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00:02The green, rolling landscapes of Great Britain
00:05are 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 leeks, 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?
02:29The more time one spends in the world of country houses, the more I think one thing becomes clear.
02:35In order to remain a home, they also need to be a business.
02:40And to make that work, owners need a certain amount of entrepreneurial flair.
02:46James and Emma Lowsley-Williams are a young couple who, in their short time running a country house,
02:52are off to a flying start in that regard.
02:56And they're certainly not stopping for a rest.
03:01In the heart of the Cotswolds, their home is the Elizabethan manor house of Chavenage.
03:09These 2,000 acres of picture book English countryside have been James and Emma's responsibility for the past two years.
03:18Happy birthday, Mary.
03:21They have already taken a risk by investing money from the sale of Emma's flat into setting up the new
03:27barn cafe.
03:28We have found this sort of second year of being open.
03:32We're getting a lot more people through the door.
03:34And this summer, their attention is turning to the installation of a luxury sauna pod.
03:40That's it. There we go.
03:41Where do you want it to go?
03:42This is kind of our dream.
03:44This is the Shepherd's Heart sauna we're going for.
03:47James, however, now has a second project in his sights.
03:51Also aimed at turning Chavenage into a Cotswolds destination.
03:55The number two project, which is what we want to do in the near future,
04:00to lean on the wellness and encourage people to come and stay here,
04:03is 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,
04:20and 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.
04:44Now that's a struggle when you've got 2,000 acres,
04:47because 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 Cotswold countryside.
05:03And that is priceless.
05:07Not hard.
05:10And so I wanted to start on the pond down in the park.
05:13I 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.
05:21Clamping may be a long-term project, but James is confident he can prepare the area
05:26and resurrect Chavenage's pond quite quickly.
05:30And then this is one of the areas.
05:33And luckily, the tree surgeons have been in today.
05:36Oh, my God. That is a lot of wood.
05:42So we've got to take out the dead trees, because obviously it's just dangerous in case they fall.
05:50Don't ask how much it costs, but this is 1,500 quid, two grand for that job.
05:58That 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.
06:08You think we might have earned two grand last week in the cafe, and it's all gone on one tree.
06:15Perfect.
06:16Perfect.
06:17Perfect.
06:19With some of the biggest trees down already, there's an opportunity for James to do what he likes best.
06:25Get stuck into the work himself, with a bit of help from one of the real powerhouses of the Chavenage
06:32Estate.
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.
06:42He 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.
06:49You need a pond clearing out, ask Raph.
06:51There he is.
06:53He's doing our roses.
06:56Rafa?
06:57I know that if James disappears, he's probably out somewhere with Raph playing with some kind of machinery.
07:04You ready?
07:06We're going to see if we can sort a pond out.
07:10Hands, look at the size of...
07:13He's literally hands the size of frickin' spades.
07:16James definitely couldn't do it by himself, so we're really pleased that we've got Raph, who is capable of anything
07:22in my eyes.
07:26Having 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.
07:40I love and enjoy every single day in here.
07:47I love James!
07:54AARGH!
07:55That's you!
08:01Right, Rafa, this is soon going to be an oasis.
08:07Imagine ducks, clear water, maybe even a water feature,
08:13beautiful oak trees, cabins.
08:16This is going to be our kind of wellness area.
08:20But with no real budget to achieve James's vision,
08:23it's up to him and Rafa to make this dream a reality.
08:27If we get chainsaw, if we get hedge trimmer...
08:31What about safety helmets?
08:34Don't never forget your safety helmet.
08:36That was the main thing. Exactly.
08:37Rafa is the most incredible.
08:40He is the most loyal and the hardest working bloke I know.
08:45I... I lost my shoe.
08:50Straight on my knees.
08:53Unfortunately, we only can afford him Monday and Friday.
08:55I'd love to have him five days a week,
08:58cos the amount of work we would get done is incredible.
09:01Ah, no, go again.
09:03Don't worry, get the big guns in, Rafa.
09:05Go on, big gun.
09:07I need to speak with James, how about pay rise?
09:10HE LAUGHS
09:14The 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
09:27and put a load of energy into it.
09:30HE LAUGHS
09:32That's one down.
09:38It's a good job this newly appointed Lord of the Manor isn't afraid to get his hands dirty.
09:45A tree surging on these big trees, 600 to 1,000 pounds a tree.
09:50So, if you didn't do it yourself, you'd be able to get anywhere.
09:55You'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,
10:05I can hand it over to the next generation in a better place I found it.
10:09Hopefully, you know, with a pond, a 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,
10:22Chavenage's reimagined pond could be a long time in the making.
10:25This 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 think in some jobs it's five minutes,
10:37but they are not five minutes.
10:39It's loads of work.
10:42Could take us a week.
10:43Weeks? Months? Months.
10:45Maybe to Christmas.
10:46Maybe till Christmas.
10:46It's a perfect day to get your date.
10:47Let's get started.
10:48We're all ready.
10:50Good good.
10:52We're all ready to get started.
10:59So that's two minutes.
11:00At Chavenage, in the Cotswolds,
11:02attention is very much on new projects
11:05that will hopefully bring money into the estate.
11:08but of course all our houses are historic buildings which require time and money just
11:15to conserve and maintain them at one of our houses that is very much the focus except the
11:22concern is not the house itself but it's celebrated gatehouse on the western edge of
11:30hamptonshire the gatehouse in question belongs to ashby manor house the house is presented quite
11:39beautifully thanks to 10 years of hard work from its australian owner nova guest the dailies take
11:47so much water the tudor gatehouse lies close to the road and the church and it's famous for its
11:55role 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 as close to the side of the
12:06plot room
12:06as we can so we're clearing all this because it's full of brambles largely overlooked by recent
12:13generations the plot room now has nova giving it the care and attention it deserves she plans to
12:19transform it from neglected space to a tourist attraction to showcase its important place
12:25in british 17th century history starting with restoring its external walls and leading the
12:33restoration work is local stonemason les simblet just drop it there
12:39les will be using a cherry picker to inspect the leaks and cracks that have become noticeable from the
12:51inside initially i think the best thing is just really to do a bit of a general survey check and
12:57we're particularly looking for where the water's ingress is happening do you feel feel high up not yet
13:06so this is a typical example of the sort of thing problems that we're having
13:14but the water's running down the face no absorption on the cement running straight into the joints into
13:20the structure of the building so here you've got this hairline crack when they repaired in the 90s
13:26they put sand cement and you can see that's very very hard so wherever possible is trying to expose that
13:31gap
13:32and fill it time and you can see then that there the gap gets bigger and then we can start
13:43filling that
13:44with with the oakum cork which is traditional boat the material goes back to viking times
13:53made from hemp or flax fibers oakum was the key natural product that kept ships and timber framed
13:59buildings water tight for centuries we're going to push that into the joints
14:06which stops the water penetrating les is using similar methods as the original craftsman
14:13who built the gatehouse but the costs associated with this kind of specialist work have a tendency to spiral
14:22it's very difficult budgeting having budgets in this house because they yeah
14:28this is where the problem where you can see from the inside where we've got the leaking
14:31do you see that that's all moving i imagine when you're dealing with new houses you can have very
14:38realistic quotes for things i think replace it but here as you get into a job you don't know what
14:45you're
14:45going to find they're quite big voids that we've got here it's just totally rotten away the whole thing
14:51gets blown blown up we'll get a bit of linseed oil
14:55i can oil the timber so it gives a little bit of resistance to moisture ingress and conditions the
15:03timber a lot of these timbers that are black and white uh really date back to the victorian times
15:10this would have been a smooth face originally then they exposed the beams so they thought it looked nice
15:14a lot of the time they painted the beams with black tar and that's the worst thing you do you'll
15:19find
15:19the timbers rot so fast it's ridiculous but i still see people now putting black tar on the oak timbers
15:24and it makes you want to cry really because it's just it's just totally wrong we fill it with the
15:31oakum that'll fill the gaps that's really why we've made the gap slightly bigger so we pack that in
15:38and then on the bottom here you can see that's going right into the into the joints
15:44and that gives a flexible waterproof bond it'll stop the water penetrating
15:50we're now packing it with the mass troweling mastic double boiled linseed oil and mix it with a burnt
15:56sand which is a fairly traditional thing for use on timber frame buildings you see how big those voids
16:02are about how much that's going into sort of pack that all in by hand lime mortar now to fill
16:09this one
16:12what 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 don't open the kind of worms
16:24but whilst les is able to fill voids and sealed cracks relatively simply the work leaps to a
16:31different scale if entire modern panels need replacing
16:38while you look at it you see more problems as usual you realize a lot of panels are loose
17:01about 35 panels so whatever time it takes for that we multiply by 35 that's probably the time we need
17:08to allocate for it the main question is do you want the repairs last five years 10 years 20 years
17:1330 years
17:15having been up close and personal with the worst of the wall les delivers his verdict
17:22i can't say whether it's uh good news or bad news oh golly the repairs are going quite well with
17:29you
17:29can see we've filled the joints in all the timbers on this left-hand side but some of the panels
17:34are quite
17:34loose my recommendation would be to probably take the wall off and start again because it might be just as
17:40quick right well it's more extensive than i thought in terms of the work that's needed to
17:48fix it because we have to actually remove panels and put new ones on so what started out as sort
17:54of
17:54a day or two's cherry picker hire and les is turning into sort of a whole two-week thing it's
18:02probably
18:03somewhere between 1500 pounds and 8 000 pounds or something i think of course it's a side of the
18:12plot room you can't even see it from our house in a corner which is usually covered in brambles that
18:16no one can see but this is what we have to do it's like the money you can't see in
18:20these houses
18:31just like ashby manor all the country houses we've looked at so far have history stretching back
18:38centuries but it's time for something rather different as our next house is positively youthful
18:46less than two centuries old it was built by a wealthy victorian who was keen to escape the city
18:53and establish a classic rural seat for his family that family are still there to this day
19:02we're heading across the welsh border to the brecon beacons where we find traberfith house
19:12with its towering gothic arches traberfith was the height of fashion when it was built by robert rakes
19:19in the 1840s it's now the home of his great great great granddaughter sally and her husband hugh
19:28so we're going upstairs now um to where the bedrooms are um and between the divide of the house between
19:34the
19:34children's and servants bedrooms and then the adults rooms is a height chart which documents the height
19:39of all the children who lived here through the years you'll see it's it's pretty chocker
19:46there's not much space for our kids heights that's for sure
19:50jess holland is a cousin is that right i think so in 1938 he held the title as the tallest
19:56until your brother hugh came in in 2002. seeing all these characters on this height chart makes me
20:05feel that we should get another height chart opposite here on the other side of the frame
20:10to start the next lot of generation so our kids the seventh generation of the house to be here and
20:15they're not on this so perhaps it's not too late for us to start continuation on this side and hope
20:22that
20:22we extend to the 15th and 16th generation who knows
20:29treburtheth may not be as old as some other country houses but it is not without its complications
20:36well there's an early victorian house you've got turrets there are three turrets and you've got got
20:42gothic archways nine different designs of leather windows we did look out 23 chimneys
20:46and all the chimneys some of them are slightly wonky but 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 treburtheth is that so much is as it was 175 years ago
21:10it's an amazing bit of intricate design
21:13this is the hall it's very dark it's deliberately dark the victorians didn't like sunlight in the way
21:19that we seek it out today the tastes of the very religious robert rakes who built treburtheth
21:27can still be found throughout the house and nowhere more so than in his library
21:43and the house also boasts various heirlooms that are clues to the lifestyle of its original household
21:50this is an example of somebody that has too much time on their hands really so over three volumes they
21:57have written out the bible
21:59whoever wrote this bible was very religious very devout i think the whole family were
22:04it's quite striking to think of how their lives were versus how our lives are today in terms of
22:10what they would have done and their day-to-day activities and yeah unfortunately we don't have
22:15time to write out the bible
22:19having been run as a private home for generations
22:22sally and hugh are now picking up what her parents generation started
22:27in turning treburtheth into a home and a business we spend a lot of time in the garden in the
22:34summer
22:34but it's also the area that we have wedding ceremonies up on the formal lawns there and just over there
22:41we have a marquee which goes up for about eight weeks between the end of may and the end of
22:46july
22:48the weddings are all part of the mix of what we do here to keep the house going and to
22:53bring in
22:53income the fundamental thing is we couldn't afford to live here without doing that yeah
23:01but sally and hugh are not the first generation of the family to feel the pressure of money
23:06whilst running this extraordinary country house
23:11robert rakes fell on hard times and he could no longer afford to live here and then this is an
23:17advert
23:17from that time and it's it's fascinating reading the detail and how it's described
23:22it's described as a gentleman's residence 14 bedrooms three dressing rooms each fitted with hot and cold
23:28bath and in the end it was let for 15 years it almost left the family but then it didn't
23:34because
23:35robert rakes jr so my great great grandfather felt he could come back on and and take it on again
23:42it narrowly missed leaving the family altogether and three years ago it was time for sally hugh and
23:50their 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
24:00to lose it
24:11in the heart of the brecon beacon sally and hugh martineau with the sixth generation of their family
24:17to live in their victorian country pile treburfith house it's all a far cry from their city life of old
24:30i lived in london for more than 10 years worked as a journalist and
24:34yeah 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
24:44of new skills to keep the income flowing and the house running so we're off to go and look at
24:49our
24:50beehives we've got three beehives down this driveway here in a corner of the field
24:56i did the beginners beekeeping course on zoom in lockdown i've been doing it ever since then
25:01and i started off one hive then two and then three
25:07beekeeping i love it's just a real escape it's very relaxing thing to do
25:13all right that's all honey when we decided to move to wales i did get teased a bit about how
25:18my life would be about making jars of raspberry jam but it's turned out to be jars of honey which
25:22is
25:22absolutely fine by me for the first time this summer sally will have enough honey to start selling her
25:29new produce plus 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
25:44tasting it was the most important part kind of
25:51and it's a very short commute to sally's retail outlet treburfith's own plant nursery
26:00the walled garden is still part of treburfith's but allison's leased it for maybe 10 or 12 years
26:06now and she's transformed into the most beautiful space hi hi sally honey we have honey 10 jars of
26:15solid honey and 10 jars of liquid but there's more what is the price of a jar of honey these
26:20days
26:21six pounds fifty yeah something like that see how that goes but of course a sideline in beekeeping
26:28will not generate the income sally and hugh need to keep treburfith 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 and they are styled to suit the
26:47tests of each couple and they can make use of the custom-made marquee the handiwork of designer
26:54roland stokes i 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 which they do
27:08relate
27:08to the gothic arches that can be found on the house we wanted something that was going to be in
27:14keeping with the house making sure that we got the right fit for the location was really important
27:19and that's blank canvas so couples can do whatever they want in here they can
27:23put a plinth up and hang flowers from that or disco ball or extra lighting
27:29and treburfith is soon going to be hosting its biggest wedding of the year
27:36these are roland's handmade trestle tables and chairs he's added an extension on either side for this
27:42particular wedding space enough for the expected 174 guests
27:51we enjoy weddings here it's a really momentous day in the lives of a couple lovely so for us on
27:58the sidelines it's just really really lovely to see it's taken a lot of brain power to just do this
28:03table if it all goes to plan it's brilliant
28:15there is nothing like the deadline of a wedding to focus the mind of everyone involved most country
28:22house projects on the other hand rely rather more on the owner's own determination to get things moving
28:30back 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
28:44timbers and panels gosh it's like looking at a work of art aren't you amazing
28:51we've delivered it properly to every every panel is sealed amazing yeah amazing on the corner where
28:57all the big voids are filled with with lime water and put the um traveling mastic on top of it
29:01yes
29:02so i don't think you've got any problem there at all now for 20 25 years lifetime guarantee from me
29:08it's not going to be very long now exactly i won't be able to chase you up on that obviously
29:14the tudor gatehouse home to the gunpowder plot room has received a major lime mortar facelift
29:24les was here i think all in all he was here for a month so it was vastly longer than
29:32we thought
29:33but he's done a really proper job so wonderful the whole thing has been sorted out and that is such
29:40a
29:40weight off my shoulders so now we can sort of start to look inside and make sure you know we
29:46can properly start restoring the inside knowing that we've dealt with the outside it's it's uh it's
29:52good news vastly expensive good news but still good news the less good news is that all les's external
30:00work has created a fresh mountain of dust inside the old gatehouse oh god a big broom get the big
30:08bits up
30:09and then we can start vacuuming beyond the dust there's also the small matter of what les found
30:14in the loft over a month ago we've decided that we're going to remove the bird's nest because
30:20all pro carcasses in there dead squirrels there's all sorts of ticks and lies so i want to make sure
30:27i got fully booted and suited we try to minimize any uh 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 i'm not sure if
30:42it's it really uh extensive enough but we will see my powered respirator complete my outfit
30:51i'm going to miss the universe next
30:55i'm ready once we get these dead birds out i want to clean the whole thing up
30:59i've got an industrial vacuum cleaner i'm going to spend the weekend hoovering and just see if we
31:05can start to think about if my plan is right nova's aim is to open the room where the gunpowder
31:12plot was
31:12planned to visitors but there's a way to go yet oh my word look at it nothing can quite prepare
31:25you for this
31:28there's four of those as i say there's dead carcasses in on there's all sorts holy moly
31:36for now this room is best tackled with powered breathing apparatus
31:44oh
31:50that's made no impression at all this is one that's there's about be about 10 of those i think
31:55on that one nest
31:58it's a big job
32:00a very big job i'm going to try a plan b pitchfork would be ideal
32:09however long or dirty this job gets it's clear nova is up for the challenge and set on presenting this
32:16small room in northamptonshire in the best light to create as authentic an experience as possible
32:23can't wait to light this fire
32:27another five loads will be there for the first nest
32:36so if we do reimagine what the plot room may have looked like i'm going to take some serious
32:41advice on that because we need to source 16th century furniture which is quite difficult in itself
32:48and then i just wonder if it's right to reimagine what the room might have looked like but you do
32:55imagine plotters sitting around a table catching a plan to blow up the houses of parliament
33:0760 miles south in the heart of the cotswolds there is progress at shavenage manor home to james and
33:14emma lowesley williams james's pet project of recreating the old pond is well underway
33:22the pond it's been a labor of love i've taken a lot of the trees that were encroaching in on
33:29the pond
33:30out i then got a three-ton digger in to get all of this silt out and create kind of
33:37a bowl shape
33:39but i'm happy with it it looks vastly different to like it to what it did look like
33:47james has done a lot of the digging out himself but before he goes any further raf is back to
33:53help
33:54with a spot of housekeeping so i reckon if we can get the branches around the corner are you all
33:59right
33:59in the tractor do you want me to show you how to do it you sure i don't need your
34:04help
34:06ever think what half ignition and engine i can drive watch out my dogs i don't know where they've gone
34:17raf loves using machine so i can get him doing all the heavy lifting
34:28and whilst raf is tidying up james can plan the next stage
34:36where we are now in the cotswolds it's all cotswold brash so you can see that with all the stones
34:40um so what they had to do is to line these ponds they had to import this clay and so
34:47it's proper
34:49it's not mud it's proper it's proper clay that you could uh potentially put in a kiln
34:56and um and that is the liner and that is what i'm trying not to scrape up or scrape out
35:04so i've got to
35:04try and leave as much of this as possible and reline it because all the roots have basically
35:09punctured it but it's quite amazing that is the liner of the pond and you can see the difference
35:19and this is all the silt that i need to try and get out and then this is the water
35:24level
35:26this is fantastic news it hasn't rained in like three weeks so the water is holding but it's the
35:32water's low really low although james is pleased with the pond's potential the change in seasons
35:39means that mother nature is a threat to his grand plans i've basically got time against me because
35:46i need to get all this silt out before the rain comes and uh and this starts filling up and
35:53uh that's
35:53basically the the challenge i've got ahead that's winter she doesn't really help me that much dig
36:01winter are you gonna dig hey at the moment i'm not regretting it but if it doesn't work and we
36:10don't get it done before the winter comes i might be regretting it
36:29it's a busy morning at emma's cafe but anticipation is in the air yeah i can manage with james's pond
36:38project on the back burner for now he and emma and the team are awaiting a new arrival it's the
36:43big day
36:45uh we're pretty excited to be honest the long-awaited luxury sauna pod is due to be delivered
36:52i'm just hoping this is going to work because this this is going to be terrible if it doesn't
36:56i'd persuade them it's going to work um but i'm really excited because this this sauna is
37:04is is it next level this is like the rolls royces of saunas
37:08um so if no one uses it at least i can use it that's the idea i'm actually quite excited
37:13that
37:14people are here because then we can like talk to them about it and hopefully get people like excited
37:18about what's going to be what's going to be here we need to give our sauna a name really
37:25jeffrey or something maybe we could get in the sauna tonight i didn't even think about that i just
37:29thought about getting it here another potential sauna tester could be james's father george lowsley
37:36williams we've got this sauna coming in today oh cool are you going to be on the members list yes
37:41i
37:41will do you want to be you and caroline are our first users but amid all the anticipation there's
37:49work that now needs to be done quickly you need somewhere to keep your screws that's what we need
37:55is a tool belt james oh my gosh this is fantastic turn around and there we go hold on is
38:03that all right
38:03yeah i feel like bob the builder chavenage's go-to builder big al and his young apprentice
38:09are building the base of the sauna changing rooms starting with marking out the position of the
38:15timbers no that's that's inches we want centimeters james because what you do 450 and the next one will
38:22be 900 yeah this is where your maths comes in i'll help you brilliant okay keep going so 450 on
38:29900
38:311,350 there we go it's a long time since i've had staff james 2700 you're like a pro james
38:40all you've
38:40got to think about with this is to how much money you're saving by not employing proper builders
38:45right 450 450 we all want to tell people how to do things i generally think i'm not very good
38:52at it i
38:52don't think i have the patience but uh uh my lack of patience james makes up for in enthusiasm 913
39:00.50
39:01spot on you see you're on it i still am terrible at maths i just i'm both emma and i
39:07are famously
39:08awful at numbers yeah which bodes well for uh yeah running businesses yeah if we just get one each i'll
39:16start at the other end just line them up against your blue marks measuring complete it's time to
39:22fit the joists doesn't matter if they don't go straight in first thing we can hit them with a
39:27hammer right now it's power tool time james that's where i come in handy that's one job that doesn't
39:35need maths great just like that we're creating and the idea is that we're going to do this deck
39:44create the base move it to the site and then we'll build the changing rooms on top get the hammer
39:51out
39:55she's coming along buddy to finish the deck off we put braces in between each of these
40:01and they're called noggins and then that stops the wood from twisting
40:08two four zero having a bit of a mentor like big al who has done the trade and who's keen
40:15to give me
40:15the uh the patience and knowledge is worth a lot i don't think i'd be able to do half these
40:21projects
40:21without someone like big out 40 years ago you wouldn't have found the lord of the matter doing
40:32this yeah that's true i mean i i love it don't get me wrong but uh how times have changed
40:37i mean we had
40:38cook sous chef butler co-butler currently i have one one full-time employee and that's your other
40:47half it works in the office it's not possible to pay for it no we can't spare cells let alone
40:52other
40:52people it's um big change elsewhere on the estate word has got round that james and emma's new toy has
41:03arrived this is the big moment we've got a sauna coming on to site but as it turns out this
41:10is not
41:10the sauna just a delivery of supplies to the cafe we've got a bit of a traffic jam going on
41:18yeah um what should we do oh i can back up a bit yeah that'd be great mate if you
41:23could
41:25so the wait continues
41:31i think it's a really good idea i mean i'm gonna make use of it so uh hopefully other people
41:35will
41:36do you have to pay dad i always pay i know you do i try to always pay um no
41:43i think it'd be a great
41:44idea i think the whole kind of development of this place has taken on a a new turn with this
41:49and uh
41:49hopefully it'll bring courage more people up here dad look at it oh my god how nice is that everything's
41:57oh my god so cool that is the sexiest sora i've ever seen in my life
42:05this morning i was worried and i was i was having all these concerns i woke up in the night
42:10and i
42:10thought are we gonna make any money and i'm just getting really stressed about it and now i've seen
42:14it i'm like no it's fine we can make this work and now i feel like 10 out of 10
42:18excited
42:22sauna's coming mate if you're if you're around yeah you see everyone likes the sauna in a cold plunge
42:33chavenage's sauna takes inspiration from the shepherd's huts of old which provided shelter
42:38wherever the flock was grazing everyone's having to look what's going on the only question now is
42:46where to store the hut until it's ready to be installed in the field across the road but its
42:52high curved roof means the team are unsure how to transport it to its temporary location
42:59let's take it there about that bit
43:033.25 that's gonna be close
43:06we need 100 mil off
43:09how much is 100 mil
43:11oh it's quite a lot too tight should we go around the front to check out the roof yeah let's
43:17try that
43:20so we were hoping we were gonna get through the middle of the barn to position the sauna in a
43:27place by the cafe where everyone can see it but um it's too tall for the uh the barn to
43:34get through
43:34the door so our second option is to bring it around the front um we may have to move some
43:41customers
43:41which is always difficult on the plus side it presents james and emma with a golden opportunity
43:49to parade chavenage's newest addition to potential sauna customers before it moves to its permanent home
43:56in the nearby field that's all right you're okay there you're okay
44:10that bench is unbelievably close
44:15that really is as stunning it's absolutely lovely
44:19will you would you come and use it can't wait to get in there yes oh good
44:32what do you think of that is that that's perfect there mate i reckon yeah
44:36it looks fantastic guys that was expert driving i have to say that was absolutely expert driving
44:46this is where it's at even if we don't make any money just having this here is going to be
44:52worth it whoa i think it's very smart um bigger than i thought it was going to be
45:00uh we're looking forward to using it really yeah do you want to just whip off dad go on whip
45:06off
45:06get your six pack out i've yet to see the sauna in operation it'll be interesting to see how it
45:16goes
45:16down perfect yeah it's gonna be the start of my health and wellness journey guys the sauna if it
45:25works then great if it doesn't we've learned something everything we do and everything we try
45:30yes some may work some may not and that's what you you know that's what you sign up for
45:37next time on saving country houses we are off to the picture tree hats we're in shropshire for a tour
45:46of the world's oldest tree house it's unique where 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 there's a
46:00wet start for tremer fifth's wedding of the year everyone's a bit nervous your heart will sinks when
46:07you see the rain coming down a bit of a moment and we're in sunset dorset to follow the progress
46:14of
46:14mapperton's newest gardener when i look at these tools my jaw drops i mean i know that's a saw this
46:20is
46:21the big moment this is the first time i've ever come into these gardens where i'm actually going to
46:25start to chop
46:51so
46:51so
46:51so
46:55you
46:57you
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