Environment : Who Can Britons Trust With Their National Treasures? : Critics say too many visitors spoil the sites and foster commercialism.

Britain is a treasure house of historical buildings, monuments and archeological sites, and the National Trust, which celebrates its centenary next year, holds the key to many of them.

But the National Trust and other organizations in the “heritage industry” face a problem that also confronts the U.S. national park system: Where to draw the line between visitor access and preservation.

Easier access means ever more tourists and the need to accommodate them with an infrastructure of services that often intrude on the beauty of the attraction. Some critics, such as architectural expert Colin Amery, grumble that too many of Britain’s treasures have been unnecessarily “tarted up” to please a public that is more interested in the on-site tearooms and shops than in the attraction itself.

“We’re in danger of turning our heritage into one vast theme park,” says Amery, who writes for the Financial Times. “But I suppose that’s because the heritage industry is one of our few growth industries. We don’t make anything anymore in Britain. We just show visitors our past.”

And Peter Jackson, a member of the National Trust’s ruling council, complains that some of the visitors’ facilities “cost a fortune,” which might be better spent buying or maintaining historic properties.

“If I had it to do over again,” Jackson adds, “I think I would oppose some of the more elaborate facilities.”

Other critics suggest that some of the National Trust’s most popular properties are beginning to resemble Alton Towers, a well-known amusement park, in terms of their operations.

The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty--National Trust, for short--is Britain’s largest charitable institution, and now has more than 2 million members who support it. It is the largest landowner in Britain with 573,000 acres--hill, dale, lake, forest, inland waterways, seacoast, nature reserves, even villages--Lacock in Wiltshire and West Wycombe in Buckinghamshire--belonging to the Trust in perpetuity and open to the public.

The Trust also owns an estimated 40,000 archeological sites including prehistoric and Roman antiquities. Among its properties is part of Roman Emperor Hadrian’s Wall across northern Britain.

Most visible are its more than 200 historic buildings, open to visitors, including castles and abbeys, barns, mills and stately homes. To administer and care for the properties, the Trust employs about 3,000 salaried staff members and relies on 25,000 volunteers as wardens, accountants, surveyors, gamekeepers and guides.

And catering to visitors, the National Trust provides parking lots, information centers, more than 200 shops, restaurants, 128 tea rooms, lavatories and other facilities, including 200 holiday cottages.

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Therein lies the problem. Is more money devoted to the ancillary facilities than to the main attraction. Or as a close observer of the operations put it: “Some believe the Trust has become too large, too unwieldy and too commercial.”

There is, in fact, an organization called National Trust Enterprises which is responsible for commercial operations. Its main activities are retailing in shops at the properties and in independent town shops; serving in restaurants, tearooms and refreshment kiosks and the letting of holiday cottages.

These activities provide operating capital for the fund’s more traditional obligations, officials say. Less than half of its annual budget comes from subscriptions, gifts and legacies; National Trust Enterprises comes up with the rest, more than $10 million last year.

But local residents complain when the Trust sets up tourist centers in towns near historic attractions, such as the plan to build one near Snowshill Manor, in the heart of the Cotswolds.

Another criticism is that the Trust has overexpanded, acquiring more sites than it can afford to maintain properly.

“I can see why people would be upset about Britain being turned into a theme park,” says Rodney Legg, a member of the Trust Council and chairman of the Open Spaces Society. “It will have a negative effect on Trust-giving. The Trust is becoming over-stretched. I wish we hadn’t gone as far as we have with acquiring properties which need high revenue to keep them intact.”

Yet there’s a compelling urge to preserve as much as possible of the historical symbols of this country with a passion for its past. Ten years ago, for instance, the Trust acquired Fountains Abbey in North Yorkshire, the site of the largest monastic ruin in Britain, which, together with its extensive gardens of Studley Royal, was subsequently designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

A number of National Trust houses, many of the grand country manors, have associations with famous people--for instance, Wimpole Hall, Cambridgeshire (Rudyard Kipling), Ayot St. Lawrence, Hertfordshire (George Bernard Shaw), Chartwell, Kent (Sir Winston Churchill), Washington Old Hall, Tyne and Wear County (the family of George Washington) and Cliveden (American-born Lady Nancy Astor).

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In all, about 12 million people have visited National Trust properties, and countless more have enjoyed free access to the countryside and coastal areas owned by the Trust.

The Trust was founded in 1895 and given a mandate by Parliament in 1907 “to promote the permanent preservation for the benefit of the nation land and buildings of beauty or historic interest.” Its properties can never be sold or mortgaged, nor acquired by public authorities, without the special consent of Parliament.

Another conservation organization, English Heritage, also acquires historic properties, particularly monuments, ancient and modern, as well as buildings of historic interest in and around London. English Heritage owns, among other sites, that heavily visited ancient structure of Stonehenge.

English Heritage is a quasi-governmental body, supported primarily by public funds voted annually by Parliament, whereas the National Trust is a charity primarily dependent on membership subscriptions and donations. In the United States, the National Trust maintains a branch called the Royal Oak Foundation, with 16,000 members who have contributed more than $1 million for the restoration of Trust properties.

Some critics suggest that the National Trust should follow the lead of English Heritage, which-- under the chairmanship of the abrasive, dynamic, former publisher Jocelyn Stevens--has begun to divest itself of some properties, turning them over to local government authorities.

Critics liken English Heritage’s divestiture policy to selling off the family silver, and the policy is also controversial because the local authorities, like a London borough, often do not have the resources--or desire--to supervise and protect local monuments or listed houses. Listed houses and buildings are those built between 1700 and 1940 that are considered of “exceptional” or “particular” national importance.

The National Trust itself often leases its lands and properties to others to manage, ranging from agricultural plots to the famous Cliveden house, leased to a hotel corporation to run as hostelry for the paying public--with 37 double rooms at about $350 a night.

Sometimes leasing can run afoul of public opinion, as in the case where farmers permit fox or deer hunting on leased Trust lands. Peter Jackson, the National Trust council member, argues: “I think conducting blood sports on Trust land is a great mistake and is causing a lot of offense among our members.”

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As for commercialization, Colin Amery, the architectural expert, complains that some visitors prefer the shops to the attraction itself. “The National Trust is getting like Marks & Spencer (department store) with everything the same quality.”

But a spokeswoman for the National Trust points out that visitors like and expect tearooms and restaurants. “We operate 128 tearooms and they are profitable, as are the souvenir shops,” she says. “We are aware that there are ghastly souvenirs sold in this country, but we monitor what is sold under the National Trust logo very carefully. We think they are in good taste.

“The basic problem is money: Once we received funds from generous donors and from rental of agricultural lands. But donations, rents and government grants are down, and costs are up.”

National Trust official Caroline Audemars sums up: “We are trying to protect the Trust land and properties. We are trying to serve the public. We are trying to strike a proper balance between access and conservation. It’s a huge responsibility.”