Saving Country Houses with Penelope Keith Season 1 Episode 6 showcases the breathtaking gardens of Wiltshire’s Iford Manor in full bloom. At Chavenage, an impressive attic model railway is revealed, highlighting the unique character of historic country homes. Meanwhile, the exciting treehouse project begins at Pitchford Hall, adding another chapter to its remarkable restoration story. Experience heritage, creativity, and conservation 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?
02:08How do you save the world?
02:26The The Great Big World
02:27The The Great Big World
02:27The Great Big World
02:32For many country house owners time and money is focused on the great building itself.
02:37Their houses may have listed status, having been recognised for their historic significance.
02:44But we're visiting a new house today, which, whilst being Grade 2 listed, is not the star attraction.
02:53Its gardens are Grade 1 listed, the highest level, and deemed to be of exceptional interest.
02:59And a treasure like this may be no easier or cheaper to look after than bricks and mortar.
03:10We're heading to south-west England, on the border between Somerset and Wiltshire.
03:16It's where we find Eifert Manor.
03:21Tucked away at the bottom of a valley, Eifert's splendid Georgian front overlooks a road and a river,
03:28as if determined to be noticed by passers-by.
03:33Better get the bins in.
03:36Although the reality of owning this handsome manor house is often rather less grand.
03:44One of the world's great levellers, isn't it, bin day?
03:53Eifert and its 1,000-acre estate
03:56is the cherished home of William Cartwright Hignett and his wife Marianne.
04:02Eifert is a very special place.
04:04It's a little corner of England tucked away in a little valley just outside of Bath.
04:09And it feels like time hasn't touched it here for centuries.
04:14I think Eifert's a place that's an escape and a place for people to really just be and get away
04:19from the outside world.
04:23The challenge for William and Marianne is to maintain Eifert's idyllic qualities
04:28whilst turning it into a thoroughly modern business.
04:33It needs to be loved.
04:34Whether it's a child or whether it's a dependent grandparent, I don't know.
04:39Well, it's definitely dependent.
04:40It's definitely a dependent.
04:44For William, Eifert has always been home.
04:47His family bought the house in the 1960s.
04:53The most amazing place to grow up.
04:55I'm an only child, so my friends were, as it were, the team, the landscape, the bunnies, the wisterias.
05:02Everything here is my family.
05:07When you are in a place for longer than you can remember, it becomes part of you.
05:14You merge.
05:15This is where you have to earn your cup of tea because there's hundreds of steps in Eifert.
05:22Having met Marianne online, Eifert immediately became an important part of their relationship.
05:30She and I walked round the garden, and usually a wander round the garden might be an hour and a
05:33quarter,
05:34and in this instance it was three and a half hours.
05:37When I married William, I also married Eifert, and I often describe Eifert as being like my oldest child.
05:43And it's just so special to be the guardian and custodian of this special place.
05:49But as well as keeping up the centuries-old building, this entrepreneurial couple know it is essential that they maintain
05:57Eifert's biggest draw.
06:02Behind the manor house lie the charming Italianate gardens that cascade down a terraced hillside.
06:13Nearly 20,000 visitors a year now come here to enjoy the garden's delights,
06:19but they were designed as the rather more private retreat of Harold Pitot,
06:25a visionary garden designer who bought Eifert in 1899.
06:31Eifert is still packed full of the plants, features, and surprises that Pitot himself created.
06:39Harold Pitot built this wall, and Wisteria predated it.
06:43It must be one of the oldest in the country, because it's got to be about 1820s, something like that.
06:48And Wisteria only came to the UK in about 1815.
06:51Being a respecter of things that went before, he stuck it through the wall, which is quite fun.
06:58Pitot's talents range from architecture to garden design to interiors,
07:03and his work took him all around the world.
07:06He was working predominantly in Europe for aristocracy, and the royals, and the big American industrialists,
07:14and people like the Rothschilds.
07:16He built these incredible villas and gardens, and was obviously very successful at it,
07:21because he was able to buy Eifert.
07:24The difference here is that Eifert was Harold Pitot's to experiment with at will.
07:31That is why this garden will take you from southwest England, to Japan, and to the Mediterranean.
07:43But the truth is, a garden like this can be just as challenging to look after as an historic house
07:50itself.
07:51And over the years, William and Marianne have found themselves facing many unexpected challenges.
07:59I think it's one of those things that when you are responsible for looking after them, to be honest, you
08:06never quite know what's going to come next.
08:09And suddenly in front of you, the cloister.
08:12The most wonderful folly garden building that you can imagine.
08:16It was built by Harold Pitot and completed in 1914, and it's a real surprise.
08:24Few country houses can boast a Romanesque cloister in their back garden.
08:29You feel like you've sort of come into something really historic and old, even though it's only 1914, so it's
08:36not as old as you think.
08:38He brought marble back from Greece that he turned into all the columns and various things, and lots of antiquities
08:44are within it.
08:47Although today, this feels like the most peaceful and contemplative spot in the whole garden.
08:54In recent years, this amazing feature cost the couple sleepless nights and more than a pretty penny.
09:022018 was the last time there was a big drought, and we have a real mix of soils here at
09:07Iford, but underlying part of the garden is a fuller's clay layer.
09:11And the clay dried up, and it was underneath the cloister.
09:15And unexpectedly, there were some cracks, and it suddenly started moving very, very rapidly, and the cloister is a very
09:21fragile building.
09:22It turned out it didn't have any foundations, so that was a bit of a problem.
09:28Surveys revealed major subsidence in one corner of the cloister.
09:33This and the building's movements were then monitored over months before scaffolding was erected,
09:40the roof supported, and several walls and columns removed.
09:44The subsoil could then be dug out, and foundations finally added.
09:49The project was challenging.
09:51We had to underpin 50% of this building without taking the building down properly.
09:57I think there were 30 trades involved, and it took seven or eight months.
10:00It was quite a job.
10:02And when they did drop the roof back down onto the columns when everything had been built back up,
10:07and they took the scaffolding off, the foreman came in on a Sunday and didn't tell anybody,
10:11because I think we had all expected at least one of the columns to shatter.
10:19This summer, though, it's another of Pitot's structures that is in need of attention.
10:26It's a long-awaited project.
10:28We are starting to take down the original greenhouses, the Harropito greenhouses,
10:33which are in the walled garden.
10:35They've been stood there for 120 years, they've been maintained a bit here and there.
10:40One of them has taken down about 20 years ago, because it was just plain dangerous,
10:44and the other one's got to a point where it's really end of life,
10:46so the time has come to replace them.
10:48But this isn't simply a case of popping down to the garden centre for a replacement.
10:54This is a 12-by-22-foot Edwardian glass house with 94 panes of glass.
11:02And to retain the estate's historic charms, it will need to be painstakingly restored.
11:09Everything in heritage, if done properly, costs more.
11:14It's just the way it works.
11:15And I think it's something you just learn to accept,
11:19because it involves artisan techniques, which are slower, harder to come by.
11:24And when you are building bespoke,
11:27the element of the unknown is also a worry for the country house custodian.
11:33Things don't always go to plan.
11:35There's always a chance that things can go wrong.
12:04It's hard to believe that we're just outside a bath, just hidden away.
12:10But the Cartwright-Hignett family home has a surprisingly industrious part.
12:15In the past, it hasn't always been a country house.
12:192,000 years ago, there were Romans, and they were kind of doing sheep for wool
12:24for the Byrus Britannicus, the great overcoat of the day.
12:27And roll forward 1,000 years, and you get the Saxons still doing wool and cloth at Eiford,
12:33and then roll forward another 300 or 400 years, and you end up with a stone bridge being built
12:37under the monastic ownership of Eiford, and it's still wool trade.
12:40So it's really the wool cloth industry at Eiford for 1,500 years.
12:46And it was ultimately money from the wool that wiped away that history
12:50and developed Eiford as the country house we see today.
12:55In its current form, the house originates in the 15th century, late 15th century,
13:00with this section here being the brew house, which is where, of course,
13:03they made the dyes and the beer for the workers and all of that.
13:06But it's a cloth industry set of buildings.
13:08Factory, factory owner's house, brew house, some sheds, transport department.
13:14Oh, and the pub. It was a pub, they say.
13:17But I've never found evidence of it.
13:20There is evidence, though, of Harold Pitot, the celebrated landscape architect
13:25who called Eiford home until his death in 1933.
13:29And now, almost a century later, current custodian of Eiford, William,
13:35is planning to replace one of Pitot's original and now dilapidated greenhouses,
13:41but in the most sensitive way possible, to honour its Edwardian heritage.
13:46The lovely opportunity here is to keep the structure and the design of the old greenhouses
13:54by retaining the ironwork.
13:55And the ironwork dictates things like the roof pitch and it dictates technicalities,
14:00which are stuff that, you know, a modern greenhouse might have improved on.
14:04But actually, there's something to be said for keeping a historic form.
14:08You know, we don't try to improve on Gothic architecture on an old cathedral just because it's old.
14:14So let's just keep what we've got but make one that's modern.
14:18The man tasked with seamlessly fusing the old with the new is head gardener Steve Lannin.
14:24Steve, what have you noticed?
14:26And he's relishing the opportunity to lead such a unique restoration.
14:32So, this glass here has got this lovely sort of fish scale detail to it.
14:38That side, it isn't. It's straight.
14:40Somebody's replaced that side of the glass at some point and it's all flat.
14:45It hasn't got this nice curve at it.
14:47You're right, it's all modern glass.
14:48Yeah.
14:49That is a thing.
14:50It is a thing.
14:51I thought it would be a shame to smash this stuff up.
14:54Maybe we could reuse this nicer glass to make cold frames.
14:59Having horticultural glass above your head is not ideal now and it's all going to be replaced with safety glass.
15:06But if it's just in a cold frame and it's not above your head, we could reuse it.
15:12It's one of those projects that comes along once in a generation and you have a real opportunity to leave
15:18something behind
15:19that is hopefully high quality, long lasting and does justice to the design.
15:25A really nice thing to be able to be a part of and leave a bit of a legacy, actually.
15:29Yeah, these have done 120.
15:30Yeah, that's it.
15:31So, it's done pretty well for itself.
15:33But, you know, if we got 50, 60, 70 years out of it, maybe my grandchildren might have to think
15:38about doing something.
15:40But apart from some unusual curved panes of glass, how much of Pitot's greenhouse can actually be preserved?
15:48Steve is leaving no stone unturned in his bid to solve the challenge.
15:54So, I spent ages trying to find out who could have built them and it actually says it on them.
15:59It's Tucker of Tottenham.
16:01And I found a brochure from about 1910 and it shows this design.
16:06Well, that dates it, doesn't it?
16:07It does, it does.
16:10Managing heritage is different to managing a building in a modern context because you're always trying to do things in
16:18a way that is relevant to the day to day, but that is respectful of what went before.
16:23The main thing that we're going to do is to retain the pitch and to do that, we're going to
16:28reuse the iron work that's in here.
16:30As this is taken down, we'll get these sent off, shot blasted and brought back from where the new greenhouse
16:36is put up.
16:38So, I'm hopeful that we can retain really an enormous amount of the historic properties of what we've got, the
16:43fabric, exactly.
16:45With a potential bill in the tens of thousands, the restoration of the greenhouse will take more than a year
16:52to complete.
16:52But William knows projects like this are key to keeping Iford on the visitors destination list.
17:01You never know what's around the corner.
17:03All you can do is plan for the best and prepare for a contingency.
17:15The replacement of a greenhouse feels like quite a simple project, and yet the team at Iford are making it
17:21more challenging than necessary in order to preserve their connection to the wonderful Harold Pitot.
17:28I think that will serve them very well in the future.
17:31A little further north, James and Emma Lowsley-Williams are even more keen to preserve one connection with a previous
17:39owner.
17:40But they know very little about what they've inherited, even less so whether it could play a role in their
17:46future.
17:48In the heart of the glorious Cotswolds, and for the past two years, along with their wider family, James and
17:55Emma have been running Chavinage House.
17:59This wonderful Elizabethan manor has been in the Lowsley-Williams family for over 130 years.
18:06But looking after such an historic estate comes with multiple daily challenges.
18:13Look, this has only just been repainted, and this is condensation.
18:18So in the winter, it just drips and then you've got...
18:22Constant work.
18:25As new custodians, James and Emma are bursting with ideas for developing the estate, but they are very much learning
18:34on the job.
18:35If I'm totally honest, I don't know at this point what the estate finances are looking like entirely.
18:44But I know that we will probably spend the rest of our lives trying to keep this place financially stable.
18:53We are hand-to-mouth right now.
18:56So we've got to find innovative ways to generate revenue, because otherwise we're not going to be able to put
19:01the heating on and we're not going to be able to sustain the house and that would be devastating.
19:07Today, though, they're stepping away from day-to-day activities to spend time on something very personal and potentially income
19:16generating.
19:17They've invited an expert in his field to assess one of the estate's most unique assets.
19:24Welcome, Peter. Welcome to Trevenish.
19:27Fantastic place. Thank you for coming.
19:32Peter Lord has travelled from Cardiff, where he runs one of Britain's leading model railway shops.
19:40I had my first train set when I was six years of age and I've had the lifelong interest and
19:46been very fortunate to be able to turn it into a business.
19:50This is where the public normally see, but they don't normally see this part.
19:56Peter is the ideal man to give an opinion on the remarkable passion project of James's grandfather.
20:02I don't know anything about what I'm about to see, so I'm going in with a very open mind, but
20:09a very curious mind as well.
20:12Hello. Hi, Peter. How are you? Welcome to the attic.
20:17Wow. So, attic. Good God.
20:21For several decades, this space was the peaceful retreat of James's grandfather and model railway enthusiast, David Lowsley-Williams, who
20:30died two years ago.
20:32This remarkable collection is testament to David's passion for the railway.
20:37So, it starts here and goes round there on these turntables and then it comes through here and there's more.
20:50And there's more. That's incredible.
20:54Over the years, James's grandfather wrapped his model train around eaves, shaped it around windows and spread it to many
21:03of Chavenage's gables.
21:05And Peter is here to see if it might be viable to get it up and running once again as
21:11a visitor attraction.
21:13It's good to see with the controllers as well. They're good quality controllers.
21:17Oh, really?
21:18Made by a firm called Gage Master. British built, top quality.
21:22Really?
21:22And then he's got these. And I don't understand how all this links up and I think I'm going to
21:27have to do a map of the site.
21:29It's all done in sections rather like the real thing. So, if you like, he'd be in this area operating
21:36probably what you see around us in here.
21:38Yeah. And that's basically what that is. The panel there is the display of this particular area here.
21:46Looks like it's on hint. Oh, my God.
21:49And then, yeah, then you've got all the circuitry behind it. That would probably need looking at it. But looking
21:53at it, it's fairly recent. You know, and again, it's all, as you would expect, top quality.
22:00It's being thought about, isn't it?
22:01Yeah, well, that's the prior planning, isn't it?
22:05In the past few weeks, James and Emma have spent hours tidying up the attic. But with no expert knowledge
22:13themselves, they're relying on Peter to tell them just how big a draw this railway could be for potential visitors.
22:21He built it for himself. He didn't show anyone it.
22:25Ah, right, OK.
22:26So, he'd just like to just go away from the estate, go away from the manor and sink in... This
22:33is his paradise.
22:34This is the de-stress area. Yeah.
22:37This is meant to be Austria, I think. In the snow. Yes.
22:41Time and effort to do that. I know.
22:44My grandfather was very into skiing. As we can see.
22:49So, he's done different scenes that he was interested in.
22:53What he's doing is recreating his life, isn't he?
22:56Incredible. Isn't that amazing? In miniature.
22:58And that's what he's done, and there he is there. One of those, skiing.
23:01Yeah, he's skiing. Yeah.
23:02Through the town. Yeah, in the little village there.
23:05And I think he bought the trains that he went on.
23:08Which remind him of his holidays, yeah. Yeah.
23:11Oh, the holidays. Yeah.
23:13Well, actually, that is one of my models.
23:17No. No.
23:18That's come from us.
23:19Oh, you're joking? No.
23:21The weathering. We were known for a distressing of models to make them look worn and battered.
23:26Oh, so that's not just because it's old?
23:28No, no, no. That's been recreated.
23:31That was done by Adrian, my business partner.
23:34I can tell that because of his unique style.
23:37Oh, my gosh. You'll have to take a picture of it.
23:39Yeah, yeah.
23:40He's been to your shop.
23:42Well, that model came out about 11 years ago.
23:45And how much would that be worth?
23:46Well, at the time it was probably about 130, something like that.
23:51Oh, quite expensive.
23:52I mean, I would never sell it, but it's just interesting to know.
23:55Yeah.
23:57Isn't that mad to think my grandfather was one of your customers?
24:00Your customers, yeah.
24:01And, like, this is where all your trains were going?
24:03Without even knowing.
24:07And would you say this is one of the biggest private attic railways?
24:12From my point of view, it is the biggest private attic I've ever seen, yeah.
24:15Wow.
24:15Yeah, it is phenomenal.
24:18That's good to know.
24:19Yeah.
24:19But the question is, just how big a job is it to get such a giant train set up and
24:25running once more?
24:37At Chavinage in the Cotswolds, owners James and Emma are in one of the most inaccessible parts of the house.
24:45The attic is where James' grandfather built his pride and joy, a model railway set.
24:52It is the biggest set that expert Peter Lord has ever laid eyes on.
24:57And now it's on to the next stage of breathing new life into this project.
25:02Shall we see if I can get you one going?
25:05Well, yeah, we've certainly got power.
25:07We've got this lit up.
25:08Oh, it's moving!
25:09Oh, there we are.
25:10Train!
25:11Train, yeah.
25:12That's pretty cool, isn't it?
25:13Go, go, go, train!
25:16So far it goes.
25:18We'll leave you here for a couple of days, then.
25:20Yeah.
25:21Just send the sarnies out.
25:22Yeah, yeah, yeah.
25:23Yeah, coffee will be delivered.
25:25Yeah, yeah, yeah.
25:29Whilst there's hope for this future visitor attraction,
25:32there was a big difference between getting the odd bit of track clear
25:36and the whole attic layout running and fit to receive visitors.
25:42Unfortunately, it is a little bit untidy over time, you know, with the dust collecting.
25:46I think the way I would do it, if I wanted to set it back up again and get it
25:51running, I think the way I would do it would be to perhaps just concentrate on two of the main
25:57lines and get those up and running.
26:01So you can take advantage of the whole space.
26:04Really? Okay.
26:05Rather than trying to get everything working, just get the core part of the layout up and running.
26:13On the plus side, you see, we know that we've got good quality track.
26:17We know that we've got good quality controllers.
26:20Interestingly, I think this is where I'm going to be hiding when Emma and my wife gets crossed with me.
26:23I think now I know the project.
26:25It's a good place to be.
26:26I can go to work.
26:26I'll come and join you.
26:27Yeah, yeah, exactly.
26:28It's a good place to be.
26:30And with a new plan starting to shape up for the railway, on the way downstairs, James can't resist showing
26:38Peter some of the items from his grandfather's collection that he and Emma have already cleared out of the attic.
26:45There's more.
26:46There's 342 here.
26:48Right.
26:48And we reckon there's another 500 upstairs.
26:51An exceptionally large collection of model railways.
26:56And there's one final train that James has known since he was a child, having walked past it thousands of
27:03times.
27:04Oh, yes.
27:05Right.
27:06We know what that is, looking at it.
27:07What's this?
27:08That is...
27:10I'll just move this.
27:11Probably a valuable pop.
27:12Yeah.
27:13Yeah.
27:13Chinese.
27:14Yeah.
27:16Yeah.
27:17That, I suspect, is a pre-war Hornby locomotive.
27:21Wow.
27:22Yeah.
27:22It's in beautiful condition.
27:24100 quid?
27:24A little bit more than that.
27:26Oh, really?
27:26It's in its box.
27:27Probably about...
27:30Mmm...
27:30700.
27:31Wow.
27:32Yeah.
27:33So, it could be even...
27:34Could be more.
27:36It's been extremely well looked after.
27:39Every boy's dream, pre-war.
27:42Yeah, very nice.
27:43I've walked past this my entire life.
27:45Right.
27:45Only until now, you've told me about it, but I know what it's all about.
27:49Having tantalised Peter with this treasure trove of trains, it's time to ask the all-important question.
27:57What do you reckon about making the model railway a feature in tours?
28:04Could I actually monetise people coming to visit and see it, or is it not good enough?
28:09Well, one, that one, I think you'd have to put quite a bit of work into it as regards security.
28:15Oh, yeah.
28:15Little fingers.
28:16And again, you'd probably have to have a number of operatives to run it.
28:20You see, that's the thing, because it's in sections, isn't it?
28:23So, one part of the attic would have to be talking to the other part of the attic, as the
28:30models are going through.
28:32It will take an inordinate amount of work to bring it back to life.
28:39My grandfather died two years ago, and there's a big, turbulent change of era.
28:44And that's daunting, and I think it's not a sustainable business unless we work 100%.
28:48You know, we literally have to create revenue.
28:52We go under.
28:54The cash flow is not there.
28:56Well, I hope you can come back when we've got it running.
29:00Thank you for letting me have a look at the bus collection.
29:03Always welcome.
29:04The more train enthusiasts we can get in here, the better.
29:06I think my grandfather would be very pleased.
29:07Yeah.
29:08I'll get a bus load row next.
29:09Yeah, exactly.
29:10Let's do it.
29:10Everything we do and everything we try, yes, some may work, some may not.
29:24From model railway sets to Edwardian greenhouses, one of the curious challenges of country house ownership is spotting the potential
29:32value of your more unusual assets.
29:35Our next house certainly boasts of something unusual, and the owners are in no doubt of its significance.
29:42Much-needed preservation work is now getting underway.
29:48Halfway between Shrewsbury and the Shropshire hills, we're paying another visit to Pitchford Hall.
29:57This Tudor Manor House is celebrated not only for its half-timbered facades, but also for its unique garden treasure.
30:08At 550 years old, this is thought to be the oldest known broadleaf lime tree in the country.
30:16And within it, what's believed to be the world's oldest tree house.
30:23It dates back to 1670.
30:27It's also, I think, the only listed tree house in the UK.
30:35It's been entertaining young and old alike for over 350 years, including Queen Victoria herself when she was a young
30:44princess.
30:47But this summer, owner James Nason is set on correcting some relatively recent maintenance mistakes made before he and his
30:56wife Rowena took possession of Pitchford.
30:58As part of the 1980 restoration, they used this hard cement, and that's not right for a heritage building.
31:05So we need to change it, you know, chip away the cement and put in lime plaster.
31:11And when it comes to a job like this, the Nasons turn to local artisan builder, Nick Tatchell, who knows
31:18the charms and challenges of the Pitchford estate like few others.
31:23Virtually every panel here needs some attention. There's been three or four repaired on this elevation.
31:29But it's a poorly thing.
31:33So this is what was taken out. This is galvanised steel mesh.
31:36It's just your basic sort of builder stuff, but it's just totally wrong.
31:41You can see it's obviously cement, and the galvanised steel is starting to fail.
31:47It's rusted, and then we get slabs falling out, and the whole tree house has been repaired with that.
31:55So that's for the scrap heap.
31:58To give this piece of Pitchford's history its best chance against the elements for another century,
32:04Nick will be replacing the steel mesh and cement with something more sympathetic to the original oak frame.
32:12Breathability. That's the main thing.
32:14Oak is super tough, but if the damp gets in and it softens, because it's a very starchy wood,
32:23it's like a quarter pound of a cheese to woodworm and all the other bugs that would like to live
32:27off it.
32:28So by using lime and the lath, it allows the building to get wet and dry,
32:35and it can dry through the plaster rather than dry around the edges of the oak.
32:38Because if you use cement, the cement is waterproof, so the moisture can only escape around the cement,
32:45which is why you then get rotting around the oak frame.
32:49So providing you allow it to breathe, then it'll be fine.
32:56These are oak laths. We're replacing the galvanised mesh that's failed with the oak lath,
33:01and then it'll be plastered with lime plaster.
33:05It's pushed through these gaps, and as it falls through and hardens, they bind it and it goes rock solid.
33:11They call those snots just because of the way it obviously falls through.
33:15You can see here that it's done a similar thing with this cement, but obviously we'll be using lime.
33:24Instead of stainless steel screws and oak lath I'm using, they would have used iron nails.
33:29Painstaking stuff, because each lath has to be fitted individually.
33:36Pilot drilled, it's really time-consumant.
33:40All this oak comes from the estate as well.
33:44So every single piece is bespoke, which is where the time goes.
33:50Nick suspects that every panel on the treehouse will ultimately need removing and replacing.
33:56A job to relish on a nice summer's day.
34:01It's certainly a big thing behind the desk, particularly when you've got this scenery around you.
34:09It's also giving him a chance to inspect the rest of the treehouse close up.
34:15Squirrels are the bane of this estate's life.
34:17If we grow squirrels, get in and nibble all the oak, nibble all the lead and cause general mayhem.
34:31Nick is likely to spend the whole of the summer working his way around the treehouse,
34:36juggling it with other jobs across the estate.
34:47Now mix up the plaster now, because that one's all done.
34:52Lime plaster has been used for thousands of years, from the Great Pyramid to Edwardian interiors.
34:58Mix it by hand as well, really.
35:02The standard recipe is simple enough. Lime, sand, water, and one other key ingredient.
35:09This is hair that we use to mix into the plaster to give it its...
35:14OK, here's its strength.
35:16And this is actually yak hair.
35:18It's bit by bit. It's little and often.
35:20You can't just chuck a load in and mix it.
35:22You have to separate each hair, which, again, you can see why the process takes so long.
35:31Up. Up we go.
35:34So you can see all the hair, and that'll bind it together.
35:39And you just press to start with.
35:42It's not about covering it, because we want that to go through.
35:47The first coat you've got to be more careful with.
35:50And then I'll do a top coat, which is a harder plaster.
35:55It could take a week to do a panel, but you have to keep revisiting,
35:59and that's where the time goes.
36:02It teaches you patience, and I'm not known for mine.
36:05So, er, you can't rush it.
36:09Emulating the craftsmen of the past definitely isn't a fast job.
36:13But if Nick's patience lasts, this one corner of the Pitchford estate will be in good shape for decades to
36:20come.
36:22Nuts.
36:23Ah.
36:38We're returning now to Eiford Manor, a house whose trump card is its wonderful garden.
36:44Laid out as the private retreat of a former owner, the landscape designer Harold Pitot.
36:50But, in today's world, how do you turn a much-loved garden into something that will draw in the visitors,
36:58and the revenue, all year round?
37:04In a delightful corner of Wiltshire, this is the challenge that's been faced by Eiford's owners,
37:10William and Marianne Cartwright-Hignett.
37:13And they've been nothing short of bold with their solution.
37:17Here we are, about to enter the new entrance that we made, a bit of a secret garden hidden way
37:23into the courtyard.
37:27Like many country house owners, William and Marianne have diversified the family estate
37:33by creating two beautiful new eateries for Eiford's visitors.
37:39A high-end restaurant and a more casual cafe.
37:43This used to be an old courtyard just for storage, really, not used for anything.
37:49But since 2021, it's become a focal point for the entire 1,000-acre estate.
37:57This is a really critical plank to making Eiford sustainable in the long term.
38:01It connects us to our community on a very regular basis, but also, just financially speaking,
38:07it hopefully puts through enough turnover that this place is viable in the long term.
38:15What's immediately obvious is that this isn't your run-of-the-mill tea shop.
38:20The John Dory.
38:22Thank you very much.
38:23William and Marianne are determined to ensure that their customers return time and time again.
38:29Simple salmon, but it looks lovely.
38:34The restaurant is led by head chef Matthew Britton, who brings Michelin star experience to Eiford's kitchens.
38:42The beef and the lamb comes from the estate.
38:45Majority of the apples and the fruit from the estate, the vegetables from the estate.
38:49So, as in air miles, it's very minimal, really.
38:53I think as time goes on, we will use even more stuff from the estate.
38:59I think country manners need to diversify and do something different,
39:04and I think Williams chose to do this, and luckily it's worked out.
39:10Some of our staff are very local as well, born and bred, like Amy, my sous chef.
39:15I walked to work, I came here as a kid, and now I get to work here as a sous
39:19chef, doing some amazing things.
39:23One terrace downhill, it's a similar story at the cafe, where baking happens in-house.
39:30Pastries are going well.
39:31Yeah, pastries are good.
39:32Excellent.
39:33I've worked here for three years now, and yeah, it's the best job I've had.
39:37I started when I was 14, and since then I've got so many new friends as well.
39:41I love it, honestly. It's great.
39:42Paris is my sister as well.
39:44Yeah.
39:45Yeah.
39:48Here, we are in a position where flexing means being more engaged with community.
39:54I couldn't be more proud that we're doing that.
39:57How else can we keep places like this alive if they aren't loved by tens of thousands of people?
40:04I live up the road, so I'm a regular. I walk down here and have coffee and croissant every week.
40:10Would you like to be inside or outside today? Outside? Perfect.
40:15This new culinary string to Iford's Bow isn't just bringing a fresh buzz to Iford.
40:21It's also generating vital revenue that can be ploughed back into the estate.
40:31Such as the careful dismantling of Harold Pitot's original greenhouse.
40:37Now being worked on by a team who helped build the restaurant and cafe.
40:43Working on the project today, our building team who we work with a lot, Matt and Will Andrews,
40:49they are father and son. It's so nice working with a family firm.
40:52They have the same ethos that we do, taking it steady, doing it once, doing it right.
40:59The next stage here, we're just going to take this opening fan light out.
41:03It can be a little bit tricky. Just try and take the paint out of the screws, unscrew it.
41:08One of us on the screwdriver, one holding the window, and then we'll try and lower it carefully down through.
41:20Just handy to have an extra pair of hands sometimes, isn't it?
41:23Yeah. Prep ready for them.
41:27But this is quite big scale really.
41:31And just a bit unusual. I mean, you think how many years this has been here.
41:34It's down to us to take it down.
41:38And it seems that working in tandem with their nearest and dearest
41:42is paying dividends for this father and son team.
41:46Lots of people always say,
41:47oh, how do you get on? Do you not argue all the time?
41:49But, yeah, we don't seem to, yet anyway, touch wood.
41:53But, yeah, definitely learn a lot from him.
41:55All yours.
41:57OK, it's fine.
41:58But who's really in charge?
42:01Mum.
42:03Good answer.
42:06I don't know the absolute age of it, but with most things, especially greenhouse,
42:11it's difficult to get a coat of paint on.
42:12So I think probably they do get ignored over the years.
42:16These brackets, they're modern, so somebody's had a go at it.
42:19Whether they've just put new brackets on an old frame
42:21or whether that frame has been renewed, I don't know.
42:25Certainly the greenhouse has been there a while.
42:27Matt and Will have become key parts of the team at Eiford.
42:31Just let me drop down, OK? OK.
42:34Well, I started off 20 years ago doing small jobs around the estate.
42:38The scallops, that's the original, yeah.
42:41And then gradually we've sort of done more and more.
42:44I didn't ever think Will would come into the business.
42:47It turned out really well.
42:48Once the cafe was done and we saw the product of what we'd done,
42:52that really sort of reeled me into the line of work, I think.
42:56But once you're part of the team,
42:59you can be called in to help with almost anything.
43:02And not every job here is as pleasant
43:05as restoring a beautiful historic greenhouse.
43:12What's the capacity of the lorry?
43:142,000 gallons.
43:152,000 gallons.
43:18We'd be at least 1,500, wouldn't we?
43:21A bit more.
43:23Welcome to Eiford Manor's septic tank.
43:26I think one of the things that I was blissfully unaware of growing up
43:31was that not everyone is on main sewers.
43:36Fresh from the greenhouse,
43:38Will is turning his hand to averting a sewage disaster.
43:41I think the last time we emptied was about three, four weeks ago,
43:44something like that.
43:46With sort of 500 odd visitors a day,
43:48obviously it fills up fairly quickly.
43:51The irony here is that the more popular Eiford becomes...
43:55Cheddar and onion chutney, do you want that toasted at all?
43:58..the more the problems increase.
44:01They were actually already booked in to pump it out, I think,
44:05the following day or the day after,
44:07but the usage had been higher than expected
44:10and so we realised rather rapidly
44:13that actually the normal forecast sort of visit
44:17was not going to be in time.
44:20We managed to get the emergency call out
44:21so we could get it pumped out.
44:24Everyone's always desperate when they give you a ring,
44:26you know, emergency in every call.
44:28The nick of time.
44:31If you leave it, it's not a good day at the office.
44:36Having septic tanks obviously to deal with all of the waste from here
44:42and indeed the cafe and the kitchen,
44:44it's really, really complicated,
44:46especially for fatbergs and things like this.
44:49It's been quite eye-opening, to be honest,
44:51at the costs involved.
44:54With a system like this,
44:55it's made up of various different chambers and levels
44:58that separate out all of the, well, the sewage
45:01into its different sort of, well, densities fundamentally.
45:06So we start by clearing the bottom tank
45:08and then we work our way up the various tanks
45:11and, yeah, make sure it's all sort of taken out
45:13and essentially hoovered.
45:18If you look at the gauge,
45:20I would say it's got to be three quarters full.
45:25Hoovering complete.
45:27Everyone can breathe easy once more,
45:30although not too deeply, perhaps.
45:33Job done.
45:35Just another day at Eiford.
45:41Next time on Saving Country Houses...
45:45Come on, yeah, you're good.
45:46The Chavonish sauna is moved extremely carefully
45:50to its final position.
45:52What about the winter?
45:53Still don't know if it's just a stupid idea or a good one.
45:57Some really interesting visitors in recent history here.
46:01In Northamptonshire,
46:04Ashby Manor's star architect and royal visitors are revealed.
46:08Prince Edward, he hasn't become the King of England.
46:13And we meet the Staffordshire family getting to know their home,
46:17having lived in it for 900 years.
46:21There's always been a story that there was a hidden room
46:23and an escape tunnel from the hall through up to the church.
46:28It's just amazing.
46:30I need a look.
46:58I should leave a kitchen in the hall and the hall in the hall,
47:00You
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