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Saving Country Houses With Penelope Keith - Season 1 Episode 4
Transcript
00:00The green, rolling landscapes of Great Britain are 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.
00:50But today's country house owners live in a very different world.
00:55The sound of petrol!
00:57No, no, no, wrong way!
00:59These houses are still the grandest in the land.
01:02This is Oliver Cromwell's room.
01:04But the challenge of keeping them in one piece has never been greater.
01:08Spiral of decay, I don't like the sound of that.
01:10Ballpark figures, 350,000.
01:12Gulp.
01:14Gotta get these lights fixed.
01:15Today's owners are becoming ever more imaginative.
01:18Bon appétit.
01:20But finding ways.
01:22I'm literally ankle deep right now.
01:24To keep the money coming in.
01:26These estates aren't designed to make money, they're designed to eat money.
01:29To keep the ceiling from falling down.
01:32And I turn the corner into here.
01:34Oh my goodness.
01:36We are collecting leaks, as you can see.
01:38And stop their fears becoming a reality.
01:41I think of all the ancestors going back 900 years.
01:45If we fail, it's on our watch.
01:48Of course, being to the manor born has always been a privilege.
01:52But today's owners face challenges as never before.
01:56So, 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?
02:08The more time one spends in the world of country houses, the more I think one thing becomes clear.
02:22In order to remain a home, they also need to be a business.
02:28And to make that work, owners need a certain amount of entrepreneurial flair.
02:32James and Emma Lowsley-Williams are a young couple who, in their short time running a country house,
02:36are off to a flying start in that regard.
02:37And they're certainly not stopping for a rest.
02:42In the heart of the Cotswolds, their home is the Elizabethan Manor house.
02:47And they're not stopping for a rest.
02:49In the heart of the Cotswolds, their home is the Elizabethan Manor house.
02:52Of Chavenage.
03:10These 2,000 acres of picture book English countryside have been James and Emma's responsibility for the past two years.
03:19Happy birthday, Rick.
03:20They have already taken a risk by investing money from the sale of Emma's flat into setting up the new barn cafe.
03:29We have found this sort of second year of being open.
03:33We're getting a lot more people through the door.
03:35And this summer, their attention is turning to the installation of a luxury sauna pod.
03:41That's it. There we go.
03:42Where do you want it to go?
03:43This is kind of our dream.
03:45This is the Shepherd Tartes sauna we're going for.
03:48James, however, now has a second project in his sights.
03:52Also aimed at turning Chavenage into a Cotswolds destination.
03:55The number two project, which is what we want to do in the near future, to lean on the wellness and encourage people to come and stay here, is to basically make this a pond.
04:07It is actually a pond, but it's been left for decades.
04:15Over the last century, trees and shrubs have taken over this small corner of the estate, and the pond has long since suited up, becoming more of a bog.
04:25So the pond is a slight experiment.
04:30So what I'd like to do is get a digger in there, create a nice pond, put ducks on it.
04:35I've got this rather obscure view of the estate where I am slightly OCD.
04:40I've got, you know, I want to make things look perfect.
04:45Now that's a struggle when you've got 2,000 acres because you haven't got enough time in your life to make the whole estate look perfect.
04:51And then here, we've got planning for four glamping huts.
04:57And then you can lie, have your own space, and be literally in the middle of the Cotswolds countryside.
05:04And that is priceless.
05:07Not hard.
05:10And so I wanted to start on the pond down in the park.
05:14I know it was a pond, and I thought maybe we can, like, reinvigorate it.
05:18That's, again, putting something on the estate that wasn't there before.
05:22Clamping may be a long-term project, but James is confident he can prepare the area and resurrect Chavenage's pond quite quickly.
05:31And then this is one of the areas.
05:33And luckily, the tree surgeons have been in today.
05:37Oh, my God. That is a lot of wood.
05:39So we've got to take out the dead trees because, obviously, it's just dangerous in case they fall.
05:48Don't ask how much it costs, but this is 1,500 quid, two grand for that job.
05:57That doesn't change our life at all.
06:01Well, it would if a tree fell on us.
06:04Yeah.
06:06That's how you can just lose cash.
06:09You think we might have earned two grand last week in the cafe and it's all gone on one tree.
06:14Perfect.
06:16Perfect.
06:17With some of the biggest trees down already, there's an opportunity for James to do what he likes best.
06:26Get stuck into the work himself with a bit of help from one of the real powerhouses of the Chavenage estate.
06:35James and Raph are like a bit of a double act that you never really saw coming.
06:39I don't know where Raph is. He said come and find me.
06:44He's one of those people that can do anything, got a problem with the car.
06:48We'll just ask Raph. You need a pond clearing out, ask Raph.
06:52There he is. He's doing our roses. Rafa?
06:58I know that if James disappears, he's probably out somewhere with Raph playing with some kind of machinery.
07:04Are you ready? We're going to see if we can sort a pond out.
07:09Yeah, sort him.
07:11Hands. Look at the size of...
07:13He's literally hands the size of frickin' spades.
07:17James definitely couldn't do it by himself, so we're really pleased that we've got Raph, who is capable of anything in my eyes.
07:23Having lived in the Cotswolds for many years, Raph Winiarski and his wife both now work part-time at Chavenage.
07:34He is almost certainly the only member of the estate team who's ever been in the Polish army.
07:41I love and enjoy every single day in here.
07:48Hello, James!
07:49Hello, James!
07:54Ah! That's you!
08:01Right, Rafa, this is soon going to be an oasis.
08:07Imagine ducks, clear water, maybe even a water feature, beautiful oak trees, cabins.
08:15This is going to be our kind of wellness area.
08:20But with no real budget to achieve James's vision, it's up to him and Raph to make this dream a reality.
08:27If we get chainsaw, if we get hedge trimmer...
08:32What about safety helmets?
08:33Don't never forget your safety helmet.
08:36That's the main thing.
08:37Exactly.
08:38Raph is the most incredible.
08:41He is the most loyal and the hardest working bloke I know.
08:46I lost my shoe!
08:51Straight on my knees!
08:52Unfortunately, we only can afford him Monday and Friday.
08:56I'd love to have him five days a week because the amount of work we'll get done is incredible.
09:01Ah, no, go again!
09:03Don't worry, get the big guns in, Raph.
09:06Go on, big gun.
09:08I need to speak with James about pay rise.
09:10The sound of petrol!
09:17I love working with him.
09:19He's a really strong pair of hands that I probably couldn't do without.
09:23I'm all for someone who would just jump in and just crack on and put a load of energy into it.
09:33That's one down.
09:34It's a good job this newly appointed Lord of the Manor isn't afraid to get his hands dirty.
09:46A tree surging on these big trees.
09:49600 to 1,000 pounds a tree.
09:51So, if you didn't do it yourself, you'd be able to get anywhere.
09:56You've got to want a graft.
09:58I'm trying to create a better estate for the one I was given.
10:03And hopefully, as a custodian of this place, I can hand it over to the next generation and a better place I found it.
10:09Hopefully, you know, with a pond.
10:12A pond that wasn't there before.
10:13Come on, puppy.
10:17That was better.
10:19But with only a two-man team on the job, Chavenage's reimagined pond could be a long time in the making.
10:26This is wet, so this will actually hold water.
10:29I think we're on to a winner, mate.
10:30This is actually an exciting plan.
10:35People thinking that Sam Jobs is five minutes, but they are no five minutes.
10:40It's loads of work.
10:42Could take us a week.
10:43Weeks? Months? Months?
10:45Months.
10:46Maybe to Christmas.
10:47At Chavenage in the Cotswolds, attention is very much on new projects that will hopefully bring money into the estate.
11:07But of course, all our houses are historic buildings, which require time and money just to conserve and maintain them.
11:17At one of our houses, that is very much the focus.
11:22Except the concern is not the house itself, but its celebrated gatehouse.
11:26On the western edge of Northamptonshire, the gatehouse in question belongs to Ashby Manor House.
11:38The house is presented quite beautifully, thanks to ten years of hard work from its Australian owner, Nova Guest.
11:45The dailies take so much water.
11:51The Tudor gatehouse lies close to the road and the church, and it's famous for its role in hatching the gunpowder plot, and is now the site of Nova's latest restoration project.
12:02We're going to bring the cherry picker in, so we need to get it as close to the start of the plot room as we can, so we're clearing all this because it's full of brambles.
12:12Largely overlooked by recent generations, the plot room now has Nova giving it the care and attention it deserves.
12:19She plans to transform it from neglected space to a tourist attraction, to showcase its important place in British 17th century history, starting with restoring its external walls.
12:32And leading the restoration work is local stonemason, Les Simblett.
12:39Just drop it there, yeah.
12:43Les will be using a cherry picker to inspect the leaks and cracks that have become noticeable from the inside.
12:52Initially, I think the best thing is just really to do a bit of a general survey, check, and we're particularly looking for where the water's ingress is happening.
13:00Do you feel high up?
13:03Not yet.
13:06So this is a typical example of the sort of thing, problems that we're having.
13:09Well, the water's running down the face, no absorption on the cement, running straight into the joints, into the structure of the building.
13:22So here you've got this hairline crack.
13:24When they repaired it in the 90s, they put sand cement, and you can see that's very, very hard.
13:29So wherever possible, it's trying to expose that gap and fill it.
13:34And you can see then that the gap gets bigger, and then we can start filling that with the oakum cork,
13:46which is a traditional boat material that goes back to Viking times.
13:53Made from hemp or flax fibres, oakum was the key natural product that kept ships and timber-framed buildings watertight for centuries.
14:02We're going to push that into the joints, which stops the water penetrating.
14:09Les is using similar methods as the original craftsman who built the gatehouse, but the costs associated with this kind of specialist work have a tendency to spiral.
14:20It's very difficult budgeting, having budgets in this house because they, yeah.
14:29This is where the problem where you can see from the inside where we've got the leaking.
14:32Do you see that?
14:34That's all moving.
14:35I imagine when you're dealing with new houses, you can have very realistic quotes for things.
14:40I think replace it.
14:42But here, as you get into a job, you don't know what you're going to find.
14:46They're quite big voids that we've got here.
14:49It's just totally rotten away.
14:51The whole thing gets blown, blown up.
14:54We've got a bit of linseed oil.
14:58We can oil the timber so that it gives it a little bit of resistance to moisture ingress.
15:03It conditions the timber.
15:06A lot of these timbers that are black and white really date back to Victorian times.
15:11This would have been a smooth face originally.
15:13Then they exposed the beams so they thought it looked nice.
15:15A lot of the time they painted the beams with black tar and that's the worst thing you do.
15:19You'll find that the timbers rot so fast it's ridiculous.
15:21But I still see people now putting black tar on the oak timbers and it makes you want to cry really.
15:27Because it's just totally wrong.
15:30We fill it with the oakum.
15:32That'll fill any gaps.
15:33That's really why we've made the gaps slightly bigger.
15:36So we'll pack that in.
15:38Then on the bottom here, you can see that's going right into the joints.
15:44And that gives a flexible waterproof bond.
15:47It'll stop the water penetrating.
15:49We're now packing it with the troweling mastic.
15:53Double boiled linseed oil.
15:55Mix it with the burnt sand, which is a fairly traditional thing for use on timber frame buildings.
16:01You can see how big those voids are by how much that's going in.
16:05So we'll pack that oil in by hand.
16:08Lime mortar now to fill this one.
16:10What we do to help these old buildings and look after them, a lot of effort.
16:19The hardest thing is deciding where to stop and where to start to open the kind of worms.
16:24But whilst Les is able to fill voids and sealed cracks relatively simply,
16:30the work leaps to a different scale if entire modern panels need replacing.
16:35The more you look at it, you see more problems, as usual.
16:43Then you realise a lot of the panels are loose.
16:461, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 33, 33.
17:00About 35 panels.
17:03So whatever time it takes for that, we multiply by 35.
17:07That's probably the time we need to allocate for it.
17:10The main question is, do you want the repairs to last 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years?
17:15Having been up close and personal with the worst of the wall, Les delivers his verdict.
17:22I can't decide whether it's good news or bad news.
17:26Oh, golly.
17:27The repair's going quite well.
17:29You can see we've filled the joints in all the timbers on this left-hand side.
17:33Yes.
17:34But some of the panels are quite loose.
17:36My recommendation would be to probably take the wall off and start again,
17:39because it might be just as quick.
17:40Right.
17:41Well, it's more extensive than I thought in terms of the work that's needed to fix it,
17:49because we have to actually remove panels and put new ones on.
17:52So what started out as sort of a day or two's cherry-picker hire and Les is turning into sort of a whole two-week thing.
18:03It's probably somewhere between £1,500 and £8,000 or something, I think.
18:10Of course, it's a side of the plot room where you can't even see it from our house in a corner,
18:14which is usually covered in brambles that no-one can see, but this is what we have to do.
18:18It's like the money you can't see in these houses.
18:20Just like Ashby Manor, all the country houses we've looked at so far have history stretching back centuries.
18:40But it's time for something rather different, as our next house is positively youthful, less than two centuries old.
18:48It was built by a wealthy Victorian who was keen to escape the city
18:53and establish a classic rural seat for his family.
18:57That family are still there to this day.
19:02We're heading across the Welsh border to the Brecon Beacons, where we find...
19:08Treberfydd House.
19:12With its towering Gothic arches, Treberfydd was the height of fashion
19:17when it was built by Robert Rakes in the 1840s.
19:22It's now the home of his great-great-great-granddaughter Sally and her husband Hugh.
19:28So we're going upstairs now to where the bedrooms are.
19:31And between the divide of the house between the children's and servants' bedrooms
19:36and then the adults' rooms is a height chart which documents the height of all the children who lived here through the years.
19:42You'll see it's pretty chocker.
19:46There's not much space for our kids' heights, that's for sure.
19:50J.S. Holland is a cousin, is that right?
19:52I think so.
19:53In 1938, he held the title as the tallest until your brother Hugh came in in 2002.
20:00Seeing all these characters on this height chart makes me feel that we should get another height chart opposite here,
20:09on the other side of the frame, to start the next lot of generations.
20:13So our kids are the seventh generation of the house to be here and they're not on this,
20:17so perhaps it's not too late for us to start a continuation on this side
20:21and hope that we extend to the 15th and 16th generation, who knows?
20:29Trebertheth may not be as old as some other country houses, but it is not without its complications.
20:37Trebertheth is an early Victorian house.
20:40You've got turrets, there are three turrets, and you've got gothic archways.
20:43Nine different designs of leather windows. We did have 23 chimneys, and all the chimneys, some of them are slightly wonky,
20:50but we're pretty sure they're okay.
20:52So the scariest bit about this building and its architecture is the maintenance it requires.
20:58Not any ghosts and ghouls.
21:02One of the joys of Trebertheth is that so much is as it was 175 years ago.
21:09It's an amazing bit of intricate design.
21:13This is the hall. It's very dark. It's deliberately dark.
21:17The Victorians didn't like sunlight in the way that we seek it out today.
21:22The tastes of the very religious Robert Rakes, who built Trebertheth,
21:27can still be found throughout the house, and nowhere more so than in his library.
21:31And the house also boasts various heirlooms that are clues to the lifestyle of its original household.
21:51This is an example of somebody that has too much time on their hands, really.
21:55So over three volumes they have written out the Bible.
21:59Whoever wrote this Bible was very religious, very devout.
22:03I think the whole family were.
22:05It's quite striking to think of how their lives were versus how our lives are today
22:10in terms of what they would have done and their day-to-day activities.
22:14Unfortunately we don't have time to write out the Bible.
22:16Having been run as a private home for generations, Sally and Hugh are now picking up what her parents' generation started
22:27in turning Trebertheth into a home and a business.
22:32We spend a lot of time in the garden in the summer, but it's also the area that we have wedding ceremonies up on the former lawns there.
22:39And just over there we have a marquee which goes up for about eight weeks between the end of May and the end of July.
22:48The weddings are all part of the mix of what we do here to keep the house going and to bring in income.
22:55The fundamental thing is we couldn't afford to live here without doing that.
22:59Yeah.
23:02But Sally and Hugh are not the first generation of the family to feel the pressure of money
23:07whilst running this extraordinary country house.
23:12Robert Rakes fell on hard times and he could no longer afford to live here.
23:16And this is an advert from that time and it's fascinating reading the detail and how it's described.
23:21It's described as a gentleman's residence, 14 bedrooms, three dressing rooms, each fitted with hot and cold bath.
23:29And in the end it was let for 15 years.
23:32It almost left the family, but then it didn't because Robert Rakes Jr., so my great-great-grandfather,
23:39felt he could come back on and take it on again.
23:42It narrowly missed leaving the family altogether.
23:45And three years ago it was time for Sally, Hugh and their four children to take over from Sally's father the challenge of running Treburfith.
23:56I guess every generation who lives here wants to keep it going and doesn't want to be the one to lose it.
24:01In the heart of the Brecon Beacons, Sally and Hugh Martineau are the sixth generation of their family to live in their Victorian country pile.
24:20Treburfith House.
24:23It's all a far cry from their city life of old.
24:27I lived in London for more than 10 years, worked as a journalist and, yeah, it's a very different existence here in the country.
24:38And the change in scene to a new life in the country means that Sally has had to learn plenty of new skills to keep the income flowing and the house running.
24:48So we're off to go and look at our beehives. We've got three beehives down this driveway here in a corner of the field.
24:54I did a beginner's beekeeping course on Zoom in lockdown. I've been doing it ever since then. And I started off one hive, then two, and then three.
25:05Beekeeping, I love. It's just a real escape. It's a very relaxing thing to do.
25:11Right, that's all honey.
25:15When we decided to move to Wales, I did get teased a bit about how my life would be about making jars of raspberry jam.
25:21But it turned out to be jars of honey, which is absolutely fine by me.
25:24For the first time this summer, Sally will have enough honey to start selling her new produce.
25:29Plus, it's an excellent way of engaging her eight-year-old twins, Bertie and Duncan.
25:36Getting into rhythm. My workers. Yeah, they're doing a great job.
25:41Tasting it was the most important part, kind of.
25:46And it's a very short commute to Sally's retail outlet, Treberfith's own plant nursery.
26:00The walled garden is still part of Treberfith, but Alison's leased it for maybe ten or twelve years now.
26:06And she's transformed it into the most beautiful space.
26:11Hi. Hi, Sally. Honey, we have honey.
26:15Ten jars of solid honey and ten jars of liquid, but there's more.
26:19What is the price of a jar of honey these days? Six pounds fifty? Yeah.
26:22Something like that? Yeah.
26:24See how that goes?
26:26But, of course, a sideline in beekeeping will not generate the income Sally and Hugh need to keep Treberfith as their home,
26:34which is where their bespoke marquee comes in, designed especially for country house weddings.
26:41But there are only a handful of weddings at the house each summer,
26:46and they are styled to suit the tastes of each couple.
26:49And they can make use of the custom-made marquee, the handiwork of designer Roland Stokes.
26:56I made this marquee for this place, this space, so it was custom-built for here.
27:01There's some curves on the valance, which is a style I use in most of my structures,
27:07which they do relate to the Gothic arches that can be found on the house.
27:12We wanted something that was going to be in keeping with the house.
27:15Making sure that we got the right fit for the location was really important.
27:20And it's blank canvas, so couples can do whatever they want in here.
27:22They can put a plinth up and hang flowers from that, or a disco ball, or extra lighting.
27:27And Treburfith is soon going to be hosting its biggest wedding of the year.
27:34These are Roland's handmade trestle tables and chairs.
27:40He's added an extension on either side for this particular wedding.
27:44Space enough for the expected 174 guests.
27:48We enjoy weddings here. It's a really momentous day in the lives of a couple.
27:56Lovely.
27:57So, for us on the sidelines, it's just really, really lovely to see.
28:01It's taken a lot of brain power to just do this table.
28:04If it all goes to plan, it's brilliant.
28:06There is nothing like the deadline of a wedding to focus the mind of everyone involved.
28:21Most country house projects, on the other hand, rely rather more on the owner's own determination to get things moving.
28:28Back at Ashby Manor in Northamptonshire, that determination is on show for all to see.
28:36Ashby's owner, Nova, took stonemason Liz's advice and opted for a thorough restoration of the external timbers and panels.
28:45Gosh, it's like looking at a work of art. Aren't you amazing?
28:50We've done everything properly. Every panel is sealed.
28:54Amazing. Yeah.
28:56Amazing.
28:57On the corner, all the big voids, we fill that with lime water and put the travelling mastic on top of it.
29:02Yes.
29:03So, I don't think you've got any problem there at all now for 20, 25 years.
29:07Lifetime guarantee from me is not going to be very long now.
29:10Exactly. I won't be able to chase you up on that, obviously.
29:13The Tudor gatehouse, home to the gunpowder plot room, has received a major lime mortar facelift.
29:25Les was here, I think, all in all, he was here for a month.
29:30So, it was vastly longer than we thought.
29:34But he's done a really proper job.
29:37So, wonderful the whole thing has been sorted out.
29:39And that is such a weight off my shoulders.
29:42So, now we can sort of start to look inside and make sure, you know, we can properly start restoring the inside knowing that we've dealt with the outside.
29:50It's good news.
29:53Fastly expensive good news, but still good news.
29:57The less good news is that all Les's external work has created a fresh mountain of dust inside the old gatehouse.
30:05Oh, God.
30:07A big broom, get the big bits up, and then we can start vacuuming.
30:11Beyond the dust, there's also the small matter of what Les found in the loft over a month ago.
30:17We've decided that we're going to remove the birds' nests, because there's a lot of crow carcasses in there, dead squirrels, all sorts of ticks and lies.
30:26So, I want to make sure I've got fully booted and suited.
30:29We try and minimise any infestation, because I don't fancy itching all day.
30:37Well, I've just put on my cooking apron, thinking that might sort of generally help.
30:42I'm not sure if it's really extensive enough, but we will see.
30:46My powered respirator, complete my outfit.
30:51I'm going off to Mr Universe next.
30:56I'm ready.
30:58Once we get these dead birds out, I want to clean the whole thing up.
31:01I've got an industrial vacuum cleaner I'm going to spend the weekend hoovering,
31:05and just see if we can start to think about if my plan is right.
31:09Nova's aim is to open the room where the gunpowder plot was planned to visitors.
31:18But there's a way to go yet.
31:21Oh, my word, look at it.
31:24Nothing can quite prepare you for this.
31:29There's four of those. As I say, there's dead carcasses in them, there's all sorts.
31:33Holy moly.
31:35For now, this room is best tackled with powered breathing apparatus.
31:50That's made no impression on it at all.
31:53This is one.
31:55There's about ten of those, I think, on that one nest.
31:58It's a big job.
32:01A very big job.
32:03I'm going to try and plan B.
32:05Pitch walk would be ideal.
32:09However long or dirty this job gets, it's clear Nova is up for the challenge,
32:15and set on presenting this small room in Northamptonshire in the best light
32:20to create as authentic an experience as possible.
32:23Can't wait to light this fire.
32:26Another five loads will be there for the first nest.
32:30So if we do reimagine what the plot room may have looked like, I'm going to take some serious advice on that.
32:43Because we need to source 16th century furniture, which is quite difficult in itself.
32:47And then I just wonder if it's right to reimagine what the room might have looked like.
32:55But you do imagine plotters sitting around a table, catching a plan to blow up the Houses of Parliament.
33:0160 miles south in the heart of the Cotswolds, there is progress at Chavenage Manor, home to James and Emma Lowesley-Williams.
33:15James's pet project of recreating the old pond is well underway.
33:21The pond. It's been a labour of love.
33:25I've taken a lot of the trees that were encroaching in on the pond out.
33:32I then got a three-ton digger in to get all of this silt out and create kind of a bowl shape.
33:38But I'm happy with it. It looks vastly different to what it did look like.
33:46James has done a lot of the digging out himself.
33:50But before he goes any further, Raf is back to help with a spot of housekeeping.
33:56So I reckon if we can get the branches round the corner. Are you alright in the tractor?
34:00Do you want me to show you how to do it?
34:02Are you sure?
34:04I don't need your help.
34:06Ever think what half ignition an engine I can drive?
34:10Watch out for my dogs. I don't know where they've gone.
34:17Raf loves using the machine, so I can get him doing all the heavy lifting.
34:25And whilst Raf is tidying up, James can plan the next stage.
34:36Where we are now in the Cotswolds, it's all Cotswold brash.
34:39So you can see that with all the stones.
34:42So what they had to do is to line these ponds, they had to import this clay.
34:47And so it's proper... It's not mud, it's proper...
34:51It's proper clay that you could potentially put in a kiln.
34:56And that is the liner.
34:59And that is what I'm trying not to scrape up or scrape out.
35:04So I've got to try and leave as much of this as possible and reline it.
35:08Because all the roots have basically punctured it.
35:11But it is quite amazing. That is the liner of the pond.
35:15And you can see the difference.
35:18And this is all the silt that I need to try and get out.
35:23And then this is the water level.
35:26This is fantastic news.
35:28It hasn't rained in like three weeks.
35:31So the water is holding, but the water is low, really low.
35:33Although James is pleased with the pond's potential, the change in seasons means that mother nature is a threat to his grand plans.
35:43I've basically got time against me because I need to get all this silt out before the rain comes and this starts filling up.
35:52And that's basically the challenge I've got ahead.
35:55That's Winter. She doesn't really help me that much.
36:00Dig. Winter, are you going to dig?
36:03Hey?
36:05At the moment, I'm not regretting it.
36:09But if it doesn't work and we don't get it done before the winter comes,
36:13I might be regretting it.
36:16At Chavenich in Gloucestershire, it's a busy morning at Emma's cafe, but anticipation is in the air.
36:35Yeah, I can manage.
36:37With James's pond project on the back burner for now, he and Emma and the team are awaiting a new arrival.
36:43It's a big day.
36:46We're pretty excited, to be honest.
36:49The long-awaited luxury sauna pod is due to be delivered.
36:53I'm just hoping this is going to work because this is going to be terrible if it doesn't.
36:57I've persuaded Emma it's going to work.
37:00But I'm really excited because this sauna is next level.
37:06This is like the Rolls Royces of saunas.
37:08So if no one uses it, at least I can use it.
37:11That's the idea.
37:13I'm actually quite excited that people are here because then we can talk to them about it
37:17and hopefully get people excited about what's going to be here.
37:22We need to give our sauna a name really.
37:25Geoffrey or something.
37:27Maybe we could get in the sauna tonight.
37:28I didn't even think about that, I just thought about getting it here.
37:31Another potential sauna tester could be James's father, George Lowsley-Williams.
37:36We've got this sauna coming in today.
37:38Oh, cool.
37:39Are you going to be on the members list?
37:40Yes, I will.
37:42Do you want to be, you and Caroline are our first users.
37:46But amid all the anticipation, there's work that now needs to be done quickly.
37:51You need somewhere to keep your screws.
37:54So what we need is a tool belt, James.
37:56Oh my gosh.
37:58This is fantastic.
37:59Turn around.
38:01And there we go.
38:03Is that all right?
38:04Yeah.
38:05I feel like Bob the Builder.
38:06Chevenage's go-to builder, Big Al and his young apprentice, are building the base of the sauna changing rooms.
38:13Starting with marking out the position of the timbers.
38:17No, that's inches.
38:18We want centimetres, James.
38:20Because what you do, 450 and the next one will be 900.
38:23Yeah, that's fine.
38:24This is where your maths comes in.
38:25I'll help you.
38:26Brilliant.
38:27OK, keep going.
38:28So 450 on 900.
38:311350.
38:321350, thanks.
38:33There we go.
38:34It's a long time since I've had staff, James.
38:372700.
38:39You're like a pro, James.
38:40All you've got to think about with this is to how much money you're saving by not employing proper builders.
38:46Right, 450.
38:47450.
38:48We all want to tell people how to do things.
38:51I generally think I'm not very good at it.
38:52I don't think I have the patience, but my lack of patience, James makes up for it in enthusiasm.
38:59900, 1350.
39:01Spot on.
39:02You see, you're on it.
39:03I still am terrible at maths.
39:05I just...
39:06I'm...
39:07Both Emma and I are famously awful at numbers.
39:10Yep.
39:11Which bodes well for...
39:12Yes, running businesses.
39:13Yeah.
39:14If we just get one each, I'll start at the other end.
39:17Just line them up against your blue marks.
39:20Measuring complete, it's time to fit the joists.
39:23Doesn't matter if they don't go straight in first thing, we can hit them with a hammer.
39:28Right, now it's power tool time, James.
39:32That's where I come in handy.
39:34That's one job that doesn't need maths.
39:37Great.
39:38Just like that we're creating.
39:41And the idea is that we're going to do this deck, create the base, move it to the site, and then we'll build the changing rooms on top.
39:50Get the hammer out, lad.
39:52She's coming along, buddy.
39:57To finish the deck off, we put braces in between each of these.
40:01Oh.
40:02And they're called noggins.
40:05And then that stops the wood from twisting.
40:07Two, four, zero.
40:10Having a bit of a mentor like Big Al, who's done the trade and who's keen to give me the patience and knowledge, is worth a lot.
40:20I don't think I'd be able to do half these projects without someone like Big Al.
40:3040 years ago, you wouldn't have found the Lord of the Manor doing this.
40:33Yeah, that's true.
40:34I mean, I love it, don't get me wrong, but how times have changed.
40:38I mean, we had cook, sous-chef, butler, co-butler.
40:42Currently, I have one full-time employee, and that's your other half who works in the office.
40:49It's not possible to pay for it.
40:50No, it's just expensive.
40:51We can't pay ourselves, let alone other people.
40:55It's a big change.
40:59Elsewhere on the estate, word has got round that James and Emma's new toy has arrived.
41:04This is the big moment.
41:05We've got a sauna coming onto site.
41:08But as it turns out, this is not the sauna.
41:12Just a delivery of supplies to the cafe.
41:15We've got a bit of a traffic jam going on.
41:17Yeah.
41:18What should we do?
41:21I can back up a bit.
41:22Yeah, that would be great, mate, if you could.
41:26So the wait continues.
41:28I think it's a really good idea. I mean, I'm going to make use of it, so hopefully other people will as well.
41:36Well, you've got to pay, Dad.
41:37I've got to pay.
41:39I always pay.
41:40I know you do.
41:41Yeah.
41:42I try and always pay.
41:43Yeah.
41:44No, I think it would be a great idea.
41:45I think the whole development of this place has taken on a new turn with this and hopefully it will bring courage more people up here.
41:53Dad, look at it.
41:55Oh, my God.
41:56How nice is that?
41:57Everything's turning up.
41:59Oh, my God.
42:00That is so cool.
42:01That is the sexiest sauna I've ever seen in my life.
42:06This morning I was worried and I was having all these concerns.
42:09I woke up in the night and I thought, are we going to make any money?
42:12And I'm getting really stressed about it.
42:14And now I've seen it.
42:15I'm like, no, it's fine.
42:17We can make this work.
42:18And now I feel like 10 out of 10 excited.
42:22Sauna's coming, mate.
42:23If you're around.
42:25Maybe we'll sit around.
42:26Yeah.
42:27You see?
42:28Everyone likes a sauna in a cold plunge.
42:30Oh, my God.
42:33Chevenage's sauna takes inspiration from the shepherd's huts of old,
42:37which provided shelter wherever the flock was grazing.
42:42Everyone's having a look at what's going on.
42:45The only question now is where to store the hut until it's ready to be installed in the field across the road.
42:52But its high, curved roof means the team are unsure how to transport it to its temporary location.
42:59I'll just take it there, about that bit.
43:033.25.
43:04That's going to be close.
43:06Might do it.
43:07We need 100mm off.
43:10How much is 100mm?
43:12Four inches.
43:13Oh, it's quite a lot.
43:14Two tight.
43:15Shall we go round the front?
43:16Yeah.
43:17Yeah.
43:18Let's try that.
43:20So, we were hoping we were going to get through the middle of the barn to position the sauna in a place by the cafe where everyone can see it.
43:30But, um, it's too tall for the barn to get through the door.
43:35So, our second option is to bring it round the front.
43:39Um, we may have to move some customers, which is always difficult.
43:44On the plus side, it presents James and Emma with a golden opportunity to parade Chavenage's newest addition to potential sauna customers before it moves to its permanent home in the nearby field.
43:59That's all right, you're okay there.
44:01You're okay.
44:11That bench is unbelievably close.
44:16That really is as stunning.
44:18It's absolutely lovely.
44:20Would you come and use it?
44:21Can't wait to get in then.
44:22Yes!
44:23Oh, good!
44:28What do you think of that?
44:33Is that...
44:34That's perfect there, mate, I reckon.
44:35Yeah.
44:37It looks fantastic, guys.
44:38Come forward a bit, Will.
44:39That was expert driving, I have to say.
44:41That was absolutely expert driving.
44:46This is where it's at.
44:48Even if we don't make any money, just having this here is going to be worth it.
44:55Whoa!
44:56I think it's very smart.
44:59Bigger than I thought it was going to be.
45:01We're looking forward to using it, really.
45:04Do you want to just whip off, Dad?
45:06Go on, whip off.
45:07Get your six pack out.
45:08Get the six pack.
45:11I've yet to see the sauna in operation.
45:15It'll be interesting to see how it goes down.
45:17Perfect.
45:18Can we get a similar look?
45:19Yeah.
45:20It's going to be the start of my health and wellness journey, guys.
45:24The sauna.
45:25If it works, then great.
45:27If it doesn't, we've learned something.
45:28Everything we do and everything we try, yes, some may work, some may not.
45:33And that's what you, you know, that's what you sign up for.
45:38Next time on Saving Country Houses.
45:42We are off to the picture treehouse.
45:44We're in Shropshire for a tour of the world's oldest treehouse.
45:49It's unique.
45:51Where Queen Victoria played as a young princess.
45:54I bet she looked out of that window towards the realm that she was going to roll over.
46:00There's a wet start for Tremburtha's wedding of the year.
46:04Everyone's a bit nervous.
46:06Your heart will sink when you see the rain coming down.
46:09It's a bit of a moment.
46:11And we're in Sunset Dorset to follow the progress of Mapperton's newest gardener.
46:17When I look at these tools, my jaw drops.
46:19I mean, I know that's a saw.
46:21This is the big moment.
46:22This is the first time I've ever come into these gardens where I'm actually going to start to chop.
46:26This is the fifth place to chop.
46:27Transcription by CastingWords
46:57CastingWords
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