- 4 weeks ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00The green, rolling landscapes of Great Britain
00:06are home to the jewels in the country's rich heritage.
00:14Our country houses.
00:20Celebrated across the world for their design and decoration.
00:24Their crowns and gardens.
00:34And their centuries of history.
00:41There was a time when owning a grand country house meant a great deal.
00:46These estates were the keys to fortune and power.
00:49But today's country house owners live in a very different world.
00:54The sound of petrol!
00:56No, no, no, wrong way!
00:58These houses are still the grandest in the land.
01:01This is Oliver Cromwell's room.
01:03But the challenge of keeping them in one piece has never been greater.
01:07Spiral of decay, I don't like the sound of that.
01:09Ballpark figures, 350,000.
01:11Gulp.
01:12Gotta get these lights fixed.
01:14Today's owners are becoming ever more imaginative.
01:17Bon Appetit.
01:19We're finding ways.
01:20I'm literally ankle deep right now.
01:22To keep the money coming in.
01:24These estates aren't designed to make money, they're designed to eat money.
01:28To keep the ceiling from falling down.
01:31And I turn the corner into here.
01:33Oh my goodness.
01:34We are collecting leaks, as you can see.
01:36And stop their fears becoming a reality.
01:39I think of all the ancestors going back 900 years.
01:44If we fail, it's on our watch.
01:47Of course, being to the manor born has always been a privilege.
01:51But today's owners face challenges as never before.
01:54So, they're rolling up their sleeves and putting their heart and soul into brave new ventures.
02:01The question is, how do you save a country house and see it prosper in the modern world?
02:07A young princess named Victoria.
02:21Age 13, she paid a visit to our first house today, a few years before she became Queen Victoria.
02:30In her diary, she describes the house as curious looking, but very comfortable, striped black and white, and in the shape of a cottage.
02:41Now this house is almost 200 feet wide.
02:44It is certainly quite a cottage.
02:49In 1832, Victoria and her mother were on a royal progress, introducing the princess to parts of her future kingdom.
02:59In Shropshire, they spent a week as the honoured guests of Pitchford Hall.
03:07This is a room she stayed in.
03:09We always understood her mother hogged the fireplace, and poor Victoria, this 13-year-old princess, was in this side, in a kind of colder part of the room.
03:20Luckily for Victoria, she had the magnificence of Pitchford's exterior to keep her spirits up.
03:30The history of this estate stretches back to the Doomsday Book, and what we see today is one of the finest half timbered Elizabethan buildings in existence.
03:42It's also a house that goes on, and on, and on.
03:57You can only imagine how fun and interesting it was living here.
04:04I feel incredibly lucky.
04:06I mean, what an idyllic childhood.
04:08Rowena Coldhurst's ancestors have been part of Pitchford Hall's history since it was built in the 16th century.
04:16We've got the whole line-up of all the different families that have had ownership or custodianship of the house.
04:25Rowena's husband, James, is now equally passionate about a house that's full of historic secrets.
04:32Because it's a priest hole, it's concealed.
04:38There's a little latch that you just push here, and then it opens up.
04:45You'll see there is a trap door, which would normally be down.
04:53You've got plenty of space.
04:57You know, you could fit three or four priests.
05:05Built during the religious tension of Tudor England, this part of the hall includes a secret hideaway,
05:12should a persecuted Catholic priest require it.
05:15This is an exit which most priest holes don't have.
05:19But this does make it one of the more unique priest holes in the UK.
05:24You know, you could easily be in a priest hole for a week or more.
05:28That's why I think actually having a window and an exit route would be quite reassuring.
05:34For why we've got a cupboard with 20 drawers, we are genuinely really confused.
05:42Some of them are like spice drawers.
05:45There's no, there's no smells.
05:47I don't, I don't, I don't think it's spice.
05:48So we are, we are genuinely really confused what these drawers are for,
05:52and why they're down at Priest Hall.
05:54So many mysteries at Pitchford, and all we can do is put theories to, to people.
06:01We're constantly searching for ideas.
06:04Whilst James contemplates mystery drawers, Rowena and son Edward are heading through the wooded grounds
06:12to the unglamorous spot which gave Pitchford its name.
06:16We're off to the Pitchwell.
06:18It's a well that contains this black, tar-like substance.
06:23OK, so let's see if you, I'm sure you can find some.
06:33So this is the Pitchwell.
06:35So this is where the pitch or natural bitumen literally oozes out of the ground.
06:41It's a natural phenomenon, and it's the reason that Pitchford has its name,
06:45because there's the pitch here and then the ford just over there.
06:50So I'm using the stick to kind of probe for some pitch.
06:56Oh yeah, I can see some.
06:58Oh yeah, brilliant. So sticky.
07:01Yeah.
07:02Pretty hard to get out.
07:05Yeah, that's, that's quite a bit.
07:12So this, this here is the pitch, and it's sort of got that like shiny,
07:19it feels kind of like tar, and I guess looks like it.
07:23It smells just like tar on the road.
07:26Yeah, it smells like oil.
07:28Amazingly, in the olden days there was a thing called Betton's Fluid,
07:32which was made out of Pitch, and the Betton family are a Shropshire family,
07:36so they very likely used our pitch, but it was meant to cure all known ailments,
07:40which I find quite amusing, but clearly I don't think it did them the world of good.
07:46Just don't touch anything, please.
07:51In fact, the use of pitch, or mineral tar, goes back thousands of years
07:55and was probably first used in Britain by the Romans,
07:58including as a treatment for leprosy and psoriasis.
08:04It is useful, but very hard to wash off.
08:08As well as its medical applications, this natural bitumen was used for centuries
08:14to waterproof and protect exposed timbers on houses,
08:18including Pitchford Hall itself.
08:21So these sections where you've got black, you know, tar,
08:26or what we call pitch, and nowadays they'd use a kind of silica,
08:30but in those days we had pitch in the ground coming up from a well,
08:35so not surprisingly, you would use it on the building.
08:39Sadly, a lot of the timbers have seen better days,
08:42and when I look at that timber and that timber and that timber,
08:45I know they're going to have to be restored,
08:47and we're just going to work our way through.
08:55And a man who knows his way around Pitchford's timbers better than anyone
09:00is local artisan builder Nick Tatchell.
09:05A lot of what I do is lime plustering, lime mortar,
09:08oak frame repair, and there's plenty of it here.
09:13The orangery was restored by us in 2018, 2019.
09:20I had to do that last year.
09:22The weather vane fell off.
09:24It was made of lead and it bounced down the roof like a wrecking ball.
09:28So that's a new one up there now.
09:31I've got a list, a really long list of things I have to do,
09:34and then lots of things get put onto that list.
09:41But on the south lawn there is one small issue that is now top of the to-do list.
09:48And then we had these sinkholes.
09:51They were filled in and then they've reappeared bigger than before.
09:57It's high priority, unfortunately.
10:00Nick believes the sinkholes are caused by a network of underground tunnels
10:05running all around the hall.
10:07There's a tunnel there.
10:11It's only about three feet wide by about four feet high.
10:15And the sinkholes suggest there's a problem far along the tunnel,
10:21which someone is going to have to investigate.
10:24It's a hands and knees job.
10:26It's absolutely full of eels.
10:27Great big 12-inch sand eels.
10:33But the problem at Pitchford is that the to-do list is enormous.
10:40This is the servant's wing.
10:42This is going to be an issue to fix, and the expensive issue.
10:46In this part of the house, eight large bedrooms were once given to Pitchford's live-in servants.
10:54Today, there are no servants, and a whole wing of the building lies empty.
11:00You know, what to do next, then a prioritisation.
11:03Do we do the derriot wing part of the hall?
11:07Do we do the treehouse?
11:09It's a listed building. It needs restoration.
11:12There's a real prioritisation discussion between us,
11:15you know, almost on a daily basis.
11:30When it comes to running a country house,
11:32many centuries of ownership is no guarantee of a secure future.
11:37The latest generation of owners are facing a host of challenges
11:41that their ancestors couldn't have dreamed of.
11:44They are having to work harder than ever before to find success and security.
11:50So, perhaps it's a gift when time is on your side.
11:53We're returning to the Cotswolds and the new young custodian of Chavenage.
12:01My name's James Lowesley Williams. I am the proud, I guess, inheritor of Chavenage Estate.
12:12It's definitely fair to say we're asset rich. I can't sit here and say I'm asset poor for sure.
12:22You know, I'm sitting on a lot of money's worth of assets.
12:25When you look round and you walk round and you go, bloody hell, I own all this.
12:33That is, it's quite something.
12:38I am unbelievably lucky.
12:39And the whole family is to be able to have Chavenage as a place where we can call home.
12:47But with that comes the pressure of, yes, I own this, but I've actually got to sustain it.
12:51And there's two different things.
12:53You're signing up for a lifelong work of carrying this estate forward.
13:03James took over the running of Chavenage two years ago,
13:08since when his girlfriend of the time, Emma, has become his wife.
13:13I mean, look at us with our little desks.
13:16It feels like a sort of very, um, yeah, very grown-up thing to be doing.
13:20The new Mr and Mrs Lowsley-Williams are the sixth generation of the family
13:26to look after the estate's 2,000 acres.
13:30Ballpark figures, just to run the house and the surrounding buildings, 350,000 per year.
13:38These estates aren't designed to make money, they're designed to eat money.
13:41And also, you earn no money,
13:43because every bit of money you're putting back onto the estate.
13:46From my point of view, you kind of think, my gosh, how have I ended up in this position?
13:52I sort of fell in love with this guy in Bath and now I'm here
13:55and we're trying to take on this enormous estate and all these different businesses.
14:00And you sort of are just winging it and you just hope that something works.
14:06This summer, hopes are being pinned on a new venture
14:09that will see Windmill Field turned into a Cotswold sauna experience.
14:16A luxury sauna pod is being delivered soon.
14:19So James is turning to a trusted helper for the final planning.
14:24Right now, Big Al and I are going to have a little get-together.
14:28Sorry, I'm carrying a dog like a baby.
14:30I never thought I'd see the day.
14:32But look at me.
14:34You've got to go practising sometime, James.
14:36Well, exactly.
14:38My name's Alan. I work with James at Chadridge House
14:40and he affectionately calls me Big Al.
14:44You fill me with a lot of confidence, Big Al.
14:48It's a name that came about when we started working on the coffee shop together
14:51and it seems to have stuck ever since.
14:54This is where the sauna's going.
14:55Oh, well, yes, in that field. That's Windmill Field.
14:58That's where it's all happening.
15:00And then the idea is that the clients will check in at the cafe
15:04and then walk over to the sauna.
15:06Perfect.
15:07I don't know why it was called Windmill Field.
15:08Can I tell you why it's called Windmill Field?
15:09Why?
15:10That's your pump house for your water.
15:13Yeah.
15:14Before they had the pump, they had a windmill.
15:16That pumped?
15:17And that pumped the water.
15:18Really?
15:19That's why it's called the Windmill Field.
15:20Really?
15:21Have you made that up?
15:22That's true.
15:23Really?
15:24It's true, yeah.
15:25So how times have changed.
15:26That was the old butler's house that I live in now
15:29before I'm moving into this house.
15:31It's quite a big difference going from that to that.
15:34I'm excited but I am unbelievably overwhelmed
15:38and I still haven't quite comprehended what I am responsible for
15:43and also that I'm moving into a 50-room manor house.
15:47And I keep having to squash my fears because I know that it's even scarier for my wife.
15:54The thing about sheep is that they just don't stay where they're supposed to stay.
16:09We have a WhatsApp group called Chavenage Matters and it's basically everyone who lives on the estate
16:16or is one of the neighbours.
16:18And I think the most talked about thing on the group is sheep being out.
16:24There's sheep on the green, there's sheep on the lane.
16:26It's a bit of a thing.
16:28First time I came to Chavenage, James said to me,
16:33let's go to my sort of family home where I grew up and we'll go for a walk.
16:37And I thought, oh, OK, that sounds lovely.
16:39And we parked up down near the valley.
16:42So we went for a walk down there and he said, oh, that's our field and that's our field.
16:46And I thought, blimey, this goes on forever. This is amazing.
16:49And then we came down to the house and I think at that point I was thinking, OK, this is slightly sort of more than I maybe first imagined.
16:59So you can see the house here.
17:02It sort of sometimes feels like I'm living in a period drama and like we've gone back in time 120 years or something.
17:09And I sort of feel like my life's become a bit like that, really.
17:14When I'm down here and I look at the house from here, I just think it's absolutely amazing.
17:19It's so beautiful.
17:20And I do feel so fortunate.
17:24I think you're sort of so impressed, but you're also so kind of overwhelmed at the same time when you see somewhere like this.
17:30And you think, oh, my God, is this going to be all your responsibility?
17:33That is insane.
17:37Despite the insanity, it hasn't taken Emma long to make her mark at Chavenage.
17:42By the time they were married, Emma and James decided to take a financial risk and develop a derelict barn into a new cafe.
17:51I'll give you these and then we'll bring all of your drinks out for you when they're ready.
17:57The cafe has become our baby.
17:59We absolutely love the cafe.
18:01It is a hub for the community now.
18:03You have to let me know what you think of the matcha.
18:06OK.
18:07What about if I don't like it?
18:08If you don't like it, I'll make you something else.
18:10Emma sold her flat in Bath in order to invest her own money in the new cafe business with James.
18:18So one iced normal and one iced decaf.
18:22Perfect.
18:23The build of the cafe was actually quite a big job.
18:27We did a lot of it ourselves, friends, family helped.
18:30I was a bit daunted and a bit nervous whether we'd made the right decision.
18:36I think Emma joining the family is one of the best things that's happened in the last few years.
18:42Hello, Flora.
18:43One of the cafe's most loyal customers is James's father, George.
18:49Yeah, we had a lovely morning in here.
18:51Good.
18:52OK.
18:53Before this was done up here, this was just a kind of wasteland.
18:57It was just a shed full of rubbish.
19:00And so what's been really good, we're using it for something when it was nothing.
19:04Yeah.
19:05So there's been a huge improvement.
19:07And it's such a beautiful thing.
19:08Their vision has been really good.
19:09I think the whole kind of ethos of what you're creating is really good for Cambridge.
19:13And I think it kind of helps the house, it helps everything.
19:16So, you know, it's not just this.
19:18There's people who come and go round the house who use this as a coffee shop.
19:22So the whole thing couldn't be better.
19:24That's good.
19:28It's quite an upheaval for us because my generation have really come to the stage
19:32where we're trying to bow out a bit.
19:35Bear with.
19:36So to have someone coming in with this young energy is what's needed.
19:40Sorry, this is doing something really strange.
19:42So having a moment.
19:45There's always things crop up that you're not sure about.
19:47And we're still just in that time of really learning.
19:52I've got to remember the fact that I've actually grown up into this.
19:55You know, this is something I've been preparing for, you know,
19:57since I was old enough to understand what I was taking on.
20:01And so I've processed it over the last 20 years,
20:05when Emma's processed it for the last three.
20:08And hopefully Soph's going to help run our new sauna.
20:11Yes.
20:12Yeah, I'm very excited about that actually.
20:14I really see myself as being like a sauna assistant, you know,
20:17and being like, here's your robes, your slippers.
20:20It does scare me that, you know, it's up to us to keep this legacy going.
20:25And it will be, I think, really exciting to see everyone come and, like, have their coffee and then go to the sauna and then maybe stop for yoga.
20:31Oh, amazing.
20:32And it will be, yeah, like a whole little village here, which I think is super cool.
20:36I've got big dreams.
20:37Big dreams.
20:38Whether it will all happen.
20:39It will.
20:40We've got to try and make it all happen now, haven't we?
20:42I think my grandma...
20:43This is huge for James.
20:45It is.
20:46He feels a huge weight on his shoulders to keep it going and I feel it too now, but I think it's a huge, huge privilege, a huge responsibility at the same time.
20:55Having been a major part in the barn cafe build, Big Al is now getting stuck into the sauna project and has ordered the timber he thinks they need.
21:08And it's time for him to help James develop some practical skills.
21:12Right, James, people will need somewhere to change.
21:16Well, they can't walk across the field.
21:18Can't walk across the field with their flip-flops and their bathrobes on.
21:22Yeah.
21:23So come up with this idea for a simple changing room pod, really.
21:283.6 metre square deck.
21:30Yeah.
21:31Which you're going to help me to build.
21:32Yeah.
21:33And it's very simple.
21:34We use a timber frame and then we just put the supports in, which is the joists, screw the decking boards onto that.
21:42Yeah.
21:43Build that in the barn, take that out into the field.
21:46We build the upright structure onto it.
21:50We'll make that out of cow shed tin roof.
21:53And then in there, we can just build a timber pod, which is just going to have three doors.
21:59So how much is this going to cost us in timber, do you reckon?
22:03All the timber materials, about £1,300.
22:07On top of that, we have roofing materials and then whatever you decide, cladding that you want on here.
22:13But the main frame, the deck, the walls, the insulation are all in on that £1,300 price.
22:21OK, great.
22:22We've got a good plan.
22:24Me and you can build the deck in a day.
22:27Yeah.
22:28Then we'll take it out to the field and put the frame on it.
22:30I can't wait to start building again.
22:33It's been a while since our cafe project.
22:35It's been a while, but it's...
22:37Your skills have improved over that.
22:39They have actually improved.
22:40You're pretty good.
22:41You're pretty good.
22:42You know what you're doing now.
22:43I don't have to shout too much.
22:44Go through your lordship.
22:49Thank you, my friend.
22:50Come on, dogs.
22:52I've trained you well.
22:57Come on, Nunu.
22:59Nunu.
23:00Nora.
23:01That is my friend.
23:03Don't work too hard.
23:04I don't pay you enough.
23:05You don't pay me at all, James.
23:07No.
23:08You do it for the love.
23:09Absolutely.
23:11Basically, he pays me in coffee and cake.
23:13My weekly coffee bill is probably about 250 quid,
23:17so call it quits.
23:25The sauna will look stunning.
23:27It'll be in the right place.
23:28It's the right piece of kit.
23:30Never a dull day in paradise.
23:32James is very much of the opinion.
23:35Build it and they will come.
23:37And we shall see.
23:41Will they come indeed?
23:43That, big owl, is what we all want to know.
23:47All of the nine houses we are visiting have stood for centuries and have witnessed the ebb and flow of history.
24:05The tensions of the Tudor age, for example, led the owners of Pitchford Hall to create its secretive priest hole.
24:13And that same religious strife saw another of our houses play a role in the country's most famous flashpoint involving Protestants and Catholics.
24:23We've been marking the event each and every year since.
24:30Just south of rugby, preparations for the gunpowder plot came together at the delightful Ashby Manor House.
24:39In the early 1600s, Ashby's owner, Robert Catesby, was the mastermind of a plan to blow up the Houses of Parliament.
24:49It is believed that secret meetings with his co-conspirators took place here, inside the gatehouse.
24:58I'm always wondering what was going on in here because it's so dark.
25:02There's no electricity.
25:04Ashby's owner, Nova Guest, is determined to give the gatehouse the attention it deserves, with some much-needed renovations.
25:13Actually, the funniest thing is that we didn't come in here for a number of years because we didn't have the key.
25:19It was sort of lost, misplaced, and then we found the key.
25:23So that was an exciting moment.
25:26Having cleaned the place up, it's already clear that this curious slice of British history has been largely ignored for a century.
25:35Before that, however, it was a very different story.
25:40I've got the long books here from the plot room, and I think these must be dated, like, late 1800s.
25:48Yeah, that's the first one, that's the second one.
25:50And I think it shows that there are a lot of visitors that came because there's only a...
25:55It's quite a short amount of time, and they're just full of names.
25:58If we go right back to the beginning.
26:00Yeah, 1885.
26:02So, the Senhouses were the family that owned the manor before the Guest family,
26:11and they were here for a few hundred years.
26:13So, Florence and Humphrey are the first entries.
26:18But I think after them, this looks like this is local people coming from Rugby in Northampton,
26:24from local towns.
26:26Watford, Longbuckby, Daventry, Welton, Leicester.
26:31These are just people coming to look in the plot room.
26:36Does it say West Australia?
26:43So, 1886, 1888.
26:48I mean, it goes on.
26:51Well, everyone's been fascinated by the gunpowder plot since it happened.
26:56I mean, this is, you know, 120 years ago, and it was very much part of culture and history then.
27:03The concept of Bonfire Night was new to me.
27:09Being in Australia, we didn't have that in our history syllabus.
27:12I wasn't aware of what that was or who Guy Fawkes was.
27:16So, quite amazing to arrive at this house when I first did,
27:20to realise that such a huge influence and part of that was Robert Catesby,
27:26living in this house and recruiting all those conspirators.
27:30Extraordinary.
27:31That looks like it's to the end of 1894.
27:34And then I think this one, which is actually a bit smarter.
27:37They've had a change in the style of the logbook.
27:401896.
27:42And then this goes right through 1902.
27:49So, these are a reminder of that this house and the grounds and the plot room
27:56have all been in everyone's, you know.
27:59They've always evoked such interest and intrigue.
28:05Nova and her husband have owned Ashby for 10 years now.
28:09Her aim in the next 12 months is to put the plot room back on the map
28:14and make it accessible to a new generation of visitors.
28:18Well, a great idea would be to get another logbook made so that when we have our visiting school groups,
28:25they get to write their name in with their date that they came.
28:28That would be wonderful.
28:30With the gatehouse being Grade 1 listed, nothing is straightforward, however.
28:38In a few hours, National Heritage Organisation Historic England will be coming to assess Nova's plans to open the building.
28:46On hand right now, though, is local stonemason, Les Simblett.
28:52He's assisted Nova with various projects over the last 10 years.
28:56He's one of the few people already familiar with the gatehouse.
29:00But is this door original?
29:02Definitely, yeah.
29:03Really?
29:04That's absolutely original.
29:05What I love about it is the little cat hole.
29:07Obviously they have a cat or something and they've cut a hole in for the cat to get in and out.
29:11Extraordinary.
29:12And look, what's all this?
29:13Different keys for different centuries?
29:15And I think it's a shame that they do another hole to put a new lock in,
29:19instead of getting one that fitted.
29:21But you can see how over the years I've used different keys, different locks.
29:25About six or seven.
29:27That's hilarious.
29:28OK, so we've got the key.
29:29Yep.
29:33Here we go.
29:40Goodness.
29:41We're talking about the age of the door.
29:42But you can see how old it is, because these are all like hand-cut panels
29:45and the handmade nails that have been driven through and clenched over.
29:49And when they hammer the nail through, you have somebody on the inside bending the nail
29:52and if you do it properly, you bend the end over and that goes back into the wood
29:56and fitted back in.
29:58Gives it extra strength and bond.
30:00Very, very strong.
30:01I just love this bolt.
30:03I mean, that is so tactile.
30:06Just look at it.
30:10I'm not a fan of this old, is it 50s or 60s?
30:13Yes, 60s.
30:15Rusty electric casing.
30:17But if it's there, could we not rewire it to have some electricity in here?
30:21Because that would be quite handy.
30:23I think you've got to bring it up to date, haven't you?
30:26No electricity might be the least of Nova's problems.
30:33It is a fantastic staircase, isn't it?
30:35However pretty it looks, it's going to need a lot of money.
30:41The seal is a bit of a mess, isn't it?
30:43It is.
30:44Obviously, replacing it all after it's more expensive.
30:47If these have been nailed on wrong as well, they should all be staggered.
30:50So you should stagger the joints.
30:52So when do you think that they were incorrectly nailed on?
30:56When I came here when I was about six and it had just been redone.
31:00It would have been 63, 64.
31:03If we have to actually replace this, that's going to be very expensive as opposed to restoring what's there.
31:09Yeah.
31:10There's so many things wrong with the way the lats have been fixed, it might be better to replace them.
31:14That's going to make your quote very scary.
31:19Obviously, we want to make sure this is safe.
31:22So, is the floor safe? Is the ceiling safe?
31:26Is it structurally sound?
31:27So that we can open it to schools, you know, educational groups.
31:33That is solid.
31:34There's nothing wrong with them, Joyce.
31:36Well, I don't want you to jump on a bit that might not be solid.
31:38Yeah.
31:39The structural issues, however, are lurking elsewhere.
31:43You can see the extent of the cracking there.
31:46Yes.
31:47And how much light's going through and how much weather's coming through.
31:50I mean, we can't have all these gaps here.
31:55There's also the loft space above the plot room.
32:00This is the roof, which is fantastic.
32:05I think it's probably a habitable room at one time.
32:07I think the children would have slept up here.
32:10I think the bedrooms would have been up here.
32:12But when the roof was repaired, I don't think they've bothered refurbishing it.
32:18But a lack of furnishings has been no concern for Ashby's crow population.
32:24The loft space now features a number of giant nests.
32:28But you see them in the spring, you see them going through all sorts of gaps in the roof and here, there and everywhere.
32:35Another example of all the work that needs there.
32:38There's a bit of a squirrel's tail there.
32:40I just wonder whether the crows eat squirrels.
32:42Heading down.
32:48In my mind, I was thinking, yes, we're going to come in and just fix the internal ceiling and then we're going to be finished.
32:54But actually, I realised we're going to need to get the cherry picker, fix all the outside.
32:59It needs all draft proofing.
33:03I think we need to look at that staircase.
33:05I think there's more work in here than I realised.
33:10And there's still the small matter of Historic England's visit.
33:14Back at Ashby Manor, owner Novogest is preparing for the arrival of the man from the conservation organisation English Heritage
33:33to advise on what can and can't be done to the historic plot room.
33:44It's always a big day when Historic England enter the property.
33:48That's a big moment.
33:50I just want this to be all neat and tidy, how it should always be.
33:54So I'm having a proper clean up in anticipation of their arrival.
33:59We always want it to be looking great.
34:04Historic England is a public body charged with protecting and promoting national heritage.
34:10When tackling renovation work on a Grade 1 listed building, its support is essential.
34:19Worst case, he says, this is structurally not near where it needs to be.
34:23I mean, that would be a scenario where we say, well, do you know what?
34:26We're going to have to shut the door of that plot room again for quite a while and come back to it.
34:31Because that's just not going to be something we can just put that money into right now.
34:36Come on in. Up here.
34:40Meetings like this do tend to be a little nerve-wracking.
34:45I don't know if you've been here before.
34:47No, first time.
34:48No, exactly.
34:49Seen lots about it, read lots about it.
34:51Yeah.
34:53But luckily for Nova, there's good news an hour later.
34:57It was a very positive meeting.
34:59I think from his perspective, the most important thing is that we haven't got water coming in.
35:05So he said, before you do anything inside, let's make sure that all the cracks have been fixed up.
35:11And I feel that we can move forward, you know, in some realistic timeframes.
35:15It's not going to take years.
35:16I think in the next couple of months we'll see, we'll be able to have made some progress.
35:22Progress, which we will be back to see.
35:25A little earlier, we were at Pitchford Hall, Shropshire's magnificent half-timbered treasure.
35:39Rowena Coldhurst can trace her family history at the house right back to its Tudor origins.
35:46But on this occasion, the real story is what's unfolded in the past 35 years.
35:56In fact, it's remarkable that Rowena and James are undertaking Pitchford Hall's epic restoration at all.
36:05So my mother, Caroline, was lucky to inherit Pitchford in 1972.
36:10And that's why I was lucky to grow up here and have my childhood here.
36:16My parents actually loved it and I remember my mother saying that when she first bought my father,
36:22and I think she described them as sort of skipping around the house,
36:25the idea of my parents skipping around the house was rather lovely.
36:28It's funny, I've never heard that story.
36:30So it's interesting for me.
36:35You know, I did really realise how privileged I was,
36:39but ultimately it was just my family home and I loved being here.
36:47But as Rowena reached her early twenties, her parents were facing a financial crisis.
36:55Unfortunately, with all the bills piling up to restore the house and have to do the roof and everything,
37:01my parents both entered into Lloyds of London as insurance names.
37:07And then unfortunately they were both put in the worst possible syndicates.
37:12I remember them getting these letters and being really stressed about it and stuff,
37:16but they didn't really tell me the extent of it.
37:22Originally, my parents tried their very best to save the house and think of what to do.
37:26And we went to English Heritage and National Trust came and every conceivable expert turned up,
37:32but they wanted a £10 million endowment, which clearly we didn't have.
37:37The sale with Christie's was organised and I remember them going around putting stickers on all the contents of the house.
37:45I have to say I couldn't face being here for the sale, my parents couldn't face it.
37:52So after losing much of the family money in the insurance market, the home was ultimately sold for £700,000.
38:01And to be told that that was all kind of coming to an end, in a very public way, you know,
38:07there had been a debate in Parliament, articles in the Telegraph, the Times, you know,
38:13Breakfast TV covered it and things, so it was quite a public humiliation.
38:17I don't think her parents ever really, you know, recovered, not surprisingly,
38:23if you'd been told that your family home was about to be sold.
38:27She was very emotional.
38:29I remember, you know, coming to James and floods of tears upstairs and
38:37the best thing James ever did was to try and cheer me up.
38:41He took me to an oak tree and we made a vow to try and get the house back again.
38:50And we'd do everything that we could to do our very best to try and get the house back and that.
38:58really gave me a feeling of hope and inspiration.
39:01And that was really where the story began in terms of our quest to get the house back.
39:06You see there's a big hollow in this incredible oak tree. There should be a coin somewhere in there.
39:23Yeah, it's definitely, we definitely put the coin in there.
39:25We know we'll probably find it.
39:27Well, I'm not sure I'll be able to find it, but I know, I know it's in there.
39:31Well, I think it went right into the bowels of the hollow, but, um,
39:35I know this is it. It was like a sort of sacred place to us.
39:39So I love this tree.
39:40I mean, for me, it was such a symbolic moment.
39:45It meant everything because it meant that there was a quest and we were in it together.
39:50And it meant that James cared about Pitchford as much as I did.
39:54It just felt really, really significant.
39:57For the next 25 years, Pitchford Hall was in the hands of a Kuwaiti princess.
40:13But despite having a new owner, to Rowena's great distress, the house remained empty.
40:20We were constantly checking on the house and trying to see what was happening.
40:25And it obviously got worse and worse because it was literally empty.
40:31It was just desolate.
40:32It was, it was really awful, really sad.
40:34I felt desperately sorry for the house.
40:38In the years after the sale, Rowena and James were married,
40:43but they never forgot the vow they had made.
40:46And in 2016, an opportunity arose to buy Pitchford Hall back,
40:52albeit for more than twice what it had been sold for.
40:57Basically, I got a text message from the Kuwaiti princess's agent
41:01saying that she was prepared to sell the house back to us,
41:05which was obviously incredible, as long as we came up with the money in a certain amount of time.
41:10We obviously had to persuade a bank to lend us the money,
41:15and by some miracle, we managed to get there.
41:18The newspaper was still sitting on the kitchen table.
41:22And so that made me feel, I mean, I just, I mean, time stood still.
41:27It was literally that feeling.
41:28And I thought it was rather lovely thought that my, the last people in here,
41:32my parents reading the papers, having their coffee in the morning.
41:38Everything was left, you know, because no one ever lived here for 25 years.
41:43Everything that Rowena's parents kind of put down was, remained for 25 years.
41:51Rowena and James are finally able to call Pitchford Hall home again.
41:56One completed restoration task, though, is Pitchford's wonderful 18th century clock.
42:08The weights actually drop outside of the house.
42:11So you can see them falling as the clock ticks,
42:14and then when you wind it up, the weight goes right back up.
42:17So it's very, very rare.
42:19The clock is now working for the first time in perhaps 70 years.
42:30And the restoration also means that one of the tidiest spaces inside the whole house is the attic.
42:37The clock, the bell has a date, 1776, which is obviously the year of American independence.
42:46So it's a fascinating day.
42:47I'm just going to wind this up and then we'll get the clock going.
42:52Well, you have to wind this up about every three or four days.
43:00And the weights are outside.
43:03These huge lead weights just hang down the clock tower.
43:08OK, that's about right.
43:11I'll just move and get the pendulum going very gently.
43:14That should be going now.
43:16This is obviously the original mechanism.
43:20Some of these parts we had to remake.
43:24Certainly the main mechanism is original.
43:28And it still works.
43:32We found the clock expert who originally used to wind up all the clocks of Pitchford
43:37during my mother-in-law's ownership.
43:40And he came back, you know, to the hall 30 years later
43:42and got the clock working.
43:48It's all about, you know, life being brought back
43:50and the kind of ticking heart of the hall.
43:57Next time on Saving Country Houses...
44:01Is that taken up, Dad?
44:03Yeah, yeah.
44:04..we return to County Durham to see how local folklore
44:07comes alive at Bransworth Castle.
44:09And then he saw The Witcher Bransworth silent.
44:15Oh, really good! Excellent! Wonderful!
44:17Love that!
44:19We head underground at Pitchford Hall.
44:23We've got a two-metre section where the stonework is completely missing.
44:27It's sounding like quite an expensive job.
44:31And we meet Dorset's most unlikely countess.
44:34Ooh!
44:35It is cold.
44:38This is completely different
44:41of anything I could have ever imagined living at a historic house.
44:45Let's just look at this.
44:46Oh...
44:48Look at this.
44:49Oh...
44:50Oh...
44:51Oh...
44:52Oh...
44:53oh...
44:54Oh...
44:55Oh...
44:56Oh...
44:57Oh...
44:58Oh...
45:00Oh...
45:01Transcription by CastingWords
Comments