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00:00Secret stately homes, a priceless part of our heritage, and now some are throwing open the doors.
00:06Wow, I like it already.
00:08To auctioneer and country house connoisseur Angus Ashworth.
00:11You walk in here, you cannot not be amazed with it. It's sort of a visual overload.
00:16He's on a mission to help save these historic houses for the nation.
00:20More than 200 have vanished since the war.
00:23They've just bulldozed. People couldn't afford them. They were lost forever.
00:26He'll be hunting through lofts and cellars.
00:29Oh, I've spotted something.
00:31Let's see, look, look, armour.
00:33There's the armour.
00:33There's the armour, yeah.
00:35For forgotten treasure.
00:37Look at that.
00:37Look at that, bad boy.
00:39This is like a dream for me.
00:41It's quite a mess for me.
00:42I don't think I can do anything with the toilets.
00:45To raise cash to help fund renovation or repairs.
00:49It's a battle, you know, something goes wrong every day.
00:52Something significant breaks every week.
00:54And the upkeep's enormous.
00:56He'll be diving into life.
00:59As a weekend houseguest and occasional butler.
01:04All right, cheers.
01:06Arriving in style.
01:08It's beautiful from up here, isn't it?
01:09It gives you a real perspective.
01:11To experience a lost way of life in some of Yorkshire's most stunning stately homes.
01:17Oh, God, look at that.
01:27We couldn't have had a better sun.
01:28The sun's out.
01:29It's an amazing view.
01:31Angus and Pilot James are heading to one of North Yorkshire's best-kept secrets.
01:35Newburgh Priory, with its ornamental lake.
01:39And there it is.
01:40Many people have driven past and seen the lake.
01:42But from here, you see the whole estate laid out before you.
01:50It's amazing.
01:51And even from up here, Angus can see it needs some serious restoration.
01:56It's a very old estate.
01:58You can see all the ruins there.
02:00The house is a grade one listed mansion with 11 bedrooms, surrounded by 35 cottages, countless
02:07outbuildings, 20 acres of gardens and parkland, all sitting within a vast 6,000 acre estate.
02:16So, guys, find a carrot or two.
02:18We need quite a lot.
02:19Stephen and Alice Wombwell and their five children have lived there for 15 years and are the current
02:25custodians of this ancient house.
02:27It's a family home, and that's where it's been for nearly 500 years.
02:32It's been our family home.
02:33But with age comes trouble.
02:36Because it's so old, that's where the problems come in.
02:40There's always something trying to fall down or break just because it's a very, very old building.
02:47Currently on the broken list are a derelict wing, several gutted rooms in the main house,
02:52and the clock on the clock tower, which mysteriously stopped working in 2010.
02:59Ah, yes, character is what we always call it.
03:00It basically means it's natural.
03:01Anything falling apart has got character.
03:04Here to help their funding problems is Angus.
03:07I mean, look at it.
03:11It is wonderful.
03:12Newburgh Priory.
03:13I mean, seeing it from the air, the lakes, the ruins, it's gorgeous.
03:17A mismatch of eras.
03:20But you see the ruins on the outside?
03:22What's it like on the inside?
03:23Well, I'm about to find out.
03:26Hello!
03:27Hi, how are you doing?
03:28You all right?
03:28Hi, lovely to meet you.
03:30Hi, I've got Stephen.
03:31Nice to meet you.
03:31Hi, Stephen.
03:31Lovely to meet you.
03:32Wow, it looks an amazing house.
03:34Excellent.
03:34Well, do you want to come on in and have a look, and we'll show you around?
03:36Thank you very much.
03:42It's incredible, isn't it?
03:45I mean, the whole house is basically this.
03:46It's just one family's collection of, I always joke,
03:48it's all fairly bad paintings and furniture and things.
03:51They've just been collected over the years.
03:52But it's why it's quite nice, because it's never been sanitised.
03:54It's never been put into, like, one period or anything like that.
03:57And that's the lovely thing about these houses.
04:00It's layers and layers from different generations.
04:01A bit like the architecture.
04:03Layers of architecture, layers of contents.
04:05You know, you've got the mirrors above the tables there.
04:08I mean, they are just wonderful.
04:10No, the mirrors are rather fantastic,
04:12because they actually paid off the last bit of the inheritance tax
04:15that we still had owing from 1986.
04:17Yeah.
04:17And so we actually gifted these to the nation.
04:19They stay in situ here, where they were designed for,
04:22but we don't technically own them anymore.
04:24So I can borrow them.
04:25So absolutely, come and do your make-up in them.
04:30Offsetting inheritance tax using a government scheme
04:33ensures that valuable items important to Britain's heritage
04:37remain here and can't be sold abroad.
04:41But they still do own the damp, the leaking roof
04:44and the crumbling stonework,
04:47all of which need constant attention.
04:49Annual running costs at Newburgh are around £150,000.
04:54You live and breathe it.
04:55Every day, you're doing it.
04:57You're trying to make money out of it,
05:00you're opening it up, you're doing weddings,
05:01you're doing art courses, we do car rallies, plant fairs,
05:04anything that we can do to try and bring in an income
05:07to keep the bulk of it going.
05:09Not to mention the top attraction, a dead body in the attic.
05:13Right.
05:15Up to the spooky bit.
05:17Yeah, this is a little bit different up here now.
05:20Yes, it is.
05:21What we have here, we have the alleged,
05:26and I do use the word alleged,
05:27final resting place of Oliver Cromwell.
05:29His body, anyway.
05:31Oliver Cromwell.
05:32Not his head.
05:33So, sorry.
05:34The Oliver Cromwell.
05:36Yeah.
05:37That's...
05:37That's...
05:38His body's in there.
05:38This is meant to be his final resting place.
05:41So, the story goes that he was...
05:44His body was hung from the walls of London,
05:46head on the Tower of London.
05:48Mary Cromwell, his daughter, lived here,
05:51and is meant to have gone down there,
05:52brought him back up here,
05:53and because she wasn't meant to have the body,
05:55she buried him literally up under the roof,
05:57and then it got vaulted off like now.
06:00It may be just the story.
06:01No-one knows for certain if Cromwell's body is actually in there.
06:06Anyone, I don't know, x-rayed it or something?
06:08Don't unsettle them.
06:10I was going to say,
06:11I can't quite get my head round that,
06:13but that's probably not the appropriate thing to say,
06:15because he hasn't got his head.
06:18Back in the present,
06:19Angus needs to get his head round the problems
06:21the house faces today.
06:23This bit,
06:24which is simply where the money ran out in the 1960s
06:27when we were renovating it,
06:28and it really fell down in it,
06:30and then...
06:30You can see the cracks and holes in the roof,
06:33and a crack doesn't count as a crack
06:35until I can fit my hand in it.
06:37That's when I call it a crack.
06:39I love it.
06:40Look at it,
06:40and the columns and...
06:41Vast, isn't it?
06:42I mean, this...
06:43So, was this...
06:44This was actually what we...
06:46The old grand staircase.
06:47Right.
06:48And...
06:49But it only went to one place.
06:50It went into the Long Gallery,
06:51which is now the ruins.
06:53So, it now hasn't got anywhere to go.
06:54It's rather sad.
06:55Deal other pillars.
06:56It's a sort of pointless staircase.
06:58It goes into nothing.
06:59What's your plans?
07:00Is it just a constant just trying to...
07:02Just keeping it...
07:03We just keep it stable, really, so...
07:06That's the main thing.
07:06We try and keep things just going,
07:08and then, if we ever have any spare money,
07:10you pick a project.
07:11But there's...
07:12But put on the...
07:12There's a hundred.
07:13We've got a long list.
07:14Yeah.
07:15There's a hundred different projects
07:16that we could be doing at any one time.
07:18And those projects never stop.
07:21However, there's one thing that has stopped.
07:24Obviously, this is the clock tower.
07:26What's happened is the face of the clock
07:28has blown out slightly.
07:30It stopped the motion,
07:31and then it burnt out the clock mechanism
07:34because it was always trying to force itself
07:35to go round.
07:36So this is kind of your next big project?
07:38We never have the money for these big projects,
07:41so a little bit of grant funding,
07:42and hopefully, you know,
07:43what we're able to just dig out
07:45around the place with you a little bit
07:46might just help contribute towards it
07:48and take it from an impossible project
07:49to one that we can actually get done.
07:52Damage to the clock can be mended,
07:54but what's the damage to the maintenance fund?
07:56It's hard to say.
07:58Somewhere between 15,000 and 25,000 pounds or a breed.
08:01Depending on how kind your quote is, Terry.
08:03Don't worry.
08:04I'm cheap compared to everybody else.
08:07So it's like constant firefighting all the time,
08:09and, you know, none of this is cheap.
08:11You know, anything that we can raise
08:13is going to help towards that.
08:14And, yeah, if you can get a few of the projects
08:17ticked off, brilliant.
08:18But first things first.
08:21Alice takes Angus to where they keep
08:23all their unwanted junk.
08:24But this place is much grander than a garden shed.
08:28Right, so here is the stable block.
08:32The original stable block.
08:34I mean, that's a house.
08:36Basically, this is my, I think, my favourite building.
08:39You see the skylight.
08:40It's pretty amazing.
08:42But it's become a bit of a junk room, junk house.
08:46I've spotted something already.
08:47Oh, brilliant.
08:48See that little bench upside down?
08:51Yes.
08:51Those legs look very familiar.
08:53Oh, I thought they were just the cricket benches.
08:56No, I mean, that would sell.
08:57Oh, right, brilliant.
08:58Yeah, yeah, we'll have that.
08:59Yeah, we'll have that.
09:00Well, this is the main bit.
09:02I mean, it's a little bit tired.
09:04It's been broken.
09:05It's got water damage massively.
09:07But it is Mouseman.
09:09Hugely popular at the moment, even in that sorry state.
09:12Right.
09:13So, I mean, if that was in really good condition,
09:15it would be 600 to 800, 700 to 1,000.
09:19It's not, but it would still sell.
09:21These Mouseman benches were made by cabinet maker Robert Thompson,
09:26who carved a miniature mouse on all his pieces.
09:29He lived and worked within a few miles of Newburgh
09:31and trained a generation of furniture makers who copied his rustic style.
09:36Lots of people work for him, and each mouse is unique to each carver.
09:40So you get big, fat mice and you get skinny mice.
09:43When you leave Mouseman,
09:45Yes.
09:46they own the mouse copyright,
09:48so you can no longer put a mouse on, even though it's unique to you.
09:50There's loads of Yorkshire critters that a lot of them started at Mouseman
09:54and now put their own symbols on it.
09:57Yes.
09:57Yes, the Yorkshire critters, we call them.
09:59The Yorkshire critters.
10:01I did not know this.
10:02So, I mean, somebody would probably buy that
10:05and lovingly restore it, if you're happy for that.
10:07Yes, please.
10:08OK.
10:09I mean, this is an auctioneer's dream,
10:10going into, you know, places like this.
10:13And you know, with a house like this,
10:15there's likely to be gems in there.
10:17Always guaranteed, but there's a higher chance you'll find something.
10:19Shall I get... Where shall I go?
10:21Barrels?
10:22Barrels, yep. Absolutely.
10:24Who actually would want these great big barrels?
10:27They're great dressing pieces.
10:29Waxed up, you're in a bar or a pub or something like that.
10:32Yeah.
10:32They look really good.
10:34OK.
10:34You know, you can make a table round and put some stools round
10:36and you sit at that barrel.
10:38Yeah.
10:39Angus needs to spin straw into gold here,
10:42but there's still the rest of the stable block to search.
10:45He needs more antiques to sell at auction
10:47to help restore the clock on the tower.
11:05Auctioneer Angus Ashworth
11:07has been invited to stay the weekend at Newburgh Priory
11:10by Stephen and Alice Wombwell.
11:13Fueled by a passion for historic homes,
11:16he's mucking in.
11:17This looks good.
11:18Helping to preserve Yorkshire's heritage.
11:21Ooh, we like that.
11:22If you can fit it somewhere.
11:23Yeah, we like this.
11:25Alice and Angus are searching through the old stables
11:27and it looks like they've found an in-demand chest of drawers.
11:32See, this is interesting because it's pine
11:35rather than a mahogany or anything like this,
11:36but it's what we call scrambled or stained-grain.
11:39So they've put that in to make it look
11:41a little bit grander than what it is.
11:43But actually, country house pine furniture,
11:46people love that.
11:47At auction, this ought to sell
11:49for somewhere between £200 and £400,
11:52possibly more.
11:53Right, what's underneath all this?
11:56Ah!
11:57Do you still play croquet?
11:58Oh, no, but we could do.
12:01That is awesome.
12:04That's gorgeous.
12:05Gorgeous box.
12:06Yeah.
12:07This is nice.
12:08See, next to them,
12:08this is the 20th century one
12:10rather than the Victorian one,
12:11but the old croquet set.
12:12The original game of croquet
12:14possibly originated in France.
12:17But thanks to an enterprising man
12:19called John Jakes,
12:20who produced the first-ever rulebook of croquet
12:23in 1856,
12:24the game became all the rage
12:26in the country houses of England.
12:30I mean, Jakes were top, top quality
12:32sort of toy manufacturers of the day.
12:34Really?
12:34You know, they would have been retailed
12:35in places like Carrots and things like that.
12:38It's gone in and out of fashion.
12:39So there was a certain TV programme
12:41about stately homes,
12:43and if you want to get the girl,
12:45you play croquet.
12:46Oh, right.
12:46That's what happened.
12:47It was a chick magnet.
12:48Yeah, well, according to the Bridgerton.
12:51Right.
12:51So what happens for a short period,
12:54everybody wanted a croquet set.
12:55Oh, right.
12:56So they went up in value.
12:57Yeah.
12:58They've come back down again, but...
12:59Yeah.
13:00We'll definitely have a game before it goes.
13:03There we go.
13:03Jobs are good.
13:04At the start of summer,
13:06it's likely to be a popular entry
13:08in Angus's catalogue.
13:09You see this rusty old bucket?
13:11Oh, yeah.
13:12What's...
13:13Careful.
13:14Oh.
13:15Yes.
13:16These are very cool.
13:17Look at these.
13:18Yeah.
13:18They are lovely.
13:19Are they...
13:21Yeah, so these were for the water garden.
13:23Uh-huh.
13:24Um...
13:25So these are really sort of garden plant labels.
13:28You would have had your shrubs out
13:30and your gardener would stick this in next to the lawn.
13:34Yeah.
13:34And you put that in
13:35and people would always go,
13:36oh, and that's a Pini Larico.
13:39Um, that is the jam.
13:40You know, we're not talking thousands,
13:42but, you know,
13:43certainly hundreds of pounds or low hundreds,
13:45but just lovely, lovely things.
13:47These ceramic tree labels
13:49don't look like anything special,
13:51but Garden Antiques is a booming market.
13:54Oh, my word.
13:56Oh, yes.
13:58Slightly scary.
14:00OK.
14:01I adore my dog,
14:03but I don't know if I could sort of
14:05see him looking like that.
14:06Right.
14:08But the Victorians love nothing better
14:11than stuffed animals as interior decor features.
14:14So I don't think we're massively huge
14:17money,
14:17probably sort of one to 200 on the heron,
14:19something like that.
14:20The dogs,
14:21that's a little bit of a different one,
14:22is that?
14:22I wonder if it's,
14:23is it a foxhound?
14:25Or is it a Labrador?
14:26Labrador-ish, I think.
14:27Yeah.
14:28It looks quite sad.
14:30Yeah.
14:32With a respectable first hall set aside,
14:35some visitors have arrived.
14:36The house is now open
14:38for a limited time to the public.
14:40Access is restricted to a few rooms
14:43to raise some much-needed cash.
14:45Hi there, how are we doing?
14:47With so much to do
14:48and no staff at all,
14:50the whole family gets involved,
14:51including Stephen's mother, Lady Jane.
14:54Good afternoon, everybody.
14:56And trying hard to be a good afternoon.
14:58I hope you didn't get caught in that rain.
15:00My role here today is backup.
15:02Because, basically, we've handed it over
15:06to Stephen and Alice,
15:08our other children.
15:09But I come down and bail out when necessary.
15:13Stephen's parents run the house for 25 years
15:16and, despite being advised to sell,
15:18kept it afloat with hard work and many sacrifices.
15:22My parents took it on in 1986
15:24and all the professional advisers,
15:27everyone advised my parents to sell it.
15:30And they couldn't, like, no generation can.
15:34And so now it's our responsibility
15:36to develop it and diversify it
15:39and take it forward.
15:43Another revenue stream is the cafe.
15:45But Angus has concerns about the pricing.
15:48You're making, literally, about 20 pence
15:51on a can of Coke.
15:52And you've got vats come off that,
15:53so you're making, like, 8p.
15:56OK.
15:56You know, it...
15:57It's not helping things, is it, really?
15:59No.
15:59I think your tea and coffee should be two quid.
16:02OK.
16:03And your hot chocolate should be £2.50.
16:05OK.
16:06Or you can uplift that.
16:07Yeah.
16:07So you could do a fancy hot chocolate.
16:09Yeah.
16:10Squirty cream, which has a long shelf life.
16:12A couple of marshmallows.
16:13That stock that doesn't go off,
16:14it's non-perishable.
16:15And you charge £3.50.
16:17Angus has experience of running a successful cafe
16:20at his auction house,
16:21so he can see the potential.
16:24With very small tweaks,
16:25probably up your takings by 20% in here
16:28without even people blinking an eyelid.
16:31Right.
16:31Do you think the cake's £3.50 for a cake?
16:34£3.50.
16:34You get a good slice.
16:35Yeah.
16:35You get a big Yorkshire slab.
16:37So I think that's probably about right.
16:39Yeah.
16:40We may invest in a posh coffee machine where you press...
16:43I think you actually have to be trained in how you do it.
16:46I don't know if I've got the patience for it.
16:46If I can do it, you can do it.
16:48I'll teach you how to be a barista.
16:49Yes.
16:50And there's more.
16:51The other thing I've spotted,
16:53products in terms of merchandise,
16:54you've got postcards for sale and nothing else.
16:58So Nubra Priory should be a brand
16:59and people should be,
17:00oh, look, I've got my carrier bag,
17:02I'm going shopping with my Nubra Priory.
17:04They want to buy into that.
17:05It's like the estate,
17:06they want to feel part of that.
17:07It's a really good idea.
17:08You know, easy, everybody uses them.
17:10You can sell those for a 10-hour pop.
17:12They're all great things.
17:13So there we go.
17:13We're going to turn this into a little gold market.
17:15Yeah.
17:15Now that Alice has woken up and smelt the coffee,
17:18she can get to work maximising the tea shop's potential.
17:23With the last house tour of the public rooms done,
17:26Angus enjoys a tour of his own,
17:28getting an exclusive look at where the family really lives.
17:32So this is the private quarters, so to speak.
17:35The bit we live in, yes.
17:36Yeah.
17:36It ranges from clutter to mess normally.
17:39Wow, she looks lovely.
17:42This is your kitchen.
17:44So this is our kitchen, yep.
17:45This is where we spend quite a lot of our time.
17:48We spend all our time in here.
17:49Half the time.
17:50Yeah, it's nice and cosy and warm.
17:55Oh, this is wonderful.
17:57This is our sitting room, which, you know,
18:00yeah, I mean, it all looks very smart,
18:02but it's not really, it's just a comfy room,
18:06film night on a Saturday night.
18:08But in this cosy domestic spot,
18:10ex-soldier Angus is about to discover
18:12something of great military importance.
18:15Do you know what this is?
18:17Um, a random sort of box.
18:19So the box has been made up.
18:21The top, that top bit is,
18:24so this must, that's Victorian crown,
18:26so this would be the gentleman who was at Balaclava.
18:27Yep, George Orby.
18:29So that would have been his,
18:30you wouldn't have had a big box like that,
18:31it would have been a smaller box,
18:33and that went across your cross belt.
18:34Oh, right.
18:34Oh, righty-o.
18:35So that's off his cross belt,
18:37and then they've made a box out of it.
18:39Wow.
18:39So they have these sort of silver pouches
18:41on their cross belt.
18:42Actually, he probably rode down the,
18:44yeah, when he rode with the Light Brigade
18:46with Cardigan.
18:47Yeah.
18:48So that's incredible.
18:49Oh, very cool.
18:50Well, that was in the charge of the Light Brigade.
18:52Can we put that somewhere special?
18:54We might move from now on.
18:55Thanks, OK.
18:56Cross belt pouches of the period
18:58fetch as much as £600.
19:01However, one that survived the pointless
19:03but heroic charge of the Light Brigade,
19:05where over 100 British cavalrymen died
19:08charging Russian guns,
19:09might be worth between £3,000 and £4,000.
19:12This needs celebrating.
19:14This needs going to a room with his medals
19:17and take pride of place
19:19because that is just history in my hand.
19:24Oh, wow.
19:26And there's another piece of history
19:28just hanging around in the drawing room.
19:30So that's sort of the one really big, famous,
19:34I suppose, painter that we have, painting that we have.
19:37So that's a Van Dyke.
19:38Of course it is, yeah.
19:39They fought over it a few years.
19:42For a few years, it was written down as school of Van Dyke
19:44and there were lots of arguments
19:46and then they said, no, it is a Van Dyke.
19:49Van Dyke was a Flemish Baroque artist
19:51who became the top portrait painter
19:53at the court of Charles I between 1632 and 1641.
19:59But as with so many other parts of the house,
20:02the room needs major restoration
20:04and has a huge crack to prove it.
20:07The Georgian Earl did all this in the renovations in the 1700s.
20:10He put these three domes in.
20:11Yeah.
20:12But he cut through the A-frames to do it
20:14and never tied them back in again
20:16because he was this sort of hooligan architect.
20:19This could be a major problem.
20:21Yeah, eventually it will become a major problem.
20:22We've got the tails on it so it doesn't get any worse.
20:24We monitor it and we keep an eye on it.
20:27But, yeah, the cracks begin to get a little bit scary at this point.
20:30Another costly repair to add to the list.
20:34So you've got that amazing art
20:36and then you've got the house that's about to collapse
20:38and you can just see the costs.
20:41And I'm sure at some point it becomes a decision
20:43between the Van Dyke or the cracks.
20:46Right, Angus, I will show you to your bedroom, to your lodgings.
20:50There's actually a lot of these pictures.
20:52Oh, wow. I love this corridor.
20:53And I love all these cabinets of just little bits.
20:56Yes.
20:57Beautory cabinets, yeah, lots of miniatures.
20:59And here is your bedroom.
21:01Wonderful.
21:01Just watch the hill.
21:04Some people have fallen over.
21:05There's a sort of big slope.
21:07A reason for that or is it just sagging a bit?
21:10It's part of this house, really.
21:12OK.
21:12Well, it's wonderful.
21:13Look at the views.
21:14It's an incredible room and...
21:16Yeah, that's great views.
21:18Oh.
21:18Are you talking about the...
21:19Yeah.
21:20Yeah.
21:22Yeah, I mean, it's not...
21:23Every day you sleep with a horse's hoof
21:25and you...
21:25No.
21:26But it was a real thing.
21:27It's not normal.
21:27Wasn't it in the, you know, Victorian...
21:29Oh, 1903, so just out of the Victorian period.
21:32Right.
21:32Favourite Hunter, the property of Sir George Wanwell.
21:36So...
21:36Yeah.
21:37It was a real thing to preserve them.
21:39And it was a mark of respect, actually, for the horse.
21:41Yes.
21:42Huge.
21:42I know it seems a bit macabre now, but...
21:44Yes, a little bit.
21:46Yeah.
21:46So there they are.
21:47They'll be just watching you when you go to sleep.
21:49Lovely.
21:50Thank you for that.
21:50So, hope you sleep well.
21:52It's time for dinner,
21:57and Angus takes his place round the kitchen table
22:00for a family meal.
22:01All of it bought by the ever-budget-conscious
22:03Woonwells from Aldi.
22:05Cheers.
22:07And, uh...
22:07Thank you for having me.
22:08Cheers.
22:08Oh, I need to get some, uh...
22:10Some water.
22:12Angus's weekend is halfway through.
22:15Tomorrow, the search for gems to sell at auction continues,
22:19as well as preparations for a big event
22:22that will help fill the family coffers.
22:37It's Angus's weekend at Newburgh Priory.
22:40And there's a wedding booking,
22:43one of the main income streams for the house.
22:46So I'm afraid we'll back up into the, uh...
22:48Oh, well, I like it up here.
22:50You recognise this, please.
22:51But before they get stuck in,
22:53Stephen and Alice want to show Angus some junk upstairs
22:56he might be able to sell at auction.
22:58I don't know what's in here, probably not a lot,
23:00mainly rubbish from bits and pieces, I suspect.
23:04There's an old stair lift,
23:05I'm not quite sure what that's doing here.
23:07This chair's a...
23:09It's a good...
23:10Is it good, Nick?
23:11A nice, comfy chair, isn't it?
23:12Solid old chair, isn't it?
23:13Surprisingly good, Nick.
23:14It's very, very deep.
23:16Yeah.
23:16If you've got short legs, it's a...
23:18You're not going to like it.
23:20That's wonderful.
23:20You can curl up in it, you know,
23:22it's like those chairs are in now, aren't they?
23:23A curl-up chair.
23:24It's like a snuggle chair.
23:25Yeah, a snuggle chair.
23:27But actually reupholstered,
23:28that is a fantastic chair and really good Nick.
23:31The important thing about this chair,
23:33this comfy armchair,
23:34is the shape.
23:35If you've got the shape and the framework,
23:38you're there.
23:39The upholstery can be sorted.
23:40It's Victorian.
23:41I was looking for a name.
23:42The back legs are being cut down
23:43because on the back legs,
23:45what you're really hoping to see
23:46is a stamp that says Howard,
23:48or Howard and Son.
23:49You know, they are the, the name
23:52in upholstered goods.
23:54Howardshire, even a wreck,
23:56you're into the thousands.
23:57So, and this is the sort of house
23:59that would have them.
24:01Furniture makers Howard and Son
24:03started in 1820
24:04and still make furniture today.
24:07This could be a Howard,
24:09but there's no name stamp.
24:11If it was a Howard,
24:13fully restored and reupholstered,
24:15it might be worth as much as £6,000.
24:17That's a beautiful chair.
24:21What exactly is it?
24:22So, it'd be Victorian in date.
24:24It's what we call a bobbin-turned chair.
24:26So, it's these little bobbins.
24:28Yeah, sort of a design phase.
24:30It's nice.
24:30It's just without the, without the jeans.
24:32It's quite nice.
24:33Yeah.
24:34Actually, the back middle ones.
24:35Gorgeous. Isn't the back?
24:35Gorgeous.
24:36Yeah, the back's almost nicer.
24:37Yeah, you see, that's, that's been covered.
24:39And look how that'll come up,
24:40that lovely colour that's been against the material.
24:43That's just been rubbed and rubbed and rubbed.
24:45Yeah.
24:45That's quite beautiful.
24:46If it was all fixed up, you know,
24:49a couple of, two, three hundred pounds
24:50is probably all it would do.
24:51Isn't it, it's a shame thing, isn't it?
24:53With brown furniture, it's so stunning.
24:55Yeah.
24:55A hundred, two hundred years old, solid,
24:58will last another hundred years.
25:00Mm.
25:00And cost nothing, but everyone will go buy
25:02some flat-packed stuff that falls to bits.
25:03Yeah.
25:04You know, the trees for this were grown
25:05hundreds of years ago.
25:07It's incredibly environmentally friendly.
25:09Exactly.
25:09There's no carbon footprint.
25:10Exactly.
25:11So you'd like to think it'll come back round,
25:15but when that'll be, I don't know.
25:17This chair is an ideal project for a top-end restorer.
25:22Altogether, everything that Angus has found
25:24that can be sold looks likely to bring in a four-figure sum.
25:29But anything can happen at auction.
25:32To keep their heads above water,
25:35Stephen and Alice have put every square foot
25:37of the 6,000-acre estate to work.
25:39160 acres have been planted with Christmas trees.
25:43I've got the kids here to give us a hand today.
25:45Oh, we've got some helpers.
25:46Excellent.
25:46Let's load up.
25:48With the kids in tow,
25:50Stephen takes Angus out to lend a hand.
25:53So how many sort of trees would you harvest a year?
25:55So we'll be looking to harvest about 35,000 trees a year now.
25:59I would.
26:00You must furnish every home in Yorkshire with a Christmas tree.
26:02I wish.
26:03Do you get one in the house?
26:04Yeah.
26:05Yeah.
26:06So, and it's hard work.
26:08You know, I do quite a bit on it.
26:10There's something always going on.
26:12So, you know, you prune, you base prune,
26:16you lead to control the trees.
26:17There's more to it than just letting them grow.
26:19Absolutely.
26:20These modern, non-drop, northern fir,
26:24you have to look after them 24-7.
26:25Right.
26:26They're basically the sheep of the tree world.
26:27Oh, gosh.
26:28If they can find a way of dying, they will.
26:30Stephen has gone into partnership with Wilf,
26:33an old friend of 40 years standing.
26:36Morning, Wilf.
26:36How are you doing?
26:37All good, thank you.
26:37Are you well?
26:38Yes.
26:38Well, let me introduce you to Angus.
26:41All right, how are you doing?
26:42You're all right.
26:42Nice to meet you.
26:42This is our labour for the day.
26:44Oh, very good.
26:47These are Fraser firs.
26:48They're skinnier, tighter trees.
26:50They smell great.
26:52And, unfortunately, what we have to do
26:53is take all these cones off.
26:55Very young cones, which are beautiful to look at.
26:58Yeah.
26:59Sadly, come Christmas, they won't be so beautiful.
27:02Turns out a tree is not just for Christmas.
27:04It takes a lot of work throughout the year.
27:06In another month's time,
27:09they'll be much harder to pick off.
27:10They'll be quite tough.
27:11You really have to yank them,
27:12and you quite often leave the little bottom bits.
27:15And if you leave the little bottom bits,
27:16you get like this.
27:16These little stools.
27:17These are these little spikes.
27:18Yeah, which aren't like bases.
27:20Yeah, there's one that got missed last year.
27:23It's all about the aesthetics.
27:25Yeah.
27:25Yeah.
27:25They just don't look very good.
27:27These are...
27:28Do you know, I'm never going to look at a Christmas tree
27:29the same again.
27:30We don't.
27:31I know that.
27:31Stop throwing cones at each other.
27:37It is their favourite game.
27:39Right, that's it.
27:40No more, guys.
27:42I have fired a couple of them over the years.
27:44Yeah, they keep coming back, though, don't they?
27:46For excess cone throwing.
27:48But why have they planted so many trees?
27:52Standard trees sort of sell for them.
27:53I mean, I know what they retail for,
27:54but probably about 50% of the retail price.
27:58They're not huge amounts of money, really.
28:00Which means they have to plant lots and lots of trees
28:03to make a profit.
28:05And future plans, what are we...
28:07Where's it going?
28:08Christmas tree domination.
28:10No, it's...
28:12You know, we're to scale now where we are...
28:14We're into a cycle of roughly planting
28:17the same number of trees that we harvest.
28:19So it's about maximising what we've got here
28:23and then with a look to expanding as we can.
28:26To the wholesale trade,
28:28they sell around 30,000 trees annually.
28:31So in a good year, they can sell £600,000 worth.
28:36You know, they've become a major supplier of Christmas trees,
28:39but that doesn't happen overnight.
28:40It takes a lot of work.
28:41You need things to go your way.
28:43There can be a few problems that can hit those margins.
28:46But, you know, it's a great thing to see.
28:50After a morning of deconing Christmas trees,
28:53there's more work to be done back at the house.
28:56Another business that helps Newburgh Priory pay its way is weddings.
29:00So, yes, what I tend to do is just let all the plates
29:03stack on top of each other in size order.
29:05And that's pretty labour-intensive too.
29:08We probably move the furniture in China
29:1040 to 50 times a year, probably.
29:14It's... This is the main income driver for the house.
29:18Weddings are the main thing for that.
29:19It's all about weddings.
29:20The more weddings we have, the better.
29:22As this wedding gets underway,
29:24the ruined wing comes into its own,
29:27providing a romantic backdrop.
29:29Not many places that have a venue like this, is there?
29:32And just to think that this was an old gallery,
29:34that people would just walk down, you know,
29:37it doesn't feel like ruins.
29:38It's just this really special...
29:39I mean, structurally, it looks like it's been almost purpose-built,
29:42doesn't it, as a walled garden?
29:43Yeah, it really does, yeah.
29:45But there's something that's holding them back
29:48from maximising Newburgh Priory's potential as a wedding venue.
29:52They don't stay here, do they?
29:53They don't stay... Well, there's loads of places nearby,
29:56so we've got lovely B&Bs.
29:58The long-term plan would be for Sable Block,
30:01and that would be an amazing place
30:03for a bride and groom and party to stay.
30:06But as with all these things, it's money, isn't it?
30:11But for now, everybody seems to be having a great time,
30:16late into the night.
30:18It's been a wonderful day, fantastic day.
30:21I'm pretty tired now, actually.
30:22You know, Alice and Steve, they work so hard.
30:25I mean, the wedding's still going on, you know.
30:27They'll be up, monitoring that, making sure everyone's away.
30:31It is a challenge.
30:34Constant firefighting and balancing act.
30:37But, you know, I'm glad that people take on the challenge.
30:48It's the morning after the night before,
30:50and it's time to help tidy up.
30:53Yeah, it looks like they had a great wedding.
30:55Yeah, a bit messy in there, and there's a lot to do.
31:00Toilets, cleaning, you know, in a few hours,
31:02the house opens up.
31:04You know, there's no rest of them.
31:05I mean, they are... There's no staff.
31:07It's them.
31:09That's all this time.
31:11Despite being the lady of the manor at Newburgh Priory,
31:14it's Alice who wields the mop.
31:16It smells fresh.
31:18My word, it's a bit muddy, isn't it?
31:20God, what were they doing?
31:21Might need a doorstop.
31:23It's all systems go this morning, Alice.
31:26All systems go.
31:27Weekends are manic, actually.
31:29We've got so much.
31:30We've got a big turnaround, you know,
31:32from the wedding to the house opening, house tours.
31:36Usually, the girls lose the worst.
31:39Oh, really?
31:39Actually, I think the boys have won on this one.
31:42And everything that was put away yesterday
31:44needs to go back out on display today.
31:47And there's no butler with a team of footmen to do it,
31:51just Stephen.
31:52It's always just there, is this just...
31:54Unbelievably, he never managed to actually drop anything yet.
31:57So, just get everything up and running,
32:04and then hopefully, some people turn up.
32:10With the clean-up operation complete,
32:12they've earned some downtime.
32:14One last game of croquet before Angus sells it at auction.
32:18Well, you've got to go first, then.
32:21Oh, what?
32:24Ooh.
32:25Right, come on, Angus.
32:27Oh, no!
32:29Right.
32:31Whoa!
32:34Angus has sent a van to collect everything he's found.
32:37It'll then be listed and priced up for auction.
32:40And with luck, the proceeds can go towards
32:43repairing the clock tower and refreshing the tea room.
32:46It's the day before the auction.
33:02And everything discovered at Newburgh Priory
33:04is ready to be sold.
33:07And Angus has a visitor.
33:08Angus, hello.
33:10Hi, you all right?
33:11Yeah, good.
33:12Good to see you.
33:13And you.
33:13Thank you so much for inviting me over.
33:15This is, um...
33:16Well...
33:17This looks awesome.
33:18I know, it looks good.
33:19It's a bit different to the stables.
33:20We've got Alice from Newburgh Priory.
33:22The main reason I've asked her to come across
33:24is to really show her our cafe.
33:26You know, we had a good look at her tea rooms,
33:28and I think there's lots of little,
33:30very easy sort of small tweaks
33:32that they can do back at Newburgh.
33:34That's amazing.
33:36And this is Emma.
33:37Hello, Emma.
33:38Lovely to meet you, Emma.
33:39Hello.
33:41Oh, this looks absolutely fab.
33:42Look at this amazing professional coffee machine.
33:46We had Angus to stay a few weeks ago,
33:47and we had a blast.
33:49Steve and I absolutely loved it.
33:51And he gave us loads of tips
33:53on how to kind of evolve our tea room
33:56and make it just that bit better.
33:58I thought, brilliant.
33:59Well, an excuse to come and have a coffee
34:01and see how he runs it all
34:04and get loads of ideas.
34:06We have a combination of buying products in,
34:08working with very good local suppliers,
34:11and some will do fresh.
34:13You're a Battenberg, Kate.
34:14Look at that.
34:14It's a monster.
34:15What we'd really love to do in the tea room
34:17is we want to give people a better product
34:19for a better price.
34:21It did have a bit of a shock.
34:22And we're not, you know,
34:23we're well within average.
34:25So even putting your prices up,
34:26you're not having people's eyes out.
34:28You're just being where you should be.
34:31And so we do a limited amount of merchandise,
34:33but these are all things that you can grow.
34:34You don't have to do everything at once,
34:36you know, build it.
34:37Like, we do mugs,
34:38but actually I think Newburgh wants to be a cup and saucer
34:40with the Newburgh crest on it.
34:42They want to buy into that country house feel.
34:44Right.
34:45Building the brand.
34:45Yeah, it's all about the brand.
34:49So this machine grinds the beans
34:51and it drops it into the fire.
34:54Yeah.
34:55The woodshower coffee.
34:56And then that's a tamper.
34:58That's automatic tamper there.
35:00Swishes it down.
35:01Yep.
35:02Ooh!
35:03Yeah, it's quite scary at first.
35:07So what I'm doing is I'm getting the froth on the top.
35:10Froth on the top?
35:11I know, yeah.
35:11Smoother.
35:12That's what you're listening for.
35:13And finally, the taste test.
35:16Ooh, how exciting.
35:18I'm going to get a milk moustache.
35:19Yeah.
35:21And that's actually better than my instant coffees.
35:23I don't like to admit it.
35:25It's taken me 48 years to admit that.
35:27Better late than never,
35:28an espresso machine using beans
35:30is miles better than a spoonful of instant.
35:36Once a month, Angus holds a country house auction.
35:39I'm selling them if you don't get on at 1,900.
35:41Attracting customers worldwide via the internet.
35:45Thank you very much.
35:45And the day has arrived when the Newburgh Priory lots go up for sale.
35:49Newburgh Priory.
35:50Actually, I've got some fantastic,
35:52really interesting cross-section of items.
35:54Some quirky bits, you know.
35:56They've got some good pieces of furniture.
35:58Tired, need a bit of work.
36:00Some new brackets, feet,
36:01but it is in remarkably good condition.
36:06And actually, there's been loads of pre-sale interest in the croquet set.
36:10I've sold loads of croquet sets,
36:11so is the fact that it's from Newburgh pushing the price up?
36:16We'll see.
36:16We'll see what it ends up at.
36:17But I think they could get some good results today.
36:20But first up are the Victorian ceramic plant labels.
36:24So at £100, I bid for them, thank you, at £100.
36:26At £110, I bid, thank you, £120.
36:28£160.
36:29At £160 on both platforms, at £160.
36:32£190, £200.
36:33At £200.
36:34I'm not surprised.
36:36You just don't see them.
36:37You just, you know,
36:38it's the sort of thing you only get out of country houses like this.
36:41We are in the market and we can sell them if you don't get on at £280.
36:44That's quite a sale for something found in a bucket in the stables.
36:51And we can start it at £200.
36:54At £200.
36:55We normally get £100, £150 for a croquet set.
36:58You but prior a croquet set.
37:00As used by the family and myself.
37:03£260, £270.
37:04I think Alice was cheating a little bit.
37:07I've got £300.
37:08I've got £300 now.
37:10£320, I've got £340.
37:12£400 now.
37:13At £400 for the croquet set.
37:15Croquet's making a comeback.
37:17£460.
37:18Sir, this is a great price.
37:19Great price.
37:21You sure?
37:21At £460.
37:23Two lots in for a new propriory.
37:26But can the tiny rodent on the rather shabby mausman bench
37:30be the mouse that roared?
37:32I've got £130 bid.
37:33At £130.
37:35It's mad.
37:36Mousman, you know, it's been left in the rain.
37:38It is just so water damaged.
37:41But the mouse sells.
37:43At £180.
37:44£180.
37:45It has literally been sacked in a river.
37:48At £260 now.
37:50£270, £280.
37:51£290.
37:52Good result.
37:53At £300.
37:53£320.
37:54£340.
37:56Keep pressing that button.
37:57At £380 now.
37:58At £380.
38:01£380.
38:01Amazingly, the reserve price on this bench was a tentative £100.
38:07But it's fetched £280 more.
38:11Now, this is a great shape chair.
38:12Somebody's buying this for the shape.
38:15The armchair that could be a Howard if only it still had the name stamp to prove it.
38:20We can start the lot at £150.
38:23At £150, thank you.
38:24£160, £170.
38:25£180, £190, £200.
38:27At £240 now.
38:28At £240, £250, £260.
38:31At £320.
38:32We're in the market then at £320.
38:33It's not Howard style.
38:33Lovely chair then.
38:34I'm selling then at £320.
38:37£320.
38:37If it was stamped, Howard, you'd have a nought on the end of that probably.
38:41And finally, the curveball.
38:44Does anyone want to buy somebody else's dead dog preserved for eternity?
38:49The internet's been going mad for this taxidermy dog's head.
38:52I know you'd probably think, why?
38:53Well, let's just see what happens.
38:55And where are we for this then, for the Labrador?
38:57Well, we can start this at £210.
38:59£210 opening bid.
39:01£210.
39:02At £220, £320.
39:03£240, £250.
39:05At £250, £260 for the Labrador.
39:07At £320 now.
39:08You wouldn't believe it, would you?
39:10The internet is going crackers for this.
39:12At £420 now, £440.
39:14£460.
39:16£460, it's £480.
39:17Two internet bidders going head to head.
39:19£560.
39:20At £560, £580.
39:23At £600.
39:24At £600.
39:25Final warning then, at £600.
39:29£600, thank you.
39:30£600 for Labrador.
39:31Call me old-fashioned, but I like to see them whole, don't you?
39:35£729.
39:35Every dog has its day.
39:38And at £600, the Newburgh Priory dog has certainly just had his.
39:42It just goes to show one-off quirky things like that can sell really well.
39:46If we all liked the same things, it'd be a boring old world, wouldn't it?
39:49In the end, Stephen and Alice sent 20 lots to auction, and everything has sold.
39:55Now Angus is on his way back to announce the final total.
40:01I'm heading back to Newburgh Priory to see Stephen and Alice, and I'm really excited.
40:08The auction did really well.
40:09We've got some good results.
40:10One lot in particular did really well.
40:13So it's going to be good to have a catch-up.
40:15Before Angus reveals how much Stephen and Alice's junk from the stables has made at auction,
40:35he's got a few things to help the tearoom raise its game.
40:39Ta-da-da!
40:40Oh, my goodness!
40:41Your new price board.
40:42A menu!
40:43This is amazing!
40:45And we've tweaked your prices up a bit, because you were the cheapest tearooms in Yorkshire.
40:50So it's just a little idea of what it could look like.
40:53And there's more.
40:55So I thought something like this, where, you know, you can spend over £10 in the tearooms,
40:59you get a voucher off when you buy, you know, Christmas trees.
41:02What's actually really nice about this is that it means that there are summer visitors who come into the tearooms,
41:07they get this, and five, six months later, they come back, they buy a Christmas tree office.
41:14So, I know when you came to our cafe, you liked our bags.
41:18Oh, my God, it's gorgeous!
41:20The Nuba Blue.
41:21Yeah.
41:22It's so cool, it's absolutely the Nuba Blue.
41:24Yeah, yeah, no, it's possible.
41:25You got on here, that's amazing.
41:27Fantastic.
41:28Well, I'm glad you have here, though.
41:29It's absolutely amazing.
41:30Yeah.
41:30And finally, it's time for Angus to reveal the total raised in his country house sale.
41:36So the auction, yeah, how'd it go?
41:39Did really well, actually.
41:40I think you had some real quirky bits, Kim.
41:42Some slight oddities, the hound head bit.
41:46So we got £600 for the dog.
41:48Oh, incredible.
41:48I'm glad someone loves it.
41:50That's amazing.
41:50There was fierce competition for that.
41:52That's great.
41:53So, overall, really good.
41:55I mean, you've got £4,077 to come.
41:58Oh, fantastic.
41:59Wow.
41:59Yeah.
41:59Oh, that's really good news.
42:00£4,077 is amazing.
42:04But that's not the only good news for Nubra Priory.
42:07We've got some exciting news about the clock tower.
42:10The clock tower hasn't worked since 2010 because the stone beneath the face has crumbled, preventing
42:17the hands from moving.
42:18It remains a focal point for the house, and repairing it is far from cheap.
42:24So, we've just heard back, literally about three days ago, that we have been awarded an
42:3180% grant on it, which is incredible.
42:34And what we need to do is we have to contribute 20% of it.
42:38Yes.
42:38Which, the money that you very kindly raised for us in auction is going to absolutely tick
42:43the box and provide the 20% grant.
42:45We've raised the 20%.
42:46Yeah, so we're there.
42:47It means it's going to get done.
42:48Well, we thought we wouldn't get there, and we have got there.
42:52So, just fantastic.
42:53So, well done you.
42:54Best timing.
42:54Thanks to Angus, Nubra Priory's clock will be right more than twice a day, and it's about
43:00time.
43:01Though his quest to help save Yorkshire's country houses continues.
43:08We'll see you next time.
43:38Well, what about your plan.
43:41Is it what you've been doing?
43:44How will you go to building up?
43:46Yeah.
43:46Is it what you've been doing?
43:47How is it going to be?
43:47Hope to be doing this.
43:48We'll see you next time.
43:48Bye.
43:49Bye.
43:51Bye.
43:51Bye.
43:52Bye.
43:53Bye.
43:54Bye.
43:55Bye.
43:57Bye.
43:58Bye.
44:00Bye.
44:02Bye.
44:04Bye.
44:06Bye.
44:07Bye.
44:08Bye.
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