Marathon: Country House Rescue Season 1 (PART 2) | Country House Rescue | Abode

this is chester's in the scottish borders owners john and ellie henderson desperately want to live here but are trapped in london jobs to pay for its upkeep while the house crumbles can businesswoman ruth watson rescue this national treasure from you're not going to be able to put a slate in place they don't seem to be able to embrace the idea of reality he's a non-starter absolutely non-starter it's all starting us about face i don't give a about your spiritual question don't be too concerned about that oh my god [Music] chester's is a grade one listed georgian country house near anchoram in the scottish borders john henderson inherited his ancestral home from his grandfather six years ago shortly afterwards he married ellie but they've never found a way to move here to pay the twenty thousand pounds a year bills at chester's the hendersons are stuck in london jobs john works in advertising and ellie runs an actor's training company i understand that's her job we'd love to live here full time we just adore the place it's a question of money at the end of the day and you know how do we make enough to live here and to enjoy living here each weekend they leave their small flat on a busy city road to make the 350 mile journey to scotland the country house they can't afford to live in this feels like home london is is an amazing place but it's it doesn't feel like home their dream is to leave london and live at chester's full time but this historic house is in peril the whole of the east wing is derelict and in dire need of at least a hundred thousand pound overhaul it's something that i can remember since my earliest childhood i remember my grandfather and sort of playing with him as you know his sort of five six-year-old grandson yeah it's a gift to us the whole place is absolutely something i'd like to hand on to our children and it's something that hopefully we can hand on in a better state than we found it if chester's is to survive for the generations to come it must start paying for itself now so the hendersons have called on ruth watson for help the idea of failing is almost beyond comprehension it just has to happen even small country houses cost a fortune to maintain and it would be so sad if these little gems fell into the hands of people who only cared about ownership and not about heritage self-made business woman ruth owns a hotel and restaurant empire in suffolk yes sir the lake table and it's two people she's turned around the fortunes of numerous crumbling stately homes including hindelsham hall which she sold for nine million pounds after a substantial restoration [Music] ruth's mission is to save these houses for the nation today she's on her way to chester's i'm hoping that ruth watson might come up with something but there is no obvious we must do that [Music] hello hi hi john yes and ellie hi how're you doing welcome to chester thank you very much yes yes please do i mean the good thing from my point of view is that it doesn't look huge it's not huge no it's it's vaguely manageable i'm very happy about that in a few days time ruth will give her plan how to save chester's but first she needs to learn more about the house and its owners so this is the dining room where you can really start to sort of see the history of the house in the portraits and you know what you never painted dining room green so i'm very intrigued did you paint it green yes it was actually me oh right it's a very in an authentic color for um dining rooms it was so dark in here that i actually thought you make it more just make it more dark never have a green dining room because it actually makes the food look awful this portrait here is of thomas ogilvy who was my great great great great great grandfather and he was actually the man who originally built the house his son wasn't quite cut at the same cloth and was i think a bit of a spend thrift and uh enjoyed life uh to the extent that the house was uh completely mortgaged up to the hilt he went off to edinburgh gambling or something yes i think something like that eventually the troubled house passed to john's grandfather but when he died he didn't leave it to his daughter it was actually jumped straight to me by my grandfather i mean it's not the royal family here i mean what what's the problem with um i think it was just a family where prima generator ruled really and in some ways it makes a lot of sort of sense that yeah and explain that to pass it though i mean if you look at sort of what happens in france where you divide estates between all the children equally and unless you end up with the estates breaking apart and so at least sticking to one person means it survives intact and would we allow a girl to inherit if she happened to be first born could we break absolutely we can break the tradition yes well i hope it doesn't come to the fact that you know somebody has to inherit debt john and ellie are striving to safeguard their house for future generations and pass it on free of debt and decay ruth knows an obvious way to kick-start the cash flow they need to begin this process but will it fit with the henderson sense of family heritage how prepared would you be to say okay key weeks maybe christmas maybe months or two in the summer half term holidays we would let this house out to people of who would love to come here and enjoy this beautiful place to me it's a non-starter absolute non-starter i would rather you know go down with the ship than you know have to rent it out on a permanent basis or something like that however john and ellie are willing to share the house with people they know i run a company it's called the axis temple in london's west end and uh there's a there's a possibility of i thought running courses from here and uh housing them up in the attic in a kind of dormitory style we could probably keep about uh 12 actors here keep them here and it would be a retreat for actors but with a very kennels practice yeah well a very very nice kennel if it's gonna be again also okay um if you're going to have actors in the attics how does that square with the fact that you wouldn't want a family or some party of eight people coming and using the house for two weeks in august i think so they have to just be actors no they don't have to just be actors but i think they need to be sort of people that we understand appreciate and and sort of can relate to but could the hendersons tempt london's arty set to the borders of scotland the success of ellie's company testifies to the fact that they do want and appreciate this training in london and secondly in london in london but secondly the quality of the tutors that they have means that they travel anywhere i mean some of your actors are going off to the caribbean i think dragging people to the borders as opposed to sending them to the caribbean is possibly seen in different light as ruth takes her leave john and ellie reveal their dread of rowdy overnight guests obviously yes it does have to make money and it does have to pay its own way but first and foremost it's absolutely our home as much as they pay us it's not worth the fear of this place being wrecked we don't want to do anything wrong to our home or buy our home you know it's done very well by us and for us and we're very lucky to have it the hendersons have strong principles can ruth satisfy their sense of duty and make the cash they need to stop chesters from crumbling away i think they have a responsibility to do this up frankly i think that you could end up blowing every penny you have [Music] john and ellie henderson own chesters in the scottish borders [Music] john's ancestral home and the centerpiece of a thousand acre estate which includes fourteen cottages a huge stable block and a mile long stretch of the river tv [Music] the palladian style house was built in 1790 by local architect william elliott with its classic symmetrical frontage and perfectly proportioned rooms it's a superb example of georgian architecture at its finest the house has never been altered or added to and as such commands a grade one listing chester's is a national treasure but parts of the house are derelict and john and ellie can't afford to move from london to begin the renovation i'm determined to come up with a plan that will not only help ellie and john live in the house that they love but also others to come and enjoy it this morning businesswoman ruth watson is investigating ellie's idea to host acting courses part of ellie's proposal is to convert the derelict stable block into workshops for her thespians [Music] very fine and very derelict it is i i always um the first time i i saw this i thought what an amazing natural stage area though that's something that occurred to me but as you can see it's um extremely unstable to say the least really stable good i mean the problem with all of this is that this must be grade one listed is it yes yeah absolutely and you're going to get every organization all the heritage people the building rigs i mean you're not going to be able to put a slate in place unless somebody says it's the right material costly but really this is a long-term dream i think it's something that i like the words long term and dream do the two go together does that keep thinking that way [Music] so ellie has romantic and expensive dreams for one grumbling edifice while john has plans for another he wants to turn the estate's old dairy into a brewery [Music] here we are so this is the site of a potential brewery water access to water there's mains water supply the actual heating and boiling elements would all be run on lpg gas so that's portable sounds expensive though uh all of it's quite expensive and what about access to and from the site because we came down a little muddy track i mean how would that work it would have to be a whole new road that's expensive no i mean this is not a small project john plans to spend all his savings and get a grant to restore the derelict proposed brew house [Music] it seems both his and ellie's business sense is clouded by romantic long-term plans there is no point ever in making a huge capital investment unless you know you're going to get a guaranteed return it's all starting ask about face but john has a particularly personal reason for his long-term dream for chester's behind a locked door ruth discovers why the house holds such a special place in his heart wow this is the first time that his grandfather's tack room has been opened in over 25 years it would literally have been like this since my grandfather had his ex he paralyzed himself riding his neck downwards so he actually left this room when he got on his horse and yes didn't come out yes so it's a calendar though from 1981 that was the year he had his accident no and i was actually um riding with him i was on a leading reign and uh my pony pulled him off so it was so sorry i know it was quite a moment and i was only eight years old yeah well you don't have to be responsible for that but i mean that presumably brings it all back that whole sense of no it certainly does john is sincere about doing the right thing at chester's but he and ellie need to look closer to home before they embark on their grand plans parts of the house itself are in urgent need of restoration [Music] oh my god this is absolutely derelict we've got huge holes in the roof obviously hasn't been touched for 100 years or more i mean this this is this is in real bad disarray the abandoned east wing was the bustling living quarters for the cooks maids and butlers of chester's in years gone by [Music] the self-contained block consists of six generously sized rooms spread over two floors despite being grade one listed this wing has been left to disintegrate and could cost as much as a hundred thousand pounds to renovate you can shut the door on things for so long but after a bit it's um [Music] i think they have a responsibility to do this art frankly and it's going to take a lot of money and as well as these rooms four of the estate's 14 cottages need complete renovation ruth's also concerned that the accommodation in the main house might not be good enough for paying guests [Music] i think these must be the attics where john and ellie want to put their actors [Music] ellie is expecting people to come up here actors who are going to pay money they're going to have to live together and the bathroom facilities are extremely limited and i believe she wants to charge money for it now personally i wouldn't pay [Music] the next morning ruth's off on her travels looking for ways to accommodate john's wildly expensive plans in a more cost-effective fashion [Music] i'm just arriving at trequare which is scotland's oldest residence but more importantly it's got a very very popular brewery the owner of trequare like john inherited her house but catherine stewart is making money from hers with a large slice of it coming from beer so what an earth possessed you in the first place to decide to set up a brewery um well it was my father really and in the 1960s when he came here and my mother and father were opening the house to the public and they were rooting through all the old out houses and came upon this brewery this is the brew house right the real essence of the problem for john is that you know a we've got to establish a cash flow as quickly as possible just to pay for the upkeep of the house but i don't want him to go investing literally 200 250 000 pounds in in a venture that may actually prove to be more of a gamble than a calculated example i can't remember offhand how many microbreweries there are in scotland but um there's a large number do you think that with all the microbreweries you've mentioned that any of them would have spare capacity so that instead of him spending money on set up costs he could actually take his barley and pops and things and they would make it for him yeah no i mean that's certainly i mean a really good option i mean happy to do it here we'd always we'd always do it ruth's found a way to get john's beer into the bottle without him having to build a brewery now all she has to do is persuade him it's a good idea after three days in the borders it's time for ruth to deliver her plan on how to make chesters profitable she wants to generate twenty thousand pounds a year to pay the bills and find a substantial part of the hundred thousand needed for the renovation of the east wing hello only with a viable income can john and ellie finally leave london to fulfill their responsibilities at chester's at the end of the day you have a duty to this house it is crumbling there are parts which are actually falling down and i think if you want to have the joy of living here i'm afraid you've got to have some of the pain of it and you really do have to spend money on those areas that are falling down as well as the derelict wing john has those four vacant cottages also in need of modernization ruth thinks the empty cottages could be restored and let out for income and she's got an idea how both the wing and the cottages could be renovated more economically what i also would like to commend you the thought of is actually employing a full-time maintenance person who's got good building skills it saves a fortune and it also means that they're on your payroll you can deploy them where you want despite her reservations ruth wants to allow the hendersons to pursue their favorite ideas now acting yes what i would like to charge you with ellie is actually doing a trial a genuine call to action for a group of people who you don't know to come and trial it so that you can see whether it's actually going to work and find out all the hiccups before you put all your eggs in that basket now john your brewery do not invest this amount of money in it you don't need to do it you can still have your own beer you can still use your own barley but what you can do is you can actually go and use the free capacity that a lot of the microbreweries that are around and there are a lot of them the competition have to offer it means you don't have to dive in at the deep end you can go in the shallow end and just see how it all pans out because the one thing that nobody ever does john ever in business is to invest in something using all their capital and borrowed capital which is actually just a gamble and at the moment that brewhouse is a gamble i think that you could end up blowing every penny you have for absolutely nothing and actually being in just as part of state and just as much as a waste draw as the ancestor while i very much want john and ellie to trial both the actor's studio and the beer the fact of the matter is i don't believe the actor studio by itself will ever provide them with a level of income to allow them to leave london and live at chester's full time as for the brewery it may be a success but it's a very very perilous project and it's a long-term project that will only provide an income in three or four years time so in the intermediary period what are they going to live on i think we need to find some other plants [Music] it's april in london desperate to prove that their romantic ideas can become financial successes the hendersons have sprung into action with a month to go until the acting course trial at chester's ellie and her colleagues have been busy recruiting willing participants we didn't have to wait very long for the responses to come in but um but it's sold it's great you've got actors that are getting it's an amazing experience yeah um the actors will be paying to join a five-day shakespeare workshop using the merchant of venice as their surroundings and it's like that is a hell of an experience it's getting people to realize that when you do have the space use it and the hendersons have been at chester's every weekend working hard to bring the attic accommodation up to scratch before the actors arrive we are decorating and carpeting and plastering and doing it all ourselves it's just the two of us we are quite exhausted actually but it's it's a great thing to be able to kind of see that you've achieved that so we're pleased we've done it across town at the henderson's flat john's also working hard marketing his beer with the help of nigel an old friend from advertising i think the important thing is the the uh plow to pint idea that you've been talking about it's very modern it's about local food it's about provenance it's not sort of some sort of you know old badgers toenail sort of traditional you know old school sort of real lay or it's it's about sort of you know bringing sort of current food and drink sort of to the fore you know as a copywriter it's comfortable territory the way this is sort of developed is into into something like this that gets the journey from the field to the pipe across much more clearly everything about it has come from you know chesters and and the scottish borders brewery yeah so wherever you are in the country whether it be just up the road or in london this is actually being brought to you from the scottish borders great stuff i love it [Music] but john is now so taken with his plow to pint ethos that he passionately believes his beer must be produced entirely at chesters [Music] hi how are you nice to see you he meets ruth at his local pub in london to tell her he doesn't want to trial his beer at another brewery i very much want this to be tied in to the estate i want it to be a part of the estate i want you know people to be able to walk around the brewery and go look there's the barley growing in the fields there are the cows that are going to eat the spent grains yeah there's the wastewater that's going on the fields is fertilizer now that it's a very much a holistic project and it's all about provenance do you think you've worked too long in advertising i don't know about that possibly yeah it's all very very green and cute but you want to do something there with integrity and which you can make a product from which is gonna if you like fill your soul with sunshine yes that's exactly what it's about it's obvious that john is not going to go ahead with the trial because he's so hung up about the provenance of the barley but the fact is that any brewery will take two or three years maybe even four from startup to possible profit so what they're left with is revenue from the acting courses and i really don't see that this is ever going to be enough to support both them and the house and its major repairs with the brewery trial over before it's begun will the hendersons ever make chesters pay for itself you have a dream i have a problem these people are on a course of optimistic idealism and i don't agree with that [Music] it's the first day of the actors course at chester's the georgian mansion in the scottish borders owned by john and ellie henderson businesswoman ruth watson has been charged with making chesters profitable i'm back up in the very damp scottish borders to come and see this actor's studio trial that john and ellie are putting on there's a lot of questions there about whether it's viable is the income really going to be sufficient to give them a livelihood are the actors going to find the accommodation good enough but the real problem is that john and ellie are such idealists they come from london they've got this dream this vision of living in the borders i don't think they've really thought through where the money is going to come from to enable them to both live and to do up that house i can't bear it you drive me up the wall john and ellie are preparing food for the 10 actors who will share their house for the next five days they're determined to impress their guests so the actors grapevine will be buzzing with news of their experiences at chester's they also need to convince ruth this is going to be a money spinner [Music] hello hello hello the actors arrived last night and while they enjoy lunch ruth wants to see what the hendersons have done to turn the empty attic into cozy digs worthy of the course fees i this all been taking have you been up here what has it been taking we've been up most weekends yeah in fact well every weekend yeah to be honest so um it's it's taken a lot of work and it's been john and i apart from the plumber who put in the new bathroom it's been just constantly he and i up here doing hands-on yeah so so it's actually been really quite an accomplishment i think um so this is oh new bathroom oh very good very good very sensible keep it very you know low cost and uncomplicated i think is the way to go but um i just know that people who uh you know are in professions that you do perspire and do sweat tend to like to you know run into a shower rather than having a long laser bath so it's just something to bear in mind so this is the other couple of areas i know i remember this this is where we stood and looked about how many people you were going to stack up and whether they were going to mind sharing accommodation right yeah and they're fine about it absolutely fine it seems to be going very well so what did you do about beds oh very so sort of futony beds yes apparently very comfortable i've laid down in one briefly but well i think you know what i think you've done that's very clever is that they're big single beds aren't they so they it's not like being in a hospital which is really good ruth approves of the accommodation but is still concerned that the acting school is based on an unrealistic romantic vision and not on sound business sense but i think it's also part of of yours and john's kind of if you like spiritual quest i mean um you know which i have some reservations about because i do think it's a degree of idealism which may not provide enough sheer mullah i don't give a about your spiritual quest i mean i've got to be i don't think it's a spiritual quest to be honest no i don't no i think i think we're all i think we're all actually seeking to be fulfilled but it's not it's not as deep spiritual quest it's actually i mean i'm i'm in no under no kind of uh illusion about about what it is that we're doing here and it's vitally important to us both to keep this going so it's not some little thing that that we're playing about with so don't be too concerned about that [Music] and as further proof that the hendersons are taking chester seriously john has followed ruth's advice and employed a handyman to renovate his vacant cottages and eventually that derelict wing so this is one of the 14 cottages on the estate it is yeah and the first one that we're really starting to have a go at that's fantastic i mean it certainly looks incredibly pretty from well it's very exciting actually to see it happening hi hello craig yes yes i'm ruth how are you doing how did you do it thank you guys john i mean we talked didn't we about um doing some of the houses and most importantly getting a maintenance chap who could do it for you this is he actually because it's sort of it's this is the first cottage that we've started on and it's really nice actually to see something happening yes and actually progress being made and you know things are beginning to sort of take shape and change so how long do you think before it's ready for rental ask them i would say this one would be a couple of months um two to three months and are you looking at this it's cottage holiday rentals are you looking at it's long-term rental i think this would be long-term rental just because i think it's not the perfect holiday cottage but i think as a long-term rental cottage it would be great when the cottages are renovated they should generate a few thousand pounds a year but that's not enough for john andelli to move to chester's they're hoping the bulk of the income will come from the actors courses so has the trial been a financial success and i know question mate i'll have it on my truck store by saying come on now how much are you charging per student well we know you suggested 600. and uh considering this is a trial course and we want to see and kind of learn from it yeah and uh we decided to charge 450. no i think that's fine to do a discounted rate if it's you know you're right it's a trial so what are the costs so far well food yeah we're doing the catering this time yeah which is which is going well yes tiring do you know how many hundreds budgeted for sort of 750 and i think that's pretty much where we're going to be we might be adjusting it's your labor cost at the moment absolutely yeah rather than somebody else's yeah what about other expenses um well there's a sort of tutors costs as well how much another sort of 500 600 on top of that and then you've got um the fact that we're splitting the proceeds 50 50 between the house and everything's accompanying the actors temple because they're providing tutors and the people and that sort of thing so you might end up with about yourself for the week right yeah or five nights at night well that's better than a kick in the head isn't it how many of these courses per year would you see yourself doing because i don't think you'd be able to get 42 or whatever do you on a weekly basis i don't think we'd want to either i think you know we'd be looking at maybe doing one a month right so 12. so it's not you know we're not going to turn ourselves over completely i'm just turning that back to income you know 12 000 14 pounds a year nothing like what you're earning at the moment no well it's a little it will be a little bit more than that it'll be more like sort of twenty thousand of you might be slightly on the rich side on there anyways i am very cynical about your costings you should know that what to find or bring your latter hazard back again and thankfully best letter of the first you know me well and hearing i spend but time to whine about my lovely [Music] [Applause] circumstances i'm very concerned that john and ellie will not be diverted from their original thoughts and plans they don't seem to be able to embrace the idea of reality it's all idealistic it's what sort of a way with the fairies really they come from london they think they're going to replace their income here living in this house which demands so much money spent on it i don't think this is going to work i don't think they're going to realize 20 000 pounds from the actors studio over the course of a year i think it's going to be more like 14 16 000 is bat involved in it i don't know i just know that these people are on a course of optimistic idealism and i don't agree with it the actors courses might pay the household bills but they won't provide all the income the hendersons need ruth has to come up with a new plan for chester's and quickly the next morning ruth is back with a fresh idea although the hendersons don't want overnight guests trashing chesters ruth still believes the only way to secure their future and save their crumbling house is by letting it out she thinks day higher rather than long legs could be the way forward the country house day hire business is worth 20 million a year in scotland alone corporate team building office away days and private meetings could all be accommodated at chester's it's an attractive and secluded location with extensive grounds and spacious rooms joanna goddard is a specialist in the corporate hire of historic properties ruth asks her how day hire could work for the hendersons the biggest priority for most of our owners and that it remains the home first and foremost and that's what they want to retain right so it has to be carefully balanced when we're talking about hiring out and for every property that's a different requirement different needs so what sort of price are we looking at then for a day for a day higher you can get between 800 and 1000 pounds depending on not true exactly and a lot of that would be probably outside activity for team building and you need to factor in providing lunch or dinner yes um and if that's a small group of six or eight it's fairly straightforward if it's a larger group there'd be an additional charge per head to cover the the greater catering costs of that but it allows john and ellie to really explore what they can achieve here and on a sort of day basis yeah and then when they're more comfortable that then they can look at going so there's not a huge commitment at the outset then you're not asking them to invest millions of pounds in doing property up and you're not asking them to take people for great chunks of time that's right because it's so important we help support our owners explore diversification and there's no pressure to push them into it because it is their home and you could genuinely recommend chesters to them absolutely yes i think it's a stunning sense of arrival which is always one of the key things we look for it feels remote but actually it's pretty accessible joanna is confident chester's would make money as a day higher venue now all ruth has to do is persuade john and ellie to ease their restrictions on who they allow into their home john and ellie you have a dream i have a problem and the problem is this let's say we've got um this year for the next from now on from 12 months from now we've got 20 grand let's be generous about the active student assuming it's filled up every single moment of the time your heating lighting costs my understanding are about 20 grand so that gets rid of that one okay where else is the money going to come from decorous people from the corporate world will come and spend a day here without accommodation without you requiring to do anything to the building all this gentle shabbiness would absolutely appeal to the kind of market and for that you can get eight hundred to a thousand pounds a day well that would be great yeah completely up for that yeah so you've always the problem we've always had about that is is the drunken people sort of flailing around and staying overnight don't need to now so you're saying to me i'm noting this you're saying to me that you're quite happy to can we do another trial because that's what i'd like to do yes absolutely let's do a corporate day see that people behave nicely that they don't cause you any problems i know that you can get at least 40 and up to 100 days a year right in this locality for this kind of house absolutely staggering i mean that just changes the whole picture absolutely i just didn't know that sort of thing existed so if it does then that would be fantastic although the hendersons are very happy to give day hire a try they're still equally cautious about protecting their heritage i don't think there's an easy answer um to how the place should be run or how it should be managed or how we should generate the revenue that we need or how we should sort of create the place that we want i think sort of ruth has got a distinct impression that i'm a romantic about everything and i think to some extent yes that's true but whatever we do here i'd like to leave a sort of really positive mark on the place and i don't want to sort of either rush into something just for the sake of it i would like to sort of really see that it fits with what we believe this place is about it's july the first day hire triumph is taking place at chester's tomorrow morning should we do it yep go on tomorrow's event is corporate team building based on role-playing as secret agents unlike for the actors course there's very little preparation needed from the hosts hi eddie it's uh john henderson how you doing but the hendersons are desperate for the day to be a success and want to check that everything's in place [Music] hey how you doing good have you spoken to eddie i just spoke to eddie yes um and it all sounds very easy actually they're just bringing everything that they need so it's all quite straightforward we're just going to provide the sort of cutlery uh for two courses for the lunch and that's it but john remains unconvinced that the event is going to work out this is something that ruth suggested and it's sort of you know her and joanna are very much sort of coordinating the whole thing and so hopefully it won't be too stressful as it were and you know we can just sort of sit back and see how it all pans out we have ordered kind of a few things just in case like tea and coffee flasks and things like that but you know if they're used to doing these kind of events then they should have everything covered but um we're pretty good in pretty getting crises as well so if we need to do anything then we can i'm sure something will happen something will kick off or go wrong or something but i'm sure it'll be fine actually no they sound like a really nice bunch of people and it sounds like a really interesting thing and i think you know if you sort of want somewhere to rush around and be a spy then this is probably as good a place as any so we'll see how it goes john and ellie are hoping day hire could be the key to solving their financial problems without upsetting their sense of loyalty to john's ancestral home [Music] after several attempts to find an income for chester's everything is now resting on tomorrow's event but will john and ellie buy into ruth's grand plan i think you have both been very guarded we as people have been on trial do we deserve it are we selfish [Music] it's the morning of the first corporate hire day at chester's in the scottish borders john and ellie henderson are making the final preparations for what they hope will provide them with the regular income they need to leave their london lives behind i've done businesswoman ruth watson is back in scotland to see if her rescue plan for chester's has worked john and ellie are hosting a corporate team building day and given that they don't want anyone in the house apart from actors they might find it very painful i really hope they don't because it could be such a good source of income for them so today's spy hunt game is a crucial test to see if john and ellie are happy sharing their house with strangers despite their concerns the hendersons are making an effort to welcome their 20 corporate guests making tea mingling and dressing up for the occasion how are you i'm very well thank you very good good so how things generally going uh good quite nice not to have to organize this one ourselves for a change that's a good point actually isn't it thank you [Music] the mission has begun i am agent 75 i am the head of intelligence for the spy hunt organization and from not wanting any strangers in their house the hendersons now have 20 of them licensed to roam all over chester's [Music] in return for opening their house the hendersons are receiving 600 pounds for this half-day hire and could expect to earn up to a thousand for each full day and it's part of your mission corporate hire agent joanna has been called in to reassure them it's a good idea your best house how much income does it generate a year for its own um they can turn i think probably around 300 thousands of years one of the most successful i've worked with that's quite a nice figure 300 000 is a lot of money but that is a very established venue that has grown over the years and now has a dedicated but even if it's a hundred thousand it's still not bad isn't it yeah i don't know how much for the the derelict wing do you think i think we need to do about a hundred of these yeah somewhere in that region um which wouldn't be impossible and joanna points out that john and ellie could actually turn their derelict wing into a selling point while earning money for the restoration a lot of corporates these days are very much focused on corporate social responsibility and ethical purchasing so if they're going to spend a lot on regular events or regular meeting room hire then if they choose chester's a good way of keeping in touch with clients as well is just to let them know that you know once i visited that the wing has started the works and the wings have started you know such and such has been purchased and if you discuss that when they were there keeping in touch with them they feel they are contributing to restoring you know part of our heritage that could be your whole thing it's the wing fund yes and actually have the red thermometer somewhere and just they can see that they're helping with streams day higher could reap the henderson's rich rewards did you enjoy them they're happy to continue with it okay good in first place odd jobs is it really good it's all over yes apparently so it's done two hours in i know well i think i think one team we're doing particularly well and i don't know and this is money forward rope we booked them immediately we're loving it done by lunch time it's fantastic so this could be the way to go it could be a word well absolutely at last ruth has found a rich source of easy revenue that meets with john andelli's approval building up the day higher events could help the hendersons finally fulfill their dream of living at chester's for me the big thing is this house and i think we actually have come some way from john and yours original comment which was you couldn't bear to share it with anybody other than actors because today has been a demonstration that actually it wasn't such a horrible experience however it was great but before she leaves ruth wants to make an observation you were quite precious at the beginning i have to say this you know and and part of me understood it but part of me also said you know you have actually got to open up a little bit about this i think you have both been very guarded for possibly different reasons and i mean a lot of that's because it's it's felt very much like a trial and that we as people have been on trial do we deserve it are we selfish all this sort of thing and i think you know it's very much to us felt like that i'm really heartened to hear your response and your big vigorous response as well because actually i think by by opening up yourselves to the things that have been thrown at you you know actually it is going to make you stronger and i think you you have taken on board what it really means to live here and what you might have to sacrifice to live here well i think this whole thing has been about turning talk into commitment and once you know i think we've made that transition from just that's you know dreaming talking saying we will do this to actually doing it and committing to do it and i think that's going to make a huge hopefully difference to everything yeah and so how long before you're living here within the year within the year certainly and hopefully possibly by christmas so the heir of chester's and his wife will be moving in very shortly oh yes yes yes you could say that yes absolutely [Music] this is pantily castle in cornwall one of britain's most spectacular estates for nearly 30 years it's been hidden from the world by a reclusive widow who banned even her closest relatives from visiting last year ted and sarah coraton inherited this neglected estate and a six million pound inheritance tax bill can businesswoman ruth watson help pantily and open it up to the great british public it looks as if everything is very behind is that right yes sarah does have an emotional take on this whole estate if i'm deeply upset no don't come anywhere no i'm ready i'm really upset thank you [Music] penn tilly is a grade two listed castle and two thousand acre estate in cornwall it was built in 1698 in this commanding position overlooking the river for nearly 30 years ted and sarah corriton have lived just a mile from kentucky wondering if one day it would be theirs it belonged to a cousin of mine who was married but that had no air and he rang us up out of the blue in about 1977 and asked us if we'd come down and help him run the place because he didn't know anything about farming and there was quite a lot of land you didn't know to inherit the deal was that ted would run one of pentile's farms for his cousin jeffrey and gradually take over the estate but when jeffrey died unexpectedly in 1980 his widow kit withdrew from the world banned ted and his family from the castle so she just decided to become a recluse and shut the house up and tell me never to come back here again the news was devastating for ted and sarah over the next 27 years their family grew up in the shadow of bentilli which remained out of bounds and became a subject too painful for discussion but in september 2007 kit passed away and left the estate to ted i certainly thought that's going to rock the boat change life and i'm going to have to make some some decisions having been the cause of so much heartache the corritons planned to sell pantily and take the money but when ted sarah and their three grown-up children came to see the castle they fell under its spell they all came in at separate times and just said we've got to go with this the decision to take on pentilli landed them with a massive six million pound inheritance tax bill the house is in need of serious restoration and the estate has become overgrown and neglected for the corritons the experience has been emotional and life-changing i worry about it because it's it's such a wonderful thing to have actually been left but and you suddenly got very frightened having sort of been through so much as a family over the last 27 years what i really feel passionately about is that suddenly having material possessions doesn't destroy us so they've called on ruth watson for advice the british country house is an institution that's under a very real threat i'm determined to bring my business expertise to bear to help save these historic houses and estates make them pay their way and preserve them for the future self-made businesswoman ruth owns a hotel and restaurant empire in suffolk and has turned around the fortunes of numerous country houses including hinkelsham hall which she transformed from a crumbling pile into a multi-million pound business [Music] today ruth is on her way to cornwall to meet ted and sarah and help them find a way to make pantily pay [Music] [Music] this is a very fine house isn't it it's a little austere from this side it is there's not very much sort of softness and greenness or plants or anything growing up at all no i'd love to see inside of it her investigation starts with a tour of the formal rooms we're going to go into the joint room in all its grey glory beautiful with the double aspect and so light isn't it lovely it's a very very sunny room when i came in on my own for the first time i was absolutely amazed at man's sort of feelings because i felt as soon as we can get rid of it the better and i still came in and the sun was shining and i just thought wow actually this is all quite a different um yeah it gave me a good feeling and you couldn't be tempted to live here i couldn't afford her quite cold as well well i'm afraid we can't quite afford the heating yet so stand closer to the path ted wasn't born a coraton cousin jeffrey's widow kit demanded ted change his surname to match theirs in order to inherit pentelli causing a rift between ted and his father and he said well if you change your name i shall disinherit you they did uh uh and did so there's been a lot of there's been a lot of strife um in the past that's heavy-duty stuff and it's really taken us by storm and full of raw emotions now so does that matter to you the notion of not disposing of it because it would go out of the family it's a bit sad to be the person who who couldn't be bothered to try um so i think that we will try pantily's taken an emotional toll on the family now it's set to take a financial one too ted and sarah have had to cash in their pensions and sell parts of the estate to pay off the inheritance tax the corriton's three children also have a share in pantily including eldest daughter sami let's do some nuts and bolts you inherited in september but you have incurred a horrible taxation bill haven't you inheritance tax yes yeah and could we know how much that is and how long do you have to pay it it's about 6 million and you've got to say it quickly it doesn't hurt so much then why don't you just sell it we were offered to check for it fairly soon after we inherited it and friends said to us you you have a choice you can either sit at pantily and you're beating up a land rover looking at our farm at tunnel or sit at tunnel and you'll smart bentley looking at peng tilly um so we we're really happier in the land river i think it suits our style better and anyhow what would what would we do with the money the corritons have decided to continue living at their nearby farm and invest their remaining funds to establish bentilli as a family business they want to let it out for house parties and weddings what thoughts and plans have you had about how this could be made to pay its way being able to put up at least sort of 16 people sort of more that exclusive country house rental it's it's big enough but at the same time cozy enough that if you were going to get married here you might bring your immediate family all stay for four or five days beforehand have the wedding we've got two wonderful retired architects who've spent hours and hours and hours redesigning the house so that we can make the eight bedrooms why do you think i can help at all um [Music] because i got the answer because they actually have no idea which direction we're going and actually i think we need someone to help us which way is the right way to start whip you into shape yeah it's a disadvantage of having three children and therefore five of us involved in it because no decision making process is simple this family is a joy and they exude so much warmth it ought to be enough to heat the house the problem is that they're going full steam ahead with loads of ideas none of which they've really thought through and i think this is just a question of really picking the best ones and actually making plans that are viable because i want this family to keep this house and to make a really good business out of it pantily clearly has potential but are the corritons prepared to take ruth's no-nonsense advice on board there is a tendency to revisit decisions that have already been made there might have to come a time when one of the children who isn't here has to just shut up [Music] ted and sarah coraton are the new owners of pentile castle and its estate in cornwall with elegant hallways and a formal drawing room this historic house is perched high above the tamar valley [Music] surrounding it is a 2 000 acre estate of farmland and landscaped grounds including a walled kitchen garden and numerous handsome cottages [Music] high above the river on mount ararat sits an imposing mausoleum built to house the final remains of sir james tilly for whom the house was built in 1698 three centuries later the estate has been inherited by ted and sarah along with a six million pound tax bill i'm determined to help the corinthians come up with a financially viable plan that brings pantily out of the shadows and allows everyone to enjoy its glory ruth watson's helping the corinthians turn historic pantily into a going concern after years of neglect this is the amazing mausoleum yes this is where where jimmy as we call him but sir james tilly it's very familiar wanted to spend his last uh days on earth he was always convinced that he wouldn't be dead for very long and would return to pantelli so he demanded that he was put in his favorite chair wearing his favorite clothes and that the servants would give him food and and drink twice a day so he didn't get there his no he was just sat in the chair wired to it so that he didn't slump in his seat and the servants did what they were told for two years you are kidding and eventually the villagers couldn't take it any longer and they buried him mad jimmy wanted to sit here surveying all he possessed and owned and your cousin came and did the reverse he planted these conifers too yes he did um the muslim showed up very well from the river and across the river and and the cousin wanted the escape to be private right um they're dreadful and they spoil the view and and you would be happy to cut them down oh absolutely yes and in general your your whole viewpoint about the house and the estate is to to open it to be more open to everyone yes it's pretty pretty selfish for just us to enjoy it isn't it it's part of cornwall and and people couldn't do that attitude in 1809 the gardens were completely remodeled by humphrey repton the famous landscape designer and although his plans for pentile were never fully carried out they are documented in a very special book the joy of this pen tilly book is that it's never been seen by anybody it's been under lock and key and to find it still here and not having been burnt and destroyed along with other treasures and it's wildly exciting so i'm just still exploring it myself um and the sort of thing that that he did where he drew um for example a design of what the gardens were and then he painted and pasted over um what the garden these wonderful sort of flip decks what the garden then sort of might be and that's what it was that's what he designed so a pretty that i reckon is probably a national treasure so far only the house has figured in the corriton's business plans but a brief tour of the gardens reveals how much potential they have so these gardens are just stunning and everywhere i go i find something else that's even more amazing than the bit before i mean this limewalk for example i mean it's just beautiful it is this is in fact the old front drive so all the carriages would come down and come on down through and it's actually cobbled underneath the sort of mulch that you see here it is it's very very lovely very special so i mean these guns have been hidden away you're discovering them yes how do you feel about that i'm incredibly excited what i do realize is that my knowledge of gardens is pretty limited and so i'm up for learning and exploring and maybe i should soon be quoting lots of latin names the family may not have experienced anything like this before but their enthusiasm is infectious presumably you're still in a process of discovery aren't you it's quite exciting it feels every time it's like oh secret garden this once productive kitchen garden used to be run by six staff working full time and supplied the house with all its fruit and vegetables this could be back to how it was a hundred years ago that would be absolutely a dream come true but thus far the corriton's business plans have concentrated on the house instead of the gardens they are keen to turn it into an exclusive venue for weddings and house parties so ruth heads off to find out if it's suitable oh what is it about people who live in grand houses that they've got to collect dead animal detritus that is repulsive now much more lovely is the room itself this is all facing out looking out over the tamar and it's just beautiful the view even in a misty day it's staggeringly lovely i think this would be a wonderful room to have as your pre or post bridal night the corritons have big ideas for sweeping changes throughout the house but with all five family members involved in the design process the plans have already been subject to frequent changes actually in a funny kind of retro way i do if you look at the plans here the children have insisted that that becomes a bathroom so this set of plans has already been superseded by another set yes yes yes one of the things that is slightly bothering me is that there's a lot of changes a lot of discussion amongst the family and then everyone throws it all up in the air again and it all glands down and then we change it again there is a tendency to revisit decisions that have already been made there might have to come a time when one of the children who isn't here has to just shut up right despite the family's undoubted enthusiasm it's clear that the corritons have to make a master plan and get in professional help if they're to make the most of this extraordinary this estate just lovely this is the bathing house and it's so beautiful it's where modest victorians would have come to change before they got in the water everything about this estate is really magical i mean i just i'm so impressed with it there's hidden things and wonderful things and it's beautiful and i really think more needs to be made of it this is this is not just for local delectation this is for national admiration it's just wonderful [Music] to get some ideas on how the coratins could be making more of their incredible estate ruth heads off to a nearby success story i'm on my way to see a garden that's not only the most visited private garden in the uk but perhaps with greatest significance for pantily it's also the largest garden restoration in europe like pantily the lost gardens of helicon fell into a terrible state of neglect that all changed 10 years ago when a group of enthusiasts took on the garden's restoration now it makes a healthy profit ruth gets the lowdown from peter stafford the managing director so what are the visitor numbers nowadays they're fairly consistent at around quarter of a million to three hundred thousand um but they they've they've grown from from literally zero when we when we opened to that figure pentile's gardens couldn't be made into a visitor attraction of this scale overnight but ruth's keen to find out whether they could tap into this lucrative market without spending a fortune how in the early days did you fund the restoration of the gardens entirely out of visitor income right and cut our cloth according to that but as i say in the very early days we decided we would run with what we could afford the gardens clearly have potential but does the castle if the coratons are going to do exclusive rentals they could learn a thing or two from the barnes family owners of loyton lodge they converted their historic property into luxury accommodation for house parties five years ago and so far it's proved to be extremely successful was it important to you to be the hosts we i think somehow or other that there needs to be a host the guests like it actually that there's a family feel but there's always a point where you have to be careful to to get the balance right you know so you're a host and yet when they come it's their place leyton lodge has a turnover of 500 000 pounds a year and the barnes is believed that this is down to a clear business plan and the right amount of rooms you've got 10 bedrooms that suggest 20 people is that a kind of magic number do you think it's important i think it's a very good number yeah it um certainly has proved the case for us you i mean you can get bigger and bigger but 10 is seems to be perfect ruth returns with all the information she needs to advise on pentile's future [Music] hello first up she's concerned that the coratons don't have a master plan for pantily or the expertise to execute it everything about this place is to my mind bigger than you think it is and i think you're coming at it as a very amateur night out sort of little hobby kind of thing i'd like all of you including the absent siblings to actually write down what you think you can bring to the party what are your strengths what are your weaknesses as individuals yeah and how much time and effort you're prepared to contribute so the first thing is i want you to organize yourselves as people right what do you bring to the party what are your skills what do you think you can contribute and what do you actually know you can't or won't contribute and it's from that point that you will know what kind of expertise you need to bring in [Music] you know you have just got to raise your game i don't think you realize that you're very rich people you've been used to being porpous you're not porpoise anymore ruth thinks there's merit in their idea of renting the castle for exclusive stays but sleeping just 16 it's a little on the small side what seems to be the zeitgeist is that the number is around 20. so i'd like you to look at again the estate and the cottages that are on it to see whether you could possibly add in a bit more accommodation maybe another two three four rooms that by marketing it as a really exclusive upmarket very very chic place to come then you actually could get a substantial amount of money from it that bathing house i mean to have the honeymoon suite down there you know with i mean i just you know i want to get married again it's just it's just so beautiful but if they want to attract high-end guests they'll need to give the castle a facelift i think the front of the house is very very off-putting changing the paint color i think is an absolute necessity so far all the coratons efforts have focused on the house but ruth has a radical idea that could provide substantial income i went off to heligan and i can truthfully say that actually i think this is possibly has the potential for being greater more stupendous than helicon i think it is absolutely amazing where you are here in the situation the public seeing a restoration in progress with limited access at the beginning but that actually opening up and you bringing them with you can be hugely successful and actually as i say can be a revenue maker i think this is you know bordering on a national treasure and certainly the gardens i think could actually be an international treasure dealt with in the right way i really believe that in a two or three year period we could get an income of between one and two million out of this place yeah we're real beginners real amateurs and probably what's going to have to become a professional game i had absolutely no idea at all that we could generate that amount of income so quite daunting do we how do we select the right people to help us and lots of gin going to be done less than a week after ruth's visit the coratons are already going full steam ahead ruth was concerned that they didn't have the expertise to deal with a project of this scale but the family are keen to get cracking on the restoration the house is stripped of its austere paint and dangerous trees are fell throughout the estate jonathan mansfield is an architect and friend of the family who's come out of retirement to help the corinthians redesign the house but despite revising the plan several times already the family have decided they want yet more modifications all well and good having your gorgeous fabulous massive suite and then you have a bed bathroom that you can barely swing a cat you couldn't even get the cat in the bathroom let alone swing it it is small there's no doubt about it but you know the concept was that we would there would be two bedrooms there um and only a small bathroom but you know i'm very happy i listen to you i understand what you want yes i mean the house is going to be here for the next hundred years let's get it right if we have to write it have to ask jonathan to draw another set of plans um i'm sorry thomason even the ancestors aren't exempt from the corriton sweeping changes in a hugely symbolic moment ted and sarah are saving sir james tilly's decaying statue and sending him off to be restored everybody's heard the same girlfriend oh no he says he's got a face look on his face and say oh please don't touch me [Music] um i just want to stand beside him i've always wondered how high he was at the same height family resemblance [Music] [Applause] the times may be changing at pantily but after decades of heartache can the coratins cope with what the future holds or will their emotions get the better of them really upset don't film this thank you no i don't want to be filmed i'm not going to be filmed [Music] the corriton family have recently inherited the pentile estate in cornwall along with a host of financial troubles and responsibilities it's two months since our last visit and ruth watson is back to see if ted and sarah took her advice to develop a master plan for pantily she made me sort of feel that that i've got to stop being so emotional about it all and it's got to pay for itself it's got to be commercial and i've got to get a bit grown up about it ruth was concerned that the family were trying to do too much themselves so she's anxious to hear what progress has been made hello hi how are you good thank you very well how are you how are things going all right i think i see your guardian sir james has been replaced by a rather small gnome rather a small person we haven't found a bigger one ted has been dealing with a staggering amount of work they're really cracking on here aren't they at the back yes we're taking all the paint that's on top of the the render yes and then we can repair the cracks and repaint yeah but we've repointed most of these walls this looks fantastic that's a really nice job so with all the um work going on have you decided what kind of colors that you're going to repaint as you can imagine there's been a certain amount of debate over on that um huge amount of debate i think it's a big big decision i thought we would paint um a panel with that and just see how it looks what yeah the other alternative is this one which is slightly more caramely i would definitely not go with that one because i think that is actually just um bland basically i think that's a cop-out color and i think i think you actually can be quite bold with this it's got such strong shape you know i mean and with the castillation along the top and it's it's such a handsome house you know and i think having a pretty color will both feminize it but also i think it can take it the coratons ought to get expert help to make the final decision elsewhere ted's been busy we we couldn't see through there before could we no that's so lovely uh i went mad with the chainsaw one day but it's lovely because it brings the river right up to the bottom of the grounds doesn't it i mean before it was somewhere over there they may have been cracking on but ruth wants to find out if the family have got themselves properly organized says everyone's sort of taken on a role or do you know who's going to be involved and who's not going to follow you and we now know who's who's doing what yeah and what's your job well i seem to be the foreman at the moment i don't think i've ever worked so hard clearly ted has taken on a great deal of work and he's not the only one who's been hard at it sarah shows ruth their progress elsewhere in the garden you have been busy bees the the tree fellas have been very very busy sadly we've had to take down about 49 trees i think um they were all unsadly dead dying or extremely dangerous how many years do you think before the public can come in the cornwall garden society are going to actually come in october to see before right and then um then it'll sort of go from there after being shut away for three decades the public will finally be able to see pantily's splendor but are the corritons ready to let them in in principle you're happy to share the garden with the public and to let them see the progress you're making but do you feel even a bit trepidatious about that much better than i was much better than i was i was sort of i felt quite territorial when i first when we were talking about it and i i think what has really happened is that people who've been here um have been so unbelievably enthusiastic and i know i feel it's got to be something that's got to be shared ted and sarah have energy and enthusiasm in abundance so it's no surprise to me that things are screaming along at breakneck pace i also think sarah does have an emotional take on this whole estate you know it came with a very checkered history and i think it's good for her that she's doing this work what i'm concerned about is they must have an overall plan for the whole estate [Music] how do you think we could calm things down and impose some kind of strategy your dad's working all the hours 24 7. your mum says yes absolutely is he is he feeling the strain um yeah i think he is he's having his moments i mean he's looking good this week we got him into bed and we got him away from here and we got him to stop thinking about it for a few hours but it's definitely an issue that needs to be addressed and it needs to be addressed soon ruth's concerned that the corinthians are still trying to do too much themselves so she's come up with a plan she wants them to prepare for a press launch which could give the business publicity and help forge good relations with journalists by inviting local people connected to pen tilly the family will get a taste of what it will be like to open the estate up so what about getting some journalists in particular people who write for the garden magazines because i think if they were given a private tour of the areas that you've shown me the mausoleum and up in the american garden all those things that would give you some feeling about what it's like to share this house with people yeah i loved it yeah but i mean we've been talking about doing exactly that and um i hadn't really sort of thought about it strange enough for the promotion of pantilist but naively enough why were you against it then because just because i want people to just be here and come and see it but clearly sarah is still very emotional about the whole process what is the core product here what is the thing that makes it tick what do you think makes it work it's you two loving it to pieces and wanting to share this with people that actually is your strength with just a few weeks before the press launch there's a great deal to do but despite ruth's words of warning the corritons are still taking on many aspects of the project themselves including designing the pantily brand the card is smarter with it on the side but i don't like headed paper with it on the side i think it looks a bit like i like it much better that the the writing paper with in the center without any lines or do you like it like that but it's slightly off like i said to the side yeah it was that one but without those lines and then i quite like that but without the well mama whatever you decide should stick with [Music] the family have finally chosen the color for the house without the expert help advised how's it going it doesn't come off as well as it said the other side [Music] to give the press an idea of how the finished rooms will be styled sarah has created some mood boards with the help of a local haberdasher hi graeme hello how many more rotten windows have you found we've got two burnt off and ready for prime oh yeah and i'll have another two burnt off today only another 46 windows to go [Music] but the work is progressing slowly as the coratons have decided to use an unusual paint um it's not like a normal paint that we use in england this is a mineral one that comes from germany and it seems much much more tricky to apply and i'm not sure i'd have gone down this route if i'd known how difficult it was it's meant to last 30 years and the amount of grief it's causing me i i hope it does because i don't want to do it again yeah press day is what two weeks time yeah we can do that be tight [Music] sadly their efforts are dogged by paint problems and bad weather and by the day before the press launch it becomes clear that instead of a bright new exterior the journalists will see pantily covered in scaffolding but despite the stress sarah's keen to put on a brave face the scaffolding is it'll be moved from the from this side of the house this any minute now it should have been done today um in fact i'm not quite sure why it hasn't but you can it's clear of all its sort of netting that was up so you've got an idea of the color now and if you don't like it there's stuff to be done but um the things that haven't happened there's not really much time to get them down between now and tomorrow morning so it is what it is and hopefully it'll be wonderful done dirty adam perfect buttons the day of the press launch has finally arrived and there's still a great deal to do it's an extremely stressful time but the corritons are determined to put on a good show but are they ready to present pantily to the locals and the journalists this is my final visit to pantily and it's press day which of course is incredibly important because this is ted and sarah's chance to really show pantily off i'm going to be interested to see how much work they've done but more importantly are they going to run the day in a professional way or is it going to be full of emotion and all the historical baggage but straight away ruth's in for a shock [Music] so what ghastly wounds have you been inflicting on your house looks a bit mottled doesn't it it's terrible what is it it was the budget repair they did uh 20 years ago so are we going to provide the press with not just dark glasses but black blindfolds are given something to laugh about anyway oh yeah it will get it will get better ruth suggested that they consult a paint expert but the coratons decided on the final color themselves it's a little more parsnip colored than i had expected did you ever have um i suggested um a chap who's a paint expert you know does all the national trust properties did he ever come down no we talked to a paint expert and then we thought well it's a color we're going to have to like so we'll we'll do it that color if it actually clashes in a really vile way with the red brick which i'm slightly concerned about you could take it down a shade you know creamy fight a bit and it wouldn't look we could weird we could but i'd listen to what you said you said it's a big building you've got to be positive so well i agree it's a it's a positive i agree with that and and it is and it's a friendly color so i mean it looks as if everything is very behind is that right yeah it is a bit yeah despite what ted says i think he's really rattled about this whole project and the color actually is much better when you stand down on the terrace and you've got the grey walls i mean the thing is it's not vile but it could have been so much better and i personally would have taken advice on this from a real expert in the field it's too big a building too important and it's not enough to say well we quite like it what's really disappointing though is the scaffolding still being up and the press coming but the scaffolding isn't ruth's only disappointment she's not overly impressed with sarah's interior design mood boards either there's nothing innately wrong with them except it's incredibly traditional it's very country house hotel 1984 and my problem is that i think she should be using professional help for this kind of thing along with the outside paint color this is a house of architectural importance and something that really should sing with its strength and its force of design they're missing a trick here i think you know sarah and ted just going off doing their own things you know they they need somebody to bring this all together it just feels too fragmented [Music] ruth heads to the kitchen to greet sarah and sammy but conversation quickly turns to the mood boards and sarah's choice of a local haberdasher i enjoy her taste enormously and i think to be able to decide in within probably the best part of an hour what you're going to do in five rooms is fairly full-on connection with somebody is this woman absolutely at the top of her tree does she completely understand this architecture is she going to give you a design what can i just tell you from the mood boards right okay i'll just come clean there's all the not all of those fabrics are there on the on the uh general feel of it i was doing that in 1982 at hindustan hall and i think times have moved on to me it just looks dated what makes them dated and what makes an opinion so no no no it is very subjective there is no absolutely no i absolutely and that's where i'm trying to caveat it by saying at the end of the day you have got to love it but i would just like to felt that if you'd had somebody in here who hadn't just done what i regard as quite an ordinary treatment with this and also quite a dated sorry sorry sir absolutely okay no it's fine you're allowed not to run with it you're not allowed to disagree it's fine you know it's fine let's just happily disagree when i have hintersherm which is like this a building of great significance i actually did go to people who really really knew about both the architecture and about painting about everything else but i didn't just get the little local woman in from ipswich to come and i would feel i was being fortunate to myself if i didn't say that i think it could be better everything is fairly predictable and i think it could be less predictable i really want to talk to you about it now because what you talked to me at all [Laughter] preparation continues but with the press due at any moment ruth's concern that sarah sarah's taken her comments to heart are you all right no i'm not ruth i'm deeply upset no don't come any minute no i'm really i'm really upset don't film this thank you why are you no i don't want to be filmed i'm not going to be filming tell me why i think you're being very harsh and i think that's most unnecessary i'm pretty sure sarah's not speaking to me at the moment because she stomped off camera very upset with me because i had the temerity to not agree with everything that she's been doing i don't think they're doing a bad job at all i'm merely trying to say that i think they could do a better job and what really bothers me is that this shouldn't end up being a sort of provincial kind of treatment this house it needs something of a national scale after an emotional start to the day can the corinthians still manage to impress their important guests i'm concerned about the seating arrangements which frankly look a combination between a youth hostel party and somebody's suburban bbq [Music] pantily castle has been hidden away for nearly 30 years but today the coraton family are throwing open the gates to a new era despite an earlier disagreement ruth and the corritons put their differences to one side to welcome the guests [Music] journalists from local and national publications have come for a sneak preview of what the corridans intend to offer i might have made a mistake and made it too strong local people and ex-staff members from bentilli's past have also been invited if the family impressed the journalists the coverage could be invaluable in making their venture a success we grew up on a farm on the estate but the old lady didn't like the family and helped secure pentile's future with the workmen still hard at it it's clear that pantily is a work in progress but the guests seem to be enjoying the sunny terrace and elderflower champagne well we've got a number of journalists here from both national and local newspapers which is jolly good but it doesn't feel very well organized at the moment and i'm also concerned about the seating arrangements which frankly look a combination between a youth hostel party and somebody's suburban barbecue style i'd like to see a little more style attached to all these things but you know it it's it's very homely and hopefully the journalists will see what can be done with this house and and hopefully what will be done with it have you done the risk assessment pantily's amazing history will be key to their marketing campaign so the return of sir james tilly's restored statue has been perfectly timed [Music] the corritons have arranged to take their guests on a tour of the estate including the kitchen gardens and the mausoleum before ending up at the bathing house on the banks of the tamar in time for tea to show the journalists everything pantily has to offer the corritons have even laid on a boat trip and it's a special occasion for the local guests as well it's the first time in 30 years that local boatman josh has been allowed to moor here i mean were you very aware that nobody was welcome on the pentalyland uh when the old lady was here nobody dare land they didn't put a foot ashore anywhere i think it's nice that ted and sarah want to open that up and make it more public in that sense yeah it's wonderful that we could come down and we were so welcome and they're so lovely now and the freedom is brilliant yeah we were we were afraid well we're not afraid but we just kept away and the whole village is around really think it's going to um absolutely stunning when it's weathered a bit all the locals seem to be delighted including architect jonathan mansfield every time you meet another person he's involved in the pantily project yes you realize how nice they are yeah and how much their hearts are in the right spot yeah they all want to see pantily well it might be friendship yes well i think it's good what worries me is that i do think there's enormous warmth of spirit and a real desire to get it right i just worry you know we've got the hearts have we got the heads as well whatever we do we've got to make them money yeah rather than them yeah be going out well i hope all their friends are as wise and nice as you i'm sure they are well thank you so much but bro you remember you're part of the team yes no no yes but my i think i'm becoming increasingly aware my part of the team is to challenge you see well that's despite earlier teething troubles the guests are clearly impressed by pantily ruth is keen to share the news with sarah every single person who's either worked here lives here lives in the surrounding villages has just said how unbelievably wonderful it is that you and ted own the place that you have opened it up that you've made everyone welcome that people have not been here for 30 years and how utterly delighted and thrilled they are with your welcome to them it has been very special and i mean without all of those people we just wouldn't be we wouldn't be functioning but have the coratons done enough to win over the journalists with their bold plans for pentile's future a lot of country house hotels in britain when people are choosing a venue for a wedding or a special event or whatever they're looking for just something a bit extra and i think that's what this place has got i don't know how they're going to manage to to keep keep the the mystery the time warp and bring it up to the standards people expect obviously they're working with their hearts otherwise it becomes just a business britain is full of houses like this that have been neglected and it's down to the unsung heroes who are willing to take this on to make sure this survives the relationships formed today could help the corritons for years to come all that remains is to find out whether the family feel positive about the event and their decision to take pantily on [Music] do you think yeah it was lovely it was lovely i'm very glad the weather cleared out i quite like be having people here don't know why it's fun to share it isn't it yeah you know you've helped us very much in terms of the advice and making us think bigger and all of those kinds of things i don't know whether we're quite thinking as big as you would like us to but i certainly think that we will get there you have actually brought this place back to life you've brought everybody back to it and you have created something which i think is very special and as i say i felt personally touched and i have nothing to do with this family or this part of the world we might have brought people back to it all serious but actually they've allowed us to come back they've relied us in i really admire your energy and your enthusiasm i would like to think also that you know you're really enjoying it are you enjoying it i've absolutely loved what has been happening yeah and it's it's a fantastic it's a fantastic challenge and it's been absolutely lovely [Music] this is elmore court in gloucestershire a 25 million pound estate that's been in the guys family for 750 years [Music] 37 year old anselm guys has just inherited it but he's got no money and the house is a nightmare of disrepair decaying out buildings and soaring maintenance costs he can't afford can businesswoman ruth watson rescue this national treasure from potential ruin this place is actually in many respects a tip i think this is you going back to the womb it's not haunted in any way but i think it wouldn't be quite a problem are they hippies your friends everything legal i hope crikey in the house is huge and i'm on my own it's all a mess [Music] elmore court is a grade two listed mansion in the cotswolds the centerpiece of a 25 million pound estate but behind the beautiful facade whole wings are crumbling bedrooms and bathrooms are from a bygone era and the disused rooms are crammed with junk it costs 40 000 pounds a year just to pay the basic bills here and there's no money to repair anything elmore has been the seat of the guys family since 1262 and the latest owner in this long line is anselm guys if anything goes wrong we haven't got any surplus cash and i'm not i'm not at all rich and sometimes it does feel a bit too much it's like oh my god anselm must transform the fortunes of this monster house but he's ill-equipped for the task i mean to be honest my 20s i wasn't really applying myself when i left school i got very into dance music and sort of put on parties dj's got into writing music having fun rather than working hard anselm inherited elmore from his uncle sir john guys who died unexpectedly last year [Music] uncle john disapproved of his dj nephew's lifestyle and doubted his ability to run the family house my uncle was quite old-fashioned and i maybe didn't turn into the quite the same sort of person that he wanted me to get turned into so we didn't really see eye to eye it's up to anselm to prove uncle john wrong he's called on ruth watson to help i love country houses they're a quintessential part of the british landscape but they're in real danger and unless their owners wake up and start running them like businesses they're going to be snapped up by foreign oligarchs who won't give a damn about checking out the history and bringing in the gold taps self-made businesswoman ruth owns a hotel and restaurant empire in suffolk [Music] she's turned around the fortunes of numerous crumbling stately homes including hindelsham hall which she bought for 400 thousand and sold for nine million pounds six years later ruth's quest is to save these houses for the nation today she's on her way to elmore [Music] very good to meet you fabulous house how's your journey yeah not so bad at all in a few days time ruth will give anselm her plan on how to save elmore but first she needs to learn more about the house and its owner her investigative tour starts with the grand rooms oh my word the only part of the house kept in a better state of repair a great tour the great hall indeed yeah which is the oldest part of the house some slightly scary colour schemes going on in the ceiling and the fireplace have you got a lot of dulux somewhere in the um it's not the most beautiful harmonious set of colors up there it's been discussed and who's the bust of my late uncle from whom i inherited looks rather stern he's keeping an army and he's not the only one upstairs and some parents sir jamie and lady carol are lodging with him and in the dining room portraits of his predecessors cover every wall so all these chaps are your ancestors and who you've got to live up to is that right everyone in here is an ancestor and who's this buffoon here because he looks very foppish i wouldn't want him as my ancestor that one i have to tell you he kind of fancies himself a bit doesn't he he does indeed there's another picture of him over there as well so right yeah so who's this rather well-fed complacent looking chap that is barkley guys he's the um he's the chaff who wants to be a politician and and spent most of the money thankfully he squandered the family fortune he squandered a hell of a lot of it he looked like he ate it now anselm is in charge he has to save what's left of the guy's legacy this sums up the whole if you like problem isn't it really because you have got this fantastic house you've inherited but you've also inherited all these ancestors looking over your shoulders and yeah there's definitely you know i do feel the pressure of it and you know and i i want to respect it but i don't want it to control smother you no exactly and it's in it's it's it's quite a head fry [Music] the only way to stop elmore's decay is to create a viable business to cover the huge annual bills and pay for the restoration of the rooms anselm already has a few ideas of his own what i really like to do and this creates something that's very um positive i'd like to do a pub because there's no good pumps around have you considered how much it costs to set up a pub from scratch i've i have yeah it's quite a lot i've got my kind of utopian vision of where it might end up one day i'm mrs practical you do a utopia i'll do it give me some pointers definitely yeah okay crikey you know maybe a bit part in the sky and i get the impression that she's quite kind of immediately gonna you know shoot down any silly ideas um which is kind of good but uh a bit upset about the pub idea [Music] unimpressed with anselm's pub plan the next morning ruth investigates another of his ideas to set up a cookery school at elmore he thinks the disused coach house would make great accommodation for the students but as ever there's the small matter of money so this is the inside pretty um it's a bit of a mess but have you considered how much this is going to cost to convert it's going to cost quite a lot yeah i think we could be sure about that no i know it's uh it's in a bit of a state but you know i think it's got potential absolutely no doubt about that [Music] right this used to be um the elmo school of dancing studio which you can actually see the old signage up there so who who had dance classes i've i funnily enough remember being forced up here as a sort of four-year-old really yeah it was sort of very amateur very very amazing yeah i think the trouble is people expect a little more now they do don't they i think you're sadly right yeah how many people do you think you can house up here then well maybe 12 um at a squeeze i think you're being very optimistic to think you could get 12 people into this space including bathroom facilities bathroom facilities yeah you could be right anselm just doesn't have the money to renovate this coach house is he overlooking his main asset why would you want to make rooms here at huge cost and with great difficulty when you've got stacks of bedrooms in that enormous house it doesn't make any sense the only thing i can think is that anselm is for some reason holding back because he may be frightened about upsetting the ancestors he's got to get that out of his mind that is the place to make accommodation for the cookery school ansel must make money from elmore but is he taking the job seriously enough what have you been doing to uncle john i'm loathe to say you need to go and see a psychotherapist but i think you need to actually visit your head [Music] last year dj anselm guys inherited the 25 million pound elmore court in gloucestershire his 1200 acre estate includes 16 talented cottages and six working farms this 18-bedroom house was built during the reign of elizabeth the first the great hall features a tudor mullioned window embellished with victorian stained glass crests elmore's dining table has been in use since the 1500s while upstairs the oak room contains an ornate elizabethan fireplace and a four-poster bed hand carved in 1636 the house is a national treasure but outside the grand rooms much of it is in disrepair the burden of saving it has fallen on anselm's shoulders elmore is not just a handsome house it's a huge estate that's been in the same family for hundreds of years and the land is tenanted by farmers and cottage owners whose history is inextricably linked with the guys family i must find a way to help ansem make this house viable because without a good plan the livelihood of everybody who lives here is at stake businesswoman ruth watson is investigating anselm's idea to run a cookery school at elmore she doesn't think he should accommodate students in the coach house but reinstating the old kitchens for the lessons may have more merit this is the old kitchens in here aha so what are you thinking about doing in here well i thought that you know with the cookery school you could have units with you know a couple of hobs here i love the way you're getting straight into the detail before you've thought of this structure like the stables the old kitchens are in an appalling state i have to tell you that most of the things you've shown me have all looked like really scruffy old rooms and where do you live have you got something actually nicer than this yeah well you know it's quite a lot of house to keep yeah pristine okay so um yeah i'll show you anselm lives in just two small rooms in a far corner at the top of the house rarely inhabiting the grandeur downstairs this is my little tv room which is known as the north room but it's been rigged up the naughty room and uh who dubbed it the naughty room i did when i first got here stuck self-deprecating of you what this really smacks off is somebody escaping the rest of the house i think this is you going back to the womb do you think so good god i hadn't thought about it just being my womb with anselm taking up such a small part of the house there's plenty of room to put up his parents so jamie and lady carroll are staying in the old nursery while their new house is being built in the village ruth wants to know if they have faith in anselm's ability to make elmore profitable do you think it's somewhat of an unfair burden i mean it's a fantastic house but huge responsibility i mean would would you i think it's i think it's very tough on him and i think if he can do it it'll be amazing and i think he seems really determined to do it he cares about the place and i think he's got our feeling of continuity wanting to keep things going yeah we've been here for a long time we want to stay here he never lived here as a child and i think that makes it much more difficult for him ruth spends the rest of the day exploring the house on her own [Music] first up the tudor bedrooms far grander than anselm's small apartment [Music] that's a very manky lampshade every room is filled with family history but the weight of his ancestry isn't the only thing burdening young anselm this house may be jammed with fine antiques and paintings but it's also jammed with a load of rubbish some of it's actually got a value because it's antiquarian crutch but a lot of it's just rubbish i feel like this whole thing needs an absolute spring clean [Music] ruth's priority is to generate income but can a residential cookery school really make enough money to save elmo [Music] the next morning she visits the nearby gable school of cookery to work out what kind of profit anselm could expect it really is one of those puddings that you add some cream some custard so that's fine hello friend hello i see you're teaching you how to cheat yes fran winston charges 600 pounds per week 12 students mean a thirty thousand pound turnover from the four-week course even after costs that's a healthy profit but are the students happy to pay hello can i interrupt you hi do you think that actually having the longer courses with accommodation available is is a real benefit i think so yes i mean yes it's more expensive but you just get to be in the whole atmosphere you get to be with the people you work with every day and you get to know them also outside the kitchen so and it's just i don't know it gives you sort of total emotion using this business model and some could easily turn over 300 000 pounds a year but ruth thinks he could make much more elmore is in the cotswolds which attracts a moneyed crowd could anselm's cookery school accommodation rival the area's best hotels such as cotswold house and charge accordingly do you think a place like this that's got this modern style actually will do better than a very boring traditional place nowadays definitely i think everybody that comes has an expectation of that kind of product so um certainly the young set that come up at the weekends from london 30 to 40s and it means you know we can charge a certain rate um and by which you mean a little bit more yes definitely suites here can cost 500 pounds a night with similar accommodation and some could be looking at a half million pound turnover enough to safeguard elmore's future for me this is where ansem should be going at almo not just creating a kukri school but an environment that people really want to go to that's got a lot of pizzazz after three days at elmore it's time for ruth to tell anselm how to save his crumbling estate hello ensemble good morning how are you um pensive you don't own this house right you do own this house actually but mentally you don't own this house not yet and it shows in every single thing you do what you're doing at the moment is you're camping like a student you're camping as if this is somewhere where you've actually got to relinquish it in two minutes because it's not quite real you are smothered by your ancestors you are terrified of doing anything that might upset tradition i'm loathe to say you need to go and see a psychotherapist but i think you need to need to actually really visit your head and say why am i frightened of being here i think you're right in saying that i'm scared of it but i think it's it's like like anyone on you know on the edge of a precipice an estate as big as elmore should be profitable but the income from the tenanted farms and cottages barely covers the household bills blue chip accountancy firms hired by previous generations are charging handsomely for collecting rents and managing the estate i think that you could save a lot of money by employing a local accountant and also using somebody on your payroll to actually manage the estate's affairs in the sense of collecting rents and doing things like that i think you could actually probably save somewhere between 40 and 60 000 a year right well that's a hell of a lot as well as saving money ruth's come up with a novel way to raise money this place is actually in many respects a tip now outside the grand rooms there is the most enormous amount of junk and i would like to see you clear it all up and get rid of it but also you can raise some money what will happen is that you will employ a local auctioneers they will come they will value it they will say what's worth putting in what you actually just need to skip for i mean i'm not going to hazard what it's worth but it's got to be thousands yeah the money ruth will save and raise could be invested in anson's cookery school but she insists he accommodates the students in the main house i do think that the old kitchen would make a marvelous cookery school i think it needs to be obviously completely cleared out and assessed properly but i think it would make a great place oh wow fantastic yes i know there's some reservations what i want you to consider is actually opening this house up not just for the accommodation but this is where i think you can really play to your strengths it's making this really really upmarket cool modern it's real cutting edge design it's not just a another cookery school but before anselm can make any real change he needs to change himself every single one of your ancestors has actually done something to this house it's not a fossil whatever you do to this house you're not going to do anything worse than they've done before but you've got to believe in it you've got to believe in yourself what you can do and you've got to say that this lot are literally history [Music] it's five weeks since ruth's visit anselm has acted on her advice and brought in auctioneers to value his centuries of clutter robin yeah morning right robin this is um the old kitchen anselm hopes the auction of these dusty family relics like this 19th century mother-of-pearl sewing box isn't that lovely complete with all its fittings as well could raise the cash he desperately needs to kick-start his cookery school and as luck would have it he's even found a book of guys family recipes elegance 1903 moist curry delicious very very wholesome yeah you can make something from there haven't you yeah there's a cabinet on a stand it would look nice are you going to be are you going to be doing the cooking and well not me directly but uh that will be somebody else but uh so you know maybe in the future you know not that good although reviving ella guys's spirit at elmore anselm has said farewell to two other relatives mum and dad have moved out now they've gone down to their their new house um which is lovely and uh i mean that in both ways it's quite nice to have this place to myself and it's quite nice for them to be in their new house there was a bit of time when they first when they felt when they first left then somebody was like crikey in the house is huge and i'm on my own it's not haunted in any way but i think it would be quite uh quite a problem and and lonely i imagine i'm quite looking forward to now really getting to use it properly and not have to worry about what they think about my shenanigans so it's all good i'm quite looking forward to having some you know some proper action here and to help with the action anselm has invited two friends he met at a dance festival to reinstate the victorian kitchen gardens in return for bed and board he's also drafted in his sister-in-law kate who teaches at a nearby cookery school to advise him on his plans this was once a kitchen garden and it's just beautiful look at that i think he's got to learn a bit about gardening that takes quite a lot of doing and it has to be kept in good order of course but um he'll learn as time goes by i expect he'll do a bit of delegating isn't it wonderful you've got a blank canvas here [Music] it's about three months since i last came down to elmore and saw anselm and in between times his parents have moved out so i'm not only interested to see how he's getting on with the cookery school plans i want to see how he's living in the house has he got rid of all that junk and that detritus has he made elmo his own [Music] how are you good to see you i'm fine how are you very good very indeed what have you been doing to uncle john oh yes i forgot that was there ah um yeah that was uh i think that was the weekend just gone so times have changed he's no longer somebody who you revere and are frightened of um well i i think he's quite happy there so this room looks pretty well i was going to say pretty much the same except we seem to have a greenhouse developed yeah well i've got some friends making me a kitchen garden and they thought this would be a good place to grow the tomatoes and so forth are they hippies your friends hippies yeah um maybe it sort of seems like a fairly hippy thing to do to have your plants growing in the window of a room like this so you've got tomatoes and beans and all sorts of things yes everything legal i hope of course ruth wants evidence that anselm is taking elmore's future seriously so he's hoping his cleanup of the old kitchens will impress her more all right so you can see it's um being cleared out in here is that what you call it well you know it was full of stuff i agree that you couldn't walk across the floor but i hardly call this a complete clear-out i mean what's all this crap still doing here well we've just um you know it's just that's the debris from the weekend it's it's just the beginning of the week so old fans that's um that's that's just do you have um quite good ones it was only done on you know three days ago and there's been a weekend and i've been busy so being very arsey anthony um what about these things i mean these i remember i think seeing three months ago didn't i yes i mean are you saving them for next christmas or what it'll find its way into skit and into your course but it's you know there's a there's a lot of space in this house so we're still too great and too much junk in this space too sorry excuse me i've just ruined that fabulous flower decoration why am i picking up crooked it's all a mess let's stay there now honestly come on just get it done elmore needs to become a profitable business to survive but will anselm face up to his responsibilities you have lived your life in a fairly unstructured way and this is going to be a huge culture change for you it really is last year dj anselm guys inherited elmore court the guy's family seat of nearly eight centuries he's asked businesswoman ruth watson to help safeguard his inheritance and to do this they're planning a residential cookery school [Applause] despite ruth's insistence that anselm take full ownership of the house he's still living in just his small corner apartment and has actually moved even more stuff in and is it going to be a nine-month gestation period before you leave the womb or could we do it more quickly um it's going to take as long as it takes but i mean if you know i mean my plan is is that so you're gonna have an elephant gestation period it might be it could be it it could be a rats i don't know basically as soon as it happens it'll happen however anselm has taken some of ruth's advice if you remember we we talked at um some lengths about the estate and the income it produced and i was particularly concerned that your professional fees were really really high and i felt that you could take back in hand quite a lot of the work and save a you know small fortune which we've done that's been quite a sharp learning curve but i think we're going to save quite a lot of money off professional fees at the worst 20 grand but hopefully 30 grand or more yeah good yeah that's good ruth's freed up 30 000 pounds a year which will help pay for the restoration she wants elmore to compete with the cotsworld's top hotels so she's brought in ilsa crawford the designer behind the stylish soho house in london and babington house in somerset to offer a professional's view i think these houses need to be houses and lived in you know the awful thing is when they become offices or institutionalized in a way i mean then they just die because a house like this would have had you know probably hundreds of people living in it it just needs that energy yeah and i think as well they were designed to evolve that's the whole point of them you know you've got to make a house lived in and warm and somewhere that people are just incredibly happy to be clearly elmore has great potential but it will take months of work and many thousands of pounds to transform it into a stylish cookery school [Music] so this is the obviously the hall do you see this still being the scenario which would be very much dominated by the portraits or not it would be sad to lose them i think because i think that's the identity of the room but it's how to in some way make it an ongoing story so that it feels more continuous [Music] before anselm embarks on such a massive commitment ruth has to know that he's up to the job she wants him to do a trial run of the cookery school in two months time i want you to get six or eight people down here to spend a 24-hour period going through the motions if you like but just to give you some feeling of what it's like to have people in the house what their expectation is of you of the facilities what they want out of it and you can use them for feedback yeah i mean i think it you know i don't want to embark on this whole thing without having actually no i mean i think it just gives you a flavor you will need to dedicate your life for a certain period of time to doing this in a sort of structured way and you have lived your life in a fairly unstructured way and this is going to be a huge culture change for you it really is there's a seriousness to it yeah there uh that's uh yeah no i realize that but you're up for it but i'm up for it [Music] anselm heeds ruth's call to arms and takes his clutter to auction if it goes well it'll give him immediate cash flow with which to start the refurbishment that's in the kind of passageway as you come in through the side entrance and um i think it's made a huge difference because it's just kind of open up space but my mum came in and was like what have you done 12.50 on midnight a 1250 it's your bed in the room and selma has 120 lots under the hammer at 12.50 okay 12.50 this is kind of slightly nerve-racking anyone else including a 19th century bookcase which makes six times its estimate three two seven here you've got a sewing box 600 700 800 900 1 1100 1200 the small and uniquely beautiful sewing box has sparked a bidding war 1700 1800 and is sailing way above its 500 pound estimate 1900 in the room anyone else two thousand three thousand three thousand five hundred four thousand four thousand pounds on the telephone at four thousand anyone else four thousand four thousand going going going i got four thousand quid and it's supposed to get 500 600 so that was that was really good we got um just shy of 26 000 quid so um yeah it's cool there's a few things that did really really well there's a few things that weren't solved there's a few things that did really badly but on the whole yeah results [Music] anselm's next stop is cork in ireland the auction has given him the cash and confidence to push ahead with the trial but he hasn't even been to a cookery school let alone run one in preparation he's come to bali malou where celebrated chef darina allen runs her world-famous cookery courses using produce from the school's organic farm [Music] anselm's sister-in-law kate is going to run the elmore trial so she's joined him at ballymalou i'm making short cross pastry for a normandy pear tart so let's have the egg yolk in there the egg white in there get out of there the students do everything from scratch they go out with the gardeners to bring in the produce in the morning on a router base that's really important because that actually you know it gets them in touch with how things grow and really thinking quality and so on this place is incredible i just i just think if you spent a lot of time here it'd be it'd be so good for your soul there's no waste it's all holistic the hot local area is being used it's all fresh it's organic and you know that's really what i wanted to elmo look at that my first pet art this trip to ireland and the auction have sparked an anselm a genuine passion for the cookery school but will it translate into a successful trial when ruth returns to elmore you're a greedy little boy as well as everything else that's my second mouthful [Music] on my first visit to elmore i found a young man who was almost traumatized by the weight of his ancestry and then on my second visit i found a young man who was frankly behaving in quite a cocky fashion and living in what seemed to be more like a hippie commune on this my last visit i'm hoping to find a young man who's grown up a bit and who's actually put in some work and has set up a cookery school trial and if he's done that that's going to be very good [Music] news the kitchens of elmore are once again alive with activity as the cookery school staff prepare food for the big day including vegetables grown by anselm's friends in the revived kitchen garden [Music] grace hello hello hello you know there's an indefinable but very significant change about this because it used to feel like a sort of antiques repository and now it feels like a house it actually doesn't feel like a mausoleum anymore there's something definitely animated here well there's a go there's a lot of life and activity going on here so um i don't know maybe it's just you can feel the vibe of the place how much better does this look without that in it yeah i know it's um it's made all the difference and that big monolith has got yes somebody else has now got it yes gosh change your pace in the old kitchens an even greater transformation has taken place this is it this is what we've done oh my god well this isn't like old christmas decorations isn't it it certainly isn't no what a change i even like the roof or being like that this is amazing we haven't sorted but the rest of it is um this is amazing it's proper isn't it and well it's just you know we knew it was going to be a wonderful space and it is and how much you've been able to put in and it still looks airy and spacious and i really like the whole mix of sort of rustic and look at this fruit i mean it just looks so beautiful these fresh belotti beans and what about the students the students arriving in just under an hour and we've got eight of them right we've got a mixed bag and it was it was really easy to find them yeah and um so uh i'm slightly nervous about them arriving because that's there's a whole sort of it's not just about the cookery school it's about them coming to yes now and using them i guess this is the house so there's been a there's been a lot of preparation for them but i mean that side i mean i'm sort of treating it as if you know as if they're coming as my guests to stay in this house well done staff people again good very good yeah so since the uh telling off at the yeah yes [Music] the bedrooms will be refurbished before an official opening but for now it's just homely touches we've got fruits and water and clean towels for our guests i haven't done a huge amount well there's not a great deal you can do no but i mean that's a nice gesture isn't it you're acknowledging that you have got guests in the house which is wrong we've got flowers more flowers in the garden yeah that's nice that nice that's offset some of the heaviness of the room it's uh yeah lovely and so how many rooms are being occupied um seven rooms yeah and you're cool about the whole notion of people being in yeah i love having a house full of people so it's good the the obvious thing you know really is that you haven't had to spend any money on putting people in these rooms apart from pick a few flowers and some bananas yeah um and yet you were going to spend all that money on doing the stable block up so if this does work i mean the investment is so much it's going to make a huge difference the students are arriving um welcome this is it elmore is open to guests elizabethan stairs which are 16th century for the first time in its 750 year history i like the backbone of the house really and william you're in this room here [Music] i was living in a bungalow in just here nails worth oh wow oh no this won't do at all lance i want another one please ready well i've got plenty of others this this is a particularly good one though i'd say this is uh for anselm it's a test not just at the cookery school but also of his ability to be master that's amazing and host in his own home to these strangers and cookery fans been written by ella guys and dates back to 1903 the students are all cookery buffs found by kate it was in here oh it was in here yeah there's a whole load of stuff in this room and this is a kind of scrap yard and we found it in amongst all the stuff and the first recipe is a family one i just was looking through thinking wouldn't it be just lovely to to do a recipe from her book and i was really thrilled when i saw potted pea soup and um i've just modernized it a tiny bit because we're going to serve it with some poached quails eggs we've potted loads of peas she wouldn't have used garlic i'll tell you that it fell out of favor in that kind of victorian sort of very proper time and i'd probably because of garlicky breath whereas we're going for it yeah no absolutely but you said at the beginning kate modern twist on it [Music] we've got some beautiful blackberries that were just picked from the bushes does anybody want to put them into their this is all really encouraging the students seem to be really enjoying themselves pop a lid on it and let it simmer very slowly for 20 minutes okay and there's a real sense of purpose and energy about this building i think this is looking very good it's late anselm takes his place at the head of the table that she's been here since the norman conquest and plays host to his students he he's he squandered some there was because there were actually five estates and he squandered four of them [Music] but the um topic is who will inherit after answer you better get sirene children quickly well yeah i'm you know i'm doing my best but would uncle john approve of his heirs use of elmo so john who died last year that that's that's him as a as a seven-year-old although it appears to have been a success one day won't save elmore does ruth think anselm is in it for the long haul i have to say i think you could fritter the whole thing away it's day two of the cookery school trial at elmore court part of a money-making plan to secure the future of the cotswolds estate owned by dj anselm guys last night the students stayed over at elmore businesswoman ruth watson wants to know how anselm felt about sharing his ancestral home with strangers hello and son hi ruth you're doing more household duties i love it good to see a man working especially i put my my silver surface apron on whatever it's called so how did last night go it was uh it was very good everyone had a great time yeah did you have a great day i had a good time yeah it was fantastic actually um i loved it it was uh i mean i got out this morning to find two empty bottles of whiskey so it was it was uh i think it only a very good time it was a very good time and you're obviously setting up for lunch yeah so are we all eating uh we are all eating everyone mom and dad are going to join us fantastic um hopefully you're going to join us yes please and we've got gazpacho and then we've got some salmon that dad caught with as is cookery school tradition the students will also be eating what they make for lunch wonderful look at that beautiful wild salmon this was gutted um by anselm's mother lady guys and um this morning antsy was running his fingers along here and pin boning it just just about 10 minutes ago i think it's so nice you've got this kind of little hubbub of stuff going on and clinking glasses and people chatting and stuff and it's really nice so the apprehensions have been i'm i'm enjoying being host lunch and sir jamie's salmon is served i got it on the nave right up in the north of scotland we put most of them back but this was the unlucky one and i hope you're all enjoying it it took me 10 minutes to catch and it's going to take about five minutes to eat could i just um say jamie excuse me could you just stop talking please could i just please raise your toes to kate who's done the most fantastic job in the school and i know the students i love it yes and anthem has really enjoyed having this whole thing being here so i think a huge success so i think glassy should be raised [Applause] and so all these guys who are looking down on the wall will be delighted to think we were doing something which is going to keep the house together and we all hope it works i'm sure it will with the cookery school a success all ansel needs is a successor and if i can embarrass anson hugely as if i would what about an air [Laughter] host who's an absolute charming man and he's taken to the cooking school like a duck to water as they say i think it's the way to go with a house like this so many family houses have to be sold now so many have been sold um and and so you don't have a sense of that history at all anymore and this place is still full of paintings wonderful artifacts um and in order to pay for that to make it pay for itself you have to compromise and and live in today's world well listen thank you all so much for coming it's been brilliant having you here the trial is over by going ahead with the cookery school elmore could generate 500 000 pounds in annual turnout financially it's a success story but in the six months since ruth arrived has dj anselm finally become lord of the manor you've been here for just over a year now how do you feel about living here i love it whereas before it was like um you know i you know i love it here i feel i feel i feel comfortable and at home here so it's good it's just as well as it is in terms of what we've done my concern is how dedicated you will be to actually driving it on um i i think it's going to be great and i've got no no doubt in my mind at all that i will do it and i'll do it well and it will be a fantastic place i think you can have a great time here i think elmo could be a huge success story and you as its master could could be absolutely wonderful i have to say i think you could fritter the whole thing away i don't think you will but i think you could absolutely i could yeah no take me out and that's right the point is you've got to have an aware of awareness the fact that that's something that you could one could as long as you said of course the last thing i want is for good old uncle john to be turning in his grave and saying i told you so yeah i yeah i wouldn't like that either but i'm doing the best i can and i'm not showing it off and i'm not being a you know a dick with it and to be honest i'm sharing it the thing is there's no money so that's um that's made a big difference just a sucking great house just a fantastic lovely house [Music] you

Channel: Abode

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Id: BHzZhwwgJ7Q

Length: 143min 17sec (8597 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 07 2022