places they shouldn’t, causing obstructions.

“People were just trying to fit themselves in where they could. It was odd. I expected it to be busy as it is the school holidays, but we have been before and it has never been this bad. We were expecting some queues, but this year is particularly bad, made worse by having no direction in the car park.”

READ MORE: Mottisfont National Trust visitors criticise hour long rainy queue

A Mottisfont spokesperson said: “We’re trialling a one-way system to help cars navigate the car park more easily and quickly, and when it’s getting busy we have staff in high vis jackets to direct cars. At this time of year the average visit is shorter than in summer so spaces in the car park are constantly being freed up.

"We’ve had some really lovely comments from visitors this Christmas, but naturally we want everyone to feel like this. We’ll be reviewing this year’s operation very carefully, and taking on board any feedback we receive, so that we can make improvements where we can, next year.”

The complaint follows on a week after Trevor Bevins and his family, from Dorset, said they only moved a few steps in the queue before they decided to leave.

Mr Bevins drove from Dorset with his two grandchildren to arrive shortly before the National Trust site’s 11am opening time on Sunday, December 10 in the “pouring rain”. He was told it could be up to an hour wait to get in the house.

The queue to Mottisfont house (Image: Trevor Bevins)

Mr Bevins believes issues could have been avoided with a timed entry system booked online. However, a staff member said that this could be an “additional barrier” to visitors.

All the Hampshire National Trust sites have Christmas displays on but only Hinton Ampner, near Alresford, requires booking.

A spokesperson for the National Trust said this is because Hinton Ampner doesn’t have as much car parking capacity as other places.

A Neverland Christmas at Hinton Ampner (Image: Adele Bouchard)

SEE ALSO: Hinton Ampner Christmas trail raising funds for Great Ormond Street

Mottisfont’s visitor experience manager, Helen Potts, previously said: “We’ve worked hard to try and ensure that everyone has a really enjoyable time when they come to Mottisfont this Christmas.

“We discussed at length the option of a booking system for the house, but we decided against it because we know for many, it is seen as an additional barrier. We felt that this year particularly there are so many things to see and do here, which gives visitors lots of flexibility.

“We decided to run our Christmas offer for eight weeks, to give people plenty of time to plan visits at quieter times, which we have indicated throughout our website and on our social media posts.

“We do appreciate that at peak times the queue to the house can be long. This is because there is so much to see in every room. Part of the joy for us and our visitors is that they don’t feel rushed.”

The Mottisfont webpage states:  “A Christmas Journey to the North Pole runs November 25 to January 7. There’s no need to book but we may get very busy on weekends and the holidays. Peak arrival times are between 11am and 2pm.”