Maintaining A Fragile 13th Century Castle | Country House Rescue: Craufurdland | Real Royalty

this channel is part of the history hit network [Music] crawford land castle in southwest scotland is one of the country's last hidden treasures but now struggling to pay its way it's at a crucial turning point in its 800-year history simon crawford the 28th laird and his wife aditi have just moved in to try and rescue the house where he grew up for me it's coming home and that's been one of my inspirations of wanting to be here with huge running costs and no money to cover them they have asked businessman simon davis to find the radical solutions that will breathe new life into their crumbling home how long have you got before it starts to get very very troubling six months at almost with only months to turn crawford lands fortunes around can simon help this 21st century family save their 14th century castle i just think oh what have i done to deserve this [Music] i don't feel that we've got as far as i'd like to have got ruined i've never done magazine before putting it bluntly at the moment would this make the grade not yet it's going to be all hands on deck if we're going to make this work [Applause] [Music] crawford land a castle dating back over eight centuries is hidden away in 600 acres of ayrshire in south west scotland it's been home to the crawford family since 12 45 but constant maintenance of the fragile property has become a huge financial drain the 27th laird peter crawford spent over 300 000 pounds on its upkeep until age and ill health forced him to move out two years ago and rent out the whole property now in a bid to reclaim the family home his son simon crawford and his wife aditi have moved in and they must make it earn its keep it's a very daunting project to kind of take on we need to work out how we're going to actually raise enough money to make the castle somewhere that we can live in but moving back into simon's childhood home wasn't an easy choice they've given up their modest three-bedroom cottage for a dilapidated 35-room castle with huge debts our costs have slightly changed yes um a small 1952 workers cottage has some slightly different running costs to an 11 bedroom castle and we're just about to triple our mortgage to come and live here simon and aditi have raised enough finance to give themselves six months grace if by the end of that time they don't have a successful business in place 800 years of history and 28 generations of crawford's living in the castle will come to an end there is an option to quit because if you quit then the family loses the history so you have to keep going but if they're going to save their family home they needed to start making money so they've called in business consultant simon davis [Music] right so this is the entrance not particularly inviting for access core as a mobile phone number so [Music] hello is that is that simon crawford hello it's simon davis here i'm at your gates and um can you let me in yeah of course with a proven track record in saving struggling businesses with radical new solutions the crawford's hope simon can channel their passion and energy into a winning business formula we've got lots of ideas that's our biggest problem and it'd be really good with someone with expertise kind of focuses a bit more go for this this is what you do these are your aims and that's where you should be [Music] simon hi simon this is simon davis how do you do my wife how do you do good thank you so crawfordland this is your new home i believe it's our new home so how long have you actually been here um 800 years 800 years yes yeah you look you look fresh on it thank you now how long have you actually lived to yourself two and a half weeks just two and a half years yes this is all very new indeed it is i look forward to hearing more about it when we go inside so we'll go inside and i can take a look you can show me around a bit of work needed here yeah there's a bit of pink interesting color [Music] very bold yeah it's nice and warm i suppose called castle war is one word for it it needs a bit of work doesn't it well put it bluntly because i mean up here if you look i mean that's that's crumbling away isn't it yes if you go through it quickly and don't look too closely everything looks fine because when you stop when i actually look a bit closer it's my job to look closer well that's why i'm here so the situation at the moment uh financially here is poor simon crawford manages the 600-acre estate but aditi who works full-time as a medical rep is the main breadwinner i get scared all the time i worry what's going to happen and how you're going to pay or pay all the debts back and what if it doesn't work and yes i do have my moments of darkness and doubt but i think what have i done but crawford land is more than just a family home that needs to be saved it's a monument to british history with the 17th century plaster ceiling decorated in preparation for a visit from charles the first a 19th century tapestry made for simon's vi count kemsley and letters handwritten by mary queen of scots [Music] bloody how that's another good color you've got in here and beyond the acid yellow walls the library boasts a collection of over 2 000 books some dating back to the 1500s and family trees showing links to the 13th century rebel fighter and national hero william wallace just seeing all these wonderful old leather-bound books here you know it really reeks of history yeah what's the really exciting bit of your family history what's the bit that people can really get their teeth in well our connection to william wallace is quite a good one wallace's mother was a crawford so you're a direct descendant of william wallace though yes no it's pretty good it's pretty good yes and potentially you've got one of the last great unlocked scottish castles yeah which is exciting [Music] thirty years ago to try and generate some much needed income simon's parents divided the castle to create a separate rental property known as the tower house it has its own kitchen five bedrooms two bathrooms and a grand georgian drawing room the crawford's plan to rent it out for self-catering holiday leds with accommodation for ten people and charging up to fifteen 1500 pounds a week to get a better understanding of how it might work simon davis will be staying the night it's a pretty impressive space isn't it it used to be the dining room when the house had its last kind of building period in the victorian time so this would do in the banqueting hall so i'm sleeping up there yes and this was if this area would be part of the self-catering area this should be a suite excellent thank you i better get my bags actually because i don't have my stuff so i'm gonna nip down and get that [Music] spending the night will give simon the crucial time he needs to formulate his business plan to save the castle and to find out more he's going to have dinner with the crawfords oh where's the hand for serving the rice moving into the self-catering and hospitality industry is a world away from the crawford's backgrounds of estate management and medical sales simon davis is concerned that they are taking on an area of business they know nothing about we have no experience of hospitality at all other than we used to throw the odd small dinner party at the cottage so this place faces quite a big challenge for us with regards to that i hope he likes indian food we should have got peanuts good evening evening happy to see you again so do you like hosting are you into the idea of we did it more than we were before the kids but yes it's a big difference so isn't there between having dinner parties and hosting your friends and hosting paying punters we're both certainly up for it anyway the crawfords have increased their total borrowings to 725 000 pounds which would allow them 80 000 pounds for immediate repairs and maintenance they may have moved in just under three weeks ago but simon wants them to face up to the seriousness of their financial situation what in your estimation is the annual cost to live in the castle upkeep thirty thousand a year about 30 000 a year yeah that's kind of insurance heating electricity what about maintenance i've seen as i've been around there is quite a lot of work that need doing here potentially up to a hundred thousand pounds unfortunately that doesn't even start you know painting the whole i'm going to ask you for a number for a total renovation i'm talking about the stuff that immediately we're doing in in the ideal world yeah i mean are you aware of the of the difficulties that you're facing oh definitely i mean we need to make it a success and we need to make it a success quickly you know how long have you got before it starts to get very very troubling six months at the most we need to be in a position where we feel confident that we've got a business that's going to work come end of march end of april it's going to be all hands on deck yeah we're going to make this work they are in serious financial straight you know they're mortgaged to the hilts they've got huge amounts of upkeep potentially huge maintenance problems and at the moment i can't quite see a way out of it with the castle in dire financial straits and just six months to reverse its fortunes simon must find a solution for crawfordland quickly your financial situation is perilous but he's only just scratched the surface this is where the romance of owning this castle ends the place is an absolute mess [Music] crawfordland in a remote corner of southwest scotland has been the crawford family seat since 1245 and less than three weeks ago the 28th laird simon crawford and his wife aditi moved from their modest 1950s cottage to this 14th century castle in a bid to try and save its wealth of heritage while the original tower house is thought to date back to the 1300s the main part of the house was added in the 16th century the final editions including the gothic facade were made in 1850 by simon's great-great-grandfather william hewson crawford after 800 years here the crawfords hold a remarkable place in scottish history as well as connections to william wallace and mary queen of scots in the 1400s jock hewson a crawford ancestor saved the life of james ii of scotland this forged a link between the crawfords and the royal family which survives to this day ever since any monarch visiting scotland for the first time has their hands washed by the current laird of crawford land using a silver jug and bowl despite its illustrious history crawfordland remains largely unknown to the outside world it has a mounting repair bill of over a hundred thousand pounds and costs thirty thousand pounds a year to run people do assume that because you're living in a castle you're really rich etc no we're not rich in india we have a saying we think there's a similar saying here actually loads of land in the cash with only six months to turn it from a crumbling relic into a thriving business before their money runs out the crawfords have called in entrepreneur simon davis to unlock its hidden potential [Music] simon has spent the night in the half of the house which the crawfords hope to run as a self-catering holiday lead well you can see it's a pretty fabulous room here huge vaulted ceilings and it's a pretty amazing bedroom very grand and a real sense of feeling like you're you're staying in a castle it's a real treat with half a castle to himself simon sets off to explore this side of the property is built around the original 14th century tower and at its heart lies a stone spiral staircase which leads him to a hidden gem with huge potential for extra accommodation just brilliant coming up those stone spiral staircases really gives you a sense of being in a castle and we're at the top here and you can see all the castellations outside it's also a famous five feel this room at the moment is a complete tip obviously but that can be sorted out this is a great potential space and they need to do something with it and make it earn money self-catering guests will have the use of the tower house's dining room which is where simon makes another important discovery there are just oodles of these family portraits around this house but they all seem to be all over the place it's a bit of a hodgepodge this one up here on the right hand side it says it's painted by rayban now you know he's a preeminent artist but here it is stuck in the corner of this room it's pretty dirty the frame is completely naked and really he's looking after and it really needs to be to be seen by people but at crawford land it seems that for every treasure there is a hidden horror this is where the romance of owning this castle ends i've just come up one of the stone spiral staircases and the place is an absolute mess it looks like it's completely falling down i'm not going to go through there but if i fall through that roof i'm going to go ask over tip through king charles the first ceiling and that will not go down very well despite the castle's fragile state of repair and the financial burden it carries [Music] simon crawford has no regrets about bringing his family to live here for me it's coming home and that's been one of my inspirations of wanting to be here and to bring the girls home so they can enjoy the castle and the surroundings the way i did as a child for aditi who got engaged and married at crawford land the emotional pull may be strong but with only six months until their money runs out she's feeling the pressure i think what scares me the most is how much money is it going to take to keep it going you seem to be through your job financing quite a lot of the situations in here so there's a lot of pressure on you yeah for that do you sometimes sort of think this is going to be too much for me yeah sometimes i do and i just think oh what have i done to deserve this but i think the one thing simon and i have in common is we're both fighters and we're both drivers and we just keep going and keep going and keep going crawford land is just 30 miles from glasgow but the problem is it remains largely unknown to visitors although the 600 acre estate makes a small income from a trout fishery and mountain bike trails with his track record of unconventional business solutions simon has hit on a money-making idea to put crawford land on the map which capitalizes on its natural resources land inclement weather and mud thanks very much kester for joining me down this grisly day simon's invited kester wilkinson whose company specializes in extreme endurance races to come to crawfordland in the hope that it is suitable for the latest sporting craze of mud running at my understanding it's cross-country running but with these extra obstacles and you get absolutely filthy essentially in a nutshell it's developed particularly in the states over the last few years where people will run eight ten miles and uh within that run will be some really muddy boggy pits and perhaps some obstacles that people will struggle through you had a chance to have a look around to see if this is a potential site i have a look i mean it's got a good mix of terrain and you've got a river and a really nasty swamp notice all that bog over there as well yeah it is horrible it's what they want yes that's what they pay for what about money you're not exposing yourself to a big upfront financial cost other than the hard graph to get the course right to get the obstacles right and your initial marketing now the more i think about it the more i think it's time to get muddy here having gathered all the information he needs simon is ready to deliver his business plan to help safeguard the future of crawfordland [Music] you've only been here two and a half weeks yeah i appreciate that but i think it's gonna be a very short honeymoon period your financial situation is perilous simon thinks that what will save crawford land is not just a run-of-the-mill self-catering holiday lead but something that only the 28th laird can offer [Music] for me one of the most compelling things that i've taken from visiting here is the history it has far far more history than your average self-catering accommodation in my view you could create something quite unique by bringing together this compelling history with the self-catering to create a sort of historic self-catering operation so how do you go about doing that my view is the drawing room is the best room on that side of the house i would like to see that become an epicenter for all the most important historical artifacts you have here in essence a living museum for crawford land right so when people come and stay and they can see all the best things that you've got i think it'll be a real selling point [Music] as well as unleashing crawford land's hidden history simon wants to make the most of the quirkiness that the tower house could offer [Music] i think that wonderful crow's nest room up in the roof up a spiral staircase and i think you should look to convert that into a room where children can stay like a little children's dormitory not only will that give you extra accommodation but it's quite a good marketing tool were we to really push that heritage side then rooms that you currently charge at 1500 pounds a week could realize three thousand wow wow think of an american who's coming over here and he's staying in an 800 year old castle and the lad still lives next door yeah he'll pay three thousand pounds a week with his friends with a neighboring castle attracting nearly a million visitors every year simon must find a way to put this unknown treasure on the tourist map inspired by what the estate has in abundance he's come up with a clever marketing strategy my idea is that we run an event such as mud running i don't know if you know about mud running the clue's in the title essentially it's a sort of turbocharged cross country you can have 500 1 000 up to 5 000 people taking part in this in these sort of races if we charge 50 pounds and have a thousand people taking part that's 50 000 pounds of revenue that's good money i've never even heard of it sounds brilliant yeah you have a lot of mud yes simon will return in a few weeks when he will put the crawford's hospitality skills to the test by getting them to host a trial dinner that must impress some of scotland's most influential tourism experts having simon's next visit already looming on us it gives a real impetus of let's buckle down to it i've got a new project that needs doing and it needs to indent now because if we don't deal with it now we're going to be in trouble girls go and help daddy the please box down fired up by simon's idea of creating a mini crawfordland museum in the tower house the crawfords start a treasure hunt for interesting artifacts we've got this silverware that's all an obvious object to have somewhere isn't it you hold the pretty bowl oh wow in there we put those two in the cabinet yeah the silverware used for royal hand-washing ceremonies is the first item to go into the crawford land museum [Music] and whilst hunting through the family archives simon has even found a handwritten poem by the celebrated 18th century scottish poet robert burns to kind of touch and hold the piece of paper that was originally written on by robert burns is phenomenal wanting the crawfords to understand that history sells simon is sending them away from crawfordland to the tower of halbar this 16th century defence tower in the clyde valley has capitalized on its history and created an original holiday let hello welcome to hobart so come through um it's one rumor floor but do be careful of the tight staircase this house may sleep only seven people less than the capacity of crawford land but its historic charm means that guests are willing to pay up to 1200 pounds a week and then through into the great hall it's not that great in the sense in scale but i um but um wow this is the main living room of the of the castle so if we come through yes another flight of stairs my goodness yeah so we've now reaching the top of the tower and you come outside onto the parapet and then go in to the double bedroom up in the garrets the garrett's nice that's what we should cook yes the garrett the garrett it's the largest bedroom although you have to go outside to get to it but it's quite a long way to the loom and of course you then have the other door onto the other parapet walk oh wow isn't it wonderful so that is hull bar inspired by their visit to the tower of hull bar the crawfords get straight to work on their own self-catering tower house we've done some decorating the house kitchen dining room and the stairs that was involved taking all the pictures down cleaning the frames and then we cleaned all the frames while they were down it's one of the ladies of crawfordland alicia careful i think it's about right another job done and with the transformation of the hallway complete simon starts to clear out their garrett to create a children's dormitory for family holidays [Music] but when simon davis returns will a trial mud run proved to be a step too far and will he find the crawford's hospitality skills lacking follow me when they host a dinner for some of the country's most influential tourism experts you can have a wonderful house and if the people are very boring then no pressure don't forget [Music] it's january and at crawford land simon and aditi have only enough money to last until the tourist season begins in april so it's crucial that they have their historic self-catering operation open in time with no margin for error businessman simon davis is returning to scotland to make sure they're on schedule so this is one of our big changes i can see you change the color you like well i like it because it's much much lighter yes and gives much more sense of space and it shows off the paintings much better i'm not a huge peach fan personally but i think it's a marked improvement on what you have before [Music] although the redevelopment of the self-catering is making good progress the castle's biggest problem is that it's hidden away from the outside world simon davis has suggested hosting a mud running event that should draw in visitors and show off what crawford land has to offer [Music] with the first mud running event scheduled for just two months time simon wants to ensure that the course is absolutely right so what's the form what are we what are we going to do events organizer kester wilkinson has returned to lead the way and how long would it usually be well this course we're going to look at it's about 10k 10k we're not doing that now i'm being beaten by a three legged dog simon davis wants this to become a regular event at crawford land although their first one may only attract a small crowd an established mud running event could raise up to 50 000 pounds in ticket sales oh jesus i told you buddy in here whoa i've lost my shoe i lost my bloody shirt already so what do you think of the course yeah i mean you can't run through mud like that the whole way no but coming down on the field onto the river and then up it's just really lovely and you want people to have a nice cross-country run you don't want them to have a miserable time so you want them to show them what the estate has got really is it a good idea to wear trousers well i'd start with doing up your shoelaces [Music] while simon hopes that mud running will put the estate on the map his plan to get the castle to make money is to put a new spin on the self-catering holiday experience he wants the crawfords to make a feature of the castle's extraordinary history on his last visit simon unearthed a painting said to be by the eminent 18th century artist rayburn i've taken the ray ban off the wall so we can have a good look at it on an easel upstairs he's invited james holloway director of the scottish national portrait gallery to verify its authenticity so james tell us a little bit about rayburn well he he was the sort of preeminent portrait painter in scotland in the sort of 1790s right up to his death in 1823 he painted really the great and the good of scotland in the early years of the 19th century he's a fabulous painter and and is this a rainbow can i look at it with a torch of course yeah [Music] are you looking for when you're doing that james looking at the quality of the painting of the eyes to see how good it is um there are one or two ray burn imitators who are not nearly as good and things like the eyes sort of just just give you a little idea rayban was really deft with his use of paint and just little flicks just animate everything and is it a rainbow yeah absolutely no no it's it's very nicely observed to relief [Laughter] it's so nice to come into a house like this which has such fantastic rich history you just look round the walls and the families here it doesn't mean that they're all by the greatest artists of their time yeah i'm rather fond of her because i love that sort of matrons cap about sort of 1705 1710 we're looking at scotland about the time of the union with england when queen am was on the throne great frame you know it's all it's all original i mean that's something that really so thrills me see something like that in a house like this it makes sense here but such a treasure trove is useless when it's completely unknown to the outside world so tonight to show off the castle's history and test the crawford's fledgling hospitality skills simon wants him to host a dinner for some of the most influential figures in scottish tourism with the laird sharing some of his wealth of historical knowledge i think these united would like to kind of fly slightly by the city of afar so that's probably the way tonight will go and hopefully it will be successful as it's the 25th of january the crawfords have made the bold decision to host the first ever indian themed burns night dinner i'm trying to get the last bits of the starter ready i have no idea what i'm going to wear what color would drabby burns where what you know what what color is he associated with yes it's going to be interesting i'm i'm panicking that's why i'm rabbiting we need to move the dog's beds from just outside the door in addition to tourism representatives the evening's guests include alastair saudi one of britain's most influential authorities on places to stay his opinion can make or break the reputation of any establishment the success of the night will depend on the land's portrayal of the castle's unique history croveland started its life in 12 45 and we've had crawford's living here virtually non-stop since then and i hope that this evening you'll enjoy a good dinner and i hope to also kind of retail some of the stories that go along with the ancestors that go back uh in into crawford follow me in your work do you find that this is being done this kind of led dinner yes i mean things in our bed and breakfast books for example in in britain and france you can find beautiful houses owned by lovely people who will engage with you in conversation over dinner but the stories must be good ones you know i mean any old story won't be enough you can have a wonderful house and if the people are very boring then no pressure don't forget it in the kitchen aditi's struggling with her indian take on the traditional burns night haggis they're ruined i've never done this before with the pakoras burnt she needs to remake them all from scratch it's not easy it's not easy want me to start plating off the other side yeah make them round and i'll clearly i'll clear it we'll clear that later you take those this is a very difficult exercise but it's the best way to learn if you just sit at the table and talk about how you should do it you're not going to learn a thing you've got to actually go out there and do it so for that reason i think it's brilliant after a delay of just 10 minutes aditi manages to serve her haggis pakoras and the guests are none the wiser it is encouraged by the success of the food simon overcomes his natural reticence to share his recently discovered robert burns poem in our research we found a very exciting piece of paper which is an original piece of writing by robert burns on its original piece of paper no you're having a song no no no this is genuine and it's an epitaph to a lady who has passed away to be fair i don't think she was the bonniest of lassies and certainly when she died she certainly wasn't here lies with this old grizzle grim lincludin's ugly witch oh death what a taste have thou can lie with such a [Music] as the evening draws to a close simon davis takes the opportunity to ask the guests what they think of the crawford's first attempt at hospitality i think they're doing a really good job i mean i think um simon's a little they're a little bit nervous obviously with good reason and once they warm up i think they'll be much more easy i think we've got the history we just haven't brought it to life i think that's the bit that's missing putting it bluntly at the moment would this make the grade not yet no i think the indian connection is delightful i think they just need to learn how to give it panache before he heads back to london simon wants to make sure the crawfords are still on course for the launch of their self-catering business in just three months time [Music] last night was a situation that was created to really push you to the limit you've now experienced the cold face of hospitality do you think you've made the right choice well i just hope that we can manage to to get all the changes we want to do to the house through quickly because if we don't get that done and we're in the concern of kind of missing this year as a commercial year which which could be difficult for us financially to deal with is it snowing it is snowing yeah it's coming down quite strong i hope you're not going down the m74 [Music] as spring comes to crawford land simon crawford works tirelessly on the tower house taking down the ceiling in the garrett room which will become a children's dormitory and putting the finishing touches to the crawfordland museum display [Music] in 24 hours time the gates will be thrown open to host crawford land's first ever mud running event which simon davis believes will finally put the castle on the map so the 28th laird is hard at work clearing the 10 kilometer course and aditi and the girls are preparing goodie bags for the competitors which include leaflets advertising the estate's businesses knowing this one event could be the turning point for crawford lands fortunes simon davis is returning to make sure that the crawfords are really making the most of its marketing potential i'm really looking forward to seeing the mud running event at crawfordland but i really hope that simon and aditi have cottoned on onto the fact that the event needs to throw a spotlight on everything else that happens here hi dt hi how are you doing very well how are you very good to see you i'd love to see inside see what you've been up to as the mud running preparations continue in the grounds aditi wants to show simon the progress of the garrett room in the self-catering tower house wow some serious work going on in here yes we um simon took the ceiling down he's taken the wall the horse plastic walls down um has done all this himself yes sometimes we'd be thinking like to have done more but i think when we're realistic about it the fact the two of us are trying to do it together ourselves i think we've done quickly this might look like it's completely and utterly disheveled but actually i can see a hell of a lot of works being done and this will be the children's daughter essentially for when people come for the south carolina yeah it'd be great up here be fantastic big bean bag and tv in the corner et cetera et cetera great but as crawford land is about to be open to the public for the first time in its 800-year history simon has found out that the crawfords are throwing away this huge marketing opportunity by not inviting the visitors into the tower house to show off the historic self-catering business they've created what you don't want is 100 people coming here and leaving here and none of them knowing that you're going to be offering self-catering that would be insane i know i know you're reticent about it sorry because i don't feel that we've got as far as i'd like to have got when we set out the beginning of this journey with you i had hoped by the end of it we'll be a lot further forward than we are well i think i think you're giving yourself a tough time well maybe but that's part of my own my own i think you should give yourself a break simon frankly because i think you've done a fantastic job and i think you should show off a bit about it i don't think you should be ashamed and say we haven't done as much as as we expected to do those people won't realize that be proud of what you've achieved so far the fact that you're introducing them to this potential new business and you've got this captive audience and that was the point of doing the mud running yeah i mean what do you think simon yeah i think that's a good that we're a good way of maximizing marketing yes okay great fantastic after five months of planning and hard work the crawfords have done all they can now they can only wait and see if it will all have been worth it so is this where everyone registers yeah fantastic and they can come in and we have that door ajar a bit they can see the window and good well that's the people started to arrive actually runners are starting to come hi there you all checked in yes we are good how far have you come today [Music] 354 miles hi there everyone hi there you all ready yeah i'm ready for the office i've been around the course so you're gonna get filthy [Music] all right i'll be cheering you on take care we're very grateful today i mean thank you for coming to our first mud runner equinox in scotland have a good time [Music] with the final turnout of over a hundred runners crawford land has made a name for itself as an exciting destination [Music] and the event has generated over 2 000 pounds in ticket sales [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] that's insane [Applause] well done you're the winner that's all right how was it pretty tough you do it again definitely definitely come back get all my friends to come do it and see them suffer as well that's what we want to hear will you be back to the next mud run yeah definitely excellent i beat my grandpa as well [Laughter] good you do the next one there oh i definitely thanks girls thank you very much come in tight well done oh gosh great i don't need to be having a very amusing time it's brilliant actually i haven't fully immersed myself in the mud run but i've got involved in the fun bit afterwards [Applause] by the success of the mud run simon crawford proudly shows off the self-catering tower house as a work in progress including the new crawford land museum this is our most notable painting it's by a guy called william rayburn when i mentioned the king james association this silverware was used to carry out that ceremony for king george iv in 1822 after five months of collaboration with simon davis the crawfords have their first self-catering bookings and the next mud run is already scheduled for the autumn simon's ideas have the potential to generate an additional 45 000 pounds of turnover in the next year and with only a month to go before their deadline the extra revenue will give them the breathing space they need to continue their renovations today we've had this fantastic event where we've had 150 200 people in here and you've taken over 2 000 pounding ticket sales now i know it's just a start but what a fantastic start did you enjoy the day so i loved it loved it i loved it from start to finish seeing the house transformed into a venue for an event was fantastic the thing i think i've really learned over the last few months is how much people appreciate crawford and what it has to offer and the history and the house which for me is big the big thing i think the fear is that there's an image of people who live in houses like this aristocracy you know that they think it's their god-given right to the day so we almost kind of pull back because you think well if we talk about it people might think that we are these pompous people but i don't think you know of all the people that i've met who've lived in houses such as yours you're the least pompous the least grand and i think that came across today yeah there was no us in them and i think actually you know we live in a a time now in a society now where if you're going to make a success of crawford land if you if there was an us and then it's gonna fail you've achieved what we've achieved here in five months yeah imagine what we can do in five years [Music] i'm so impressed that simon and aditi had the courage to take on crawford and castle so many people wouldn't have done i've every confidence that this home will be in the crawford family for another 800 years [Music] you

Channel: Real Royalty

Views: 57,968

Keywords: ancient castle, castle business plan, castle history, castle upkeep, financial drain, fragile property, heritage conservation, heritage property, historic preservation, historic preservation project, historical architecture, historical landmark, historical preservation, historical property, medieval castle, palace history, regal history, royal documentary, royal property, royal residence

Id: SWpmnME280w

Length: 46min 25sec (2785 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 06 2023