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Saving Country Houses with Penelope Keith S01E07 H 264
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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 appétit.
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.
01:41I 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?
02:08The question is, how do you save a country house and see it prosper in the modern world?
02:08The first day, we're hoping to live in the modern world.
02:09We have never met.
02:23The first day, we become a car.
02:26We have never met.
02:26So, we won't have met.
02:28We will not have to live in the modern world.
02:29Many of our country houses owe their existence today to one key period in history.
02:36Almost a thousand years ago, it was the Normans who introduced primogenita,
02:42the right of the eldest son to inherit everything.
02:46That simple rule allowed estates to be handed down in their entirety,
02:51along with the power and wealth that went with them.
02:54But, despite that, it's rare for a country house today
02:59to have been owned by just one family since its very beginning.
03:02Our first house today, however, can boast exactly that.
03:12In the countryside of North Staffordshire,
03:15less than five miles from Stoke-on-Trent, is Whitmore Hall.
03:23This manor of Whitmore was first mentioned in the Doomsday Book of 1086.
03:28More recently, in 2021, Edward Kavanagh Mannering inherited the estate from his father.
03:37A new chapter in a remarkable family story.
03:42I am the 34th generation to live here.
03:51I occasionally sit on the steps of the hall on my own
03:54and I think of all the ancestors that have kind of
03:56quietly come through the front door going back 900 years.
04:02And I kind of imagine them pointing at me, you know, you...
04:07I can't say the word, can I?
04:12I don't want to be the person that screws up.
04:17And there's lots at stake.
04:201,500 acres of farmland.
04:24Lakes.
04:25A church.
04:28And even a pub.
04:34And so far, only three times across 34 generations,
04:39has Whitmore passed to a female heir.
04:43But women have always played an important role here.
04:46We are descended from William the Conqueror.
04:50We have a pedigree, if you like, back to William the Conqueror.
04:54Bit like dogs.
04:55Frightfully keen on pedigrees.
04:58Edward's mother Christine and sister Fleur
05:01are a big part of Whitmore's recent story
05:04and are happy to offer an opinion on the past.
05:07What have we achieved in 1,000 years?
05:10Well, we survived.
05:13Yes.
05:14But I would probably say
05:16that we actually haven't achieved necessarily that much.
05:19You know, 1,000 years of opportunities
05:21and haven't achieved anything that's worth writing about
05:24in terms of the bigger historical picture.
05:27As a family, we scrabbled through.
05:29That could be our motto.
05:30Yeah.
05:31We scrabbled through.
05:32We scrabbled through.
05:37Displayed proudly on the front of the house,
05:39the real family motto means
05:42Forwards If I Can.
05:44Inspiring words for running a country house in today's world.
05:49But the family crest
05:51is perhaps a little less inspiring.
05:54Our family crest.
05:56If you ask me, it's a donkey.
05:58But if you ask my mother, it's a...
06:00Ass.
06:02Of all the crests that we could have as a family,
06:05it's sort of one of those things about even our crest.
06:08It's basically mocked.
06:10And the other one is we've got the...
06:13Oh, the halter.
06:14Yeah.
06:15Which is very, very, very important.
06:17On the donkey's head.
06:19So in anything that we do, the donkey's head,
06:21it's got a halter on it.
06:22And that means that...
06:24We have a right to hang a man without trial.
06:27Which is extremely useful if you've got peasants and things
06:30who are getting a little bit rebellious.
06:33You can say, well, don't forget.
06:35Yeah, obviously 600 years ago, nothing.
06:40Well, it's never been rescinded as far as I know.
06:48This boy.
06:50Edward may not be worrying about rebellious peasants these days,
06:54but he's feeling the pressure of his responsibilities.
06:58When you're the head of the family,
07:00and that's taken two, three years to sink in.
07:04So I feel this has been overwhelming.
07:11I consider myself lucky not to have inherited.
07:16Oh.
07:17Inheriting somewhere like this can be a bit of a golden prison.
07:22But luckily for Edward,
07:25whilst he continues his work managing the estate,
07:28Fleur has agreed to come back to the family home
07:30for 12 months to help out.
07:33She is bringing her expertise as a project manager
07:36to give Whitmore Hall a thorough health check.
07:40Running an estate like this,
07:42there was just so much to think about.
07:45What is the structure of the house?
07:47What's the roof like?
07:49What's the lead work like?
07:50All the windows, 84 windows, a lot of them need work on them.
07:54What are the gutters like?
07:56Are the drains broken?
07:57And then, you know, don't even start me about sewage.
08:01The hall sucks in everything.
08:04Energy, money, time.
08:07It's basically a vortex in the middle of Staffordshire.
08:11And what Whitmore has in spades is mysteries.
08:16Despite having lived here for over nine centuries,
08:19much about Whitmore Hall remains unknown, even to the family.
08:24The thing about the house is the fact that it's been here for 900 years
08:29and there are layers and layers of different areas
08:33that have been integrated into one house.
08:36So you've got a medieval house, you've got an Elizabethan house,
08:40you've got a Victorian house.
08:41I mean, for instance, the bit that you're standing in here
08:45is, in fact, outside of the house.
08:48If we'd been here 400 years, we would be getting wet.
08:52But the house only revealed this secret less than 30 years ago
08:57when Fleur's parents decided to do some investigating.
09:02Right, you ready? Let's have a look.
09:09There we are.
09:11So, what we're looking at here is the outside timbers of the house.
09:19This is the facade of the old Elizabethan house,
09:22and this, if you were riding up on your horse in the 1500s,
09:27you'd be looking at this as you came down the drive.
09:38Whilst Whitmore's timber facade made way for a perfectly symmetrical
09:42red brick manor, styled during the reign of Charles II,
09:47there is one mystery under the floorboards
09:50that Fleur is desperate to solve.
09:53So, the exciting thing about this is that
09:56it was only a few months ago, actually,
09:58that I found a blueprint of all the levels of the hall,
10:01which is absolutely amazing for us
10:04because it communicates to you so much information.
10:09It's absolutely fantastic.
10:11There's always been a story that there was a hidden room
10:14and an escape tunnel from the hall through up to the church.
10:22Almost 400 years ago,
10:25Whitmore was a stronghold for the parliamentarians
10:28during the English Civil War.
10:31We were surrounded by people who didn't agree with us
10:35in the English Civil War.
10:36The house was fortified.
10:38There were soldiers on our...
10:40..on the top of the house,
10:41and it makes sense that you would have an escape hatch.
10:47You have these stories,
10:49and sometimes there is truth in them,
10:51and so maybe, going back to this,
10:53maybe there is truth.
10:54Maybe we have got a stone staircase here,
10:57and maybe there is a tunnel,
10:59or maybe there is a room,
11:00and...
11:01..and we're going to find out.
11:13At Whitmore Hall in Staffordshire,
11:15the Kavanagh Manorings are on a mission
11:17to solve some of the mysteries of the house
11:20that has been their family home for 900 years.
11:25What it is, is that we think
11:27that there is a hidden stone spiral staircase
11:32about there.
11:34Eager to investigate further,
11:36Fleur has gathered Brother Edward
11:38and Whitmore's maintenance chief,
11:41Simon Chafe,
11:42to try and find the secret escape tunnel
11:44that might lurk under the floor.
11:47Oh, look, there's a gap.
11:49Oh, yeah? There.
11:50Well, that would be an ideal point
11:52to try and lift the floor up.
11:54Yeah, I can feel it move here.
11:57Not moved.
12:03Oh!
12:04So you've got a joist there.
12:07You haven't got a joist there.
12:10Many years ago,
12:11a man worked for my father-in-law.
12:13He used to talk to me quite a bit,
12:15and it was he who told me that his brother worked here.
12:21Let's just see if we can push this up a bit more.
12:24He said that he had found a spiral stone staircase
12:29in the corner of the hall.
12:31I see. We now have an access chamber.
12:34I think there must be something there,
12:36because you don't make up a story.
12:39I'm not the point.
12:41Very flat.
12:42And a first look under the floor seems to prove
12:44Christine's instinct is correct.
12:47Oh, there.
12:48That's not what I'd expect.
12:50That looks like stone.
12:52It's clean as well.
12:54Yeah.
12:57Ooh.
12:58Gets more intriguing.
12:59Yeah.
13:00I think based on what we can see now,
13:03it's more likely than it's not.
13:06We're going to bring in a carpenter.
13:08If we take out some of those bits of wood,
13:10we will be able to get a really clear picture
13:13as to what is there.
13:16Is there a staircase?
13:26How remarkable to be searching for civil war history in your own home.
13:32We're returning now to a house which, given its role in the gunpowder plot,
13:36has been working hard to put its own famous history to full use.
13:40But today, it's other projects that are taking priority.
13:45And again, some famous names from the past are involved.
13:54Just south of Rugby,
13:56we're paying another visit to Ashby Manor House.
14:03In 1605, as Ashby's owner plotted to blow up the Houses of Parliament,
14:08the property itself would have been far more modest than what we see today.
14:15Ashby's real moment, architecturally at least, came as recently as the 1920s,
14:21a time when hosting a country house weekend secured one's place in society.
14:27We have had some really interesting visitors in recent history here.
14:33And one of my favourite things in the house is the visitors book that we have from when the Guest
14:41family moved in.
14:42So I'll show you up here. We keep it in the entrance hall.
14:45Present day owner Nova Guest has evidence that proves her Edwardian predecessors knew how to host in style.
14:52The Guest family would have made this book in anticipation of having a very special visitor because the first person
15:01to sign it is actually Prince Edward.
15:05He's still a prince. He hasn't become the King of England.
15:11In 1921, Edward was 15 years away from becoming Edward VIII.
15:17It would then take him a few months more to abdicate and marry Wallis Simpson.
15:22But at this point, as Prince of Wales, he represented the ultimate country house visitor.
15:29Great news, of course, for his Ashby host, Ivor Guest, the first Viscount Wimborne.
15:37So here's a photograph of Prince Edward's visit.
15:40This is all the Rolls Royces and the valets lined up, the drivers parked in front of the gatehouse.
15:47This is very exciting. They've got a royal visitor.
15:49They obviously have this big, this big polo match and week and all these people come for dinner.
15:56As is Winston Churchill and his Clementine Churchill.
16:00Someone else came to stay that weekend too.
16:04A close associate of Viscount Wimborne's and the man who made the biggest of all impressions here at Ashby.
16:11Edwin Lutyens, who was a visitor that weekend.
16:16In the first half of the 20th century, the famous architect Edwin Lutyens designed many houses.
16:25A castle in Devon.
16:28The cenotaph in Whitehall.
16:32And even New Delhi in India.
16:35But the famous architect's longest engagement was here at Ashby Manor.
16:42By 1921, he'd already designed a music room and the impressive Stone Hall.
16:51But that was just the beginning of his work here.
16:55There are letters that Lutyens wrote to his wife that were published and he writes to her saying,
17:01The Wimborne's had a terrible squash at Ashby when the Prince of Wales was there.
17:05So they are going to add lavishly in spite of taxes and hard times.
17:09And we must build a whole new wing to have more room for visitors.
17:13And it was Edwin Lutyens' work on that wing that transformed Ashby into the ultimate Edwardian country retreat,
17:22creating stunning modern interiors.
17:27And from the outside, a seamless blend of Tudor and 20th century.
17:33And Lord Wimborne was so delighted with Lutyens' work that he ended up working at Ashby for 35 years.
17:43They were very good friends at the end of the day, even though they certainly had their differences.
17:48For example, I know when they were working on the house, Lord Wimborne went to the great exhibition in White
17:56City,
17:56which was in 1908, and decided that he wanted a Tudor wing.
18:02And the Ipswich wing was actually on display at the exhibition.
18:07And Lutyens was very unhappy about having to incorporate this building into his design.
18:12The Ipswich wing is so called because this half-timbered building was originally situated over 100 miles away in Ipswich,
18:21Suffolk.
18:22Having already been moved to become an exhibit in London,
18:25the structure was then bought by Lord Wimborne and transported by steam train to its new home here in Northamptonshire.
18:33We have had a couple of letters from residents of Ipswich requesting that it be reinstated back in Ipswich,
18:39which would be a difficult thing to do.
18:42Although I'm sure Lutyens would be happy if it probably was.
18:46Nova has spent 10 years presenting Lutyens' architectural legacy in the best possible light,
18:52but there's still work to be done in tackling his less celebrated work here,
18:56in the grounds beyond the house.
19:01The hand of the great designer is everywhere.
19:04So this is definitely Lutyens, beautiful semi-circular stone steps leading up.
19:12But although beautiful, maintaining a Lutyens' garden is as hard as maintaining a Lutyens' house.
19:19There's always so much upkeep.
19:20I mean, you can see all these retaining walls need to be redone.
19:24They're all falling apart.
19:27This is the terrace which Lutyens would have designed to sort of walk past to see the walled garden.
19:34One of Nova's biggest gardening achievements to date has been the resurrection of the walled garden.
19:41So when we arrived, this was a field of stinging nettles that was getting sprayed off a couple of times
19:46a year, and it was all very sorry.
19:50And coming on, I'll introduce you to Finn. Finn, he has landscaped the whole walled garden here.
19:56Originally, when we started here, it was just a blank field with some big pines sat down at the bottom
20:01area.
20:02And we've come in and renovated from there.
20:05Wildflower is a slightly more contemporary touch.
20:08However, it's circled around this mirror reflecting pond with copy over from the Lutyens design.
20:13Back in the day when this was a kitchen garden, they'd have had a big pond or such like structure
20:20to take water from as a water source to water the garden.
20:23So, yeah, it's a nice touch from what it would have been in the past, brought on to the present.
20:29In the past five years, Nova has also been working to honour Lutyens' vision for the wider grounds too.
20:39Lutyens landscaped all the gardens on this wonderful axis, and he designed all the beautiful yew hedges and this canal
20:46garden here,
20:47which overlooks a really incredible bridge that Lutyens designed.
20:51Making the right decisions for a living piece of history, such as Ashby's Gardens, is a big responsibility.
21:00So, in the last few years, Nova has been working with leading garden designer Daniel Coombs.
21:07I'll never forget arriving here for the first time, and this is your first experience, and I remember really looking
21:16at these hard landscaping details and this layout of this courtyard, and you've got the Jacoby in front of the
21:21house, and then Lutyens' interventions as he connected these two buildings together.
21:26Then when you walk through the house for the first time, I'll never forget that walking out onto the lawn
21:32and looking down the canal.
21:38The house had actually been lovingly restored, but nobody had done anything with the gardens, and I guess Nova had
21:45suddenly found herself with this project and she was, you know, she didn't know what to do, she didn't know
21:49what moves to make, and for the first few years coming up here it was a journey of discovery.
21:55But with much of the garden restoration done in the spirit of Lutyens, Nova has now asked Daniel to tackle
22:01one of the last areas, an important part of the parkland.
22:07There's some historic planting pockets out in the park.
22:13You know, I haven't been able to get to them and they've been left, so they're full of brambles and
22:18thistles and stinging nettles.
22:20We've uncovered them and found some old box and lilac trees and things that I thought looked quite beautiful, so
22:26I thought, let's try and imagine what they could have been like.
22:31Whilst Nova has a vision for what she thinks should be done, she knows she needs Daniel to make it
22:38a reality.
22:40Yes, I'm excited for Dan to see it, knowing Dan he's going to say something completely opposite.
22:57At Ash Bay Manor House in Northamptonshire, owner Nova Guest is edging closer to completing her revival of the estate's
23:05spectacular gardens, designed by British architect Edwin Lutyens over a century ago.
23:13Today, she's consulting with garden designer Daniel Coombs about one area in particular.
23:21Lutyens' work on the house and gardens transformed Ash Bay into the country house for some of the period's most
23:28important figures.
23:29And now Nova's own legacy project is in its final stages.
23:34She's relying on Daniel's expert gardening eye to give it a final flourish.
23:43Nova is turning Daniel's attention to a small area of unloved shrubs and trees.
23:50What do you think firstly about this planting bed?
23:53And when do you think it was...
23:53What have you removed Nova, what was in here before?
23:56Oh, we've just removed, literally, the brambles, which they're already sort of growing back.
24:03Yeah, yeah.
24:04And stingy nettles and there was loads of big branches.
24:09And I suddenly thought, oh gosh, maybe the box is quite lovely.
24:13Yeah, yeah, yeah.
24:14I guess it's cool.
24:16These shrubbery is an option to add another layer because at the moment when you move beyond us, we've got
24:21tall trees and they're wrapping around the formal Lutyens arrangement, which is sort of more of a parkland vibe.
24:28Because I think we need to plant more trees to, you know, we need the succession.
24:31Some of the larger trees are starting to go.
24:32You know, we've lost trees in here, so we need to think about the future.
24:35And I think there's that first layer of, you know, what are going to be the future specimen trees?
24:40And I think we need to plant those all the way around this canal.
24:43I don't, you know, if we're going to plant two trees...
24:45I'm not going to have my planting moment here. We're going to be...
24:48We use these ash trees as nurse trees.
24:51We plant a specimen tree here, which will ultimately take over and be the specimen that occupies this space.
24:58The box goes, the viburnum goes, and these lilac, these get dug up and go.
25:06And then this all gets levelled and seeded.
25:09And ultimately we're ending up with a specimen parkland tree that's going to link with these other trees that wrap
25:17round the sort of Lutyens formal canal arrangement.
25:20And I think that's phase one.
25:23So just so you know, this has not turned out how I thought.
25:26No, well...
25:27I thought we were going to be designing...
25:28Like I had visions of a path going through here.
25:30Oh, you had a path going here.
25:30I don't know, I was like, I wonder...
25:32He'll come up with something amazing like it would be...
25:34What, and I've just...
25:35I'd just be like, get rid of it or find a beautiful tree.
25:38Yeah, yeah.
25:39Which is good, this is right.
25:40Well, yeah, I guess, yeah.
25:42Lutyens must be looking down on us going, thank goodness.
25:45One can't help but notice that Daniel described this as phase one.
25:51This project is turning into something rather more longer term than NOVA might have imagined.
25:58Quite a bit that we're thinking about.
26:00And we need to obviously think about the cost of it all.
26:10Keeping an eye on costs is of course the key to running any operation, and country houses are no exception.
26:17For James Leslie Williams, the solution is usually to do as much work as possible himself.
26:25He and his wife Emma like to be hands-on.
26:28But to get to the finish line of one project, they're calling back the professionals.
26:37We're returning to the Cotswolds and James and Emma's home of Chavinage Manor.
26:45This summer, the couple's efforts have been focused on a brand new initiative.
26:50The creation of a luxury and very rural wellness facility in one of the estate's open fields.
26:59James and Emma are planning to charge 15 pounds a head to enjoy a sauna and cold plunge,
27:06in the hope that it will bring a whole new group of paying clients to their business operation.
27:12We've built the deck. Right, cool.
27:14And then we're building the changing rooms today.
27:16It goes into situ, and then we're basically building everything around it.
27:22In the past few weeks, James has been laying the groundwork for the project.
27:27But with the mobile sauna now delivered, it's time to assemble everything in its final location.
27:34We're super excited to get it in. We've got a beautiful view.
27:37And people are ready to book, hopefully. Hopefully they do.
27:40Cool. Very good.
27:40Fingers crossed.
27:41I'm sure they will.
27:42Yeah.
27:45So we're going to bring the Land Rover in, jack it up, change the wheels, put the pneumatic rubber wheels
27:50on,
27:51then we can pull it out and then pull it across the field.
27:54Half my age.
27:57Buying the sauna outright would have cost James and Emma more than £30,000.
28:02But that is a gamble too far for even this entrepreneurial pair.
28:08So instead, they're going to be renting it on a monthly basis to see if the business takes off.
28:16Is he going to push it?
28:17Yeah, he's pushing it out.
28:19I can see why we weren't trusted to do this ourselves, actually.
28:22And with it being such a valuable piece of kit...
28:25Uh-oh.
28:25All right?
28:28James and Emma are taking no risks and have asked the sauna company to move it
28:33and make sure nothing goes wrong.
28:38Where are the trees? The trees?
28:41Wowzers.
28:47Come on, yeah, you're good.
28:49Thank God we didn't do that ourselves.
28:52It's in.
28:56Watching their vision of the new endeavour come to life is a milestone moment for the couple.
29:02We're creating new businesses.
29:06Although its remote setting is rather risky.
29:11Are you happy about it?
29:12I'm slightly concerned.
29:13Are you?
29:14What about the winter?
29:16I have to say to people, bring your cosy and your wellies.
29:20When you go into a wild sauna, you expect to be a little adventure getting there.
29:25Well, that's going to be our niche.
29:27That's our niche, exactly.
29:29We've got the planning, we've got the electrics there, and now we've just got to hope people use it.
29:37If you come over here, that would be ideal.
29:43I think this is where it's supposed to be.
29:45I think it's going to be beautiful, and I think what's quite nice is that the window of it faces
29:50this way.
29:51And I mean, look at this view.
29:52It's just amazing.
29:54You can't see any buildings, any cars, nothing.
29:58That's why we want to share the estate with people so that they can come and have that bit of
30:02serenity, you know, in the Cotswolds, whilst sweating in the sauna and gaining all the benefits.
30:12That's pretty spot on.
30:17Formula One quick release.
30:19Yeah.
30:19It's been months of waiting and planning, and now the sauna is in position, and almost ready to be switched
30:26on.
30:26It's time for Emma to sign on the dotted line.
30:30Da-da-da-da-da-da-da, yeah.
30:32I read it.
30:34I like how Emma's doing all the paperwork, cos I'm terrible at that.
30:40Six months, babe, we've got to make this work.
30:43Absolutely.
30:44Right, here we go.
30:45The plug-in.
30:46There's a lot of power that's going through it, so you've got to...
30:48It's got to be right on.
30:49That goes on, then that twists...
30:51That's it.
30:52That's locked in.
30:53Now you should be able to turn it on.
30:54Yeah, there we go.
30:56It won't turn on unless the power's in.
30:58Yay!
30:59Starlight's on.
31:00Power!
31:00We've got power in the middle of the field!
31:04When it's open to the public, James and Emma will be running this new toy on their own,
31:09so it's important they understand exactly how the sauna works.
31:14So the temperature's set there, so it's like 96.
31:17Do you want to sit in there and just check the view?
31:19Yeah.
31:22Oh, it's a perfect view!
31:30I can lie like this.
31:32And no-one can bother me.
31:33Leave her to have a moment.
31:36This is a bother-free zone.
31:40But Emma's moment over.
31:43It's time to get on.
31:46We've got some work to do, babe.
31:51James and Chavenich's regular builder, Alan Martin, also known as Big Al, are continuing
31:57the work to build the changing rooms.
32:00I've saved a fortune on gym membership over the years just by doing this every day.
32:06How are you doing back there, James?
32:08Yeah, good.
32:09My belt's coming down, which is fine, because we're nearly there.
32:15What's the trip hazard, James?
32:16Trip hazard.
32:19James and Alan have been working together to build the changing facility that will stand
32:24alongside the sauna.
32:25Five or six pieces, and it'll start to look a little bit more like a changing room, hopefully.
32:30Just about there.
32:31So, an inch in.
32:32Because you've got a two-inch wood, if you come inch in from the side, it'll be in the
32:36right place.
32:38Now, I know they go there, James, because I'd marked it out earlier on.
32:41Well done, mate.
32:42I mean, I definitely would have tried to pay someone to do this, but I've now not only
32:46got a changing room, I've also got skills with it.
32:49And you've saved some money.
32:50I've saved a lot of money.
32:53The other big plus is Big Al has the tools.
32:57You've got to have the tools.
32:58I'm gaining the tools, slowly.
32:59Yeah, I think you're pinching them off me bit by bit, actually.
33:01Well, I think...
33:02Yeah, I think I've got...
33:02Have I got your shimmer?
33:03Yeah, I'm a mower.
33:05Have I?
33:05I think that used to be my drill.
33:09James!
33:11With the sauna's new home taking shape and the rental agreement now signed, the pressure
33:16is on to complete the site, generate some bookings, and harvest some much-needed income,
33:22all for the benefit of the rest of the Chavenage estate.
33:26What do you reckon, James?
33:27I think it looks spot on.
33:29I mean, it's not finished yet.
33:31No, far from it.
33:31I mean, it's just looking quite skeletal.
33:34But don't worry, because Em's coming in with the designs of the landscape.
33:38And take all the credit.
33:39Always.
33:40That's how it works.
33:54We're returning now to Staffordshire and the remarkable Whitmore Hall, which has been handed
34:00down through 34 generations of one family.
34:04But, despite this unbroken history, there's a growing sense that there may be problems with
34:11the building.
34:15Whitmore is now the responsibility of Edward Kavanagh-Mannering.
34:19Right, do you want to come in? Come and have a look.
34:22But his sister Fleur has agreed to spend 12 months helping Edward by carrying out a thorough
34:28assessment of the family seat.
34:30She is trying to get to grips with the house's myriad maintenance problems.
34:38So, that was in the safe until really relatively recently.
34:44And what it is, it's a pike.
34:47It's got engraved.
34:48And it was his, Edward Mannering.
34:50And I always terrify people, particularly children, by pretending that there's still blood
34:55on the edge of the pike.
34:58But it is true.
35:00I mean, that...
35:01Well, not the blood bit.
35:03But when she's not telling tall tales, Fleur is getting to know Whitmore on a whole new level.
35:10This is one of my pet drains, which is this one.
35:14It's clearly very old.
35:15You can see that there's water damage here from that side.
35:19So, we've got to stop this.
35:21There's another one here that we don't actually know where it goes to or what it's doing.
35:29And obviously, anyone who owns a house knows that guttering, roof, drains are the sorts of things
35:36that it doesn't matter how big or small your house is, that if you don't keep an eye on them,
35:41they are the ones that are going to do huge damage, financial sort of damage to your house.
35:46However, one of Fleur's other biggest concerns on her maintenance checklist
35:51is Whitmore Hall's extensive cellars.
35:54I hate this place.
35:58Oh!
36:01Oh, God!
36:03There's some really big spiders.
36:05Right.
36:06If you go there, we've got a lot of water just housed there, and we don't know why.
36:11It's a constant thing of, like, a puzzle, you know, trying to work it out.
36:16Just up the steps is where the Anglo-Saxon house was.
36:19I'm not mad at the key in putting my hand.
36:22If I yelp, you can see that's quite a long way in.
36:27I'm just waiting for a hand to grab me through.
36:31Oh, God, it keeps going.
36:33You know, there's been a house here for a thousand years.
36:37It probably has things to tell us, but we can't understand it.
36:46So, whilst Fleur takes the lead at the hall,
36:49Edward is using his expertise of the land
36:52to try and make Whitmore's 1,500 acres
36:56generate some income to support the property.
37:01Edward's background is dairy farming.
37:03But for decades now, a whole other side to his work has been taking shape.
37:08I wish I had the energy of a Spaniel, a spring of Spaniel.
37:13Oh, right, Looney, you're driving.
37:17Two-thirds of a mile north of the hall,
37:20the ancient Whitmore estate looks very different.
37:23Part of a passion project that Edward has spent years developing.
37:29I love water.
37:30I love the wildlife around water,
37:32so I tried to develop a business around water.
37:36This is Whitmore Lakes,
37:38the most obvious legacy of Edward's time working the estate,
37:42and a multifaceted enterprise.
37:46So, it's an 80-acre site.
37:48We've got 30-odd pools, little and big.
37:52We started off in the early 90s as a fishing site.
37:57So, carp, catfish, match fishing.
38:00Where it's at is...
38:04..is night fishing, big carp, big catfish.
38:08So, we've got catfish up to about 80 pounds, 90 pounds.
38:12Big carp.
38:15If you're lucky, you might see some of them coming in.
38:19However, fishing is just one part of Edward's Lake business.
38:26He has now created a new and very on-trend offering at Whitmore.
38:34We call this the training lake.
38:37The idea is it's here to swim.
38:43It's 500 meters, so my first attempt to get around here,
38:47I stopped eight times.
38:49It took me about 45 minutes.
38:51Tough.
38:54Alongside the training lake,
38:56various other lakes have been set aside for more recreational swimming.
39:02And really trying to become a center of managing your own well-being.
39:08What I love about this is the laughter and the energy.
39:11It's like group energy you get.
39:19Opened in 2023, this new business is well on the way to becoming a key part of Whitmore's future.
39:26Some days, there are hundreds of swimmers coming in, each adult paying £7.50.
39:33So, 80 in this morning?
39:35Well, last year we touched 320, didn't we, in one day of swimmers.
39:39And that was, we thought that was epic.
39:41Bear in mind where we'd come from.
39:43Zero.
39:44So, 380 would be maximum.
39:47Well done.
39:47So, 380 would be maximum.
39:52Back at the house, Fleur is still trying to crack the puzzle of the rumoured underground escape tunnel beneath the
40:00hall.
40:02I am convinced the story is correct.
40:05I just cannot understand how you can make a story up like that.
40:09To actually find something secret that has been hidden for 400 years is just the best.
40:17You know, it's like finding treasure, isn't it?
40:19The one person with a direct knowledge of the story is Fleur and Edward's mother, Christine.
40:25She was told about the staircase long ago by someone who had worked at Whitmore.
40:31Well, I always thought, well, your left heel, you know, back of it, Fleur.
40:37That's right.
40:38I don't know, but that's what he showed me.
40:41So, his cross was in this corner.
40:42Yeah.
40:43In the hope of putting this mystery to bed, Fleur's called in trusted carpenter Peter Alcock.
40:49How would you do it?
40:50Well, it's tongue and groove together.
40:53Yeah.
40:53But the fact you've created a little gap there, I can saw down the line.
40:58Peter is a professional, he's used them before, he understands listed houses.
41:04Because anything that you do in a house like this, you have to think about doing minimal impact.
41:10And with that in mind, Peter and Fleur have an endoscope camera to help them see what's beneath the wooden
41:17flooring.
41:18Just looks like a solid mass, really.
41:23Oh, just a minute there.
41:24Where have you just gone there?
41:25Just...
41:26Oh, there is some timber down there.
41:28Timber?
41:30Look like steps, but...
41:33Where have you just...
41:34Just go back to what you just...
41:36I don't know where...
41:37There.
41:38Oh, yeah.
41:38No way to see that.
41:40There.
41:40Oh, yeah.
41:41That's going down.
41:42That looks like steps, isn't it?
41:44That's going down.
41:44Oh, yeah, there we are.
41:46Definitely got steps going down.
41:47There could be steps there, yes.
41:49It's exactly where you said.
41:50There you are.
41:52Tell me there's a big hole now and see if we can find it.
41:56So the only sensible action is to fully commit and create some mess.
42:03I mean, it's interesting if it is a wooden staircase, you know, like going down like a ladder.
42:07It makes more sense than a sort of the spiral staircase.
42:11But, you know, you just don't know.
42:19The best case scenario is like finding this stone spiral staircase, you know, that you can physically walk down.
42:31Even better if you found a body.
42:33That would be fantastic.
42:42I think I'm going to have to go down the other side.
42:47Oh, yeah, maybe something of value.
42:50That would be even better than a dead body.
42:52Something that we could sell.
43:02It's like having a pet's cobra, isn't it?
43:06Yeah.
43:07Keep going.
43:11Right, OK, right.
43:12Is that a hole?
43:13Hang on, hang on.
43:14Just keep still.
43:14Just go back a bit.
43:16Right, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.
43:18You lost it.
43:20So we did the first one, but because we couldn't get the endoscope to sort of properly see it or
43:25anything else,
43:26in the end we had to go and open the second one.
43:31You know, you know Sod's Law will mean that the place that you started is not where it is.
43:40And the difference is that, you know, we are trying to do the minimal damage.
43:52So I think my mother's attitude would be just to get a crowbar at this point.
44:02Get the thingamajig and have a look at you. You do it this time.
44:08Right, that's...
44:08I tell you what, there is a hell of a draught.
44:12That just looks like a concrete floor at the moment.
44:15God, is that really?
44:16Do you mean to say we've done all this and it's concrete?
44:20Right, Mumbo, you need to have a word with that person.
44:23Oh, yeah.
44:25So there's definitely no staircase here.
44:29But Fleur won't be giving up the hunt for the tunnel without a fight.
44:34We know that the only time that that floor has been disturbed is basically in the 1950s.
44:40And what they clearly did was they took off the old floor and they must have found a mud or
44:47earth floor.
44:48Makes sense, doesn't it?
44:49They screed it.
44:51They screed it. So there's a concrete scree.
44:54And of course, when they would have screed it, if there had been a hatch or staircase or anything,
45:02you would have put board over it and you would have carried on screeing it.
45:06So it's all screed, joists are nice and firm.
45:09You put the nice new flooring on top.
45:13None of us have given up hope.
45:15And I still think that we are three inches away in finding it.
45:21Three inches of concrete is what is the difference between an amazing find for us
45:29and it being hidden for another 400 years.
45:38Next time on Saving Country Houses, we venture to Chillingham Castle in Northumberland,
45:45now celebrated as Britain's most haunted country house.
45:49Who is with us in the torture chamber, please?
45:52Spirit?
45:53Oh, I just felt something on my cheek.
45:55It's fabulous.
45:56We're in Wiltshire to find the Riverside pub now run by the team at Eiford Manor.
46:02Right, come here you.
46:03Here we are.
46:07Freshly laundered, good as new.
46:09Marvellous.
46:10And we come back to Whitmore Hall, where attention turns to the condition of centuries-old family portraits.
46:18He's called Fat Thomas and he's not looking well.
46:22But you can see a lot of flaking paint.
46:24It is a job I hadn't thought that we had to do.
46:53It is a job I hadn't thought that we had to do.
46:53So that he must build a shop has to do.
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