At the end of September, the trust had logged 12.8 million visits to pay-for-entry properties, compared with 10.5 million at the same time the previous year, an increase of 22 per cent. The modernising arm of the trust believes its purpose should be about more than simply preserving old houses, that it needs to be more proactive and educative and that it must do more to preserve modern culture. There has also been a reorganisation programme by Fiona Reynolds, its director general. The trust cares for a total of 164 historic houses, 19 castles and more than 200 other historic sites including gardens, industrial monuments, churches, chapels and farms.In recent years, the trust has been racked by disputes over its policies on hunting and restoration.

It owns 18 per cent of the coastline and some of the country’s most famous houses and monuments, including St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall, Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire and Cliveden in Buckinghamshire, where the main building, set in 375 acres of parkland, is leased out and run as a five-star hotel. The five-part series, which will be repeated on BBC2 next year, shows how the trust’s landowning policies are being virulently opposed in some parts of the country and how internal battles have raged between modernisers and traditionalists in the trust.It is the largest non- governmental landowner in Britain. Membership has increased by 20 per cent in the past two years.The figures were released as the trust prepared for its annual meeting today at Portsmouth Guildhall, and for its activities to be put under the spotlight in a fly-on-the-wall documentary series, which begins on BBC4 tomorrow. The National Trust is enjoying such a rush in new membership that it is now the biggest conservation body in Europe, according to figures released yesterday.
As membership topped 3.3 million, the trust said its joining rate ­ which it claims is one new member every 42 seconds ­ has overtaken the country’s birth rate (one baby born every 52 seconds). A spokesman said demand was unlikely to exceed levels required for other big sporting events and was expected to be much the same as for an episode of a popular soap opera.. “There will be nearly 1,000 pubs opening early on Sunday morning, but we don’t expect this to be a problem.”The National Grid said it had plans to cope with increased demand for electricity but it did not anticipate any difficulties.

The leaders are bound to discuss plans to speed the establishment of an Iraqi government, possibly as soon as early next year, and military tactics for suppressing terrorist activities. In the 17 months to the end of 2002, MGR Capital made £13.7m profit on turnover of £33.3m and paid £457,000 in dividends to its shareholders.Car companies very often rely on profits from their finance arms to subsidise their manufacturing operations. But Professor Garel Rhys, of Cardiff University’s automotive industry research unit, said the Rover Financial Services deal “cuts off the vehicle maker from a very substantial inflow of cash”.A spokeswoman for Phoenix said the finance arm had been acquired separately because it was “not appropriate to have the debt on Phoenix’s balance sheet”. Rob Hayward, a spokesman for the association, said publicans were well prepared and there were no fears about running out of beer “We will meet demand as ever,” he said. “We are a national church, but there won’t be any united formulations of support, although of course local churches may be doing something,” he said.Hundreds of pubs are opening early and the British Beer and Pub Association is confident that the industry has made adequate preparations. “Lots of our congregation will be supporting England but we also hope they’ll be supporting us by dashing off to church as soon as the final whistle blows.”He said the church was not taking sides in the match, despite its name. “We hope that if it doesn’t go into extra time, people will get into church, with a bit of luck,” said a church spokesman.

More than seven million people are expected to watch England’s clash with France, leading to unprecedented Sunday morning pressure on pubs and a potentially massive surge in demand for power.
There could also be mass desertion from the nation’s churches, leaving priests preaching to empty pews.The Church of England is banking on the game being completed in normal time, allowing the faithful to make the journey to church before services start. You never ever imagine you would encounter one through work.”The painting stems from one of the most important periods for the artist, when he developed new ways of recreating space, light and atmosphere on paper and canvas.A Christie’s spokesman said: “It enables us to see the intricate and subtle process whereby he built up the rich, expressive washes in which he could convey his new understanding of the grandeur and emotional intensity that we find in the world, both natural and man-made.”. Mr Bruen bought it in Glasgow in 1956 but his descendants were oblivious of the importance of the work, which hung on a wall behind the living room door.Michael Callan, the auctioneer who spotted it, said: “I’m sure we will never come across another Turner … The work is the only recorded watercolour by Turner of York and stems from the time at the end of the 18th century when the artist travelled to the North of England.
Christie’s is selling the picture in London on Thursday and expects that it will fetch up to £100,000.The painting,On the River Ouse with a View to York Minster in the Distance, was found by the auctioneer Thomas R Callan while clearing the mansion in Ayrshire of the late Theodore Bruen, a civil servant and antique collector. Auctioneers asked to clear the house of a civil servant in Scotland found a painting by J M W Turner tucked behind a door.