It is commonly said that a detail on a cornice wood carving of an oak leaf, may have inspired the National Trust's emblem, but there is no evidence to prove that claim.

[6]The 1895 decision by the National Trust about the approach to adopt to the repair and presentation of the Clergy House was critical in shaping its subsequent way of dealing with almost all its properties, which continues to this day.

[7] This was a direct result of the close links between the newly formed National Trust and the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB).

The SPAB had been founded by William Morris 18 years earlier as a protest against excessive restoration which robbed buildings of their true value and interest.

[8] The Clergy House was severely derelict in 1890 when the new vicar, the Reverend F. W. Beynon, sought advice on its repair from a London architect, Owen Fleming.

In July 1894 Beynon asked the SPAB for its view of the nascent, but unknown, National Trust to see if it might be interested in taking on the Clergy House.