Saving Country Houses with Penelope Keith returns in Season 1 Episode 1 with a fascinating journey through Britain’s historic homes. In this episode, there’s luxury glamping in the Cotswolds, a visit to the house where the infamous Gunpowder Plot was hatched, and a stunning castle in County Durham facing urgent window repairs. Join Penelope Keith as she explores the challenges, history, and preservation efforts behind some of the UK’s most remarkable country houses in Saving Country Houses with Penelope Keith.
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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?
02:29In this series, we are making regular visits to nine country houses.
02:35All rather different, but all with timeless qualities that make them irresistible to the casual visitor.
02:41Whether it's a winding gravel drive or a sweeping staircase,
02:46we like a country house to feel like nothing has changed for generations.
02:51Even better, when the surrounding countryside is equally unspoiled.
02:58And in a particularly beautiful part of England, the celebrated landscape of the Cotswolds is where King Charles chose to
03:07make a country home for himself, at Highgrove.
03:10And barely two miles away lies the Elizabethan manor house of Chavenage.
03:19Built in local Cotswolds stone, Chavenage glows in the warm summer sun.
03:26In looks, at least, it is the quintessential English country house.
03:33But looks can be deceiving.
03:37There is something thoroughly modern going on at Chavenage.
03:42You'll find no estate owner has a smart car.
03:48It's a Skoda.
03:49Every estate owner has dents.
03:55Why is that?
03:57The worse the car, the smarter you are.
03:59That's how we've always seen it.
04:01I don't think that's true.
04:03For over 130 years, the estate has been home to the Lowsley-Williams family.
04:09We do love it. I absolutely...
04:11It's a great house.
04:14Chavenage and its 2,000 acres has now passed to its latest custodians.
04:20Do you want me to start?
04:21Yeah, you go.
04:22We are currently standing in the barn cafe where Em and I...
04:28Our first joint venture.
04:29Our first joint venture.
04:30This is a time of great change at Chavenage.
04:35Come on in.
04:37So this is it.
04:40This was actually the cattle shed.
04:43My grandmother had it...
04:45This is all kind of like her farmyard.
04:50Oh!
04:51James took over running the estate just two years ago,
04:56before he and Emma were married last year.
04:58They haven't moved into the main house yet.
05:01She's very sweet.
05:02So we'll be moving from the two bed bungalow to a sort of six, seven bed grade one listed manor
05:13house.
05:18You're standing in kind of the great hall.
05:20My grandmother and grandfather had that as their living room.
05:25James grew up at Chavenage, whereas Emma is just getting to know the house.
05:30But this is very much unchanged for three, four hundred years.
05:35Yeah.
05:36There's plenty for the couple to take on board.
05:39That looks good.
05:41My worst nightmare are leaks. Emma's worst nightmare is something else.
05:44My worst nightmare is this.
05:47No, no, no, no, no. This is not nice.
05:49This is not nice.
05:54Go and look in there. Go and look in there.
05:58That's not right. No, not that one.
06:00That one.
06:02That's not nice, is it?
06:03That's my doll.
06:06Once we do the renovation, this could be a lovely room,
06:09but there's just something about it and it's that doll.
06:12Gets me every time.
06:14Every time.
06:17Come, come.
06:21James and Emma may be running the show, but life at Chavenage is also a family affair.
06:28I'm Caroline Loza-Williams and I'm James's aunt.
06:34My parents inherited the house when they were given it as a wedding present in 1958.
06:40Dad had a lovely thing of saying he was born in the house and died in the house.
06:45James's other aunt, Joanna, also lives on the estate, looking after catering.
06:51There's also James's father, George.
06:57James and Emma moving into the house is definitely a new era.
07:01Da-da-da!
07:03The house lends itself to people being here.
07:07It doesn't like being empty.
07:09It's got a kind of spirit that needs people and energy.
07:14That may be true, but there are parts of Chavenage to which people rarely venture.
07:21I don't know why there are so many chairs in here, but I call it the room of chairs.
07:27The ghostly part of the house.
07:29No one's slept in these rooms in 200 years.
07:31Yeah, so this is, um, people have had quite a few different experience, like ghostly experiences within these sort of
07:37two rooms of the house.
07:39And you do actually walk in and the temperature drops.
07:42It's terrifying.
07:44Em won't come in on her own.
07:45No.
07:46I was brought up in a room that had to be exorcised twice over the years.
07:52And I spent the first 17 years of my life living in a room that had really quite kind of
07:58ghostly feel about it.
07:59And it was very uncomfortable.
08:05This is going to be our bedroom.
08:08Very exciting.
08:09This is our most exciting.
08:09You've got to have a bit of vision in this house.
08:12You've got to sort of, like, forget the brown carpet.
08:15And it's going to be a big job.
08:16James thinks we can do it in six months.
08:17And I said, no chance.
08:20100%.
08:21James and Emma is probably the best news we've had.
08:26My father very much wanted to have the family remain in the house.
08:33This was painted pink and blue because it was a nursery.
08:37But behind the pink and blue is all this, like, incredible oak panelling.
08:41So this whole room is oak panelling.
08:43So we're going to bring it back to its former glory.
08:45We are indeed.
08:46This takes us through into the bathroom.
08:51Just wait until you see this bathroom.
08:59Why are you laughing?
09:01No, I just...
09:02I just love it.
09:04We can have a nice, like, freestanding bath.
09:07Yeah, it's going to be great.
09:08Bit of vision, bit of vision.
09:12Bit of vision.
09:18James and Emma have now given up their old jobs
09:21and are throwing themselves into the challenge
09:23of transforming how Chavinage makes money.
09:27Would I say we're cash poor?
09:28I mean, absolutely.
09:30I'm not sitting here with mountains of cash
09:32to be able to fund the place.
09:33Um, we are hand-to-mouth right now.
09:37You know, being totally honest with you,
09:38it costs about £350,000, £400,000
09:41just to keep the place going every year.
09:45So we've got to find innovative ways to generate a revenue.
09:50Yeah, you just never want to be the generation
09:52that doesn't make it work.
09:55One thing is for certain.
09:56They are not short of ideas.
09:59Plan is to make this a yoga studio.
10:05And you're going to come in reception here.
10:07Then you're going to step up and then into the big space.
10:12This is all going to be oak floor where you've got your mats.
10:16Windows redone.
10:18Light panelled roof.
10:20Up lights around the walls to show off the stonework.
10:26I will support them as much as I can going forward.
10:30There are bits of what they're doing which I don't really understand.
10:33Up top, we're going to have like a wee workspace or a snug area.
10:37But their heart is in the right place.
10:38And you can see James, you know, if you cut him in half, he's got the word shave and it's
10:43written like a stick of rock.
10:46Yeah, it could be amazing. We can do different events.
10:48We can hold retreats, yoga, pilates, retreats, wellness retreats.
10:52So it would be really nice to do mum's classes and things like that.
10:55So there's so much you can do once the space is renovated.
11:02Never liking to sit still for long, James and Emma have one project they're getting started with right away.
11:12We love saunas.
11:14That's true, we do love it.
11:15And we thought it'd be a really nice addition to the cafe business.
11:21And we have the perfect spot for it on site, which is sort of in the field opposite our cafe.
11:26In a few weeks time, the hope is that Windmill Field will become home to a luxury sauna pod with
11:33its own cold plunge pool.
11:36What we're basically doing here is turning field into money.
11:40Yeah.
11:42The plan is you're turning a horse field that generates no money into a sauna field that potentially can generate
11:48you a profit.
11:52Now is our opportunity to try and convert on this business.
11:57It's a trend that's coming on and we need to jump on trends otherwise we're going to fall behind.
12:04Right, have you got the measuring tape?
12:07The first task is to measure out where the sauna unit and its changing room will go.
12:14Here you go, I'll take the measuring tape.
12:17Right, off we go.
12:21A lot of horse poo in this field.
12:25Will it work? We've got no idea.
12:28Is it a bit of a risk?
12:31Absolutely.
12:32Are the older generation going to like it? Probably not.
12:42Just outside Tetbury in the Cotswolds, James and Emma Lowsley-Williams are tackling a new money-making project on their
12:50Che Vintage Estate.
12:51Across the road from the main house, Windmill Field will soon become home to a luxury sauna.
13:00So it's going to look like that.
13:02I've originally wanted it to be in the cafe yard but I think when people are sort of changing, they
13:06want a quiet experience, this is a much better position.
13:10And still not too far away from the cafe and I think whoever's coming to use the sauna won't mind
13:14a sort of lovely stroll through the fields to get to the cafe.
13:17OK, so hopefully it's going to work out OK. We're praying.
13:23This is the sauna deck. It's a multi-person sauna so you can fit eight people in this sauna.
13:29It's got an internal window and a glazed door leading out to the deck here.
13:34It's got an ice bath on the decking so we're going to put in two ice baths.
13:38Buying the sauna outright would cost James and Emma £35,000 so they have agreed a trial run with the
13:46manufacturer.
13:47I'll do the numbers. OK.
13:50They'll be renting the sauna for £1,400 per month.
13:54Best case scenario, right, we're doing it for ten hours a day. We open ten hours a day, the sauna.
14:00Eight. Eight hours a day. No, but ten hours for ease of numbers.
14:03No, because it's not realistic. OK.
14:05Your business plans aren't realistic. Right, eight hours a day.
14:08So let's say we have four people an hour instead of eight on average.
14:13So let's say four times 15 equals 60.
14:1960 times eight equals £480 a day, seven days a week.
14:27So times that by seven equals 3,360 times that by four, £13,440 a month without with it half
14:40full.
14:41So the figures are, the figures do look good.
14:47Which is exciting, that makes me feel a bit better actually.
14:50So this, this is our planning, this is our planning plot. So from here.
14:59So the first bit is basically putting in the infrastructure before the sauna actually arrives.
15:05Let's stick that in there.
15:07Still looks small.
15:09Don't you think?
15:10I think it won't look small once it's in.
15:12But it must be right.
15:14It's going to take a bit of hard work to kind of build the infrastructure.
15:17But hopefully we can offer something slightly different in nature.
15:21This is going to be so lovely.
15:25Ideally we wouldn't have electrical power wires over the top of the sauna.
15:33I'm so excited for it to arrive. It's actually arriving quite soon. So we do need to get our acts
15:38together.
15:40And more than that, there's a few people who need to be brought up to date with the plans.
15:49Well, I haven't actually told the older members of the family, the previous generation, what we're up to here.
15:56So it's going to be a slight surprise. But let's just say they're not really the sauna going spa wellness
16:03types.
16:03Round here, there are probably about four days a year when you would want to wander around in a field
16:09in your slippers going to a sauna.
16:12Yeah, I think the older generation might, might.
16:14They might turn their nose up at it.
16:16They might think we're being a bit crazy.
16:18They might turn their nose up at it.
16:19Yeah.
16:19But, hey.
16:20You can tell them. You can tell them.
16:22We can't be led by the previous generation.
16:24We still have to be innovative and we still have to, you know, we still have to figure our own
16:28way out.
16:32I think it's wise that we just get the matriarch, my Aunt Caroline, to see if this is a good
16:37idea.
16:38She's going to say maybe it's a weird idea, but...
16:41I don't know if Caroline's the sauna goer.
16:44PHONE RINGS
16:45Hi Caroline.
16:46Hi, Jay.
16:47Sorry to take you away from...
16:49What email are you writing?
16:50Oh, I'm just sending out bills. Invoice is my favourite bit of the day.
16:53That's it, that's it.
16:54You know, we're trying to diversify the estate.
16:57Yeah.
16:58So I'm thinking if we can put in, bear with me on this, a...
17:04..movable sauna.
17:05A what?
17:06A sauna.
17:06You mean we're going to have naked people running around eating each other with birch fruits?
17:11Eight people, £15 an hour, per hour, hopefully profiting two, three grand a month.
17:19I believe it when I see it, Jay.
17:21I absolutely believe it when I see it.
17:24OK.
17:25People expect us a five-star hotel thing and they step out and have a stinger nettle or something like
17:30that.
17:31I mean, it's not as easy as you think.
17:33I mean, I'm thinking outside the box.
17:35Well, it's a bit different to traditional Cotswold ranching sheep has been.
17:38Yeah.
17:40You always need a hook to hook people and that could be it.
17:45So one, two, three.
17:47I wonder how many people can go in the sauna at the same time.
17:50He seems to think there'll be quite a lot.
17:52Five.
17:52I think it will work, but I don't know.
17:54Watch this space.
17:56Wait.
17:57And we will, Caroline.
17:59We most certainly will.
18:01That's it.
18:02There we go.
18:02Where do you want it to go?
18:04Erm.
18:09It is always fascinating to see what each generation brings to a family.
18:14Most of our houses have been owned by generations of the same family,
18:19usually handed from father to son and occasionally, I'm glad to say, to daughter.
18:24The whole Lowsley-Williams family, however, decided that running Chavenage should pass straight
18:31from James's grandfather to James himself, skipping a generation entirely, and putting
18:38a classic country house in unusually youthful hands.
18:41A bold move and bravo to them, all I say.
18:45But not all country houses have been in the same family for hundreds of years.
18:54250 miles north of Chavenage is a remarkable property that was never even intended to be
19:01a family home.
19:03Just four miles from the cathedral city of Durham is a home whose remarkable medieval history
19:10is matched by its most unusual recent history.
19:20Mighty Branspeth Castle, whose owners once plotted to overthrow Elizabeth I.
19:26Built as a stone fortress in the 14th century, it was enlarged and turned into the most imposing
19:33of country houses in the 19th century.
19:38Never throw away a scrap of wood, it might come in handy.
19:41Today, it's the unusual home of Tom and the extended Dobson family.
19:46Yeah, one of the killers of living in a large building.
19:50If you live in a two up, two down, with a shed out the back, I'd guess that you've probably
19:59got a 30-yard walk.
20:01If you want any gear out your shed, it's a 30-yard walk anywhere in your house.
20:08Here, it's getting on a kilometre round trip by the time you've gone all the way up and down the
20:13stairs and round the houses.
20:17And doing that three or four times, that's knackering.
20:23That's before you've even started the job.
20:27Luckily for Tom, he's part of a remarkable family team.
20:32Wife, Uli, runs the Branspeth Castle Cafe.
20:36A little bit more space behind the counter would be nice.
20:39And regularly helping out a sibling's Pip and Clare.
20:44Clare's husband, Mark.
20:47Aunt Elizabeth is in the kitchen.
20:49One of the problems is that the oven slopes back to front, so one has to do a sort of
20:55strategic allowing of fuller cake mixture from front to back, which is not brilliant.
21:03And Uncle Oliver on cone duty.
21:11At the heart of all things Branspeth are Tom's parents, Richard and Alison.
21:18But as you come round the corner, you'll be able to see what the medieval castle looked like.
21:24This is a beautiful angle where the three towers come together.
21:30You also see my brother's washing, but never mind.
21:37The extended Dobson family have called Branspeth their home for almost 50 years.
21:43But it's become more than just a family affair.
21:46I've actually made two samples.
21:49Living and working here are the likes of dressmaker Jasmine.
21:52Technical drawings.
21:55We can solve a problem by just forgetting about it.
21:57Martin, the actor.
22:00And James, the organ builder.
22:04But despite this castle collective all getting stuck in, one feels they have their hands full.
22:13That's actually heavier than I thought it was going to be.
22:18Tom is often put in charge of castle repairs, a role he's now happy to share with James,
22:24who moved into the castle a year ago as a paying tenant.
22:29You know, as you can see, it's a monumental structure.
22:32Everything you can think of that could happen with a property needs doing here.
22:39Walk and talk, James. This box doesn't get any lighter.
22:45Today, they're tackling a castle window.
22:49Now, a typical British home boasts eight to ten windows.
22:54I would say Branspeth has rather more.
22:58I've never actually counted how many windows we've got.
23:00Lots.
23:01Lots.
23:05What's not in doubt is that this 1820s sash window is in need of some love and attention.
23:13The nails are basically down there.
23:18James and Tom are both organ builders by trade.
23:21The difference is that Tom is well used to how life at Branspeth works.
23:26It's been his home his entire life.
23:30We have this sort of a community sort of feel at the castle.
23:34Right. Well, over to you.
23:36Where people do want to muck in and help.
23:40I wouldn't stand on that.
23:42I never assume anything is going to go smoothly in this place.
23:46They'll see it and go, ooh, what are you doing?
23:48You shouldn't be doing that.
23:50201 years old.
23:51And here I am, gymming it with a crowbar.
23:59Tom knows this only too well that what appears to be the most simple thing is generally turns into a
24:09challenge.
24:13All the time.
24:23There we go.
24:33And there's the bottom of the nail.
24:35Handing these over to James, I think.
24:40Getting it out is great.
24:42It's an enormous step forwards in working through what could turn into a host of windows all over the place.
24:51And obviously in this condition, it is going to be a bit of a challenge.
24:56First thing is just sort of kind of assessing what can be saved, if you like, and what can't.
25:02Things like these glazing bars, they'll all be used as patterns to make matching pieces to go in.
25:09But all this sort of like nails and everything that's been cobbled in over the years has got to be
25:16just carefully removed.
25:18Yes.
25:19It's going to be an interesting little challenge.
25:23He's able to focus on that one area.
25:26It allows that project to come to fruition while all the firefighting can still be happening.
25:35I would estimate this could all be done in a couple of weeks.
25:40But it is a process.
25:42And that's one window out of loads of windows.
25:48Just the nature of the beast, which happens to be a 200 plus room stone beast.
25:55Oh, it's looking remarkably solid at the top.
25:59Oh, I hate castles.
26:07It's definitely airy.
26:10That's just the start of the project.
26:14Yes.
26:15I'm pleased to see it out.
26:17I'd be even happier to see it back in.
26:34Being the custodian of an historic country house is an absolute privilege, but it's also a responsibility.
26:42Because your home has had a role in not just local, but sometimes even national history.
26:49Our next house has certainly played its part in our national story.
26:54And despite being centuries old, it also looks immaculate.
27:02Just south of Rugby, Ashby Manor is at the very heart of the country.
27:14It's the eye-catching home of its Australian owner, Nova Guest.
27:20Come on, dogs, let's go!
27:22Come on!
27:25So this is Mimi and Mabel, named after previous Chatelains of the house.
27:30They are very good company and they're mostly good.
27:38So behind me is Ashby Manor house.
27:42It's a mishmash of architectural styles, really.
27:46Elizabethan, certainly Edwardian.
27:48At its core, probably around 900 years old.
27:51And there's always been a house on this site.
27:55So it was in the Book of Doomsday, for example.
28:00Nova and her husband, Henry, have lived at Ashby for 10 years.
28:04But Henry's family can trace their history here to 1903.
28:10Around 10 years ago, when Henry's cousin was selling the house,
28:15we didn't really know what we were doing, but we suddenly, we both felt this really strong urge to keep
28:20it in the family.
28:21Because we'd been married here and, you know, we were sort of really sad that it was going to be
28:26sold.
28:27And so we quite naively, and luckily we didn't think through it too much because we probably wouldn't have bought
28:32it if we'd really thought about what was going to be entailed.
28:35We bought it.
28:40Rash decision or not, Nova is clearly in her element at Ashby, bringing her love of art, design and interiors
28:52to a centuries-old country house.
28:57I used to fantasise about making the house a home, actually.
29:01I remember years ago thinking, gosh, I would love, I'd do that or that.
29:05So when this opportunity came, I felt like I could really make it a wonderful home.
29:12If you come through here, this is such an example of me not knowing what I was doing.
29:19Not confident enough to sort of use printed fabric, so I just thought if we just do very lovely, plain
29:24upholstered sofas and keep it very sort of simple and calm,
29:28it's going to feel modern, it's going to feel like it's just been done and it's an exciting time for
29:33the house.
29:34You know, it's going to give it a new direction.
29:37In the house, there was no furniture.
29:39We had a blank canvas and I wanted to have comfortable seats at every turn, books to read, flowers in
29:48the house.
29:51I grew up in Western Australia.
29:53I've always had a love for Aboriginal art and I thought the Great Hall would be a wonderful showcase of
30:00that.
30:03That has brought that to life, all that colour, and I feel like the house is smiling.
30:08We wanted to do something a little bit different to what other houses were doing and I think it feels
30:13quite unique to other places.
30:22My mother was rather unusual.
30:24We grew up on the beach in Western Australia and she was probably one of the rare people that bought
30:29Georgian furniture
30:30and had an English country garden in the middle of, you know, the sound of the desert.
30:35Always had that love of English interiors in me, so the truth is I'm in my element here.
30:42I love decorating the house.
30:45But these wonderful interiors haven't just been for Nova and her family to enjoy.
30:52They're part of a fresh approach to making the house pay for itself.
30:57I think we're going to get everyone to come in through the front door and then I'm going to take
31:03them through to the music room and then we'll end the tour with a tea and coffee and cake through
31:09here.
31:13I started very quickly to try and create a country house weekend experience that we could sort of curate wonderful
31:21weekends for people to come and enjoy the house and grounds.
31:25It was the first time the house had been open for exclusive hire, so that was a new thing that
31:31this house had never been run as a business before.
31:34So here we are in the music room. Back in the day this room was, you know, lined heavily with
31:40tapestries and probably felt quite different to how it does now.
31:44It's really about generating revenue for this house to keep it going, to keep repairing and paying for everything.
31:53That's our way of looking after it.
31:56Come on girls, let's go. Come on.
31:59Come on.
32:03The main house at Ashby may look ready for a photo shoot, but there's no shortage of other buildings to
32:10look after.
32:12Here's our wonderful St Ledergerius Church.
32:16It's a Norman church that's been there for a thousand years.
32:20And then you can see also the Ipswich Wing, which is a Tudor building attached to the site.
32:25And there is another whole manor house down the north facade.
32:32And then we have the gate house and then another cottage over there.
32:38It's in quite a terrible state now.
32:40So it's a bit of a dumping ground for various pieces of garden equipment.
32:46This house has so much more than just the main house, even the buildings that aren't actually in use.
32:52They need to be repaired.
32:54They need to be repaired.
32:54So, you know, it's, uh, it goes, ah.
33:04One of our big projects this summer is the gate house.
33:08The thing we're famous for.
33:10It's quite amazing to think when you go in, who walked those stairs?
33:18The answer to that question becomes easier when you know the gate house's more common name.
33:25It's known as the plot room.
33:29It's been locked up and forgotten about.
33:31And it's such an important part of English history.
33:34So it'll be really great to fix it all up.
33:37The plot room placed Ashby at the heart of one of the most famous moments in British history.
33:44The 1605 gunpowder plot.
33:48Overseen by Ashby's owner, Robert Catesby.
33:53The manor house was owned by, uh, Robert Catesby, namely his mother.
33:57So, Robert was the mastermind behind the gunpowder plot.
34:02And he recruited all these notable, infamous figures that we know, including Guy Fawkes.
34:08They used to meet, above me is the Tudor room, the plot room.
34:14It was considered a really good meeting point because it was, it had a view each side.
34:18You could see, you know, anyone coming in, it had a good view, you know, of all directions.
34:25Catesby, Fawkes and their co-conspirators mapped out an outrageous plan to blow up the House of Lords.
34:32Their goal was to kill the Protestant King James I, his Privy Council and most of the Protestant aristocracy.
34:41And, and here they were, plotting away. Come and have a look.
34:47It's pretty exciting when you're in there because you feel the weight of history as you walk the stairs, actually.
34:55The Catesbys had long been one of England's most prominent Catholic families.
35:00But Robert was leading them in the most militant of directions.
35:11So here we are, window on window.
35:13Very good view of sort of, you know, anyone looking or what was going on outside.
35:23Despite the severity of what was discussed here, it's said Robert's biggest concern was his ageing mother.
35:31One reason for holding meetings in this gatehouse was so she would have no idea what he was up to.
35:47It does draw one here, you know, it has a bit of a magnetic feel.
35:53Like this is sort of the start of something.
35:56If these wolves could talk, what they've heard and seen.
36:00And to think of them all sort of galloping off on their horses to London in that fateful week.
36:10The gunpowder plot was of course a failure.
36:14Guy Fawkes was discovered beneath the House of Lords with 36 barrels of gunpowder.
36:19And Catesby was shot three days later whilst on the run.
36:24And the event marked the end of the Catesbys' 230 year tenure at Ashby.
36:31Save for the King allowing Robert's mother to see out her days in the family home.
36:39So what we want to do in here is really get this room properly restored, which we've started, but we're
36:45just applying to get the internal ceiling replaced, which, you know, obviously is a bit of a job because we
36:51want to, it's obviously going to be exactly how it was.
36:55And we want to celebrate this room because it has been closed up for a good 120 years.
37:01And it's such an important part of English history, just deserves to have its exciting moment again.
37:09This is the home of the gunpowder plot, isn't it?
37:26We've been relishing the chance to go behind the scenes at nine country houses spread across Great Britain.
37:33The eras of the three that we have seen so far may all be very different, but they appreciate that
37:39they are just the latest custodians in their home's long history.
37:43Sometimes that means restoring the room used for something as famous as the gunpowder plot.
37:50But other times that means tackling something that's just very personal.
37:56Back in the Cotswolds, that's exactly what Chevenage's new young custodians are up to.
38:05I just had some cheesecake.
38:06Is it nice?
38:09Really nice.
38:21This is the dream.
38:25The attic at Chevenage is home to an enormous model railway.
38:31It twists and turns its way around the beams that were once part of the servants' bedrooms.
38:40But for decades, this space was the peaceful retreat of one man.
38:47James's grandfather, David Lowsley Williams.
38:51Now you're looking at one room, it goes through the entire back corner, three rooms back that way, and it's
38:58all connected, so it goes through the walls.
39:03If you come through here, you just have to go on your hands and knees.
39:09The station's here, and it goes around the back.
39:14And then we come back through under the...
39:20This is Austria.
39:23And then up over here.
39:26It comes around here.
39:27This is kind of the centre station.
39:34It's absolutely enormous.
39:43It's honestly like he was here yesterday, like his fleece and his bag, and it's just, yeah, it's like stepping
39:50back in time.
39:56I inherited this estate off my grandfather, and so he spoke to me a lot about taking on the estate.
40:07Him and my grandmother got it when they were 23 and 22, and doing something that kind of allows his
40:14memory to live on would be amazing.
40:16And something really close to his heart was this model railway.
40:19David Lowesley Williams died two years ago.
40:26But it's clear his model railway hasn't run for a lot longer than that.
40:34James and Emma would love to know if the trains could be made to run again, and whether they might
40:40even become a visitor attraction.
40:43We've worked on that half, so that's all cleared and swept.
40:48So now we've got this half to work in.
40:51Have a look in here.
40:52Need a dust pad and brush.
40:54It leaves us a nice clean workspace to get in training enthusiasts to see if they can get it going.
41:01That's the plan.
41:04Rubbish.
41:06The main challenge right now is separating out the useless from the useful.
41:15Does this work?
41:18Oh my god, I did not expect that to work.
41:21Track magic.
41:23Cleans track and contacts for maximum response and reliability.
41:27This is a whole box of snow fur trees.
41:38Trees.
41:40Trees.
41:41Well, you do think, what was he going to do with all these trees?
41:44But he probably was going to create like a lovely winter scene and it's just, sometimes I feel so sad
41:49that he's not, you know, up here still doing it.
41:52But it is life, isn't it?
41:56This is actually quite useful.
41:59Oh!
42:00Perfect.
42:02So this was the old light that went on the front of the house.
42:06Now when you have a kind of place like this, you have so many antiques because you don't throw away
42:12editing.
42:13I mean, glues, salt shaker, that's probably for the snow actually, to put on the alpine seams.
42:22Because I think that's the interesting thing, like we don't even know what we've got in here until we start
42:27cleaning it out.
42:29Amazing really, isn't it?
42:31But look, it hasn't been dusted in a while, you can see quite a few mahusive spiders, I don't think
42:37Emma's going to like that.
42:39The thing is, we don't want to be chucking away loads of boxes because if we can find the carriages
42:45and the trains and things that go in the boxes, then we might be able to actually store them properly.
42:49This is a Suzuki 410 four-wheel drive with four passengers in sports clothing.
42:55How am I going to find them?
42:58Probably not.
43:01There we go.
43:07Perfect.
43:11I'm slightly concerned about how long this might take us, but if we can get stage one complete, which is
43:16clear and sort and tidy, and then we can think about getting the trains going.
43:20But yeah, the clearing job is going to take a few weeks, I think.
43:29I'm going to take a few weeks later.
43:30My grandfather, I thought, was a bit of an eccentric, out-there character, but when we kind of looked into
43:38this more, we actually realised he was actually quite an insular character, and he wanted to actually spend the majority
43:44of time on his own in the attic.
43:46Oh, my God, do you know what this is?
43:49A light.
43:52See, he must have worn this when he was, like, doing detailed work.
43:56This railway wasn't built for people to see. It wasn't built as something he could show off. This was specifically
44:04designed for himself to tinker with, to be in his own mind, to be in his own head.
44:10So these, these are the trains that are on refurbishment. It's not something I used to work on with him.
44:18He just wanted to do it on his own.
44:20I miss him terribly. He died two years ago. He was born in the house and died in the house.
44:24And taking on the house, I really feel like I could take on some of Grandpa and bring him back
44:30to life as we do it.
44:31Oh, my gosh.
44:34What?
44:34We've got a brand new train.
44:37Oh, a brand new train. Just because we just needed one more.
44:42There's another brand new one.
44:45I hate that noise.
44:48Don't hurt yourself.
44:53God, I feel like I've been caving.
44:56OK.
44:57God, that's new. £33. That was bought about 50 years ago.
45:02Look at that.
45:03That's pretty incredible.
45:06Oh, my giddy arm.
45:07Do you get that?
45:08That scared the life out of me. I thought it was a ghost.
45:10There's a bat.
45:12That's cool, isn't it? I love bats.
45:15Should we have bats in the house?
45:19Probably not.
45:21Oh, my God.
45:23Next time on Saving Country Houses...
45:27This is the roof.
45:29..we discover unwanted visitors at the gunpowder plot room.
45:33There's a bit of a squirrel's tail there.
45:36I was just wondering where the crows eat squirrels.
45:38There's more work in here than I realised.
45:41The planning for Chavinage's new sauna continues.
45:45Right, James, people will need somewhere to change.
45:47It's going to be some timber decking.
45:49Don't work too hard. I don't pay you enough.
45:52You don't pay me at all, James?
45:53No.
45:54And we travel to Shropshire.
45:56Yeah, I think it's that one.
45:58To meet the couple who bought back the family seat of 400 years.
46:03I was in such a state of emotion. I was shaking.
46:06I couldn't get the key into the lock.
46:08It was really impossible because I was so emotional.
46:11If you stop it, the door have to build a wall.
46:15And it's OK, James, it's OK.
46:16And I get stuck with it in a row.
46:19Yeah, I know.
46:35I give it a little closer.
46:35Let's do this again.
46:36Ah, the side of the round.
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