Saving Country Houses with Penelope Keith Season 1 Episode 7 reveals exciting developments as the Chavenage mobile sauna project heats up. In Staffordshire, hidden secrets emerge, uncovering fascinating stories from the past. Meanwhile, Ashby Manor’s prestigious architectural links are brought to light, highlighting the rich heritage behind Britain’s historic estates. Discover restoration challenges, remarkable history, and unique country house stories 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?
02:08Amongst 25,000 people living in the modern world.
02:09The Health Initiative
02:27O Roach
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.
03:03Our 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.
03:29More recently, in 2021,
03:32Edward Kavanagh-Mannering inherited the estate from his father.
03:38A 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 quietly come through the front door,
03:58going back 900 years.
04:02And I kind of imagine them pointing at me, you know,
04:06you...
04:06I can't say the word, can I?
04:11I 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.
04:27And even a pub.
04:34And so far, only three times across 34 generations,
04:39has Whitmore passed to a female heir.
04:42But 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.
04:54A bit 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, but I would probably say
05:15that 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've scrabbled through.
05:29That could be our motto.
05:30We've scrabbled through.
05:31We've scrabbled through.
05:37Displayed proudly on the front of the house,
05:39the real family motto means
05:41Forwards If I Can,
05:44inspiring words for running a country house in today's world.
05:49But the family crest is 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...
06:00Of all the crests that we could have as a family,
06:05it's sort of one of those things about even our crest.
06:07It'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,
06:20it'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
06:29if you've got peasants and things
06:30who are getting a little bit rebellious.
06:32You can say, well, don't forget.
06:36Yeah, 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.
07:06I mean...
07:10I consider myself lucky not to have inherited.
07:16Oh.
07:17Inheriting somewhere like this
07:18can be a bit of a golden prison.
07:23But 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.
07:32She 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, the 84 windows,
07:52a 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.
08:15Despite having lived here for over nine centuries,
08:19much about Whitmore Hall remains unknown,
08:22even to the family.
08:24The thing about the house is the fact that
08:27it'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,
08:38you've got an Elizabethan house,
08:40you've got a Victorian house.
08:41I mean, for instance,
08:42the bit that you're standing in here
08:45is, in fact, outside of the house.
08:48If we'd been here 400 years,
08:50we would be getting wet.
08:51But the house only revealed this secret
08:54less than 30 years ago
08:56when Fleur's parents decided to do some investigating.
09:01Right, you ready?
09:03Let's have a look.
09:08There we are.
09:11So, what we're looking at here
09:14is the outside timbers of the house.
09:19This is the façade of the old Elizabethan house,
09:23and this, if you were riding up on your horse
09:25in the 1500s,
09:27you'd be looking at this
09:28as you came down the drive.
09:38Whilst Whitmore's timber façade
09:40made way for a perfectly symmetrical
09:42red-brick manor,
09:44styled 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
09:55is that it was only a few months ago, actually,
09:57that I found a blueprint
09:59of all the levels of the hall,
10:02which is absolutely amazing for us,
10:04because it communicates to you so much information.
10:09It's absolutely fantastic.
10:12There's always been a story
10:13that there was a hidden room
10:14and an escape tunnel from the hall
10:17through up to the church.
10:22Almost 400 years ago,
10:24Whitmore was a stronghold for the parliamentarians
10:28during the English Civil War.
10:31We were surrounded by people
10:33who 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
10:42that you would have an escape hatch.
10:47Now, you 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 we're going to find out.
11:13At Whitmore Hall in Staffordshire,
11:15the Cavern and 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, Simon 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.
11:50There.
11:51Well, 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.
12:02That's what I was trying to do.
12:04Oh!
12:04Oh!
12:05So you've got a joist there.
12:07You haven't got a joist there.
12:10Many years ago, a 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
12:28in the corner of the hall.
12:31I see.
12:32We now have an access chamber.
12:34I think there must be something there,
12:36because you don't make up a story at most point.
12:42And a first look under the floor
12:43seems to prove Christine's instinct is correct.
12:46Oh, there you are, that'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.
13:00Yeah.
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
13:30in your own home.
13:32We're returning now to a house which,
13:34given its role in the gunpowder plot,
13:36has been working hard to put its own famous history
13:39to 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, we're paying another visit
13:57to 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,
14:19came 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.
14:34And one of my favourite things in the house is the visitors' book
14:37that we have from when the Guest family moved in.
14:42So I'll show you up here.
14:44We keep it in the entrance hall.
14:45Present day owner Nova Guest has evidence that proves her Edwardian predecessors
14:50knew how to host in style.
14:52The Guest family would have made this book in anticipation of having a very special visitor,
14:59because the first person to 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,
15:25he represented the ultimate country house visitor.
15:29Great news, of course, for his Ashby host, Ivor Guest,
15:33the 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,
15:43the drivers parked in front of the gatehouse.
15:47This is very exciting. They've got a royal visitor.
15:49They obviously have this big polo match and week,
15:53and all these people come for dinner,
15:56as is Winston Churchill and here's Clementine Churchill.
16:00Someone else came to stay that weekend too.
16:04A close associate of Viscount Wimborne's
16:06and 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,
16:19the famous architect, Edwin Lutyens, designed many houses.
16:25A castle in Devon.
16:28The cenotaph in Whitehall.
16:32And even New Delhi in India.
16:36But the famous architect's longest engagement
16:39was here at Ashby Manor.
16:42By 1921, he'd already designed a music room.
16:47And 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,
16:58and he writes to her saying,
17:00The 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.
17:14And it was Edwin Lutyens' work on that wing that transformed Ashby
17:18into 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
17:37that he ended up working at Ashby for 35 years.
17:43They were very good friends at the end of the day,
17:45even though they certainly had their differences.
17:48For example, I know when they were working on the house,
17:51Lord Wimborne went to the Great Exhibition in White City,
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
18:10this building into his design.
18:12The Ipswich wing is so called because this half-timbered building
18:16was originally situated over 100 miles away in Ipswich, Suffolk.
18:22Having already been moved to become an exhibit in London,
18:25the structure was then bought by Lord Wimborne
18:28and transported by steam train to its new home here in Northamptonshire.
18:33We have had a couple of letters from residents of Ipswich
18:36requesting 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
18:50in the best possible light, but there's still work to be done
18:53in 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
19:45a couple of times a year, and it was all very sorry.
19:49And coming on, I'll introduce you to Finn.
19:51Finn, 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,
20:01and 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.
20:24So, 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,
20:43and he designed all the beautiful yew hedges and this canal garden here,
20:47which overlooks a really incredible bridge that Lutyens designed.
20:52Making the right decisions for a living piece of history, such as Ashby's Gardens,
20:58is a big responsibility.
20:59So, 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,
21:14and I remember really looking at these hard landscaping details,
21:18and this layout of this courtyard, and you've got the Jacoby in front of the house,
21:22and then Lutyens' interventions as he connected these two buildings together.
21:26And then when you walk through the house for the first time, I'll never forget that,
21:30walking out onto the lawn and looking down the canal.
21:38The house had actually been lovingly restored, but nobody had done anything with the gardens,
21:43and I guess Nova had suddenly found herself with this project and she was, you know,
21:47she didn't know what to do, she didn't know what moves to make,
21:50and 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,
21:59Nova has now asked Daniel to tackle one of the last areas, an important part of the parkland.
22:07There's some historic planting pockets out in the sort of park, you know,
22:13I haven't been able to get to them and they've been left,
22:16so they're full of brambles and thistles and stinging nettles.
22:20We've uncovered them and found some old box and lilac trees and things that I thought
22:25looked quite beautiful, so I 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,
22:35she knows she needs Daniel to make it a reality.
22:40Yes, I'm excited for Dan to see it.
22:42Knowing Dan he's going to say something completely opposite.
22:46That's a good idea.
22:57At Ash Bay Manor House in Northamptonshire,
23:01owner Nova Guest is edging closer to completing her revival of the estate's spectacular gardens,
23:07designed by British architect Edwin Lutyens over a century ago.
23:12Today 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
23:27period's most important figures, and 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?
23:53What have you removed, Nova? What was in here before?
23:56Oh, we've just removed, literally, all the brambles, which they're already sort of growing back.
24:02Yeah, yeah.
24:04And, um, oh, stingy nettles and there's loads of big branches.
24:09And I suddenly thought, oh gosh, maybe the box is quite lovely.
24:13Yeah, yeah, yeah, I guess it's cool.
24:16These shrubbery is an option to add another layer, because at the moment when you move beyond us,
24:21we've got tall trees and they're wrapping around the formal Lutyens arrangement,
24:25which is sort of more of a parkland vibe, because I think we need to plant more trees to, you
24:30know,
24:30we need the succession. Some of the larger trees are starting to go, you know, we've lost trees in
24:34here, so we need to think about the future. And I think there's that first layer of, you know,
24:38what are going to be the future specimen trees? And I think we need to plant those all the way
24:42around
24:42this canal. I 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. We plant a specimen tree here,
24:52which 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,
25:05and then this all gets levelled and seeded, and ultimately we're ending up with a specimen
25:13parkland tree that's going to link with these other trees that wrap around the sort of Lutyens
25:18formal canal arrangement. And I think that's phase one. So just so you know, this has not turned out
25:25how I thought. No, well... I thought we were going to be designing... like I had visions of a path
25:29going through here. Oh, you had a path going here? I don't know. I was like, I wonder...
25:32He'll come up with something amazing like it would be... Well, and I've just... I've just been like,
25:36get rid of it all apart a beautiful tree. Yeah, yeah. Which is good. This is right. Well, yeah, I
25:41guess, yeah.
25:41Lutyens must be looking down on us going, thank goodness.
25:45One can't help but notice that Daniel described this as phase one. This project is turning into
25:53something rather more longer term than Nova might have imagined.
25:58Quite a bit that we're thinking about, and 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
26:17exception. For James Leslie Williams, the solution is usually to do as much work as possible himself.
26:24He and his wife, Emma, like to be hands-on. But to get to the finish line of one project,
26:32they'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.
26:58James and Emma are planning to charge £15 a head to enjoy a sauna and cold plunge,
27:05in the hope that it will bring a whole new group of paying clients to their business operation.
27:12We've built the deck, and 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.
27:26But with the mobile sauna now delivered, it's time to assemble everything in its final location.
27:33We're super excited to get it in. We've got a beautiful view.
27:37And people are ready to book, hopefully. Hopefully they do.
27:40Very good. Fingers crossed.
27:41I'm sure they will. Yeah.
27:45So we're going to bring the Land Rover in, jack it up, change the wheels,
27:49put the pneumatic rubber wheels on, then 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.
28:03But 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? Yeah, he's pushing it out.
28:19I can see why we weren't trusted to do this ourselves, actually.
28:21And with it being such a valuable piece of kit...
28:25Uh-oh. All 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?
28:40The 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.
29:10Are you happy about it?
29:12I am slightly concerned.
29:14Are 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.
29:28We've got the planning, we've got the electrics there,
29:32and 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.
29:47And I think what's quite nice is that the window of it faces this way.
29:50And 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
30:00come and have that bit of serenity, you know, in the Cotswolds,
30:05whilst sweating in the sauna and gaining all the benefits.
30:13That's pretty spot on.
30:17Formula One quick release.
30:19Yeah.
30:20It's been months of waiting and planning and now the sauna is in position
30:24and almost ready to be switched on.
30:26It's time for Emma to sign on the dotted line.
30:31Yeah, I read it.
30:34But I like how Emma's doing all the paperwork because I'm terrible at that.
30:40Six months, babe, we've got to make this work.
30:43Absolutely.
30:44All right, 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 and then that twists...
30:51That's it.
30:52Now it's locked in.
30:53Now you should be able to turn it on.
30:54Yeah, there we go.
30:55That's good.
30:56So it won't turn on unless the power's in.
30:57Yay!
30:59Starlight's on.
30:59Power!
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, just check the view?
31:19Yeah.
31:21Oh, it's a perfect view.
31:30I can lie like this and 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.
32:09Actually, my 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 a 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.
32:29Just about there.
32:31So, an inch in, because you've got a two-inch wood.
32:33If you come inch in from the side, it'll be in the right 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.
32:57I'm gaining the tools, slowly.
32:59Yeah, I think you're pinching them off me a bit by a bit, actually.
33:01Well, I think, yeah, I think, have I got your shimmer?
33:03Yeah, I'm a mower.
33:05Have I?
33:05Yeah, I 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.
33:23All 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.
33:40It's how it works.
33:54We're returning now to Staffordshire and the remarkable Whitmore Hall,
33:59which has been handed down through 34 generations of one family.
34:05But despite this unbroken history, there's a growing sense that there may be problems with the 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 assessment
34:28of the family seat. She 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, and it was his, Edward Mannering.
34:50And I always terrify people, particularly children,
34:53by pretending that there's still blood on the edge of the pike.
34:58But it is true.
35:00I mean, that... Well, not the blood bit.
35:03But when she's not telling tall tales,
35:06Fleur 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. There's another one here.
35:23That 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, 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. If you go there, we've got a lot of water just housed there.
36:10We 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 massively keen 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, Edward is using his expertise of the land
36:52to try and make Whitmore's 1,500 acres generate 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, spring a spaniel.
37:13Right, uni, you're driving.
37:17Two thirds of a mile north of the hall, the 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, the most obvious legacy of Edward's time working the estate
37:42and a multifaceted enterprise.
37:46So it's an 80-acre site. We'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 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.
38:45So my first attempt to get around here, I stopped eight times.
38:49It took me about 45 minutes.
38:51Tough.
38:54Alongside the training lake, various other lakes have been set aside for more recreational swimming.
39:02And really trying to become a centre of managing your own well-being.
39:08What I love about this is the laughter and the energy.
39:12It'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.
39:52Back at the house, Fleur is still trying to crack the puzzle of the rumoured underground
39:58escape tunnel beneath the hall.
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.
40:38Well, I don't know, but that's what he showed me.
40:41His cross was in this corner.
40:43Yes, with Fleur.
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.
40:57Peter is a professional. He's used them before. He understands listed houses.
41:02Um, because anything that you do in a house like this,
41:07uh, you have to think about doing minimal impact.
41:10And with that in mind, Peter and Fleur have an endoscope camera
41:15to help them see what's beneath the wooden flooring.
41:18It just looks like, um, a solid mass, really.
41:22I will just admit that, where have you just gone there?
41:25Just... Oh, there is some timber down there.
41:28Timber?
41:30Looked like steps, but...
41:33Maybe just go back the way it just went.
41:36I don't know where...
41:37There.
41:38They're all right. Do you see that?
41:40There.
41:40Oh, yeah.
41:41That's going down.
41:42That looks like steps, doesn't it?
41:44Oh, yeah. There we are.
41:45Definitely got steps going down.
41:47There could be steps there, yes.
41:48It's exactly where you said.
41:50There you are.
41:52Come in, there's a big hole now, aren't you?
41:53A big hole.
41:56So the only sensible action is to fully commit and create some mess.
42:03I mean, it's interesting.
42:04If 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,
42:26you 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?
43:05Yeah.
43:07Keep going.
43:11Right, OK, right.
43:12Is that a hole?
43:13Hang on, hang on.
43:13Just go back a bit.
43:16Right, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.
43:18You've lost it.
43:20So we did the first one, but because we couldn't get the endoscope
43:23to sort of properly see it or anything 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
43:35is not where it is.
43:40And the difference is that,
43:44you 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.
44:04You 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.
44:25There'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
44:45a mud or earth floor.
44:48Makes sense, doesn't it?
44:50They screed it.
44:51So there's a concrete screed.
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.
45:07The joints are nice and firm.
45:10You 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
45:30and it being hidden for another 400 years.
45:38Next time on Saving Country Houses.
45:42We 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.
45:56We're in Wiltshire to find the Riverside pub now run by the team at Eiford Manor.
46:01Right, come here, you.
46:03There 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.
46:59But you'll be looking at it at the end of G repostess.
46:59If there is a small amount
46:59It's at Handball Hall.
46:59You're hoping for this time
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