I'm afraid I totally agree with Chris' comments about England, in particular any part south of York. There are a million places more worth visiting than that claustrophobic hell hole full of smug pedants governed by a neo-facist dicatator. Whatever might still have been worth seeing 10 years ago is now covered over by Walmart or Tescos, and the rest is simply an opportunity for the thugs in uniform known as "the police" to throw their weight around. Unfortunately I will remain a British citizen for at least another few years.
However, this NT land grab is nothing new: some years back, in Italy, the regional government of Tuscany tried to copyright the landscape .... I believe there was some discussion about it here, but it might have been on the old forum. Whatever, either it didn't stick, or everyybody ignores it, like most other laws in Italy :-)