Saving Country Houses with Penelope Keith Season 1 Episode 4 captures a beautiful Cotswolds summer as Chavenage House introduces a new pond to enhance its historic landscape. Meanwhile, the restoration of Ashby Manor’s Gunpowder Plot Room becomes increasingly complex, revealing the delicate challenges involved in preserving historically significant interiors. Follow the fascinating restoration journey in Saving Country Houses with Penelope Keith as heritage and craftsmanship come together.
#SavingCountryHousesWithPenelopeKeith #ChavenageHouse #GunpowderPlot #HistoricRestoration #PenelopeKeith
#SavingCountryHousesWithPenelopeKeith #ChavenageHouse #GunpowderPlot #HistoricRestoration #PenelopeKeith
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:02The green, rolling landscapes of Great Britain
00:05are home to the jewels in the country's rich heritage.
00:13Our country houses.
00:19Celebrated across the world for their design and decoration.
00:27Their crowns and gardens.
00:33And their centuries of history.
00:40There was a time when owning a grand country house meant a great deal.
00:45These estates were the keys to fortune and power.
00:50But today's country house owners live in a very different world.
00:54The sound of petrol!
00:56No, no, no, wrong way!
00:58These houses are still the grandest in the land.
01:02This is Oliver Cromwell's room.
01:03But the challenge of keeping them in one piece has never been greater.
01:07Spiral of decay, I don't like the sound of that.
01:10Ballpark figures, 350,000.
01:12Gulp.
01:13Gotta get these lights fixed.
01:14Today's owners are becoming ever more imaginative.
01:18Bon appetit.
01:19We're finding ways...
01:21I'm literally ankle deep right now.
01:23To keep the money coming in.
01:25These estates aren't designed to make money, they're designed to eat money.
01:29To keep the ceiling from falling down.
01:31And I turn the corner into here.
01:34Oh my goodness.
01:35We are collecting leeks, as you can see.
01:37And stop their fears becoming a reality.
01:40I think of all the ancestors going back 900 years.
01:44If we fail, it's on our watch.
01:47Of course, being to the manor born has always been a privilege.
01:51But today's owners face challenges as never before.
01:55So, they're rolling up their sleeves and putting their heart and soul into brave new ventures.
02:01The question is, how do you save a country house and see it prosper in the modern world?
02:29The more time one spends in the world of country houses, the more I think one thing becomes clear.
02:35In order to remain a home, they also need to be a business.
02:40And to make that work, owners need a certain amount of entrepreneurial flair.
02:46James and Emma Lowsley-Williams are a young couple who, in their short time running a country house,
02:52are off to a flying start in that regard.
02:56And they're certainly not stopping for a rest.
03:01In the heart of the Cotswolds, their home is the Elizabethan manor house of Chavenage.
03:09These 2,000 acres of picture book English countryside have been James and Emma's responsibility for the past two years.
03:18Happy birthday, Mary.
03:21They have already taken a risk by investing money from the sale of Emma's flat into setting up the new
03:27barn cafe.
03:28We have found this sort of second year of being open.
03:32We're getting a lot more people through the door.
03:34And this summer, their attention is turning to the installation of a luxury sauna pod.
03:40That's it. There we go.
03:41Where do you want it to go?
03:42This is kind of our dream.
03:44This is the Shepherd's Heart sauna we're going for.
03:47James, however, now has a second project in his sights.
03:51Also aimed at turning Chavenage into a Cotswolds destination.
03:55The number two project, which is what we want to do in the near future,
04:00to lean on the wellness and encourage people to come and stay here,
04:03is to basically make this a pond.
04:07It is actually a pond, but it's been left for decades.
04:15Over the last century, trees and shrubs have taken over this small corner of the estate,
04:20and the pond has long since suited up, becoming more of a bog.
04:25So the pond is a slight experiment.
04:30So what I'd like to do is get a digger in there, create a nice pond, put ducks on it.
04:35I've got this rather obscure view of the estate, where I am slightly OCD.
04:40I've got, you know, I want to make things look perfect.
04:44Now that's a struggle when you've got 2,000 acres,
04:47because you haven't got enough time in your life to make the whole estate look perfect.
04:51And then here, we've got planning for four glamping huts.
04:57And then you can lie, have your own space and be literally in the middle of the Cotswold countryside.
05:03And that is priceless.
05:07Not hard.
05:10And so I wanted to start on the pond down in the park.
05:13I know it was a pond, and I thought, maybe we can, like, reinvigorate it.
05:18That's, again, putting something on the estate that wasn't there before.
05:21Clamping may be a long-term project, but James is confident he can prepare the area
05:26and resurrect Chavenage's pond quite quickly.
05:30And then this is one of the areas.
05:33And luckily, the tree surgeons have been in today.
05:36Oh, my God. That is a lot of wood.
05:42So we've got to take out the dead trees, because obviously it's just dangerous in case they fall.
05:50Don't ask how much it costs, but this is 1,500 quid, two grand for that job.
05:58That doesn't change our life at all.
06:01Well, it would if a tree fell on us.
06:04Yeah.
06:06That's how you can just lose cash.
06:08You think we might have earned two grand last week in the cafe, and it's all gone on one tree.
06:15Perfect.
06:16Perfect.
06:17Perfect.
06:19With some of the biggest trees down already, there's an opportunity for James to do what he likes best.
06:25Get stuck into the work himself, with a bit of help from one of the real powerhouses of the Chavenage
06:32Estate.
06:35James and Raph are like a bit of a double act that you never really saw coming.
06:39I don't know where Raph is.
06:42He said, come and find me.
06:44He's one of those people that can do anything, got a problem with the car.
06:48We'll just ask Raph.
06:49You need a pond clearing out, ask Raph.
06:51There he is.
06:53He's doing our roses.
06:56Rafa?
06:57I know that if James disappears, he's probably out somewhere with Raph playing with some kind of machinery.
07:04You ready?
07:06We're going to see if we can sort a pond out.
07:10Hands, look at the size of...
07:13He's literally hands the size of frickin' spades.
07:16James definitely couldn't do it by himself, so we're really pleased that we've got Raph, who is capable of anything
07:22in my eyes.
07:26Having lived in the Cotswolds for many years, Raph Winiarski and his wife both now work part-time at Chavenage.
07:34He is almost certainly the only member of the estate team who's ever been in the Polish army.
07:40I love and enjoy every single day in here.
07:48I love him!
07:54Ah!
07:56That's you!
08:01Right, Rafa, this is soon going to be an oasis.
08:07Imagine ducks, clear water, maybe even a water feature,
08:13beautiful oak trees, cabins.
08:16This is going to be our kind of wellness area.
08:20But with no real budget to achieve James's vision,
08:23it's up to him and Rafa to make this dream a reality.
08:27If we get chainsaw, if we get hedge trimmer...
08:31What about safety helmets?
08:34Don't never forget your safety helmet.
08:36That was the main thing. Exactly.
08:37Rafa is the most incredible.
08:40He is the most loyal and the hardest working bloke I know.
08:45I... I lost my shoe.
08:50Straight on my knees.
08:53Unfortunately, we only can afford him Monday and Friday.
08:55I'd love to have him five days a week,
08:58cos the amount of work we would get done is incredible.
09:01Ah, no, go again.
09:03Don't worry, get the big guns in, Rafa.
09:05Go on, big gun.
09:07I need to speak with James, how about pay rise?
09:10HE LAUGHS
09:14The sound of petrol!
09:17I love working with him.
09:19He's a really strong pair of hands that I probably couldn't do without.
09:23I'm all for someone who would just jump in and just crack on
09:27and put a load of energy into it.
09:30HE LAUGHS
09:32That's one down.
09:38It's a good job this newly appointed Lord of the Manor isn't afraid to get his hands dirty.
09:45A tree surging on these big trees, 600 to 1,000 pounds a tree.
09:50So, if you didn't do it yourself, you'd be able to get anywhere.
09:55You've got to want a graft.
09:58I'm trying to create a better estate for the one I was given,
10:03and hopefully, as a custodian of this place,
10:05I can hand it over to the next generation in a better place I found it.
10:09Hopefully, you know, with a pond, a pond that wasn't there before.
10:13Come on, puppy.
10:17That was better.
10:19But with only a two-man team on the job,
10:22Chavenage's reimagined pond could be a long time in the making.
10:25This is wet, so this will actually hold water.
10:29I think we're on to a winner, mate.
10:30This is actually an exciting plan.
10:35People think in some jobs it's five minutes,
10:37but they are not five minutes.
10:39It's loads of work.
10:42Could take us a week.
10:43Weeks? Months? Months.
10:45Maybe to Christmas.
10:46Maybe till Christmas.
10:59I'm going to be a crab.
11:00At Chavenage, in the Cotswolds,
11:02attention is very much on new projects
11:05that will hopefully bring money into the estate.
11:08but of course all our houses are historic buildings which require time and money just
11:15to conserve and maintain them at one of our houses that is very much the focus except the
11:22concern is not the house itself but it's celebrated gatehouse on the western edge of
11:30hamptonshire the gatehouse in question belongs to ashby manor house the house is presented quite
11:39beautifully thanks to 10 years of hard work from its australian owner nova guest the dailies take
11:47so much water the tudor gatehouse lies close to the road and the church and it's famous for its
11:55role in hatching the gunpowder plot and is now the site of nova's latest restoration project
12:02we're going to bring the cherry picker in so we need to get as close to the side of the
12:06plot room
12:06as we can so we're clearing all this because it's full of brambles largely overlooked by recent
12:13generations the plot room now has nova giving it the care and attention it deserves she plans to
12:19transform it from neglected space to a tourist attraction to showcase its important place
12:25in british 17th century history starting with restoring its external walls and leading the
12:33restoration work is local stonemason les simblet just drop it there
12:39les will be using a cherry picker to inspect the leaks and cracks that have become noticeable from the
12:51inside initially i think the best thing is just really to do a bit of a general survey check and
12:57we're particularly looking for where the water's ingress is happening do you feel feel high up not yet
13:06so this is a typical example of the sort of thing problems that we're having
13:14but the water's running down the face no absorption on the cement running straight into the joints into
13:20the structure of the building so here you've got this hairline crack when they repaired in the 90s
13:26they put sand cement and you can see that's very very hard so wherever possible is trying to expose that
13:31gap
13:32and fill it time and you can see then that there the gap gets bigger and then we can start
13:43filling that
13:44with with the oakum cork which is traditional boat the material goes back to viking times
13:53made from hemp or flax fibers oakum was the key natural product that kept ships and timber framed
13:59buildings water tight for centuries we're going to push that into the joints
14:06which stops the water penetrating les is using similar methods as the original craftsman
14:13who built the gatehouse but the costs associated with this kind of specialist work have a tendency to spiral
14:22it's very difficult budgeting having budgets in this house because they yeah
14:28this is where the problem where you can see from the inside where we've got the leaking
14:31do you see that that's all moving i imagine when you're dealing with new houses you can have very
14:38realistic quotes for things i think replace it but here as you get into a job you don't know what
14:45you're
14:45going to find they're quite big voids that we've got here it's just totally rotten away the whole thing
14:51gets blown blown up we'll get a bit of linseed oil
14:55i can oil the timber so it gives a little bit of resistance to moisture ingress and conditions the
15:03timber a lot of these timbers that are black and white uh really date back to the victorian times
15:10this would have been a smooth face originally then they exposed the beams so they thought it looked nice
15:14a lot of the time they painted the beams with black tar and that's the worst thing you do you'll
15:19find
15:19the timbers rot so fast it's ridiculous but i still see people now putting black tar on the oak timbers
15:24and it makes you want to cry really because it's just it's just totally wrong we fill it with the
15:31oakum that'll fill the gaps that's really why we've made the gap slightly bigger so we pack that in
15:38and then on the bottom here you can see that's going right into the into the joints
15:44and that gives a flexible waterproof bond it'll stop the water penetrating
15:50we're now packing it with the mass troweling mastic double boiled linseed oil and mix it with a burnt
15:56sand which is a fairly traditional thing for use on timber frame buildings you see how big those voids
16:02are about how much that's going into sort of pack that all in by hand lime mortar now to fill
16:09this one
16:12what we do to help these old buildings and look after them a lot of effort
16:19the hardest thing is deciding where to stop and where to start don't open the kind of worms
16:24but whilst les is able to fill voids and sealed cracks relatively simply the work leaps to a
16:31different scale if entire modern panels need replacing
16:38while you look at it you see more problems as usual you realize a lot of panels are loose
17:01about 35 panels so whatever time it takes for that we multiply by 35 that's probably the time we need
17:08to allocate for it the main question is do you want the repairs last five years 10 years 20 years
17:1330 years
17:15having been up close and personal with the worst of the wall les delivers his verdict
17:22i can't say whether it's uh good news or bad news oh golly the repairs are going quite well with
17:29you
17:29can see we've filled the joints in all the timbers on this left-hand side but some of the panels
17:34are quite
17:34loose my recommendation would be to probably take the wall off and start again because it might be just as
17:40quick right well it's more extensive than i thought in terms of the work that's needed to
17:48fix it because we have to actually remove panels and put new ones on so what started out as sort
17:54of
17:54a day or two's cherry picker hire and les is turning into sort of a whole two-week thing it's
18:02probably
18:03somewhere between 1500 pounds and 8 000 pounds or something i think of course it's a side of the
18:12plot room you can't even see it from our house in a corner which is usually covered in brambles that
18:16no one can see but this is what we have to do it's like the money you can't see in
18:20these houses
18:31just like ashby manor all the country houses we've looked at so far have history stretching back
18:38centuries but it's time for something rather different as our next house is positively youthful
18:46less than two centuries old it was built by a wealthy victorian who was keen to escape the city
18:53and establish a classic rural seat for his family that family are still there to this day
19:02we're heading across the welsh border to the brecon beacons where we find traberfith house
19:12with its towering gothic arches traberfith was the height of fashion when it was built by robert rakes
19:19in the 1840s it's now the home of his great great great granddaughter sally and her husband hugh
19:28so we're going upstairs now um to where the bedrooms are um and between the divide of the house between
19:34the
19:34children's and servants bedrooms and then the adults rooms is a height chart which documents the height
19:39of all the children who lived here through the years you'll see it's it's pretty chocker
19:46there's not much space for our kids heights that's for sure
19:50jess holland is a cousin is that right i think so in 1938 he held the title as the tallest
19:56until your brother hugh came in in 2002. seeing all these characters on this height chart makes me
20:05feel that we should get another height chart opposite here on the other side of the frame
20:10to start the next lot of generation so our kids the seventh generation of the house to be here and
20:15they're not on this so perhaps it's not too late for us to start continuation on this side and hope
20:22that
20:22we extend to the 15th and 16th generation who knows
20:29treburtheth may not be as old as some other country houses but it is not without its complications
20:36well there's an early victorian house you've got turrets there are three turrets and you've got got
20:42gothic archways nine different designs of leather windows we did look out 23 chimneys
20:46and all the chimneys some of them are slightly wonky but we're pretty sure they're okay
20:52so the scariest bit about this building and its architecture is the maintenance it requires
20:58not any ghosts and ghouls
21:02one of the joys of treburtheth is that so much is as it was 175 years ago
21:10it's an amazing bit of intricate design
21:13this is the hall it's very dark it's deliberately dark the victorians didn't like sunlight in the way
21:19that we seek it out today the tastes of the very religious robert rakes who built treburtheth
21:27can still be found throughout the house and nowhere more so than in his library
21:43and the house also boasts various heirlooms that are clues to the lifestyle of its original household
21:50this is an example of somebody that has too much time on their hands really so over three volumes they
21:57have written out the bible
21:59whoever wrote this bible was very religious very devout i think the whole family were
22:04it's quite striking to think of how their lives were versus how our lives are today in terms of
22:10what they would have done and their day-to-day activities and yeah unfortunately we don't have
22:15time to write out the bible
22:19having been run as a private home for generations
22:22sally and hugh are now picking up what her parents generation started
22:27in turning treburtheth into a home and a business we spend a lot of time in the garden in the
22:34summer
22:34but it's also the area that we have wedding ceremonies up on the formal lawns there and just over there
22:41we have a marquee which goes up for about eight weeks between the end of may and the end of
22:46july
22:48the weddings are all part of the mix of what we do here to keep the house going and to
22:53bring in
22:53income the fundamental thing is we couldn't afford to live here without doing that yeah
23:01but sally and hugh are not the first generation of the family to feel the pressure of money
23:06whilst running this extraordinary country house
23:11robert rakes fell on hard times and he could no longer afford to live here and then this is an
23:17advert
23:17from that time and it's it's fascinating reading the detail and how it's described
23:22it's described as a gentleman's residence 14 bedrooms three dressing rooms each fitted with hot and cold
23:28bath and in the end it was let for 15 years it almost left the family but then it didn't
23:34because
23:35robert rakes jr so my great great grandfather felt he could come back on and and take it on again
23:42it narrowly missed leaving the family altogether and three years ago it was time for sally hugh and
23:50their four children to take over from sally's father the challenge of running treburfith
23:56i guess every generation who lives here wants to keep it going and doesn't want to be the one
24:00to lose it
24:11in the heart of the brecon beacon sally and hugh martineau with the sixth generation of their family
24:17to live in their victorian country pile treburfith house it's all a far cry from their city life of old
24:30i lived in london for more than 10 years worked as a journalist and
24:34yeah it's a very different existence here in the country
24:38and the change in scene to a new life in the country means that sally has had to learn plenty
24:44of new skills to keep the income flowing and the house running so we're off to go and look at
24:49our
24:50beehives we've got three beehives down this driveway here in a corner of the field
24:56i did the beginners beekeeping course on zoom in lockdown i've been doing it ever since then
25:01and i started off one hive then two and then three
25:07beekeeping i love it's just a real escape it's very relaxing thing to do
25:13all right that's all honey when we decided to move to wales i did get teased a bit about how
25:18my life would be about making jars of raspberry jam but it's turned out to be jars of honey which
25:22is
25:22absolutely fine by me for the first time this summer sally will have enough honey to start selling her
25:29new produce plus it's an excellent way of engaging her eight-year-old twins bertie and duncan
25:36getting into rhythm my workers yeah they're doing a great job
25:44tasting it was the most important part kind of
25:51and it's a very short commute to sally's retail outlet treburfith's own plant nursery
26:00the walled garden is still part of treburfith's but allison's leased it for maybe 10 or 12 years
26:06now and she's transformed into the most beautiful space hi hi sally honey we have honey 10 jars of
26:15solid honey and 10 jars of liquid but there's more what is the price of a jar of honey these
26:20days
26:21six pounds fifty yeah something like that see how that goes but of course a sideline in beekeeping
26:28will not generate the income sally and hugh need to keep treburfith as their home
26:34which is where their bespoke marquee comes in designed especially for country house weddings
26:41but there are only a handful of weddings at the house each summer and they are styled to suit the
26:47tests of each couple and they can make use of the custom-made marquee the handiwork of designer
26:54roland stokes i made this marquee for this place this space so it was custom built for here
27:01there's some curves on the valance which is a style i use in most of my structures which they do
27:08relate
27:08to the gothic arches that can be found on the house we wanted something that was going to be in
27:14keeping with the house making sure that we got the right fit for the location was really important
27:19and that's blank canvas so couples can do whatever they want in here they can
27:23put a plinth up and hang flowers from that or disco ball or extra lighting
27:29and treburfith is soon going to be hosting its biggest wedding of the year
27:36these are roland's handmade trestle tables and chairs he's added an extension on either side for this
27:42particular wedding space enough for the expected 174 guests
27:51we enjoy weddings here it's a really momentous day in the lives of a couple lovely so for us on
27:58the sidelines it's just really really lovely to see it's taken a lot of brain power to just do this
28:03table if it all goes to plan it's brilliant
28:15there is nothing like the deadline of a wedding to focus the mind of everyone involved most country
28:22house projects on the other hand rely rather more on the owner's own determination to get things moving
28:30back at ashby manor in northamptonshire that determination is on show for all to see
28:36ashby's owner nova took stonemason liz's advice and opted for a thorough restoration of the external
28:44timbers and panels gosh it's like looking at a work of art aren't you amazing
28:51we've delivered it properly to every every panel is sealed amazing yeah amazing on the corner where
28:57all the big voids are filled with with lime water and put the um traveling mastic on top of it
29:01yes
29:02so i don't think you've got any problem there at all now for 20 25 years lifetime guarantee from me
29:08it's not going to be very long now exactly i won't be able to chase you up on that obviously
29:14the tudor gatehouse home to the gunpowder plot room has received a major lime mortar facelift
29:24les was here i think all in all he was here for a month so it was vastly longer than
29:32we thought
29:33but he's done a really proper job so wonderful the whole thing has been sorted out and that is such
29:40a
29:40weight off my shoulders so now we can sort of start to look inside and make sure you know we
29:46can properly start restoring the inside knowing that we've dealt with the outside it's it's uh it's
29:52good news vastly expensive good news but still good news the less good news is that all les's external
30:00work has created a fresh mountain of dust inside the old gatehouse oh god a big broom get the big
30:08bits up
30:09and then we can start vacuuming beyond the dust there's also the small matter of what les found
30:14in the loft over a month ago we've decided that we're going to remove the bird's nest because
30:20all pro carcasses in there dead squirrels there's all sorts of ticks and lies so i want to make sure
30:27i got fully booted and suited we try to minimize any uh infestation because i don't fancy itching all day
30:37well i've just put on my cooking apron thinking that might sort of generally help i'm not sure if
30:42it's it really uh extensive enough but we will see my powered respirator complete my outfit
30:51i'm going to miss the universe next
30:55i'm ready once we get these dead birds out i want to clean the whole thing up
30:59i've got an industrial vacuum cleaner i'm going to spend the weekend hoovering and just see if we
31:05can start to think about if my plan is right nova's aim is to open the room where the gunpowder
31:12plot was
31:12planned to visitors but there's a way to go yet oh my word look at it nothing can quite prepare
31:25you for this
31:28there's four of those as i say there's dead carcasses in on there's all sorts holy moly
31:36for now this room is best tackled with powered breathing apparatus
31:44oh
31:50that's made no impression at all this is one that's there's about be about 10 of those i think
31:55on that one nest
31:58it's a big job
32:00a very big job i'm going to try a plan b pitchfork would be ideal
32:09however long or dirty this job gets it's clear nova is up for the challenge and set on presenting this
32:16small room in northamptonshire in the best light to create as authentic an experience as possible
32:23can't wait to light this fire
32:27another five loads will be there for the first nest
32:36so if we do reimagine what the plot room may have looked like i'm going to take some serious
32:41advice on that because we need to source 16th century furniture which is quite difficult in itself
32:48and then i just wonder if it's right to reimagine what the room might have looked like but you do
32:55imagine plotters sitting around a table catching a plan to blow up the houses of parliament
33:0760 miles south in the heart of the cotswolds there is progress at shavenage manor home to james and
33:14emma lowesley williams james's pet project of recreating the old pond is well underway
33:22the pond it's been a labor of love i've taken a lot of the trees that were encroaching in on
33:29the pond
33:30out i then got a three-ton digger in to get all of this silt out and create kind of
33:37a bowl shape
33:39but i'm happy with it it looks vastly different to like it to what it did look like
33:47james has done a lot of the digging out himself but before he goes any further raf is back to
33:53help
33:54with a spot of housekeeping so i reckon if we can get the branches around the corner are you all
33:59right
33:59in the tractor do you want me to show you how to do it you sure i don't need your
34:04help
34:06ever think what half ignition and engine i can drive watch out my dogs i don't know where they've gone
34:17raf loves using machine so i can get him doing all the heavy lifting
34:28and whilst raf is tidying up james can plan the next stage
34:36where we are now in the cotswolds it's all cotswold brash so you can see that with all the stones
34:40um so what they had to do is to line these ponds they had to import this clay and so
34:47it's proper
34:49it's not mud it's proper it's proper clay that you could uh potentially put in a kiln
34:56and um and that is the liner and that is what i'm trying not to scrape up or scrape out
35:04so i've got to
35:04try and leave as much of this as possible and reline it because all the roots have basically
35:09punctured it but it's quite amazing that is the liner of the pond and you can see the difference
35:19and this is all the silt that i need to try and get out and then this is the water
35:24level
35:26this is fantastic news it hasn't rained in like three weeks so the water is holding but it's the
35:32water's low really low although james is pleased with the pond's potential the change in seasons
35:39means that mother nature is a threat to his grand plans i've basically got time against me because
35:46i need to get all this silt out before the rain comes and uh and this starts filling up and
35:53uh that's
35:53basically the the challenge i've got ahead that's winter she doesn't really help me that much dig
36:01winter are you gonna dig hey at the moment i'm not regretting it but if it doesn't work and we
36:10don't get it done before the winter comes i might be regretting it
36:29it's a busy morning at emma's cafe but anticipation is in the air yeah i can manage with james's pond
36:38project on the back burner for now he and emma and the team are awaiting a new arrival it's the
36:43big day
36:45uh we're pretty excited to be honest the long-awaited luxury sauna pod is due to be delivered
36:52i'm just hoping this is going to work because this this is going to be terrible if it doesn't
36:56i'd persuade them it's going to work um but i'm really excited because this this sauna is
37:04is is it next level this is like the rolls royces of saunas
37:08um so if no one uses it at least i can use it that's the idea i'm actually quite excited
37:13that
37:14people are here because then we can like talk to them about it and hopefully get people like excited
37:18about what's going to be what's going to be here we need to give our sauna a name really
37:25jeffrey or something maybe we could get in the sauna tonight i didn't even think about that i just
37:29thought about getting it here another potential sauna tester could be james's father george lowsley
37:36williams we've got this sauna coming in today oh cool are you going to be on the members list yes
37:41i
37:41will do you want to be you and caroline are our first users but amid all the anticipation there's
37:49work that now needs to be done quickly you need somewhere to keep your screws that's what we need
37:55is a tool belt james oh my gosh this is fantastic turn around and there we go hold on is
38:03that all right
38:03yeah i feel like bob the builder chavenage's go-to builder big al and his young apprentice
38:09are building the base of the sauna changing rooms starting with marking out the position of the
38:15timbers no that's that's inches we want centimeters james because what you do 450 and the next one will
38:22be 900 yeah this is where your maths comes in i'll help you brilliant okay keep going so 450 on
38:29900
38:311,350 there we go it's a long time since i've had staff james 2700 you're like a pro james
38:40all you've
38:40got to think about with this is to how much money you're saving by not employing proper builders
38:45right 450 450 we all want to tell people how to do things i generally think i'm not very good
38:52at it i
38:52don't think i have the patience but uh uh my lack of patience james makes up for in enthusiasm 913
39:00.50
39:01spot on you see you're on it i still am terrible at maths i just i'm both emma and i
39:07are famously
39:08awful at numbers yeah which bodes well for uh yeah running businesses yeah if we just get one each i'll
39:16start at the other end just line them up against your blue marks measuring complete it's time to
39:22fit the joists doesn't matter if they don't go straight in first thing we can hit them with a
39:27hammer right now it's power tool time james that's where i come in handy that's one job that doesn't
39:35need maths great just like that we're creating and the idea is that we're going to do this deck
39:44create the base move it to the site and then we'll build the changing rooms on top get the hammer
39:51out
39:55she's coming along buddy to finish the deck off we put braces in between each of these
40:01and they're called noggins and then that stops the wood from twisting
40:08two four zero having a bit of a mentor like big al who has done the trade and who's keen
40:15to give me
40:15the uh the patience and knowledge is worth a lot i don't think i'd be able to do half these
40:21projects
40:21without someone like big out 40 years ago you wouldn't have found the lord of the matter doing
40:32this yeah that's true i mean i i love it don't get me wrong but uh how times have changed
40:37i mean we had
40:38cook sous chef butler co-butler currently i have one one full-time employee and that's your other
40:47half it works in the office it's not possible to pay for it no we can't spare cells let alone
40:52other
40:52people it's um big change elsewhere on the estate word has got round that james and emma's new toy has
41:03arrived this is the big moment we've got a sauna coming on to site but as it turns out this
41:10is not
41:10the sauna just a delivery of supplies to the cafe we've got a bit of a traffic jam going on
41:18yeah um what should we do oh i can back up a bit yeah that'd be great mate if you
41:23could
41:25so the wait continues
41:31i think it's a really good idea i mean i'm gonna make use of it so uh hopefully other people
41:35will
41:36do you have to pay dad i always pay i know you do i try to always pay um no
41:43i think it'd be a great
41:44idea i think the whole kind of development of this place has taken on a a new turn with this
41:49and uh
41:49hopefully it'll bring courage more people up here dad look at it oh my god how nice is that everything's
41:57oh my god so cool that is the sexiest sora i've ever seen in my life
42:05this morning i was worried and i was i was having all these concerns i woke up in the night
42:10and i
42:10thought are we gonna make any money and i'm just getting really stressed about it and now i've seen
42:14it i'm like no it's fine we can make this work and now i feel like 10 out of 10
42:18excited
42:22sauna's coming mate if you're if you're around yeah you see everyone likes the sauna in a cold plunge
42:33chavenage's sauna takes inspiration from the shepherd's huts of old which provided shelter
42:38wherever the flock was grazing everyone's having to look what's going on the only question now is
42:46where to store the hut until it's ready to be installed in the field across the road but its
42:52high curved roof means the team are unsure how to transport it to its temporary location
42:59let's take it there about that bit
43:033.25 that's gonna be close
43:06we need 100 mil off
43:09how much is 100 mil
43:11oh it's quite a lot too tight should we go around the front to check out the roof yeah let's
43:17try that
43:20so we were hoping we were gonna get through the middle of the barn to position the sauna in a
43:27place by the cafe where everyone can see it but um it's too tall for the uh the barn to
43:34get through
43:34the door so our second option is to bring it around the front um we may have to move some
43:41customers
43:41which is always difficult on the plus side it presents james and emma with a golden opportunity
43:49to parade chavenage's newest addition to potential sauna customers before it moves to its permanent home
43:56in the nearby field that's all right you're okay there you're okay
44:10that bench is unbelievably close
44:15that really is as stunning it's absolutely lovely
44:19will you would you come and use it can't wait to get in there yes oh good
44:32what do you think of that is that that's perfect there mate i reckon yeah
44:36it looks fantastic guys that was expert driving i have to say that was absolutely expert driving
44:46this is where it's at even if we don't make any money just having this here is going to be
44:52worth it whoa i think it's very smart um bigger than i thought it was going to be
45:00uh we're looking forward to using it really yeah do you want to just whip off dad go on whip
45:06off
45:06get your six pack out i've yet to see the sauna in operation it'll be interesting to see how it
45:16goes
45:16down perfect yeah it's gonna be the start of my health and wellness journey guys the sauna if it
45:25works then great if it doesn't we've learned something everything we do and everything we try
45:30yes some may work some may not and that's what you you know that's what you sign up for
45:37next time on saving country houses we are off to the picture tree hats we're in shropshire for a tour
45:46of the world's oldest tree house it's unique where queen victoria played as a young princess
45:54i bet she looked out of that window towards the realm that she was going to roll over there's a
46:00wet start for tremer fifth's wedding of the year everyone's a bit nervous your heart will sinks when
46:07you see the rain coming down a bit of a moment and we're in sunset dorset to follow the progress
46:14of
46:14mapperton's newest gardener when i look at these tools my jaw drops i mean i know that's a saw this
46:20is
46:21the big moment this is the first time i've ever come into these gardens where i'm actually going to
46:25start to chop
46:51so
46:51so
46:51so
46:51so
46:51so
46:51so
46:51so
46:51so
46:53so
46:55so
46:56so
46:56so
46:56so
46:56so
46:58so
46:58so
Comments