Couple Inherit Mansion Then Slapped With £6,000,000 To Pay In Tax | Country House Rescue | Abode

[Music] there's a way to make an entrance my destiny it was now a conspiracy of witches download veli today this is pentille castle in cornwall one of britain's most spectacular estates for nearly 30 years it's been hidden from the world by a reclusive widow who banned even her closest relatives from visiting last year ted and sarah corriton inherited this neglected estate and a six million pound inheritance tax bill can businesswoman ruth watson help pantily and open it up to the great british public it looks as if everything is very behind is that right yes sarah does have an emotional take on this whole estate i'm deeply upset no don't have any money no i'm ready upset don't do this thank you [Music] penn tilly is a grade 2 listed castle and 2 000 acre estate it was built in 1698 in this commanding position overlooking the river tamar for nearly 30 years ted and sarah corriton have lived just a mile from kentucky wondering if one day it would be theirs it belonged to a cousin of mine who was married but that had no air and he rang us up out of the blue in about 1977 and asked us if we'd come down and help him run the place because he didn't know anything about farming and there was quite a lot of land you didn't either no i didn't to inherit the deal was that ted would run one of pentile's farms for his cousin jeffrey and gradually take over the estate but when geoffrey died unexpectedly in 1980 his widow kit withdrew from the world banned ted and his family from the castle so she just decided to become a recluse and shut the house up and tell me never to come back here again the news was devastating for ted and sarah over the next 27 years their family grew up in the shadow of pantily which remained out of bounds and became a subject too painful for discussion but in september 2007 kit passed away and left the estate to ted i certainly thought that's going to rock the boat if it changed life and i'm going to have to make some some decisions having been the cause of so much heartache the corritons planned to sell pantily and take the money but when ted sarah and their three grown-up children came to see the castle they fell under its spell they all came in at separate times and just said we've got to go with this the decision to take on pantily landed them with a massive six million pound inheritance tax bill the house is in need of serious restoration and the estate has become overgrown and neglected for the corridors the experience has been emotional and life-changing i worry about it because it's it's such a wonderful thing to have actually been left but and you suddenly get very frightened having sort of been through so much as a family over the last 27 years what i really feel passionately about is that suddenly having material possessions doesn't destroy us so they've called on ruth watson for advice the british country house is an institution that's under a very real threat i'm determined to bring my business expertise to bear to help save these historic houses and estates make them pay their way and preserve them for the future self-made businesswoman ruth owns a hotel and restaurant empire in suffolk and has turned around the fortunes of numerous country houses including hindelsham hall which she transformed from a crumbling pile into a multi-million pound business [Music] today ruth is on her way to cornwall to meet ted and sarah and help them find a way to make pantily pay [Music] [Music] this is a very fine house isn't it it's a little austere from this side it is there's not very much sort of softness and greenness or plants or anything growing up at all no i'd love to see inside them her investigation starts with a tour of the formal rooms in all its grey glory beautiful with the double aspect and so light isn't it lovely it's a very very sunny room when i came in on my own for the first time i was absolutely amazed at man's sort of feelings because i felt as soon as we can get rid of it the better and i just became and then the sun was shining and i just thought wow actually this is all quite a different um yeah it gave me a good feeling and you couldn't be tempted to live here i couldn't afford to quite cold as well well and we can't quite afford the heating yet so stand closer to the path ted wasn't born a coraton cousin jeffrey's widow kit demanded ted change his surname to match theirs in order to inherit pentelli causing a rift between ted and his father and he said well if you change your name i shall disinherit you they did uh uh uh and did so there's been a lot of there's been a lot of strife um in the past that's heavy-duty stuff and it's really taken us by storm and full of raw emotions now so does that matter to you the notion of not disposing of it because it would go out of the family it's a bit sad to be the person who who couldn't be bothered to try um so i think that we will try pantily's taken an emotional toll on the family now it's set to take a financial one too ted and sarah have had to cash in their pensions and sell parts of the estate to pay off the inheritance tax the corriton's three children also have a share in pantily including eldest daughter sammy let's do some nuts and bolts you inherited in september but you have incurred a horrible taxation bill haven't you inheritance tax yes yeah and could we know how much that is and how long do you have to pay it it's about 6 million and you've got to say it quickly it doesn't hurt so much then why don't you just sell it we were offered to check for it fairly soon after we inherited it and said to us you you have a choice you can either sit at pantily and you're beating up a land rover looking at our farm at till we'll sit at tunnel and you'll smart bentley looking at peng tilly um so we we're really happier in the land river i think suits our style better and anyhow what would what would we do with the money the corritons have decided to continue living at their nearby farm and invest their remaining funds to establish pentile as a family business they want to let it out for house parties and weddings what thoughts and plans have you had about how this could be made to pay its way being able to put up at least sort of 16 people sort of more that exclusive country house rental it's it's big enough but at the same time cozy enough that if you were going to get married here you might bring your immediate family all stay for four or five days beforehand have the wedding we've got two wonderful retired architects who've spent and hours and hours redesigning the house so that we can make the eight bedrooms why do you think i can help at all um [Music] because i got the answer because they actually have no idea which direction we're going and actually i think we need someone to help us which way is the right way to start whip you into shape yeah it's a disadvantage of having three children and therefore five of us involved in it because no decision making process is simple this family is a joy and they exude so much warmth it ought to be enough to heat the house the problem is that they're going full steam ahead with loads of ideas none of which they've really thought through and i think this is just a question of really picking the best ones and actually making plans that are viable because i want this family to keep this house and to make a really good business out of it [Music] clearly has potential but are the coratons prepared to take ruth's no-nonsense advice on board there is a tendency to revisit decisions that have already been made there might have to come a time when one of the children who isn't here has to just shut up [Music] ted and sarah corriton are the new owners of pentile castle and its estate in cornwall with elegant hallways and a formal drawing room this historic house is perched high above the tamar valley surrounding it is a 2 000 acre estate farmland and landscaped grounds including a walled kitchen garden and numerous handsome cottages high above the river on mount ararat sits an imposing mausoleum built to house the final remains of sir james tilly for whom the house was built in 1698. three centuries later the estate has been inherited by ted and sarah along with a six million pound tax bill i'm determined to help the corinthians come up with a financially viable plan that brings pantily out of the shadows and allows everyone to enjoy its glory ruth watson's helping the corinthians turn historic pantily into a going concern after years of neglect this is the amazing mausoleum yes this is where where jimmy as we call him sir james tilly it's very familiar what wanted to spend his last uh days on earth he was always convinced that he wouldn't be dead for very long and would return to pentelli so he demanded that he was put in his favorite chair wearing his favorite clothes and that the servants would give him food and and drink twice a day so he didn't get there his no he was just sat in the chair wired to it so that he didn't slump in his seat and the servants did what they were told for two years you are kidding and eventually the villagers couldn't take it any longer and they buried him mad jimmy wanted to sit here surveying all he possessed and owned and your cousin came and did the reverse he planted these conifers too yes he did um the muslim showed up very well from the river and across the river and and the cousin wanted their state to be private right um they're dreadful aren't they they spoil the view and and you would be happy to cut them down oh absolutely yes and in general your your whole viewpoint about the house and the estate is to to open it to be more open to everyone yes it's pretty pretty selfish for just us to enjoy it isn't it it's part of cornwall and people could enjoy attitude in 1809 the gardens were completely remodeled by humphrey repton the famous landscape designer and although his plans for pentile were never fully carried out they are documented in a very special book the joy of this pentelli book is that it's never been seen by anybody it's been under lock and key and to find it still here and not having been burnt and destroyed along with other treasures um it's wildly exciting so i'm just still exploring it myself and the sort of thing that that he did where he drew and for example a design of what the gardens were and then he painted and pasted over um what the garden these wonderful sort of flip backs of what the garden then sort of might be and that's what it was that's what he designed so a pretty that i reckon is probably a national treasure so far only the house has figured in the corriton's business plans but a brief tour of the gardens reveals how much potential they have so these gardens are just stunning and everywhere i go i find something else that's even more amazing than the bit before i mean this limewalk for example i mean it's just beautiful it is this is in fact the old front drive so all the carriages would come down and come on down through and it's actually cobbled underneath the sort of mulch that you see here it is it's very very lovely very special so i mean these guns have been hidden away you're discovering them yes how do you feel about that i'm incredibly excited what i do realize is that my knowledge of gardens is pretty limited and so i'm up for learning and exploring and maybe i should soon be quoting lots of latin names the family may not have experienced anything like this before but their enthusiasm is infectious presumably you're still in a process of discovery aren't you it's quite exciting it feels every time it's like oh secret garden this once productive kitchen garden used to be run by six staff working full time and supplied the house with all its fruit and vegetables this could be back to how it was a hundred years ago that would be absolutely a dream come true but thus far the corriton's business plans have concentrated on the house instead of the gardens they are keen to turn it into an exclusive venue for weddings and house parties so ruth heads off to find out if it's suitable oh what is it about people who live in grand houses that they've got to collect dead animal that detritus repulsive now much more lovely is the room itself this is all facing out looking out over the tamar and it's just beautiful the view even in a misty day it's staggeringly lovely i think this would be a wonderful room to have as your pre or post bridal night the corridans have big ideas for sweeping changes throughout the house but with all five family members involved in the design process the plans have already been subject to frequent changes actually in a funny kind of retro way i do if you look at the plans here the children have insisted that that becomes a bathroom so this set of plans has already been superseded by another set yes yes yes one of the things that is slightly bothering me is that there's a lot of changes a lot of discussion amongst the family and then everyone throws it all up in the air again and it all glands down and then we change it again there is a tendency to revisit decisions that have already been made there might have to come a time when one of the children who isn't here has to just shut up right despite the family's undoubted enthusiasm it's clear that the corritons have to make a master plan and get in professional help if they're to make the most of this extraordinary estate this is just lovely this is the bathing house and it's so beautiful it's where modest victorians would have come to change before they got in the water everything about this estate is really magical i mean i just i'm so impressed with it there's hidden things and wonderful things and it's beautiful and i really think more needs to be made of it this is this is not just for local delectation this is for national admiration it's just wonderful [Music] to get some ideas on how the coratons could be making more of their incredible estate ruth heads off to a nearby success story i'm on my way to see a garden that's not only the most visited private garden in the uk but perhaps with greatest significance for pantily it's also the largest garden restoration in europe like pantily the lost gardens of helicon fell into a terrible state of neglect but that all changed 10 years ago when a group of enthusiasts took on the garden's restoration now it makes a healthy profit ruth gets the lowdown from peter stafford the managing director so what are the visitor numbers nowadays they're fairly consistent at around quarter of a million to 300 um but they they've they've grown from from literally zero when we when we opened to that figure pentile's gardens couldn't be made into a visitor attraction of this scale overnight but ruth's keen to find out whether they could tap into this lucrative market without spending a fortune how in the early days did you fund the restoration of the gardens entirely out of visitor income right and can cut our cloth according to that but as i say in the very early days we decided we would run with what we could afford the gardens clearly have potential but does the castle if the coratons are going to do exclusive rentals they could learn a thing or two from the barnes family owners of loyton lodge they converted their historic property into luxury accommodation for house parties five years ago and so far it's proved to be extremely successful was it important to you to be the hosts we i think somehow or other that there needs to be a host the guests like it actually that there's a family feel but there's always a point where you have to be careful to get the balance right you know so you're a host and yet when they come it's their place leyton lodge has a turnover of 500 000 pounds a year and the barnes is believed that this is down to a clear business plan and the right amount of rooms you've got 10 bedrooms that suggest 20 people is that a kind of magic number do you think it's important i think it's a very good number yeah it um certainly has proved the case for us you i mean you can get bigger and bigger but 10 is seems to be perfect ruth returns with all the information she needs to advise on pentile's future [Music] hello first up she's concerned that the coratons don't have a master plan for pantily or the expertise to execute it everything about this place is to my mind bigger than you think it is and i think you're coming at it as a very amateur night out sort of little hobby kind of thing i'd like all of you including the absent siblings to actually write down what you think you can bring to the party what are your strengths what are your weaknesses as individuals yeah and how much time and effort you're prepared to contribute so the first thing is i want you to organize yourselves as people right what do you bring to the party what are your skills what do you think you can contribute and what do you actually know you can't or won't contribute and it's from that point that you will know what kind of expertise you need to bring in [Music] you know you have just got to raise your game i don't think you realize that you're very rich people you've been used to being porpous you're not porpoise anymore pretty uncomfortable so ruth thinks there's merit in their idea of renting the castle for exclusive stays but sleeping just 16 it's a little on the small side what seems to be the zeitgeist is that the number is around 20. so i'd like you to look at again the estate and the cottages that are on it to see whether you could possibly add in a bit more accommodation maybe another two three four rooms that by marketing it as a really exclusive upmarket very very chic place to come then you actually could get a substantial amount of money from it that bathing house i mean to have the honeymoon suite down there you know with i mean i just you know i want to get married again it's just it's just so beautiful but if they want to attract high-end guests they'll need to give the castle a facelift i think the front of the house is very very off-putting changing the paint color i think is an absolute necessity so far all the corriton's efforts have focused on the house but ruth has a radical idea that could provide substantial income i went off to heligan and i can truthfully say that actually i think this is possibly has the potential for being greater more stupendous than helicon i think it is absolutely amazing where you are here in the situation the public seeing a restoration in progress with limited access at the beginning but that actually opening up and you bringing them with you can be hugely successful and actually as i say can be a revenue maker i think this is you know bordering on a national treasure and certainly the gardens i think could actually be an international treasure dealt with in the right way i really believe that in a two or three year period we could get an income of between one and two million out of this that's place yeah we're real beginners real amateurs and probably what's going to have to become a professional game i had absolutely no idea at all that we could generate that amount of income so quite daunting do we how do we select the right people to help us um and lots of gin going to be drunk less than a week after ruth's visit the corritons are already going full steam ahead ruth was concerned that they didn't have the expertise to deal with a project of this scale but the family are keen to get cracking on the restoration the house is stripped of its austere paint and dangerous trees are felt throughout the estate jonathan mansfield is an architect and friend of the family who's come out of retirement to help the corinton's redesign the house but despite revising the plan several times already the family have decided they want yet more modifications all well and good having your gorgeous fabulous massive suite and then you have a bed bathroom that you can barely swing a cat you couldn't even get the cat in the bathroom let alone swing it it is small there's no doubt about it but you know the concept was that we would there would be two bedrooms there um and only a small bathroom but you know i'm very happy i listen to you i understand what you want yes i mean the house is going to be here for the next 100 years let's get it right if we have to write it have to ask jonathan to draw another set of plans um i'm sorry thomason even the ancestors aren't exempt from the corriton sweeping changes in a hugely symbolic moment ted and sarah are saving sir james tilly's decaying statue and sending him off to be restored have you guys heard the same girlfriend oh no he's got a face look on his face and say oh please don't touch me [Music] um i just want to stand beside him to see i've always wondered how high he was about the same height family resemblance [Music] [Applause] the times may be changing at pantily but after decades of heartache can the corritons cope with what the future holds or will their emotions get the better of them really upset don't film this thank you no i don't want to be filmed i'm not going to be filmed [Music] the corriton family have recently inherited the pentile estate in cornwall along with a host of financial troubles and responsibilities it's two months since our last visit and ruth watson is back to see if ted and sarah took her advice to develop a master plan for pantily she made me sort of feel that that i've got to stop being so emotional about it all and it's got to pay for itself it's got to be commercial and i've got to get a bit grown up about it [Music] ruth was concerned that the family were trying to do too much themselves so she's anxious to hear what progress has been made hello hi how are you good thank you very well how are you how are things going all right i think i see your guardian sir james has been replaced by a rather small gnome rather a small person we couldn't find a bigger one ted has been dealing with a staggering amount of work they're really cracking on here aren't they at the back yes we we're taking all the paint that's on top of the the render yes and then we can repair the cracks and repaint yeah but we've repointed most of these walls this looks fantastic that's a really nice job so with all the um work going on have you decided what kind of colors that you're going to repaint as you can imagine there's been a certain amount of debate over on that um huge amount of debate i think it's a big big decision yes i thought we would paint um a panel with that and just see how it looks what yeah the other alternative is this one which is slightly more caramely i would definitely not go with that one because i think that is actually just um bland basically i think that's a cop-out color and i think i think you actually can be quite bold with this it's got such strong shape you know i mean and with the castillation along the top and it's it's such a handsome house you know and i think having a pretty color will both feminize it but also i think it can take it the corritons ought to get expert help to make the final decision elsewhere ted's been busy we we couldn't see through there before could we no that's so lovely uh i went mad with the chainsaw one day but it's lovely because it brings the river right up to the bottom of the grounds doesn't it i mean before it was somewhere over there they may have been cracking on but ruth wants to find out if the family have got themselves properly organized says everyone's sort of taken on a role or do you know who's going to be involved and who's not going to follow you and we now know who's who's doing what yeah and what's your job well i seem to be the foreman at the moment i don't think i've ever worked so hard clearly ted has taken on a great deal of work and he's not the only one who's been hard at it sarah shows ruth their progress elsewhere in the garden you have been busy bees the the tree fellas have been very very busy sadly we've had to take down about 49 trees i think um they were all unsadly dead dying or extremely dangerous how many years do you think before the public can come in the cornwall garden society are going to actually come in october to see before right and then um then it'll sort of go from there after being shut away for three decades the public will finally be able to see pentille's splendor but are the corritons ready to let them in in principle you're happy to share the garden with the public and to let them see the progress you're making but do you feel even a bit trepidatious about that much better than i was much better than i was i was sort of i felt quite territorial when i first when we were talking about it and i i think what has really happened is that people who've been here um have been so unbelievably enthusiastic and i know i feel it's got to be something that's got to be shared ted and sarah have energy and enthusiasm in abundance so it's no surprise to me that things are screaming along at breakneck pace i also think sarah does have an emotional take on this whole estate you know it came with a very checkered history and i think it's good for her that she's doing this work what i'm concerned about is they must have an overall plan for the whole estate [Music] how do you think we could calm things down and impose some kind of strategy your dad's working all the hours 24 7 your mum says yes absolutely is he is he feeling the strain um yeah i think he is he's having his moments i mean he's looking good this week we got him into bed and we got him away from here and we got him to stop thinking about it for a few hours but it's definitely an issue that needs to be addressed and it needs to be addressed soon ruth's concerned that the corritons are still trying to do too much themselves so she's come up with a plan she wants them to prepare for a press launch which could give the business publicity and help forge good relations with journalists by inviting local people connected to pantily the family will get a taste of what it will be like to open the estate up so what about getting some journalists in particular people who write for the garden magazines because i think if they were given a private tour of the areas that you've shown me the mausoleum and up in the american garden all those things that would give you some feeling about what it's like to share this house with people yeah loved it yeah but i mean we've been talking about doing exactly that and um i hadn't really sort of thought about it strange enough for the promotion of pantilist but naively enough why were you against it then because just because i want people to just be here and come and see it but clearly sarah is still very emotional about the whole process what is the core product here what is the thing that makes it tick what do you think makes it work it's you two loving it to pieces and wanting to share this with people that actually is your strength it's gonna work with just a few weeks before the press launch there's a great deal to do but despite ruth's words of warning the corritons are still taking on many aspects of the project themselves including designing the pantily brand the card is smarter with it on the side but i don't like headed paper with it on the side i think it looks a bit like plastic i like it much better that the the writing paper with in the center without any lines or do you like it like that but it's slightly offline yes because it was yeah it was that one but without those lines and then i quite like that but without the well mama what have you decide [Music] i think if you i i prefer the one on the side yep two against one sleeve you dead meat the family have finally chosen the color for the house without the expert help advised how's it going um it doesn't come off as well as it said the other side to give the press an idea of how the finished rooms will be styled sarah has created some mood boards with the help of a local haberdasher hi graeme hello how many more rotten windows have you found we've got two burnt off and ready for prime oh yeah and i'll have another two burnt off today only another 46 windows to go [Music] but the work is progressing slowly as the coratons have decided to use an unusual paint [Music] um it's not like a normal paint that we use in england this is a mineral one that comes from germany and it seems much much more tricky to apply and i'm not sure i'd have gone down this route if i'd known how difficult it was it's meant to last 30 years and uh the amount of grief it's causing me i i hope it does because i don't want to do it again yeah press day is what two weeks time yeah we can do that be tight [Music] sadly their efforts are dogged by paint problems and bad weather and by the day before the press launch it becomes clear that instead of a bright new exterior the journalists will see pantily covered in scaffolding but despite the stress sarah is keen to put on a brave face the scaffolding is it'll be moved from the from this side of the house this any minute now it should have been done today um in fact i'm not quite sure why it hasn't but you can it's clear of all its sort of netting that was up so you've got an idea of the color now and if you don't like it tough there's stuff to be done but um the things that haven't happened there's not really much time to get them down between now and tomorrow morning so it is what it is and hopefully it'll be wonderful done dirty oven perfect buns the day of the press launch has finally arrived and there's still a great deal to do it's an extremely stressful time but the corritons are determined to put on a good show but are they ready to present pantily to the locals and the journalists this is my final visit to pantily and it's press day which of course is incredibly important because this is ted and sarah's chance to really show pantily off i'm going to be interested to see how much work they've done but more importantly are they going to run the day in a professional way or is it going to be full of emotion and all the historical baggage but straight away ruth's in for a shock [Music] so what ghastly wounds have you been inflicting on your house it's a little bit looks a bit mottled doesn't it it's terrible what is it it was the budget repair they did uh 20 years ago so are we going to provide the press with not just dark glasses but black blindfolds are given something to laugh about anyway weren't we oh yeah it will get it will get better ruth suggested that they consult a paint expert but the coratons decided on the final color themselves it's a little more parsnip colored that i had expected did you ever have um i suggested um a chap who's a paint expert you know does all the national trust properties did he ever come down no we talked to a paint expert and then we thought well it's a color we're going to have to like so we'll we'll do it that color if it actually clashes in a really vile way with the red brick which i'm slightly concerned about you could take it down a shade you know creamy fight a bit and it wouldn't look we could we could but i'd listen to what you said you said it's a big building you've got to be positive so i agree it's a positive i agree with that and and it is and it's a friendly color so i mean it looks as if everything is very behind is that right yeah it is a bit yeah despite what ted says i think he's really rattled about this whole project and the color actually is much better when you stand down on the terrace and you've got the grey walls i mean the thing is it's not vile but it could have been so much better and i personally would have taken advice on this from a real expert in the field it's too big a building too important and it's not enough to say well we quite like it what's really disappointing though is the scaffolding still being up and the press coming but the scaffolding isn't ruth's only disappointment she's not overly impressed with sarah's interior design mood boards either there's nothing innately wrong with them except it's incredibly traditional it's very country house hotel 1984 and my problem is that i think she should be using professional help for this kind of thing along with the outside paint color this is a house of architectural importance and something that really should sing with its strength and its force of design they're missing a trick here i think you know sarah and ted just going off doing their own things you know they they need somebody to bring this all together it just feels too fragmented [Music] ruth heads to the kitchen to greet sarah and sammy but conversation quickly turns to the mood boards and sarah's choice of a local haberdasher i enjoy her taste enormously and i think to be able to decide in within probably the best part of an hour what you're going to do in five rooms is fairly full-on connection with somebody is this woman absolutely at the top of her tree does she completely understand this architecture is she going to give you a design what can i just tell you from the mood boards right okay i'll just come clean the middle not all of those fabrics are there on the on the general feel of it i was doing that in 1982 at hindustan hall and i think times have moved on to me it just looks dated what makes them dated and what makes an opinion so no no it is very subjective there is no absolutely no i absolutely and that's what i'm trying to caveat it by saying at the end of the day you have got to love it but i would just like to felt that if you'd had somebody in here who hadn't just done what i regard as quite an ordinary treatment with this and also quite a dated sorry sorry sir absolutely okay no it's fine you're allowed not to run with it you and i are allowed to disagree it's fine you know okay it's fine let's just happily disagree when i have hint hintersherm which is like this a building of great significance i actually did go to people who really really knew about both the architecture and about painting about everything else but i didn't just get the little local woman in from ipswich to come and i would feel i was being fortunate to myself if i didn't say that i think it could be better everything is fairly predictable and i think it could be less predictable i really want to talk to you about it [Laughter] preparation continues but with the press due at any moment ruth's concerned that sarah's taken her comments to heart are you all right no i'm not ruth i'm deeply upset no don't come anyone yet no i'm ready upset tell me why i think you're being very harsh and i think that's most unnecessary i'm pretty sure sarah's not speaking to me at the moment because she stomped off camera very upset with me because i had the temerity to not agree with everything that she's been doing i don't think they're doing a bad job at all i'm merely trying to say that i think they could do a better job and what really bothers me is that this shouldn't end up being a sort of provincial kind of treatment this house it needs something of a national scale [Music] after an emotional start to the day can the corinthians still manage to impress their important guests i'm concerned about the seating arrangements which frankly look a combination between a youth hostel party and somebody's suburban bbq [Music] pantily castle has been hidden away for nearly 30 years but today the coraton family are throwing open the gates to a new era despite an earlier disagreement ruth and the coratons put their differences to one side to welcome the guests [Music] journalists from local and national publications have come for a sneak preview of what the corritons intend to offer i might have made a mistake and made it too strong local people and ex-staff members from ventini's past have also been invited if the family impressed the journalists the coverage could be invaluable in making their venture a success we grew up on a farm on the estate but the old lady didn't like the family and helped secure pantily's future with the workmen still hard at it it's clear that pantily is a work in progress but the guests seem to be enjoying the sunny terrace and elderflower champagne well we've got a number of journalists here from both national and local newspapers which is jolly good but it doesn't feel very well organized at the moment and i'm also concerned about the seating arrangements which frankly look a combination between a youth hostel party and somebody's suburban barbecue style i'd like to see a little more style attached to all these things but you know it it's very homely and hopefully the journalists will see what can be done with this house and hopefully what will be done with it have you done the risk assessment pantily's amazing history will be key to their marketing campaign so the return of sir james tilly's restored statue has been perfectly timed [Music] have arranged to take their guests on a tour of the estate including the kitchen gardens and the mausoleum before ending up at the bathing house on the banks of the tamar in time for tea to show the journalists everything pantily has to offer the corritons have even laid on a boat trip and it's a special occasion for the local guests as well it's the first time in 30 years that local boatman josh has been allowed to moor here i mean were you very aware that nobody was welcome on the pentalyland oh when the old lady was here nobody dare land i didn't put a foot ashore anywhere i think it's nice that ted and sarah want to open that up and make it more public in that sense yeah it's wonderful that we could come down and we're so welcome and they're so lovely now and the freedom is brilliant yeah we were we were afraid well not afraid but we just kept away oh and the whole village is around um all the locals seem to be delighted including architect jonathan mansfield every time you meet another person who's involved in the pantily project yes you realize how nice they are yeah and how much their hearts are in the right spot yeah they all want to see pentaly well it might be friendship yes well no i think it's what worries me is that i do think there's enormous warmth of spirit and a real desire to get it right i just worry you know we've got the hearts have we got the heads as well whatever we do we've got to make the money yeah rather than them yeah be going out well i hope all their friends are as wise and nice as you i'm sure they are there well thank you so much but bro you remember you're part of the team yes no no yes but my i think i'm becoming increasingly aware my part of the team is to challenge you see well that's all for me is it okay that's perfectly acceptable despite earlier teething troubles the guests are clearly impressed by pantily ruth is keen to share the news with sarah every single person who's either worked here lives here lives in the surrounding villages has just said how unbelievably wonderful it is that you and ted own the place that you have opened it up that you've made everyone welcome that people have not been here for 30 years and how utterly delighted and thrilled they are with your welcome to them it has been very special and i mean without all of those people we just wouldn't be we wouldn't be functioning but have the coratons done enough to win over the journalists with their bold plans for pentile's future a lot of country house hotels in britain when people are choosing a venue for a wedding or a special event or whatever they're looking for just something a bit extra and i think that's what this place has got i don't know how they're going to manage to to keep keep the the mystery the time warp and bring it up to the standards people expect obviously they're working with their hearts otherwise it becomes just a business britain is full of houses like this that have been neglected and it's down to the unsung heroes who are willing to take this on to make sure this survives the relationships formed today could help the coratons for years to come all that remains is to find out whether the family feel positive about the event and their decision to take pantily on i'm quite nervous i'm sure you've put a lot of work into what do you think yeah it was lovely it was lovely i'm very glad the weather cleared out i quite like be having people here don't know why it's fun to share it isn't it yeah you know you've helped us very much in terms of the advice and making us think bigger and all of those kinds of things i don't know whether we're quite thinking as big as you would like us to but i certainly think that we will get there you have actually brought this place back to life you've brought everybody back to it and you have created something which i think is very special and as i say i felt personally touched and i have nothing to do with this family or this part of the world we might have brought people back to it all serious but actually they've allowed us to come back they've relied us in i really admire your energy and your enthusiasm i would like to think also that you know you're really enjoying it are you enjoying it i've absolutely loved what has been happening yeah and it's it's a fantastic it's a fantastic challenge and it's been absolutely lovely [Music] you

Channel: Abode

Views: 240,738

Keywords: Abode, country mansion, family duties, family heirloom, family legacy, family treasures, family wealth, financial burdens, financial planning, grand architecture, historical properties, inheritance challenges, mansion burdens, mansion upkeep, monumental estate, property assets, property taxes, property valuation, renovation projects, rural estate, wealth inheritance

Id: olTN1FYQ7Hc

Length: 47min 56sec (2876 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 05 2022