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00:02The green, rolling landscapes of Great Britain are home to the jewels in the country's rich heritage.
00:13Our country houses.
00:19Celebrated across the world for their design and decoration.
00:27Their crowns and gardens.
00:33And their centuries of history.
00:40There was a time when owning a grand country house meant a great deal.
00:45These estates were the keys to fortune and power.
00:50But 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.
01:02This 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.
01:10Ballpark figures, 350,000.
01:12Gulp.
01:13Gotta get these lights fixed.
01:14Today's owners are becoming ever more imaginative.
01:18Bon appetit.
01:19We're finding ways...
01:21I'm literally ankle deep right now.
01:23To keep the money coming in.
01:25These estates aren't designed to make money, they're designed to eat money.
01:29To keep the ceiling from falling down.
01:31And I turn the corner into here.
01:34Oh my goodness.
01:35We are collecting leaks, as you can see.
01:37And stop their fears becoming a reality.
01:40I 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.
01:55So, 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?
02:30As we've seen at so many of the houses we've been visiting, country houses today tend to be a product
02:37of millions of people.
02:38many eras and numerous individuals but more than any other that we're following the look and feel
02:44of our first house today was shaped by one key person a century ago that person's work is now
02:52being put front and center once again as a defining feature of a house's future we're
03:01heading to Northamptonshire for another visit to Ashby Manor house the house we see today has
03:11been shaped over many centuries and the latest in a long line of custodians is Nova guest who
03:17is proud of this beautiful homes rich architectural evolution Ashby Manor house at its core is an
03:26Elizabethan house but it has a number of architectural influences so we have the
03:30Catesby wing which is 16th century the gardener's cottage which is 17th century
03:38viewed from the east however the hand of Edwin Lutyens becomes obvious the most famous architect
03:48of the early 1900s spent over 30 years working at Ashby he created a whole new facade and designed
03:59formal gardens and parkland turning this centuries-old manor house into an Edwardian design icon a hundred
04:09years later the grounds are looked after by Ashby's regular landscaper Finn Toner still in awe of Lutyens'
04:17eye for detail the whole house and the whole design the whole Lutyens design is based around this central
04:22feature through the canal so you've got center of the house working out this fantastic landscaping but it
04:28doesn't just stop there it carries on all the way through to the end with symmetrical new hedging and
04:33sight lines down to the lake Lutyens clear vision was then for an open parkland dotted with single large
04:41trees in recent generations though this vision has become slightly less clear you actually look through from
04:52the house you can't see there's a lake there at the moment because the reed bed and everything's so high
04:56and closer to the house extra trees have appeared surrounded by shrubs and undergrowth now Nova and her
05:05team are on a mission to remove the imposters and restore Lutyens original vision none of this is supposed to
05:13be here the ash tree probably self seeded so we've got three areas that we're going to be looking at
05:20and
05:20they've started on the first one we're clearing the island essentially so unfortunately the ash is going
05:26to come down and then we're re-prepping all the ground trying to get rid of all the root structure
05:31of
05:31all the weeds and then we're going to create it back into lawn this is going to look very different
05:36yeah
05:36move on down to the second one so this again is all coming out and going back to lawn bigger
05:41units will
05:42come out get laid over ready for getting chipped up and then we'll go through stream out all the
05:46smaller stinger nettles and rambles and stuff like that yeah this is quite a big job the decision to
05:52return the parkland to its 1900s design may not be in tune with Nova's modern sensibilities but it's
05:59necessary to keep ashby grounds looking their best for paying visitors I mean obviously the environmental
06:06side of my brain is like we shouldn't be pulling anything out of the ground you know
06:12that's not really what we're doing these days but think about Lutyens I think he'd he'd approve
06:17you know he landscape the grounds and I think that we are doing the right thing taking down these
06:28ash trees you know there's a lot of ash dieback in the area currently anyway so it's less heartbreaking
06:32if you know what I mean getting them down is quite easy and quick just got to avoid the lawnmower
06:40that's one lad that's always doing his job cutting down a tree takes no time at all for an experienced
06:48landscaper like Finn doing it well on the other hand requires some proper planning and Finn has a
06:55trick up his sleeve to ensure minimum impact to ashby's carefully maintained grass just lay that there so
07:03when it comes over some of the branches will spike straight into the ground and just a little bit
07:09of a crash mat just saves hurting the lawn too much
07:26but with the sound of chainsaws humming away Nova is still worried about the end result
07:34we can plant lots of more beautiful beach trees on that side and then it's going to be okay
07:42as country house projects go removing trees and planting new ones makes a big impact for
07:49relatively little cost so it's a smart way for Nova to spend her limited resources even if she won't be
07:58the one to sit in the shade of the trees about to be planted the finances and stuff you've got
08:03to
08:04really aim at the correct places because you can't just do all of it there's just so much area so
08:09much
08:09ground so much you could do you really need to focus your funding into the bits you think can make
08:15the biggest difference we have the business running to you know to be able to have the funds available
08:21to do wonderful projects like this but we're doing projects like this because we feel that the grounds
08:28are improved you know when we have all these visitors sometimes we have weddings that are up
08:33to a few hundred people and we have people walking through the grounds this can't have sort of
08:38bracken and weeds and things coming out of a planting pocket just because we haven't quite
08:42been able to deal with it we're going back to how it should be we're taking the landscape back to
08:47how Lutton's intended it to be and that's going to be wonderful for visitors coming here because
08:52it it looks how it was supposed to be how it was planned out 120 years ago
08:59as much of the ash trees as possible will be put to good use the smaller branches will be turned
09:06into wood chip whilst the bigger limbs and trunk will be saved for firewood and to control costs Finn has
09:14given himself an ambitious schedule so we're probably here for about three days by the end
09:20of the day today we'll hopefully have all the trees down when he told me his time scales I was
09:26like are
09:26you sure I mean I actually thought he was going to be bringing four guys in but here they are
09:34two of
09:35them and they go absolutely hammer and tongs but Finn has brought in some serious hardware to keep things
09:43moving it's like an army tanker isn't it seconds for another time I could do with that vehicle here all
09:54the time to be honest
10:07selling a tree may be quick and easy but what's left behind could prove more difficult and costly to deal
10:14with
10:17we've budgeted this all without a stump grinder but I'm not quite sure how you I thought all trees
10:23stump stump seed to be ground out with it you get this proper machine so that's in my mind because
10:29we can't have a stump sticking out of the ground
10:42at ashby manor house in northamptonshire it's a day of traumatic change in the surrounding parkland
10:52I don't think I can even watch the next one because but whilst owner Nova guests ash trees
10:59come down her landscaping costs are going up they are quite big stumps for the machinery that we've
11:05bought today but on trees as established it's probably gonna end up more of a stump grinder job
11:10than it is pulling it with machine it will add a little bit of cost because obviously we have to
11:14bring the machinery over in it there's probably a few hours working grinding them out and then
11:19we've got to get machine here and get it back and fuel and yeah all adds up landscape of Finn
11:27has two
11:28trees down and has now moved on to the second area that needs to be cleared it's been a busy
11:36day
11:37it's already possible to see the impact of Finn's work and Lutchen's vision is slowly returning to Ashby
11:48if you look you can start to appreciate all the beautiful trees which were really hidden from view before
11:57tomorrow he'll be coming to focus on all the reeds and bulrushes along the front of the lake
12:04so you'll be able to sort of walk down to the lake and actually walk up to the water which
12:08will be amazing
12:11I'd like to think I am truly doing everything that not only Lutchen's but future generations will see
12:22what I have been the vision that we've had and and and the thought process behind why we did it
12:40both the joy and the challenge of gardens is how they change and evolve over time so as we've seen
12:49at Ashby Manor major steps are now being taken to restore the landscape to how it was intended to be
12:56the same can apply inside a house too as time takes its toll on family treasures and when those
13:03treasures are handmade and centuries old the time and cost to restore them can be enormous
13:13down in dorset this is exactly the challenge being faced at mapperton house
13:22once voted britain's finest manor house mapperton is the seat of the earls of sandwich
13:29the current earl is luke montague but this has only been the family home since 1955
13:37in country house terms the montague family are relative newcomers to dorset so this is like the
13:44private side if that makes sense this is where we live the back of the house and then we're going
13:49to
13:49come through here and this is the this is where we open it up to the public chicago born julie
13:58is the
13:58current countess of sandwich and the third generation of the montagues to live here but her home is full of
14:05heirlooms from the family's previous and even larger house in cambridgeshire and there's not
14:11quite enough space here even though this is a big house it's most of it is open to the public
14:17so
14:17there's actually not a lot of space which i know sounds crazy but there's no space actually for me to
14:23have a room where i can store things a case in point is julie's big restoration project of the moment
14:29the montague's 18th century tapestries these tapestries have been displayed in various rooms
14:38at mapperton since the family moved here but a closer look reveals how degraded their wool and silk has
14:46become they've now been taken down and all bar one are in storage awaiting conservation work but you
14:55can't simply tidy these massive works of art into a cupboard or pop them under the bed could you
15:02i had to store the tapestries that have yet to be restored underneath a bed in a room that's open
15:10to
15:10the public just one second unfortunately this means that gaining access to them is now rather a cumbersome
15:21job what i want to get out is of course the one that's really difficult so just one second the
15:26tapestries here at mapperton have been so close to my heart and they were in such a state they are
15:33in
15:33such a state that's so stuck because it's so long this has been a dream of mine to get as
15:42many of these
15:43tapestries restored as i possibly can you know they have sentimental value because they've been a part of
15:48the montscue family for hundreds of years restoration work on the historic tapestries
15:55however is a dying art that's painstaking and slow and horribly costly it's the gift everybody that
16:03keeps on giving reinvigorating the largest tapestry will cost julie more than 100 000 pounds we're not
16:10done yet i think we are we're not one more but julie does have one ace up her sleeve to
16:16help foot the bill
16:17her sizable online following what we're doing is restoration projects within the house that need
16:25to be conserved and repaired putting those restoration projects out on social media one under here
16:33is much bigger than this one and asking our followers to donate towards these projects that's
16:40exactly what we're doing and it's working so i'm gonna have to move these so far julie has raised
16:48enough money for work on a different smaller tapestry to get underway it depicts a classical garden
16:55complete with ornate fountain and peacock this tapestry has been in the hands of the restorer for several
17:03months now and it's now time for julie to get on the road and look in on the restoration process
17:12so this tapestry has been a part of the family collection since the 18th century
17:18and i'm visiting emma telford in her wonderful workshop and she has started the work based in
17:27hereford emma telford is a specialist textile conservator who's worked on tapestries for
17:33the likes of blenheim palace so i've got it ready for you to have a look at under here oh
17:39my goodness wow
17:44and she has been hard at work on the montague family tapestry for the last few months
17:52lots of pins look at all those lovely color pins and lots of threads here yes a lot of work
17:59being done
17:59it looks a bit of a mess but i often think things start they look worse before they get better
18:04well
18:05i can already tell it looks so much better emma's first job was to give the tapestry a very delicate
18:14bath and she's now looking at the wool and silk itself it's clear she's not the first person to
18:21carry out a restoration that is where the original silk weft has entirely disappeared almost entirely
18:30these are remnants of it here but the rest of it has gone and it's got this ugly wool
18:37uh repair running through it and i'll take them out but somebody spent a long time doing them and
18:45if they hadn't done that it could be that even more of the tapestry that the physical bits of the
18:51tapestry would have fallen away so you know you have to be respectful of that somebody's taken the
18:57trouble somebody else in the past 100 years ago maybe longer than that thought that it was worth
19:03looking after and and did their own version of of these tapestry repairs so it's part of the history
19:10of the objects now this is the conservation stitching and it reintroduces some of the integrity of the
19:25design that's lost by just infilling with the suggestion of the color that was there originally
19:32and it stabilizes the actual physical material of the tapestry which you can see otherwise would be
19:41just all hanging like that this is all going to consolidate it so that the the design isn't
19:49distorted and the material is secured so that it can be displayed
19:59in the neck of the peacock here there is actually quite a bit of the original silk still remaining
20:08so this this is all original silk right and then i've color matched where the silk has actually come
20:16out all together like here i've color matched and infilled the losses so these threads here are the
20:25tail ends of my threads that my sewing threads and you can see the colors that i've been using
20:32this is going to be tricky as well this wow yeah well in the tail feathers of the peacock
20:40we can just make out some remnants of the design so here are obviously some bits of peacock eyes
20:48most these bits are wool and this is silk and most of the silk has dropped out so there's going
20:55to
20:55have to be a certain amount of artistic license really because i can't see what the actual original look
21:02like yeah i'm building up to that i'm building up to the tail with sections in such bad condition
21:11it's easy to see how emma's work takes weeks to complete but julie is delighted to see her beloved
21:19tapestry slowly coming back to life and can't wait to be able to show off the finished product to
21:25mapperton's visitors honestly if you had talked to me about three years ago i would have never in a
21:33million years thought i'd be sitting here with emma watching this happen and it's all thanks to her
21:39loyal international following so i raised twenty thousand dollars for this tapestry if you're passionate
21:50about a project that you want to preserve for future generations people will get on board with it
21:57it's really exciting and the fact that you've managed to interest so many people to do that in
22:05in a very short space of time is is really amazing to me and nobody's making anything like this now
22:10in that respect it's kind of priceless it's irreplaceable when you're saving a country house
22:17in various moments like this that witness hard work paying off truly are to be cherished
22:27well that was wonderful that was like all of your
22:32efforts coming together because i've had this obsession with these with these tapestries
22:39I look at Mapperton as like little like mini battles basically and so I feel like I'm winning
22:47this small battle but Mapperton is a bigger beast than that and you're never ever going
22:55to complete the puzzle ever it's literally impossible
23:12a country house is not a project that will ever be completed I think that much is clear from what
23:19we've seen a series of mini battles is how Julie Montague at Mapperton rather brilliantly sums it
23:26up we're paying a final visit now though to a castle where it's fair to say something has been
23:34completed this will ultimately become just one chapter in its very long history but the castle
23:41is now looking at its best seems well set for the future and is a wonderful tribute to those
23:47that look after it and its unique owner 40 miles up the northeast coast from Newcastle we find
23:57Chillingham Castle owned by Sir Humphrey Wakefield and maintained by a team of loyal staff well now I'm
24:08going to do the gates April till November the gates open and close every day 11 o'clock open and
24:15as soon
24:16as everybody leaves five-ish close Chris Harbour is one of Chillingham's caretakers it's his job to open
24:22the castle for business this gate broke off last year it weighs a ton wouldn't want this to fall on
24:29you that's for sure and there we are I'll be ready for an open for business but the fact that
24:41Chillingham is open for business at all is nothing short of remarkable the original medieval fortress
24:49was turned into a country house in the 17th century once England and Scotland had formed a United
24:55Kingdom but in the 1930s the house was abandoned and left to slowly deteriorate for half a century
25:06when it was acquired by Sir Humphrey more than 40 years ago it was something of a project to say
25:13the
25:13East now it is a home once more and a flourishing tourist attraction all thanks to its owner I love
25:24that view there and looking across at the castle Sir Humphrey Wakefield took over Chillingham in 1982
25:33he spent a decade saving the castle from becoming a ruin and now in his 90th year has the place
25:41running
25:41in his own unique way even on hot days some free likes the ambiance the fire and that's done and
25:54then I carry on with my rest my jobs alongside Chris Sir Humphrey small team includes fellow caretaker Ian
26:04car it's a 19th century clock made by reading sons of Newcastle and my job is every day to wind
26:11it but
26:15it's inside the castle's rooms where Chillingham's unique charm becomes apparent it is packed full of
26:22an eclectic collection of antiques and quirky curiosities does anything caught your eye or everything
26:31Richard Craig a long-standing castle steward has the job of explaining all this to visitors and he
26:37never tires of it yeah that dates from the 1760s French slipper bath previously one who was Mick Jagger
26:46everything on display here has been acquired by Sir Humphrey who having left the army has spent decades
26:53working in antiques and enjoying global adventures including an expedition to Mount Everest the original
27:02ladders from sort of camp one really me going over the icefall my boots have no idea how they survived
27:12Chillingham is like a museum to everything that Sir Humphrey has ever shown an interest in and today's
27:19challenge for Chris and Ian is displaying a new item in the castle chapel an historic crucifix
27:26somebody wants this built okay to put a cross on so that he can look at it but he wants
27:33me to make
27:34a table up so I've made this piece of wood up this is just the temporary thing okay so rest
27:42on there
27:43well he's gonna have a proper piece of wood made up yeah yeah and then he's got this carpet if
27:47you lay
27:47that on the back there this cross what he wants to put on here this is just come back from
27:55the
27:55restorers so Humphrey had this in his apartment for years added more mother of pearl to it yeah yeah
28:04because this is a really early 16th century across but it was actually in a terrible state for a long
28:10time all right I think it doesn't look too bad actually no but he wants it on show here so
28:15the
28:15public can see it because there are lots of things the public doesn't get to see but somehow the word
28:20lots feels like a staggering understatement we're now going into my rather chaotic long gallery it's
28:29packed up with things which will go on display one day I think there's so much and such variety yeah
28:36but I
28:38don't really know where to begin it does buy obscure things and you think where on earth is that gonna
28:44go and then surprise surprise it turns up somewhere yeah but I don't know where to put things I put
28:52them here as it were that great sledge my mama's side saddle wonderful horse harness man traps what
28:59else of interest a great big part these leopards and tigers here are shot by my father or my grandfather
29:06and for Richard this ever-evolving collection is a constant journey of discovery I came in today and
29:13I thought ah I know so there's a musical instrument that I didn't quite recognize and another chair that
29:18I didn't recognize and this is only from last week so there's often new old things things do get moved
29:25around so it's something else to get your head around because doubtless somebody's going to ask about
29:29it because sometimes we think things have been stolen but they haven't he's because he's moved
29:36them and didn't tell anybody one of Chillingham's most renowned and indeed most feared works of art
29:43is said to be of a 17th century Spanish witch and she curses people who steal and she looks actually
29:50going to curse someone the castle even displays signs warning visitors of the witches powers but it
29:57appears many of Chillingham's visitors have ignored the warnings and paid a price all these letters
30:05here and drawers full of them came from people who stare in films just endless letters saying that
30:13they're sorry they're staring things one letter apologizes for the theft of a button that dropped out
30:19of a drawer which seemed to result in a 20 year old dog dying just two days later coincidence or
30:28curse or
30:30maybe just a very old dog I guess it's 25 less a year um saying my mortgage has gone wrong
30:38or whatever
30:39and constantly since I took whatever it is but I sent back this so please can you tell Spanish which
30:45to give
30:53a break thankfully many items from Sir Humphrey's collection are less appealing to the light-fingered
30:59in comes man steal your car but he can't because he's caught do you want me to clean that day
31:06no no Amanda
31:10Crossman has been Chillingham's cleaner and restorer of all metal artifacts for the past 11 years and her
31:17work involves a never-ending conveyor belt of new items oh every time he goes away and comes back there's
31:24more stuff follows this is one it's the ceremonial Chinese bits of armament I don't actually know what it
31:36is probably for stabbing someone but yeah it's it's rather rusty so I better clean it
31:45the advert it came out on April Fool's Day which appealed to my sense of humor and it was for
31:51an armor cleaner
31:52I thought yeah I can do that the only skill I had was cleaning mother-in-law's brasses in the
32:00pub
32:01so that wasn't that came in very handy and the technique for cleaning centuries-old armor is
32:08surprisingly simple you've got the steel wool the thinnest that you can get so it doesn't hack at the
32:15metals and you put loads of beeswax this time you just basically just rub it you just rub until you
32:21get
32:21all the rust off the last time I did this was several years ago so it doesn't mind like a
32:29proper patina
32:29occurring like because he's sort of aging the suit of armor here he said he'd rather have it fitting
32:36in more with the medieval castle here she was good for me because I didn't have to scrub so much
32:42it's fascinating place to work everything in this place has a story you just learn something new every
32:49day you can see whether there's a nice bald patch free from rust where a hand must have gone there's
32:57like
32:57some there sort of fits a hand great next one more than 40 years after Sir Humphrey arrived here
33:14Chillingham is a country house reborn it has turned its own eccentric charms into its greatest selling point
33:23ghosts Chillingham we have many complete with gardens ghosts and treasures galore Chillingham feels well
33:34set for the future I suppose my thing in life is beautiful things and beautiful buildings
33:45each detail of this house I fall in love with it it's like a jigsaw puzzle which is clipped into
33:53place I've had my chapter and I love my I still love my chapter maybe in a month's time some
34:02collapse will happen but just at this moment in time it's a damn good moment
34:23it seems to me that an owner with real enthusiasm and determination may be the most important factor in
34:31seeing a country house succeed in the 21st century mapperton's tapestries could have been left to
34:38deteriorate Chillingham Castle could so easily have become a ruin and at Ashby Manor house it feels like
34:46Nova Guest is determined to protect and promote all that's best about her own wonderful home from its
34:53Edwardian landscaping to the Tudor gatehouse where planning of the gunpowder plot once took place
35:04it's now a week into Nova's project to honor the landscape design of Edwardian architect Edwin
35:10Lutyens Finn Toner and his team have removed ash trees shrubs and brambles in order to open up the
35:19parkland and re-establish views down to Ashby's Lake so the guys are still here I knew it would take
35:27longer
35:27than Finn said but that's kind of fine but golly that you know what a difference it's made we can
35:35certainly say this is stage one complete returning it to parkland means that you can now see all these
35:42beautiful trees and I think for all the weddings and events it's just going to lift the filming and
35:47photographing experience and then he's done a great job here and he's just as you can see leveling this
35:53off and we're having these stumps ground down tomorrow but do you want to come and have a
35:59closer look at the water come down along the lakeside Finn has removed large amounts of rushes and wreaths
36:07to reconnect the park with the water before you didn't realize until you got closer just what an
36:13enormous body of water this is and now that we've opened up this whole stretch it means you can
36:18actually appreciate that it goes all the way behind and we've got a few of those last wreaths to take
36:26out the work at the lake has also revealed one lost treasure yeah look the lady of the lake statue
36:34was here at Ashby perhaps 150 years before Lutyens arrived but she's barely been glimpsed for decades
36:44she too now enjoys a view across the parkland standing here and looking back up you can actually
36:52see the house from this on this diagonal which I've never seen before because that was always enormous
36:57shrubs there this is true to the houses roots Lutyens would be proud the parkland isn't Nova's only
37:11a major project to conclude this summer she has also been wrestling with the restoration of Ashby's
37:19Tudor gatehouse with new lime plaster panels this small but important part of the estate should now
37:28be weatherproof for decades to come and after a thorough clean the room where the planners of the
37:36gunpowder plot once met is almost ready to be opened for visitors the final piece of the puzzle is to
37:44try and
37:44recreate this important moment in history with some suitable set dressing I'm imagining if they had all
37:51those plotters in there at one stage and they were sort of looking at maybe maps of the houses of
37:55parliament they may have needed a table and then what kind of seating that would have been very simple
38:00stools or if it was a chair what would have been a chair that could have been the kind of
38:08chair they
38:08sat on when it comes to interiors Nova is in her element but reimagining a scene from the early 17th
38:16century is not her speciality so she's on her way to the town of toaster to get the advice of
38:23Chris
38:24green hello how are you Chris is part of the third generation to run this very specialist family
38:33business now I know you're a bit worried about what you might have but yes if we're thinking about 16th
38:41century difficult so why is 16th century furniture so difficult to find like there's not much around
38:50to be quite honest most of it it just didn't last it didn't stay a course of time because most
38:56of it
38:56was softwood a lot of it softwood and it was in very damp houses and it got used really basically
39:03yes got heavy use and and a lot of it just didn't survive and what kind of furniture would have
39:08been in
39:09the plot room not very I would think quite fine furniture not very fine furniture and quite basic
39:15yes perhaps a small dining table you know a chair at the corner and pretty basic really
39:23Chris's store is an absolute treasure trove of furniture ranging from 100 to 400 years old with
39:30just a few items dating back even further this is certainly 16th century yeah great big hole in it
39:40yeah yeah that's a bit of worm and probably the odd rodent got in there I think it's actually it's
39:47good solid timber but even that you know it's obviously shows sign of where you know it's big
39:53enough for a person to hide in there or get buried it it's a 1750 age earlier than that yeah
40:06first
40:06quarter of the 18th century 1720 so it comes to the all-important table whilst the date might not be
40:14spot-on the size is the perfect fit that's going to be six foot plus I mean that's a really
40:22good
40:22size you get eight pound that one with the table arranged it's time to see what else could help
40:29recreate the historical magic these were typically for the end of the bed and to put your dead linen in
40:39so you think this is 17th century that's quite an interesting little size for the plot room we
40:45were thinking Chris we have to keep in mind what we can actually get up the stairs it's a narrow
40:49staircase it's a narrow staircase this sort of chair here they probably would have such a lovely
40:56chair yeah it's an early chair my gosh that's so nice it may not have been too grand for the
41:00room
41:00you're talking about these are early candlesticks they would walk around with the drip trays there so
41:06that you don't say so you don't burn your hands on the on the wax these are probably even earlier
41:12so they aren't they amazing yeah so you as your candle look at the wooden base as you and as
41:23your
41:23candle burns down this you just turn this and that goes up I've never seen anything like that very clever
41:28so you've got to look up there to walk around with so what age is this 17th century that's
41:34incredible lovely lovely little things where do you find these things ah yeah that's your secrets
41:40that's amazing yeah lovely thing yeah so they probably would have been absolutely ideal for
41:46your room I should think back and see straight away how you can create so much feeling in a room
41:53especially that room if you walked in and it had some appropriate things in it brings it to life
41:59but having assessed chris's stock nova is keen to understand the price tags so this coffer here
42:07could be 550 pounds that's a friendly price to you nova okay um early sticks uh 350 pounds good
42:17and then what about our table the big table downstairs the big gate there could be 1750 pounds 1750 okay
42:25on the chair 650 okay yeah I mean these these I'm definitely going to yeah yeah they're lovely yeah
42:35they are lovely I thought if we if I found one thing it would be a bonus I really didn't
42:40think there
42:41would be really suitable things because of the age we're looking at so I mean to find those candlesticks
42:48amazing I mean they're beautiful and to find a table of that scale and it's very close to the
42:55the right era so I I think that is ticking a box a week later the antiques are on their
43:05way to Ashby
43:05and the gatehouse project is set to be completed so here we are and we've been on quite a journey
43:16with our plot room it's an exciting morning and we've got chris's brother nick green arriving from
43:21ron green antiques today and he's got that wonderful gate leg table that we looked at yeah okay it's not
43:28um right I mean I'm hoping it can get up the staircase I don't quite know I'm I'm thinking
43:35it will because the sides go down so we're going to carry that up oh I have you know
43:43so we're hoping to bring the room to life
43:49and start to get a sense of how I envisage the plot room to be for when we have school
43:55groups right
43:59it's going to be fun to see if it pounds out as I had in my mind so I picked
44:05some um
44:06rosemary and sage kind of to ward off bad spirits but also because it smells lovely what else have I
44:13brought I thought they might have um they would have definitely had some apple trees
44:20without a doubt so I'm sure maybe they were eating apples I've got some inappropriate victorian
44:26chairs we'll have to find something a bit earlier earlier at some stage light fire we're going to
44:32light the fire is it going to draw uh it was such an incredible moment lighting the fire
44:40getting the table up there sort of pulling in those four chairs uh yeah completely thrilling actually
44:48uh I adored it I adored it I adore the room probably should have had a fire guard fireworks already
44:58but at least we can start to think about them sort of being on some kind of stool or seat
45:02they would
45:03have had to sit down to yes to have long discussions into the night about what they were doing
45:07mm-hmm it's great to see this yeah very exciting oh the candlesticks ah it went like the candlesticks
45:18it's a fabulous room and has the weight of history it means you know being able to sit down in
45:24there
45:24and sort of you know you can take it in for a bit longer it's better than I imagined and
45:32now I can proudly show people the plot room I'm so excited actually
45:41next time on saving country houses
45:46at the end of a long dry summer it's wind and rain that threatens the mappet and plum fair
45:53it's the calm before the storm
45:54we've looked at every single 80 mile an hour winds there's going to be pouring rain there's furniture in
46:01every room emma nosley williams faces the prospect of moving into our cotswold manor
46:08every drawer is full i think we're going to need a really really really big skip
46:14and a heritage archaeologist is called into whitmore to give his verdict on the state of the house
46:21you call it average good poor mark's out of 10 for current condition i think it'd probably be around six
46:33so
46:45so
46:46so
46:46so
46:59Transcription by CastingWords
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