Inside England's Finest Elizabethan House Favoured By Royals | American Viscountess | Real Royalty

in rural shopshire close to the border with Wales is hidden the most fascinating of historic homes today I am at Pitchford Hall and Pitchford is considered England's finest Elizabethan half timbered house it was actually lost by the family in 1992 however they managed to get the house back 25 years later this is an extraordinary story of heartbreak and stoic determination thank you very much with her husband James Rowena curst whose mother inherited Pitchford in the early 1970s has worked tirelessly to get the family home back but now they're faced with the enormous task of recovering the building from years of neglect this is incredible when I think of England I think of green and houses that look just like this of course it pulls at my heart because henching Brook we had to do the exact same thing the house was sold in the 1950s and lost this family Rowena and James managed to get their family home back and I can't wait to find out how they did [Music] it [Music] when I married into the British aristocracy it was the start of a wonderfully exciting Journey but it was also a little daunting I became a VI Countess and for an American girl from a small town outside Chicago that was quite a shock I live with my husband Luke heir to the Earl of Sandwich and our family at maon house indors it living in a place like this is a joy but also a challenge Cheng and every day we're aware that we're preserving a very special part of Britain's Heritage Matton has opened up an extraordinary new world for me and I can't wait to share it with you all so if you love castles and manners and stately homes as much as I do please join this American V Countess as I journey into the British Countryside in search of some of Britain's Finest historic [Music] houses hello so good to meet you so nice to meet you so nice to meet you hello I'm Julie this is Edward hi Edward hi hi so and who's that doggy doggy love it um it's amazing to be here are you going to show me around as well yeah yep perfect oh my goodness at the heart of the house is the Great Hall where Rowena vividly remembers her mother's presence and tells me how the house was lost to the family in 1992 we used to have a settle here where my mom used to love sitting she'd be draped in cat sitting there as close as possible the fire and that's basically a roaring of laughter smoking lots of I mean AB outrageous she was such a character oh my goodness I can picture her there right now you can that's amazing so you obviously grew up here and then in 1992 my parents um just literally it felt like overnight suddenly told me they had to sell Pitchford and my mom was the first person in the entire history of Pitchford since you know the Medieval Times to ever have to sell and so it was Absolut they were Lloyds of London victims both of them same names in the disastrous syndicates I mean it happened so fast I couldn't believe it oh my goodness so when they called you and told you I mean what did do you remember that that feeling I I remember it so well I mean James would tell you as well I was sitting on the window still in floods of tears and the um incredible thing was my husband is just as passionate about Pitchford as I am obviously I was lucky enough to grow up in this identic house but he um immediately is a very positive person he took me to this old oak tree and we made a vow there and then that we'd try and do everything in our power to get the house back again oh my go and it took us 25 years of trying and trying and trying to get the house back and here we are here we are oh my gosh I mean ruena to see Ed and Serena growing up and having the wonderful opportunities that I used to have that's what really moves me and people have been unbelievably positive and it's such a story of Hope and it's it's been the most incredible experience oh my goodness so you spent with James 25 years doing everything you could yes to get this house back in 1992 after Valiant efforts to try to save Pitchford hall for the nation including debates in the houses of Parliament nothing could be done and in September that year the hall was sold there was the um all the contents had to be sold so Christies were kind of all over the place like putting stickers on all our things James and I were here taking stickers off Meanwhile my parents have completely Destra and have gone off to Mexico I mean it was just a poor oh my goodness Rena the house got sold and I as far in 1992 it was probably the worst possible time to sell a house given the sort of state of the economy and everything they sold it for under a million like 700,000 I mean nothing they also had to pay about every penny we'd ever got for the roof that 200,000 my dad had you know English Heritage gave us an amazing 80% grant for the roof we had to pay that back and then all the contents got sold through Christies through Christies and who bought it so in the end I there were a few people who were interested but the best option my mother thought was this K princess because at least she had lots of money and she's talked a good game in terms of wanting to do lots of things to it and uh and she was of course interested in the seard but she really wanted to have loves horses not houses is my supect suspicion yeah right so she was here really for the Stables she really wanted the stable yard cuz she had an Arabian stud farm and that was the thing that was really important to her so she didn't want the land so we kept the estate she had a ridiculous situation where we had all the estate Thousand Acres or whatever but minus the house from the moment the house was sold in September 1992 Rowena and James vowed to somehow one day get the house back I I really hope my mom would be happy to see us here today oh my gosh she must be you know jumping up and down for joy in um in greener pastures I mean that is what a story that you got I mean I mean but just the determination that you and James had to get this back Pitchford traces its roots as far back as the Roman period and you can really sense the layers of History here out on the estate there's a special place where Pitchford deres its name so basically this is the kind of most incredible thing there's a natural phenomenon of pitch like black sticky piterman you won't this seeping up through the ground and that is why it's called Pitchford because when I show you this incredible pitchell next to it's next to the forge and I was always told that it's a sacred place and that's why there's this incredible Aura of goodness around Pitchford oh my goodness here we go here's the this is the pitch well but it's so cool so I I still get excited by this every time and I've done this thousands of times this is the pitch basically this yes yes you're going to see look can you see can you see there's so much of it there is don't you think this is crazy and it's just and if you smell it it smells oil oil that's exactly right natural oil and they think that what so there it's a lot of ran stuff around here because we have a Roman Road going through the estate and we're part you know tributary of what Street and they think the Romans would have got so excited when they found this pitch that they might well have built a temple under the church so we don't know for sure so that's another thing to be discovered layers of History yes and so there we are this so this is okay this is the pitch well but is the pitch everywhere or is it just just here just here just literally here this is it I'm always fascinated by how these houses um have their names the origins of them and so the pitch there and then we're coming up to the Ford here the Ford and then there's the Pittsford family who were here in the medieval times and the Pitchford church was built by one of the Pitchford and the Pitchford medieval house is under the Judah house and there's a crown post in the Attic that I'll show you that proves that it's the medieval house that the pit family used to live in so right we feel very much that they're incredibly important part of the of course well of the story so underneath the house that I see now this Elizabethan half timbered house underneath is the medieval medieval the guts of the you know proper kind of open fire the plastic medieval Hall wonderful and then when exactly was the house that I'm seeing now when was that built yeah so my so there was a rich wool Merchant called Thomas otley so in those days they make incredible Fortune to wool but it or not and he um bought the house the state in 1473 um but obviously didn't start building the house really until about 1549 I believe he [Music] started I'm very excited to uh to show you this is a door that we always used to use I mean obviously that's the front door where guests and things come if there's a party but this is like the normal that's my bedroom up there with the out so when you got the keys to the house so this is 2016 September 28th you've 25 years later you get the family house back you work so hard you buy it back and is this the door you went through or was what happened no so this is the door and basically I I I was shaking so much so you can imagine that I couldn't get the key in the knock and then I was like crying half with joy and half with laughter and half with I don't know what emotions were going on it was absolutely crazy I was like literally shaking here we go H so come on in so this is oh my gosh my usual front door these are the stairs to my bedroom this wonderful cver staircase where my mom kept all the millions of tins of cat food for three cats so you walk in here you get the keys this is the very first room I went into this is our old anti kitchen and this is again where we used to have breakfast but the first thing I saw was obviously the ceiling had collapsed and that was like oh my goodness part of me done thinking um having flashbacks because basically this is one of my favorite rooms it had copper beautiful copper pots and pans all around the room all got sold at the Christy sale we've no idea who bought those um this incredible um you know range which is the very similar to one at Hampton Court I don't know there so many different feelings but the most ridiculous thing and this is is what really moved me is there was a newspaper my mom and dad's Telegraph newspaper from 1992 still sitting in in here it was just just that time had Stood Still no it was insane so you walk through here and you and there's this newspaper and there's this newspaper 1992 oh just still sitting there but just still sitting there hadn't moved just where my parents left it discover the past with exclusive history documentaries and AdFree podcasts presented by world-renowned historians all from history hit watch them on your smart TV or on Theo with your mobile device download the app now to explore everything from the wonders of ancient Pompei and the Mystery of the princes in the tower to the life of Anne Belin and D-Day sign up via the link in the description as we explore what what's clear is the enormous projects Rowena and James have on their hands but by opening up part of the house as a holiday let they hope to fund the repair and restoration of some of these rooms in the former servants quarters which hark back to a different [Music] era there would have been gardeners and butlers and right fish yeah of course any number of incredible maids and and wonderful people this was the um luggage room to the left here just an entire room just dedicated to suitcases um I Haven really embarrassed to say this used to be my kind of um fun room and I I did actually I didn't what possessed me to paint it this color but as a teenager I thought that was the thing to do so you painted this this bright red color how old were you when you painted it I when I was about 13 or something I thought it was super cool I had my record player up here fantastic so this was for you growing up what did this room represent yeah this is my own space to have you know my friends and just yeah kind of do whatever I wanted up here so but was it nice to see I guess in one sense when you came up after 25 years at least the red was still here still here I know I know the red color and then I also love this room for a different reason because there I was always told that there's this lovely little cubby hole with the window and then my mom's psychic friend um came and he said that there were these Maids totally over excited cuz they see that their masters coming home for Christmas right wait so this were the ghosts I am always fascinated about ghosts because we do have one gray lady in the tutor room at maton but how many ghosts do you think you have here good ghosts at at Pitchford so this will make you l so my this is a direct crate for my mother she was told that the entire house was stuffed full of ghosts and they were all very lovely ones and they all very lovely ones Ed Ed serious I I have SM so my step-grandfather smoked these incredibly pungent cigars or cigarillos um from Latin America and so very often you get a whiff of the smoke so I've totally smell that and that got really excited when I was 13 I smelt the smoke and then you go running off to tell someone CU you're so excited by the time you come back nothing nothing right right and then and then Edward I thought was in the Great Hall when you saw well tell jie what you saw well the first time I saw a ghost was when I was about four and like someone who is doing work on the house and like just left and then I saw this black figure and I was like H I said hello to it and it just paused looked at me and then like just carried on walking outside of the door and it looked like Darth V and then he was a bit rude cuz he wasn't talking to you remember that for some reason like ghosts don't come with there like for more than like one person I mean that's what they usually like to do I mean they're walking around when like there's no one there because they know they like no one's going to see them right exactly and then maybe they think of like children is won't get as scared so they come out whereas adults can get I think a little yeah I think you're right it's a good theory sh yeah that's a good theory so Edward do you ever come up here and play a little bit of hide and seek or no nope nope nope um what do you think of the red color that your mommy painted when she was 13 um so embarrassing a bit too R I don't know what possessed me I think it's brilliant I thought it was so cool at the time but where are we in the house obviously the servants used to be the servants quarters but not when you were growing up yes it's really the Victorian wing and the way I would best describe it as the classic T depart as Elizabethan e-shaped house and then they added the servants wing on and it became an f-shape so how many rooms in the house are there it's an excellent question and I think partly a subjective answer but I'd say maybe like 40 or 50 rooms but um now there's 52 cuz I discovered two more rooms which I didn't even know about when we got the house back and went around with the children because they obviously wanted to see every single room and explore every inch of [Music] pitch be careful of the dodgy floor water I will be careful of the dodgy look at put look at this this is what we I mean this is like you see this we've got an insane amount of work to do the ceiling yes the ceiling everywhere but there's something I know it looks like the ceiling's about to collapse but it's there's something rather beautiful about it I completely agree I mean my um husband's nephew got married at pittsbur recently the first wedding we'd had in since the house had um had come back so in 25 years and Gabby his beautiful wife had wedding photos taken here and they looked fabulous yeah it's very I mean you know this is what people want they want the sort of rostic um rundown shabby chic Fe the ceiling's about to fall through but no but this obviously is a lot of work though when you want to no me it is a huge am this is a massive amount of work all right so what room are we heading to Next really really want to show you this special rist so this is what I was always told my mom was always fascinated by all the ghosts and everything we always had lots of wonderful psychic people and one so I was always told that this room here is unbelievable it's got the the lady I can feel it it's got always feel like feel I feel I'm I hav't I'm walking into the room now it feels different doesn't it oh my God I feel I feeling tingly it makes I feel feel it is this weird it's so for so the lady who's in here was like the um the the head servant lady and she was just apparently this life force incredible woman power positivity and she loved protecting the house and apparently there's an aura of goodness that protects the house and and this is this is you can actually feel that feel energy you can feel it and I love that the room is this pink color too cuz it's sort of a happy color well it is a happy color that looks fun this looks like an old fuse box here I heard the clicking and I had to look over it's an old fuse box obviously completely detached that looks like a fun fun project I think that you can already tell I've you know I've only been here for half a day and I can already feel the good energy not just in this room but all around all around you can feel it and and my great aunt taught me to do water divining and there's just so many incredible things that happened in Pitchford and people just feel alive and happy I'm just about to meet ruena and James and it's a beautiful day I can see that they're waiting for me there oh they're so lovely they have some wine waiting for me we're meeting at the orangery which is one of the first buildings James and ruena restored when they returned to Pitchford can I first I'm going to do lots of these so I'm going to do one right now because I feel really honored to be here um I have to say and just your story is I mean it's one-of-a-kind remarkable story and it really sort of tears at your heart when you know that when I was walking around with you today yeah and just I think we we could hardly believe it ourselves do you still feel sort of Five Years on we do we do you still kind of pinch yourself at times and think look you know it's it's been five years but that you I think it's really important to have that sense of excitement and and keep on having that sense of excitement if we ever take Pitchford for granted that that is complete disaster so yes but you do now and again have to remind yourself of that initial kind of excitement when rowa walked through the door you know after 25 years yeah you made this pack you were going to do everything you can to get Pitchford back and those 25 years can you just talk me through really the ups and the Downs of it and did you did you really feel you could do it no I I I think there were there were absolute times when we thought we can do this and absolute times when we thought it's never it's just never going to happen not not open now um so it look it went in kind of waves sometimes we felt kind of confident there were things that were happen happened sometimes we' hear kind of gossip from you know let's say the village or something it looked like it was possible and other times yeah we just thought this never going to happen and we should forget this kind of dream but we never quite did did yeah we always knew this state was a brilliant platform to kind of launch uh you know potentially a bid for the for the hall so we spent those 20 25 years building up the state doing up DCT uh buildings farm buildings and turning them into kind of holiday Cottages yes trying to make you know essentially the funding that would then make uh going for the hall kind of possible so yeah we did we we spent 20 25 years just building out that position right uh and then then it eventually happened yeah yeah and and working full-time both of you oh no that was really important part of it we spent most weekends up here and what was absolutely brilliant as though so many of our friends were part of that hope so they'd come up we'd have we start off with the lodge my mom let James and I have the lodge as our weekend thing and then we eventually turned that into a holiday L that was the very first commercial thing when my um you know after my parents everything but the um the the joy of the friends willing us on is what I was thinking about the impetus and everyone rooting for us basically which was really special yeah no I mean the I mean again it's the most remarkable you know story of Saving and getting back the the lost family home well cheers to both of you because this is just the start I can feel that and I cannot wait to explore more and see what you both have done oh than very cheers thank [Music] you Pitchford Hall to me is the most remarkable story I've ever heard of a historic house being saved by the family I mean it's inspiring to hear James and ruena talk about the 25 years that they took and worked towards getting the family house back is inspiring in itself but now they're on this different journey and it's about getting the treasures back but also making sure that this survives for generations to come what they have done to save this historic house it will be talked about for years and years to come come Pitchford Hall is layered in history with much of the building constructed in the 16th century during the Elizabethan era when this beautiful half-timbered style was the height of fashion I attended the first day of the of the sale there were two days there were two days and I went to the to to the first day and all I mean everything pretty well everything was sold on on that on that day and everything would go out say that lamp or the court cupboard would go out of that door go into the Marquee go to the auctioner kind of thing and and and the gabble would come down and that was gone and this is our kind of Bible of of what happened in 1992 in terms of the Christie's catalog and how many items are there mean thick book yeah it's huge book thick so how many items in total a, 47 Lots 47 so that's why it's two days oh my goodness that just gives me chills it was it was a bizarre atmosphere of in a way it's quite a social event because people were interested in uh you know what was happening at at Pitchford uh and you had hundreds and hundreds of people and everyone in a sense wanted to kind of own a piece of a piece of Pitchford you're you're on a treasure hunt now you you've got the house back y you know the house itself the walls of the house back it's now starting to fill it with the treasures that it once had and what has that process been like yeah I a treasure H is absolutely right that's that's exactly what we feel and I look I look at I look at a piece of furniture just over there and that came back from shopshire it was about 20 mi uh from here it was owned by a woman who was downsizing and she wanted it to go back to to to pitchf so you know every room I go into now I can see these objects from from the treasure hunt yes that have returned how many of the 10,47 objects do you think you now have in possession I think it's probably only about 50 so there's a there's a huge treasure hunt ahead of us for James of the Thousand or so pieces still to find there's one in particular which he would love to see back at Pitchford there are a number of items that you know I feel really important to to me and there was one that was the cabinet table so it was in it was in number 10 Downing Street it was used as you know Gladstone the Prime Minister uh as's kind of cabinet table and it was given to I think uh it was through the Lord rosebery family and Lord Roseberry family was a a British prime minister and his daughter owned Pitchford Lady Lady Cil Grant so that feels like yeah I'm very interested in politics I work in politics having having that table back is really important uh to us and there's one painting by the early 19th century artist James Ward which would have pride of place back here so it's only it's only really good painting that has kind of Pitchford Hall in it now it's also got uh a horse a beautiful horse but obviously we're interested in in uh Pitchford all and this is it in Christie's catalog by James Ward uh painted in 1822 I assume and I'm not sure if the artist ever you know came to Pitchford because it's a slightly different landscape but I I assume he kind of romanticized the landscape but the importance for us is it's just a wonderful picture of of Pitchford Hall with the smoke kind of billowing Act of the many chimneys at at Pitchford yes but this horse it's this is for me this in one way or another represents the quati princess it's so true and it's all of a sudden the horse is looking on it's startingly Ian it's incredibly ironic because it it calls I mean the the the painting is a bare Arab uh horse and it looks exactly like the horses that the qat previous qat owner uh had it had at Pitchford and and you're absolutely right it's looking uh yeah slightly a scance yes yes at us as word gets out that that James and Rowena are on a treasure hunt to restore the family collection to Pitchford people have come forward with some of the pieces sold in 1992 and there was one particular lady who said look I've got the painting let's work towards you kind of getting it back and these these things take time yes they're not necess easy um and the funding wasn't there you know we didn't have the funding no to pay for that painting and amazingly I did during um um lockdown uh like like you did we did a few kind of virtual virtual tours and there was a um a man from Texas from Houston in in Texas who we did a virtual tour with and I mentioned the importance of the Jenkins and bar painting to Pitchford and he said um James I'll I'll buy it I'll buy it back for you no yes and you've never met him but he just said look James I'll I'll oh my goodness money that just gave me chills that is incredible so do you have is where is the painting now have it uh um we are going to uh going to hang it hang it yeah is it here yeah it's in the it's in the it's in the porch so I get to can I can I help a little bit Yeah know I love you too I love you hey we need it it's quite big it's quite a big painting I am so happy I'm actually here on a day that you know a treasure gets to be hung and be seen this is it every every body the moment has arrived one of the big Treasures is just about to come through the door and we're going to hang it and this is so exciting for me and for James and Rowena uh an incredible incredible story of a treasure being recovered yay here it is this is so exciting oh my go there we go JY wow holy cow oh my goodness how how do you feel right well we've spent you know 5 years trying to get this painting back into to the hall and it hadn't hadn't been in you know this left in 1992 okay we're just going to hang it in the in the drawing room yep in the drawing room very gently beautiful um oh my gosh it's giving me chills but it's such a it's such a prominent yeah painting okay shall I take one of those that yeah I might learn something here as well how to hang well yeah rit's the rit's the expert and has has helped us kind of hang all the yes paintings in the in the house no do you want me to help it all do you need me to hold anything yeah yeah yeah yeah just just stabilize it would be okay just here thank you yeah yeah yeah of course of course ready y let's [Music] see hang on let me double check yeah be on that J hook yeah that's good okay oh my goodness it's Lev can I let go at the bottom here you're fine I know he just oh my goodness okay it's best to level it by ey anyway because nothing's straight in this house exactly okay let's go back and see it looks I mean wonderful just you know what out of all the paintings that were sold in the Christies you know having this one ex exactly exactly now because there's life in this house again and that represents the smoke coming out of the chimney it's life has [Music] returned [Music] then I meet up with Rowena to visit someone very special who has kept the spirit of Pitchford alive for over 30 years so we're heading off to you um is it Violet so this is um the north Lodge where Vic and VI very very sadly Vic um unfortunately died quite recently but we were so so fond of him but Vic and VI have been here forever they're absolutely Sal of the Earth the most wonderful people she's like my granny and they used to look after us in the good old days when we had Pitchford so they know my mom and dad they call my mom Mrs C my dad m c and they're just brilliant and I can't wait for you to meet by because she's such a character and she knows everything about the ghost my parents I mean she's fabulous there's by there's by oh hi by this is Julia this is by Robert hi so nice to meet you I've heard so much about you we were just it was all good good how long have you been here at Pitchford uh since 1989 okay right so you've so you've seen it when obviously Rowena's parents were here and then 3 years later 1992 it was sold and was that do you remember what that happening and what was going on and it was horrible yeah over those 25 years who was looking after the house VI and by they were the cadians you were the custodians so you would go in and do what you could just to make sure that it was still standing really we couldn't do much because there was no furniture in there right so there wasn't an awful lot we could do but fight dust fight dust and that was a continuous battle yes but um apart from that we kept the rats out and we kept them eyes out it was deteriorating rapidly we could see it it was breaking my heart yes see it falling apart yeah I kept saying to for God's sake raise the money and buy it back right did you think that that was possible did you think cuz when I was speaking to oh I knew they would you did you did I'd got faith in them I knew they would so how is it now just having Rowena and James's children around so you've got Edward Serena and georganna does it is it feeling like because of of course it feels like gets back to life but for you having seen these changes the sadness of the of the cell of the house yes but you do um you look positive now yeah um that's gone yes yes I want to ask both of you um and it would be interesting to see if it's the same or if it's different but if you could if there's a room in the house that is just your favorite room I know I have one at Matton mine is actually a l i love that I love that I'm obsessed with the thunderbox l room at mton and I think it's cuz as an American we don't really have thunder boxes L but all in that L we've decorated with all of the Earl of Sandwich um painting well sort of pictures if you like but is there a room in Pitchford that holds some great memory fond memories for you kitchen kitchen definitely kit you the oven the two ovens are still there and I can still picture you making all that amazing food and that terrible time where the whole thing roast fell on the floor what happened there that was a disaster H to beat me to it though didn't he the labador the labrador grab over this leg a l and took off with it who was s there luckily i' got another piece of beet in in the fridge soring out for it the next day I had to grab that and tell lunch will be a little late for me I think it depends what me you're in I mean I love the attic and sometimes if I'm in a cont contla mood I'll go up there or the Great Hall with that roaring fire it's fantastic or obviously my bedroom um my parents room I didn't I find it imposs to give one room and the life force lady room that I go in there I love that one I love the whole house I don't know what to say yeah no okay we don't but you've given some great examples I know it would be so hard I think for me because if I were to ask my husband the same question he had to pick a room I think he would Cho like you it just depends on on the mood that he's in because he grew up in that house and what do you feel would be I guess a hope for you and what how you would see Pitchford in the future it's going to go from strength to strength there's no doubt about that but I don't suppose I shall still be around but I'd love to see that little boy taking over here oh boy oh oh yeah I I won't be around but I'll be looking down oh oh I got tears in my eyes oh but you will be around you'll just be in a a different place in a different place but you'll still be here [Music] yeah Pitchford Hall is layered in history with much of the building constructed in the 16th century during the Elizabethan era when this beautiful half timbered style was the height of fashion it may look stunning but it needs a lot of repair and restoration I hear you're going to be putting me to work yes first of all we've got to spray down this uh exposed panel that's failed cuz lime needs lots of water okay so I'm just going to have to have you back completely up because you're the professional and I'm not tell me a little bit about the history of this exterior and what it takes to repair it well it's I mean it's this house has you know been built over many years but uh this bit's Elizabeth in this section right and uh it's in a bit of a poor State unfortunately yes there not much what was done for 20 years so uh it's an ongoing thing every summer we we start and keep going and then uh down tools for the winter and here you are again so how many years have you been working on I've been on this for 5 years I started on the medieval section which is just over there right um which has been turned into a holiday Le yes yes so it can pay its way so you're now on the Elizabethan part of the house and what are you doing exactly what are you repairing I'm repairing all the plaster panels um they've been repaired with varying different material so we're putting it back using the The Right Stuff the right techniques so it will last cu the wrong stuff like cement and other things it just uh damages the Timbers because the building can't breathe that's why we use the lime it would have all originally been La the brick infill was just done because it was easier now explains to me la because the LA is a wooden cut or split and it's um Timbers like um such as Beach or Oak that's split and you leave the small gaps right and then you press the plaster in the plaster falls through the back and we call those snots okay in the so they just they droop through and then once it's it sets it's that's the key it goes rock hard and it goes Ro hard and you build it up over layers right whereas the brick infill there was done much later cuz it's easier cuz each each slot has to be nailed in and it's so but the problem you have with the brick is it puts a lot more weight on the building so you're here on the Elizabethan part now I see you've got the that's the LA there that's original ah they are just hand spit sections so you today and well for the past 5 years you're taking off the paneling yeah that's failing that's failing and and where the wrong materials have been used big question for you how do you call them panels yeah yeah how many panels have you restored so far I did the other side as well hundreds yeah hundreds and how and how many more do you have to go thousands yeah it's a lot there's a lot it's it's all over but we we just prioritizing the stuff that's really failing that's that's letting water in so you will repair all of that no you will are you going to put me to work okay so what do I what do you need to do and what do I need to Lime needs lots of water because it's not like cement which which is a chemical reaction lime reacts with the atmosphere so it needs to stay wet so my first task is to dampen the area we're going to be working on all of it yeah inside so I can definitely see through here I can see interior wall right yeah and then the space in between how am I doing Nick good yeah just make sure you get the edges of the timber because it's very dry Timber and that will suck the moisture out of the P it goes in and dry it out too quickly and what about the Timber on the inside there fine just leave that's don't worry about that it will get wet but it'll dry okay okay I see then it's time to prepare the lime itself with one key ingredient which will help fix it to the timber yeah well quite it's it's pretty strong but we want to bind it together and the hair all the fibers give it its strength so even if it cracks like you can see all these cracks it won't fall out because there's thousands of hairs in there that just it's like it's like fiberglass the same sort of principle so here we got this is this is a lime plaster okay that was um made from uh lime putty yeah and uh sand and then this is the hair here this is I had you get it I had no idea you get it in these rounds this is um Chinese Yak hair okay goat hair horse hair anything's good really so what you have to do yeah is sprinkle it bit by bit oh my goodness I so if you want to and then you have to hand turn it you can't mix it with the mechanically cu the hair just binds around and you end up with a big b like a fur ball and how do you know how much hair to put in here I I viously a lot more y I'll you tell me and can I just ask you now that we're mixing how did you get into this line of work CU you know the thing about these historic houses is the the Craftsman and you're far and few between these well I know I just the thing is I I like I specialize because I just love all buildings in perfect place to work perfect place to work yeah we forget all these wonderful traditions and the way that things you know were made you know years ago this scoop a little bit up yeah and you just get it on the TR and you press that in gently cuz what we want to do we want to press this through the lths so they form those snots as we said yeah and then just I have to have you watch I have to you have to do it first I've got to see this first I cannot do this by myself so just get a little bit on I cannot mess this up I'll never be asked back oh my goodness so and I just wiggle it on and it's the first bit you press in so it's almost so I know that that's gone through there cuz it's only very thin and we'll add more to that okay the plaster can't fall through because the hair is attaching to the rest of it so even when you've got big gaps there it will fill it oh my gosh so once we get it like that we'll then Build It Up just a few more M and then have a different type of plaster goes on the top I'll and how long does it take for this to dry um well it's not the drying we want it's the chemical process we want we want it the the the carbonation to to to happen to happen so I'll be able to top coat this maybe in about 3 or 4 days right right so I'll we'll cover it with a sheet we'll wet the sheet too because we don't want it to dry because if it dries it cracks it and it literally will start to fall out it start to fall out I see all right let me this is why people use C to cut Corners because it goes off in a few hours and it's hard the next day right whereas this takes three to four you can't rush it so I'll hold that that's your okay oh dear okay don't worry it's it's I can't mess it up I'll put some on your trial for you then okay this is I have to say one of the most exciting things I've done I know that sounds crazy I guess I just tilt it when you get it on there just and go up above here yeah tilt yeah and just gently push that up that's it perfect all right and that's it and you keep adding adding adding and you build up the layers it's you know it's wonderfully soft so do you want me to go up yeah keep keep going this is so much fun but thank goodness I'm under the careful guidance of Nick who specializes in these traditional techniques this has got quite a lot of hair in it because we've got some big gaps here and you can also use it to repair the holes in the Timbers so we'll add even more hair because then they this can be colored and stained to to match it's quite satisfying it is it's really satisfying sorry that was a bit messy no there no mess is fine yeah okay oops gosh I want to make it perfect but I guess it doesn't matter sign your name in it so for you put your initials can I yeah yeah I'm going do JH everybody for henching Brook somehow henching Brook needs to live on so I'll sign it with jh Julie henching Brook oh my gosh thanks thanks Nick it's rather exciting it's left for 3 or 4 days then another layer is applied before it's covered in five coats of lime wash you certainly need to be patient in this job what we were just doing over there yeah is this yeah finished when I apply the top coat when you apply the top coat that is that finish and then you have to cover it up it's three it's three processes really it's base coat top coat and lime wash and lime wash okay now you have these are all covered up here and it's because it's sunny and it's and it's hot right again it's just like the lime it's made from the same stuff if it dries too quickly it fails it fails and I this will be soaked tonight with the water so so you'll soak it again with water so should we pin this one back up I'll tack that up and these have all have the same first coat down here these have all been first coated by you throughout yeah they were done today there's right so how much so those were you've done one coat and then how long do you have to wait to do the next coat and then the next coat and then the next coat till you get four to five um probably a day day or so two days I would oh my goodness you can you can tell really it's just it's it's no the the elements decide it as well so you just got to right it's a long process yeah and this is why it's this is why restoration is expensive and that's why so many people cut Corners using the wrong materials because you could do this in cement and have it painted with a with a masonry paint in you know two days right whereas this is it takes weeks yeah yeah now I also hear that there's another project that you're working on that has a royal connection is that right yes can I come visit you later of course okay [Music] yeah one of the things about historic houses is that they usually come with a lot of other buildings and back in the day those other buildings would be used really for the family or for the staff but times have changed these historic houses have to find new ways to generate income and so here we are at Pitchford and you can see I'm walking through what really were the old Stables but now they've been repurposed by James and ruena into workshops and I can really relate to this because it's the same thing at Matton we have old buildings down there that we need to repurpose and use them in a way that will help generate income for the estate so I'm heading now off to see uh a sculpture here and I believe it's this one right here hello hello Michael I was told to find you here um I'm Julie welcome thank you so much I've just been um looking around the stable yard and how it's been repurposed yes into these wonderful Workshop spaces yes I've been here 6 months or less in terms of actually working here and um in that time all the other spaces have filled up so it's an incredible Hub of people now and it's uh it's just really exciting you stand you know go outside the doors and you you bump into the next person and you know they're making something they're creating something so yeah it's really F filled up and it's um yeah lovely place is this your space to kind of create and yeah escape to and create yes so talk me through though the process it starts with a uh series of drawings really um there's a lot of research that goes into the sculpture uh both in terms of context how it will sit in its final position and and also because it's a Michael you know the symbolism and key features that I might want to pull into the piece so how tall will the final piece be so the final piece is going to be 1.3 M right and um it's a little bit less than me so that's quite big there we go yes yes and it will actually stand um a couple of almost I think it's about 1.5 M off the ground on a plinth one side of the chancel arch for a church just outside of [Music] London there is such a creative community here at Pitchford and wonderful spaces still to be developed and restored where are we now this is um where the farer used to um operate no um there is talk of getting someone in to come and do and get the get it get it working again but it actually does all as a small hole look at this Bellow is that a Bellow yeah oh my goodness excuse the SC my goodness obviously it was operated by Harry no and it look at this it needs tuning but it does it does work here I'm going to give Harry's Bellow a blow oh my gosh I've never do these still exist these big bells rare as hen's teeth that's what I was about to say oh my goodness this is incredible yeah oh and that's the bench for that's for yeah there would have been an anvil in here as well that's see a very heavy duty right so this is this is an opportunity for an artist to come in here and yeah maybe do courses in metal workes fantastic that was fun all right I see some bits right there y that makes me think lime washing we're on to do some more yeah so where are we heading to now this is um uh tree house um okay and noted to be the the oldest one in the world what the oldest treehouse in the world world my understanding is that this was um Queen Victoria she when sheay yeah yeah when she stayed here she stayed in the main house and uh and she took tea here yeah and it's the oldest tree house in the world it is and we're going to repair it well yeah it's it's been insensitively repaired in the past so uh so you've got the scaffolding up I see fantastic similar work going on as as down at the main hall that we saw ear earlier ah so you've got remind me what the that's laugh laugh that's that's new stuff I'm putting cuz someone had put steel mesh and had used cement so I removed that the tree oh my goodness and why is there met massive there's lots of holes I mean it is it is like a zoo in there there's that many animals living in it so uh and it's it's Hollow it's grown it's fallen down it's oh my goodness but yeah but it's still yeah it's a lime tree yeah lovely it's has a lot of mlet toe on it last year it's all been removed oh it's beautiful all right should we go up yep okay right yeah I'm quite like this scaffolding I feel like I could do some Acro yoga on this yep I'll up okay great before we start to Lime wash there's obviously a drone right there we can wave to everybody cuz there wasn't enough room up for um the entire crew right so so tell me Nick what we're going to do now this is lime washing so it as you said before it needs five coats well three four to five ideally so this has had one so it needs to be wetted down to to help the the chemical um reaction and then um and then we can paint it I before we start the one thing I do want to point out which I think is fascinating for me to see and I think probably for um everybody else is that you almost have the different stages here yeah so you have the lar this this is Oak oh this is Oak right from the estate and then these are stainless steel screws yep so there'll be no Corr it it it should not need repairing for a very long time and then this is what we did earlier on the house that's ready for its top coat right and then it'll need to be line washed like these and it'll be right oh my goodness cuz I can see the hair so if you want to give it a spray oh my gosh wow you can see it it'll start to look like this yes yes that's in yeah so you have have four more coats really to do that's that's it is that enough Y and then and then this is the lime wash it's like the consistency of like I said single cream yes it is it's exactly likeing it does flick everywhere so be careful okay and then just I work from the top cuz it drips right don't try and work it in too much cuz you can you can remove ah what has already because it's wet yeah cuz well it's the the other one's still reacting so I do that if you want to have a okay and you go side to side yes I just let it let it run down okay so you start on the top and work your way down it doesn't matter too much if it goes on the oak cuz when I'm when it's finished we'll use a wire brush on all the oak just to clean it up I was going to ask that will all okay it's quite cuz it's so runny it's quite hard to not get it on yeah it is so runny and it looks like you're painting nothing it looks like you're not doing anything weird it has that lovely chalky look yeah what do you think do you think I've done it that's it should I hand you this do you want to go first yeah I'll we'll just reverse what we did okay yeah [Music] and like many historic houses Pitchford has hosted the royal family over the years in 1935 the Future King George V 6 and Queen Elizabeth visited and Back In 1832 the then Princess Victoria spent time here okay James is showing me a very special room in the family wing of the hall where Victoria stayed I think it's wonderful James that you have this big connection with Queen Victoria yeah you know so she's the second most popular Queen right so look this is where we think she she slept and you know o over the years there are a number of kind of guides have been done for Pitchford and some quite you know quite a long time ago obviously near her stay and they describe you know her being in this room you know really really well I'm just coming I just love all the coverings so they yeah I mean one of my theories is I think that face looks like if you look at what Queen Victoria or Princess Victoria look like when she was a 13y old girl when she visited Pitchford In 1832 that's what she looks like right right now so many people think I'm talking absolute rubbish here but I think if you had if Victoria had visited Pitchford you know that's something you celebrates of course and you my view is that they have planted this on on the on the far play just just as a kind of reminder or kind of know just remembering the fact the Victoria was in this with was in this room in October November you know on a cold cold nights in shopshire in in 1832 there is a similarity to to Queen Victorian and you know we also have to remember that when royalty visits these historic houses it's all about celebrating them and making sure that there's some type of memorabilia if you like of that visit so you know I look back at henching BR and of course there's the bow window for Queen Elizabeth the first visit and and there it is 1562 and it was made after she came but in celebration that she had been there that's right so that that's why my that's why I I'm right but everyone thinks I'm wrong I'm I'm going to agree with you I think you're right I think it was her mother who apparently Drew her bed up towards the fire right to keep warm at night and poor princess Victoria was apparently pushed towards the end of this room you know where it wasn't so it wasn't so warm and um there's a little line on the ceiling and what we think is there was there was a another room no windows pretty airless that Victoria and very cold that Victoria would have would have stayed in for the five nights she stayed at Pitchford and then her mother had you know the room and and kind of warmer warmer room War part and if you remember there wasn't a great relationship between mother and and and you know 13-year-old princess yes at the time so that kind of makes sense to to me so just looking kind of around the room there things that kind of you know helps you understand it helps you understand the relationship I find it endlessly fascinating to read the architectural Clues left in the fabric of these historic homes and at Pitchford there is a rare secret room room called a priests hole where visiting priests would hide during the English Reformation of the 16th century is it here yeah yeah I'm me you try and find it but I'll I'll give you give you give you a bit of a hint that it's in this it's in this kind of broad area but is there a door there is a door yeah there is a door and it's not it's not a trap door it's not it's not on the it's not on the floor okay okay okay I've got it I've got I've got it I've got it I think maybe you're doing I mean you're doing well you there's a little lever yeah you're almost there you're almost there yeah oh okay okay okay that's oh my gosh that's it that's it no no so this is the priest oh my gosh so it's quite a no it's quite a large priol or or popol as they' be called go down really go down yeah okay yeah I'll I'll hold the trap door okay hold me the trap door okay everybody I'm descending the priest hole wow there's a windows down here yeah okay so there very very few priests in this in this country with you know windows and we we think it was and Rowan always describes it as kind of false window so we think maybe maybe it's boarded up or there was some vegetation outside that basically disguised it but I must admit if I was in a priestle and there were a whole bunch of soldiers trying to find me I'd quite like an Escape Route yes and this this provides an Escape Route um but it is it is a vast you know was this created during the Reformation so so no you're absolutely right so so there was a woman called uh Mary Oli who who lived here in the kind of late late 15s early 16s and she was obviously reent and you know she worshiped like Catholic faith um and you know they I'm sure she would have had priests there and she needed to protect them uh and and that that you know that window I think is actually quite important very important but they're very few I think they're only about to in the country that actually have a kind of additional kind of access route normally it would just be a small priol and you'd be claustrophobic you be stuck if they found you you'd be stuck oh my goodness it's incredible it's absolutely that was incredible I mean literally I've first of all I've never seen a pries hole in a historic house so that was Sensational but also just seeing the windows they're open there [Music] wow I'm on my way to the tree house but again this just isn't any ordinary treeh house this is the world's oldest treeh housee and also In 1832 Queen Victoria wrote in her diary that she walked the grounds here at at Pitchford went up the stairs to a house on top of a tree and that is where I'm going to right now I'm going to have tea with georan that's Rowena and James's eldest daughter and I'm really looking forward to [Music] it hi I got to give you a hug um I've heard all about you um from parents and then I also realized that you're the same age as my number three I have four children and you're the same age as my number three so so um this is such a magical place I've already spent so much time here and still lots more to do but this is a magical place it is especially here off in the trees I know it's incredible so Queen Victoria she was actually here where we're we were where we are now sting Queen Victoria in this area um so on the 27th of October In 1832 she was on her tour of the realm when she was 13 and she stayed at Pitchford for 5 days and then recorded the whole stay in her diary and she describes going up to a little house in the tree um playing the harp with Lady Louisa jenkinson who lived in the house at the time visiting the old da and so just amazing to like see into like life of a 13-year-old princess so was this treehouse all already here for so yeah this is the oldest TR house in the world right so it was built between um 1650 in 1670 and then it first appeared on a map in 1682 you're kidding me oh my goodness we so I kind of feel very special right now cuz I'm obviously in the oldest treehouse in the world and I'm in the treehouse that Queen Victoria was in so when you were growing up you obviously you were told stories about Pitchford so yeah because obviously when you were born it had been sold your parents only had just the surrounding estate but what other stories you you were told obviously the story of Queen Victoria coming here and that this being the oldest treehouse in the world but what other stories were you told of um here at Pitchford that you can remember before you got the house back well I've always been really intrigued because I would be hearing about this woman called lady civil Grant and so she was um she lived in the house but she didn't like the sound of running water and she was afraid of being so close to the graveyard because of the ghosts and so she converted the orangery and she literally lived between the orangery and the treeh house you're kidding me so she didn't live in that she completely moved out her husband lived you can see his like w his room window through there and she would communicate to him via seur um through or megaphone through the window and make F and then occasionally they would meet for afternoon tea on the lawn but but um every morning her maid would bring up her boiled egg on a silver Sala to the treeh house so she spent a lot of time up here so she was very eccentric right and um so also she dyed her hair with henna so it was bright orange and she would tell fortunes so there would be fairs at pitchwood and she would tell fortunes on the lawn so you grew up with these stories being told to you by your parents yeah and because obviously your mom grew up here but you weren't able to go into the house you just saw it from a distance so we would like quite often walk past and we would see it over the river and it would just be like really dream like like imagining I would always imagine what it would be like to like live in the house and my mom would just be telling me all these stories and so it was like always a dream to get it back like right it was like a childhood fairy tale but I never thought it would actually happened and so now like all the time my whole family have to like completely like pinch ourselves every day that we're actually like here and were you here when she went into the house so basically we came back um the first weekend we got back immediately we came up the whole house was completely empty like there was nothing no electrics no water like absolutely nothing just cobwebs layers of dust and so but we were to turn them to sleep sleep the first night so we all came um it was like amazing unlocking the door I still remember and um then we basically spent the next few month mon mopping every weekend like and cleaning it was in 2016 right so I'm 17 now I think I I think I was about the same age as Queen Victoria I remember feeling connected to the Treehouse whenever I was in here thinking that she was like my age when she visited and it was really yeah I love being in this treeh housee and then hearing the stories of Queen Victoria and lady syil but I have to ask once you got the house back was this one of the first places you went to definitely I like I just love this it's like such a quiet space but it's also like you feel really connected cuz it's so old and like think about all the stories of all the different people up here and I think yeah it's amazing I like to come up here and like read or have little tea parties and so and also the view it's just like you to look at everything and look back at the house so yeah I love that [Music] here [Music] now I love a cold water dip and for those of you who don't know about my love of cold water immersion therapy let's just say I take every opportunity to plunge into freezing cold water at maon we are restoring the 18th century pool with the generous donations from our patrons of maon Live And here at Pitchford Rena is taking me to the Victorian plunge pool but just a reminder to always check with your doctor before you go wild swimming Tada wait this has your name written all over it J no I have to say Rino when you told me that there was a Victorian plunge pool here I immediately packed this a swim cap and my swimming costume but I'm quite jealous of your swimming costume you look glamorous it's fashionable what is that it's a Victorian bathing outfit of course an antique one like got especially for our wedding night in fact the very last time I wore this I went for a Plunge in the pool and this is the next time after that I'm so that is so this is your first time doing a Plunge in a while right I got so mad about cold water cuz I rather thin like you you're much braver than I am you're a wild swimmer so it's basically Springfed so it's literally like the coldest water so I think it might be even more freezing the map we'll have to see what you think the Victorian pool is a short walk away on the estate but we think it's built by Lord Liverpool part of the kind of pleasure Garden thing that he he absolutely loved Pitchford and made it all singing all dancing right and his daughter was the one who friends of Queen Victoria so maybe they went for a dip you never know oh my goodness I bet they probably did she didn't write about that in her di but I like to speculate I'll speculate with you yes I agree I think this is literally the first time I've been in since my wedding night yes good I'm glad um I could somewhat inspire you and everyone they go Lo so here we are I can't wait to show you it's literally the most perfect oh oal pool it's we've got the plug and Pitchford this is the perfect plunge pool it's perfect oh my goodness the only question is J would you like to go on the right hand side or the left hand side I think well okay so I'll go down that step we can kind of go down together remember it's just a sensation just a sensation it's just a sensation it's just a sensation that's what I say to myself over and over again as we go down we're just sensation and breathing it's just a sensation and we're breathing I'm going to get a yoga lesson on the way past exactly I'm learning a lot here just a sensation it's just a sensation just a sensation just s s wonderful boiling it's boiling hard this got it this is the first just my wedding I did it now can you start to feel get you're going to have a nice facial garlic green garlic in my teeth um what do you guys think we did [Music] it we did have an audience behind um which is great but do you see how can you start to feel how the the sensation the sensation starts to come in and then it's like amazing and it's beautiful it's absolutely beautiful so I think we've done it is everybody [Applause] [Music] happy so excited to show you the AET oh my goodness you know this is what I love about these historic houses there's old always attics and secret places what do you guys think of this attic for hiding or is it too scary too scary too scary too scary this is incredible let me ask first and foremost when you came back in 2016 and you came up to the attic was this at least okay as in more than okay I mean just so good to see it like this cuz my parents spent 10 years doing the roof and the 80s the one fantastic leg I mean my parents Legacy was the house would have fallen down in 25 years so it wasn't for the roof so to be able to come at here it's very reassuring and the Green Oak that was here originally and it's just the guts of the house isn't it and as you can see from here the other thing that really shorted me was the bats are still here that's a we had a plague of bats in the 80s it's was nice to see the bats still around the bats were were still around I mean absolutely stunning just to see this that these have really survived for gosh almost 400 years yeah yeah look how brilliantly they they survived are brilliant but it's it's vast up here I mean to think that the servants used to live up here I mean there are taper marks so that's why this was built for the servants to live up here and they hung their curtains on these P so that when I see that I kind of can picture an actual person down to naby style up here [Music] absolutely [Music] this is great it's literally like Alice and Wonderland here this is this is the clock tower that's so kind of prominent oh you know when when you're on the when you're on the south lawn and you're looking up yes to the house and 's just testing it so this obviously used to used to work there's a mechanism which was just here it's being restored at the moment and then there these huge kind of Weights down there and a police system and the date of can we find a date I've already spotted it what was it because it's 1776 yeah it's cool isn't it so but is that an American connection I don't know I don't know but because that's when we've really you know we declared our freedom no 1776 it's incredible we've got to do some research on this no I absolutely agree so anyway look it's it's been there and we we look it's it's another job for us to to get this kind of restored get the mechanism working get the kind of pulley working and get this you know chiming out on the hour or every every half hour and before we make our way downstairs Rowena shows me a rare structural Treasure of pitchford's medieval past so this is the thing so in the 80s they're doing the roof and I there's huge excitement they basically suddenly discover if you possibly could shine a light you will see a Medi evil crown post so it proves that whole thing that at the back the the Bendy bit so that's where the Pitchford family so this house is built on top of the Pitchford family house which I love my goodness so they discovered this when they were redoing know it was here we knew we obviously had yeah I can see that we were very sure that it was likely but no one had proof and then this is your proof right here it's basically here look it's called a crown poost roof and very little crown post roofs survive cuz there so incredibly old from the medieval times but this is a little piece of History to prove the point absolutely I mean wonderful I mean it's it's just I mean you'll have more and more Treasures I mean don't you find that with these historic houses I mean I know you grew up here but you're back still you still discover over and over again you still discover we're learning all the time yeah one of the first restoration projects the took on when they moved back to Pitchford in 2016 was the summer house no small task as it had completely disappeared under a web of Ivy and Moss well I can see here that you've repaired this yeah you can also see all the woodworm the wood I wasn't going to say anything that's right so there's a bit more to do but but this is one of the big restoration projects that you have completed and what is this called again remind me so is I I call it the picture of Sumer house and it's it's Ed Wen I I think it's Edward it's probably we we've got we we appear in Country Life in 1901 and 1917 between 1901 and 17 it appears the summer high and all these kind of uh red Sandstone retaining kind of walls so quite a lot of work was done in in the kind of early Edwardian ages and this is in my view an Edwardian Sommer house so it's a huge transformation and one of the first jobs we did was actually get up on the roof I remember with my my father who's 80 85 now and we were just cutting back the ivy kind of on on the roof to try and get things back so at least we could see what we had to restore um and the roofer has done a brilliant job um these are called harage Stone slates they're quarried about three miles away okay um they're you know they got loads of fossils in them they're absolutely stunning that should give it 30 40 50 years of you know life hope exactly and an enjoyment for others I mean it is beautiful but I know that this is not the only renovation that's been completed it's quite a big one coming up celebration there is a there is a big one coming up and it was it was inspired by someone actually lives in a historic house about 10 15 miles away from Pitchford called action Rand Hall and he came he knew pitch very well when Roman's parents own the own the house and he came to us about a year and a half ago and said you need to restore the library you know that's your number one priority and you know we we've done it and he came up with a design based on uh a Hamp Garden in Hampton Court a chuda garden right uh in Hampton Court and it it's well you know you'll see it you'll see it soon um it's quite wacky it's quite wacky oh my goodness okay have lots of questions yeah no no I yeah it's quite out there it's quite over the top I think it's absolutely brilliant so when you got pitchf back what was in this Library so this this was this was very derel um it was one of the worst it's one of the worst rooms in the in in the house SE right so that that was it oh my goodness no yeah everything was gone and this is what it looks like in uh 1992 you know when when R and his parents left it so you know it was a nice Country House library and all the books were sold at Christy's auction um and then bizarrely in in the space between 1992 and 2016 all these book um cases were stripped out and we don't really know why and that's why we ended up with you know room that was in a sense a blank canvas and allowed us to you know create this neoa Gothic um Library a lot of people have said to us if you have got a blank cers do stamp your own mark on it don't you don't have to inherit kind of everything from from other people's tastes you know Georgians victorians elizabethans etc etc so we did feel we could maybe strike out in a slight different direction and we felt that you know this was a beautiful library but we didn't we didn't need to we didn't really need to go back to that but it was inspired by this man you know uh Hugh Ken who who you know lives relatively nearby and he said this is this is where I think you should go and these are fantastic yeah I mean those those appeared about two three weeks ago and we had fun hanging themov I mean they're heavy lovely but here right here and I do see on each of the bookcases you've got different sort of code of arms so it starts with the Pitchford family and in uh the kind of Crusader uh night uh and then it goes along to the otley family the coat's family the jenkinson family the Grant Family Rowena's family the C Earth family my family right and we've even got uh the C Princess um do you marked uh Mark Mark there so we we felt you know she was part of that line from 1280 um so we wanted to you know incorporate everyone incate that c of arms every Library needs good heraldry so exactly is outstanding it's it's be it's fantastic so we're having there's a obviously a celebration tonight it's sort of the commemoration or The Cutting of the ribbon it it's to thank you know it's to thank the volunteers essentially who well and and the donors so you a lot of people who've donated money towards getting the library to this to this state and a lot of people have donated their time in terms of painting yes so through the winter you know those those kind of Long Winter nights there are about 20 30 people in shopshire just kind of painting away and you know it's so kind of them so this is a kind of thank you guys uh for being so incredibly supportive of you know the restoration yes now time to join Rena and the family for some more fun on the water here we are yay yay so you're in for a treat Julie I'm really excited because I don't know anything about do you call it coring coring you said it literally perfectly what is a coracle and tell me about how this was a part of your growing up oh no absolutely delighted to so a coracle is you can see is an absolutely fabulous very simple fishing boot so the essence was this is an Iron Bridge coracle the Iron Bridge obviously being in shopshire close by so the it was quite expensive to go across the actual Iron Bridge so instead they would um have a cheap and cheerful way of fishing and getting across the river how easy or hard is it to fall in if you get get it right and do the perfect figure of eight which will be very very simple to teach you not a problem at all not even a ripple but if you get a bit over excited and things then they can tip over very easy which is really great fun so I used to have a great time tipping all my friends into the right Lake in my childhood but I promise I won't do that to you okay so know that I showed you the pitchell and the natural bitchman sleeping up so of course look these are tar bottom boats literally so they come that's how do you waterproof them so every year we used to you know the spring would come out at this amazing weather exactly this time of year and we'd the things already so they waterproof cuz obviously they start leaking of using your own own pitch so basically we've got you absolutely got you a life jacket I'm sure you're brilliant summer Julie so is do do I am I rowing it's really a figure of eight um and it's very very simple I just have this feeling I'm G to fall in I can I just you know when you kind of go into things like this with no experience and you get this gut feeling that you're going to fall in I think that's what's you're not you're not going to fall in okay are you are you really holding on to this okay so I'm facing out okay here yeah thanks James okay you see then you sit right in the middle Perfect Balance do you feel happy yeah I feel happy okay now right are you balanced and by land I'm balanced yeah and just very gently just don't do any sudden movements you'll be f a little bit of a figure of eight yeah just feel comfortable oh my gosh oh my gosh us they're much more stable than you think it's we're trying to do what georgana was doing oh my goodness this figure of eight what you're doing brilliantly junor that's perfect is it so I'm watching georjana Edward how am I doing on a scale of 1 to 10 three okay exactly maybe you get in and show okay let's show you let's have a little you're doing brilliantly going in circles here I mean I mean I got out here so at least I didn't stay there going in the [Music] circle I have to say I found this incredibly restorative it's was wonderfully [Music] soothing I loved it I would do this every day for my mental health every day I loved it I thought it was just brilliant but now it's just getting off yeah okay here we go thank goodness for James All right so you tell me when I'm good I jump quickly okay great oh gosh yes yay I loved it I really loved that I have to say I'm happy I had my life jacket on though because georgana and Serena were telling me about the size of the fish in there so I was happy I I had this on that was brilliant that was so brilliant what better way to end my current visit to Pitchford Hall than to join the party celebrating the restoration of the library just walking in here you can't help but smile because really this is ruena and James's mark on things they walked into this room in 2016 and it was wet and damp and empty and a clean slate and they thought rather than putting it back to what people expect us to do and what it used to be let's create something that people will talk about and that's what you want when people come into these historic houses you want people to leave talking about something and I'm definitely um I definitely will be talking about this and I bet you will as well this extraordinary library that has been commissioned and for me the pieces that stand out are the chandeliers I love the chandeliers because I love the contrast of this sort of very dark red and bold yellow with the blue and the yellow as well and it's really rather wonderful we raise the toes to Hugh Kennedy and the King Henry Li and everyone who helped thank you so so [Music] much what an amazing time I've had visiting Pitchford Hall you can really sense the life and and vitality returning to this historic home Rowena James and their family absolutely love it here and their passion and determination to restore Pitchford to its former glory and at the same time put their own mark on it is incredibly [Music] inspiring that

Channel: Real Royalty

Views: 242,897

Keywords: James Colthurst, Real Royalty, Rowena Colthurst, Tudor architecture, country house, documentaries, estate management, exclusive podcasts, family legacy, grand design, grand estate, half-timbered house, heritage preservation, hidden gem, historians, historical restoration, neglect recovery, noble families, regal splendor, royal families, world history

Id: jf4ayLtTeO0

Length: 89min 38sec (5378 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 17 2023