A grandad has spoken out against the "shambolic" situation at Mottisfont Abbey which has continued over the past weeks due to long queues and ticketing issues.

Paul Lewis was left disillusioned when he arrived at the National Trust-run estate near Romsey on Sunday, December 22, only to discover that there were no more tickets available for its popular Christmas trail.

Photos he took show huge queues out of the popular attraction.

"It was very disappointing," the Sutton Scotney resident said. "We had our grandchildren with us and we couldn’t see The Nutcracker." 

Paul argued that more could have been done in the wake of the previous weekend's ticketing chaos, for which Mottisfont issued a public apology. He felt the timed ticket system currently in place is not working and struggled to understand why it could not have been exchanged for the online pre-booking form used for other National Trust locations.

READ MORE: Mottisfont National Trust house apologises after weekend chaos

Paul Lewis, who lives in Sutton Scotney (Image: Paul Lewis) He said: "They knew, because last weekend they had a lot of problems with large numbers of people turning up and them running out of timed tickets. We thought: 'Surely this weekend they’ll have learned their lesson.'"

Arriving by mid-afternoon, Paul expected the queues to have thinned out, but was surprised to find that there was no way for him and the family to access The Nutcracker at all.

"We left it until 3 o’clock, but when we got there they had run out of tickets," Paul said. "They had put something up on their website about it being very busy, but nothing about timed tickets.

"What really surprises us is that we went to Hinton Ampner a couple of weeks ago and booked online in advance, so we knew we were going to get in. I don’t understand why Mottisfont didn’t introduce that system.

"I think this is the first year there has been a problem. They could have done more to tell people that there was a problem this weekend."

Long queues outside Mottisfont (Image: Contributed) Speaking on behalf of Mottisfont on December 23, Joanna Crosse explained that the two storms which arrived in quick succession – Bert and Darragh – disrupted the trust's Christmas schedule.

She said: "We are running a timed ticket system and we posted on social media this morning that the car park is full.

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"It is being managed as well as it can be, but because the property was closed due to the storms, there has been a bit of a backlog.

"The staff are working really, really hard and the trust is doing its utmost."

Last week, Mottisfont said they would be assessing all the feedback in the new year regarding the 2024 Christmas experience. 

The Nutcracker is open until January 5, but the property is closed on December 24 and 25.