A NATIONAL Trust site has apologised publicly after it could not cope with visitor demand on the weekend.

Mottisfont, a house and gallery by the River Test near Romsey, released a statement on its social media after visitors complained they were unable to obtain 'timed tickets' to A Nutcracker Christmas.

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Mottisfont (Image: National Trust) A spokesperson for the historic house wrote on Facebook: "We wanted to apologise to those of you who were unable to obtain a timed ticket into the house last weekend to see A Nutcracker Christmas.

"It was our first full weekend of opening after two weekends of storm closures, so our visitor numbers were extraordinarily high.

"This week we’re anticipating things will be quieter and we’d love to see you; A Nutcracker Christmas is on until 5 January so there’s still plenty of time to enjoy the experience."

It continued: "We will be taking all feedback into consideration when we review Christmas 2024, in the early New Year."

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Throughout the weekend Mottisfont sent out warnings on social media warning about how busy the property was.

One of the warnings released on Sunday morning said: "We are extremely busy at Mottisfont right now (Sunday 15 December) and our car park is reaching capacity.

"We expect to be quieter this afternoon. If you arrive after 2.30pm you will still have plenty of time to enjoy your visit. Thank you."

The property said it had to cope with long queues and an overfilling car park. Mottisfont said it was "truly sorry" for the disappointment.

Reactions to the posts were mixed, with some visitors praising the staff and organisation, whilst others were far from impressed.

One wrote: "You should have let people know while they were queuing for the car park that the house tickets were sold out. We wouldn’t have bothered to wait to park if we’d known that."

Another said: "It was worth queuing, and your organised staff helped us to park. Well worth a bit of waiting. The house was lovely!"