Restoring Abandoned 1800s Victorian Gothic Manor | Woodchester Mansion | American Viscountess

this is strange I'm at an abandoned Victorian Gothic mansion I know that it is listed grade one listed but I can't wait to find out the story of why this was never lived in [Music] welcome to a new episode of American VI Counce each historic house I visit has its own unique atmosphere and story to share but wichester mansion in gler has to be the most unusual and unexpected I've experienced so far the house is nestled in a secluded Valley in the heart of the cotwolds and it's managed by the Woodchester Mansion trust which cares for the building conserving it for the future but oh my goodness it was unbelievable when I stepped inside to meet operations manager Max Raven hello hello oh oh gosh hi Max I'm Julie lovely to meet you Julie nice to meet you nice to meet you oh my goodness I've just arrived this was not what I was expecting it's a bit different it's very different as I was walking in I saw all the scaffolding which makes one think oh this enormous Mansion is you know under a huge renovation project but that's not the case is it not quite there's a lot of work to be done but it will never be finished oh that's interesting it is let me show you okay okay great intrigued I certainly was as we made our way around the interior witcher's story began to unfold so this oh my goodness is sort of a good example of the things we're dealing with I mean this doesn't even seem like a mansion it doesn't feel like a house where am I right now well you're in the chapel inside the Mansion so the aim of the house was to have it as a home but also a place of worship oh so you've got this sort of monastic Gothic yes uh throughout the building um but they really wanted to incorporate nature into the design so the lovely voltage ceiling above us has a huge number of bosses on it we have two green men we have one that represents the family pets and then all the others are plants that grow that would have grown on the estate so there's some lovely fine details um it's rather creative of the family to think of it that way to sort of bring nature and especially into their Chapel their place of worship the glass for example that's in the window is tinted green because that was supposed to give the effect of dappled light coming through tree leavs so who built this or commissioned it I should say so uh the person who commissioned it and had it built was William Lee right uh he inherited a lot of money from his father who um passed away when he was about 13 but we're talking multiple Euro Millions lottery win but he wanted to set up a Catholic Community uh in the area so he spent lots of money um building uh things like a monastery uh churches and really setting up everything and this was going to be the big sort of family home the big final project right so he'd done all these projects using the money that he inherited yes and then this was the last piece of the puzzle definitely he didn't inherit the business sense from his father um he was very much a perfectionist and would overspend uh we've got letters from pugin who did the original designs for the house um who basically said you what you want can't be done for the money right so he found another architect and so F said I'm not going to involve myself in this yeah although we do have the drawings and it's uh very beautiful and you can see where elements of his designs have been worked in with others so we are incredibly lucky here as we have all the original architect drawings um and they have been invaluable to preserve and also to Envision what would be there if it was ever to be completed yes oh my goodness this is absolutely Sensational but this is just one part so this was the the chapel yes so it would have been the heart of the home it's also currently our most expensive headache oh well I can see the scaffolding yes surrounding me everywhere the scaffolding is effectively holding the space in stasis the building was abandoned for about 20 years before the charity was set up and during that time um there's a lot of water and frost damage to the building so there's two buttresses either side of us here uh which has caused real structural issues to the building so what you saw outside that big over roof not stopping any more of that happening these are basically holding it in place until we can raise the multiple millions of pounds that we need to to fix all this to fix all this oh my goodness all around the building there are Clues as to how the Mansion might have looked if it had been completed it's as if the builders had put down their tools and completely [Music] disappeared as we go past here this rather unassuming block yep on this side here you can see the original pencil lines that were put in by the Mason for what this would have been been carved into so if you can sort of make out the shape of it would have been either a cat or sort of chimera esque creature it gives you an idea of they were still thinking they were going to finish this when work stopped right right so if you follow me I'll show you some of the other things that there were just so close to being finished so this area here is the grand Corridor it uh again it really sort of has that Cathedral esque impact this is gives you an idea of what it should goodness what so this was all done this was all done this this was a later bit of work done by the grandchildren by the grandchildren wow so there was a plan to uh eventually give the house to the church as they already had a large home and didn't have any need for this as they described it this big white elephant in the middle of nowhere right um so they finished this one room um and there were a few things where they rushed to complete it and they've made a few errors which we now know are a bit of a nightmare so if you've got any understanding of conservation certainly with um Limestone you wouldn't use cement oh I mean I I know that so cement's awful can't breathe doesn't work with the environment it's horrific exactly when they were doing this that was the new Wonder material of course it was I knew you were going to tell me that yeah it's it's it's a so they were patching in places with sem even worse it's the power of hindsight so if you were to look at say one of these side columns you can see nice white mortar joints that go up yes you get to this voltage ceiling and they're all gray I see them it's all cement yes oh my goodness um and the carving although beautiful is nowhere near the level of the carving in the chapel so this was done on a budget right when he started this project William what year was that roughly this area was uh done for 1894 okay um which is when uh they had a visit from high up in the church with the aim to try and give it to them but um that gives you an idea what the house should be like right right this is what it is like oh my I I keep saying oh my goodness cuz I really can't find any other words right now it's a bizarre space but incredibly [Music] beautiful so the little roof that's in the corner over here yes that's Victorian health and safety oh wait that's so so just over the little corner Springer Stone um that's in case someone drops a chisel or a piece of Stone from up above this room here then I as I see doorways and fireplaces dotted around clearly there was meant to be floors here is that right yeah so um if you were to sort of superimpose the uh ceiling that we saw in the drawing room the room you just came out of into here you get the idea there will be a voltage ceiling here this would have been the Library so you can see the in certain places where the voltage ceiling would terminate in these sort of cylinders yes there would have been uh beautifully carved bookcases that would have gone up to there uh so this would have been a beautiful beautiful Library yes um up above that probably bedrooms family room bedroom um and then the floor above with the smaller fireplaces would have been either guest bedrooms children's bedrooms but uh it's you can really see how it's all put together and they had he had completed the roof right he had completed the roof so the the roof was on um it was very much a Mary Celeste uh type situation when uh wichester man trust was first set up so there were tools left all around uh if we go through next door you can see one or two things that were left behind um so if we look up again you've got this arch for yes so what room again we're missing floors but what room was this supposed to be this would have been the family dining room right so um you think nice big table um you've got this big sort of space here and we think that may have been for like a large cabinet or a massive piece of furniture but it seems like a a strange use of space if that makes sense yes but um all the other bits you see in here so this set Square which is enormous next to you there yes this massive ladder it's a little bit too big to make sure your your balls are level and by by the time you use that and check it if something's wrong you're going to have a few grumbling ma Masons incredible look at that there's some lovely things you can see in here that you don't get to see anywhere else just because at the time it would have just been thrown away it would have had no intrinsic value so if we look directly above us you can see for lack of a better phrase trees that are basically sticking out of the walls yes running across these are well this is Victorian scaffolding um so so these other sort of pockets in the wall is where that exactly tree exactly AKA scaffolding would have um would have hung if you like yes so those holes are actually called put log holes okay so you literally put log in hole and you've got your scaffold uh that would have then been filled in with uh either you carved stone or brick or whatever was appropriate um but you can probably see a good example behind us is where they've used brick in place of stone so your red brick which would have been made on SES um is far more heat proof than this uh othic Limestone which the building is made out of so they've used that to line all the chimney breasts it's also a bit lighter so in certain places where there's like a dividing wall they'd use that to reduce the amount of weight that's coming in so incredible this room describes it really well how well an arch works with that Central Point sending the weight down onto these buttresses which continue out with the Gargoyles out on the South Side wonderful isn't this the most astonishing house as we moved through the rooms Max explained how the use of the building had changed throughout the 20th century so it was used by the American Military the homeg guard uh training for D-Day Landings no so the whole park was um Americanized is there were we've got some lovely pictures of uh a big military encampment on the fields outside the front I can't believe you've had Americans here well yes it was a feel it's probably probably would have been a little bit warmer then they had um various heaters in places but the the whole estate um because it's so remote and so easily locked off was a perfect training ground right so um we know that they were training for the D-Day Landings here building pontoon bridges on the five lakes that go further down the valley um oh my goodness they've left a few of their marks on the building so there's uh name of an American Soldier on the confessional Booth they even used the clock tower as a target practice oh my goodness so we only discovered that in 2003 when we came to do the repairs there's a few extra holes right in addition to the numbers oh dear um if I take you in here this is the my favorite room in the whole building and it's mental for all the right reasons this is a bathtub yes yes not the most practical uh one solid piece of stone uh complete with gargoyle bath Taps what these were all been controlled by your uh servant the other side of that wall there's a little um space it's about wide enough to put your arm through to turn the Taps so but there wasn't modern they weren't planning any modern plumbing here there is space for for modern plumbing in places they were they were thinking about it so there's actually an example you can probably see there yes in various walls there were little risers so you would have had space for water pipes gas pipes so the water would come out how though cuz you mentioned this is like a what is this cubicle here so cubicle you would have had the pipes there and it would have been like a turn tap there so the servant could be the other side of the wall there's a it's now our um stationary covered okay but you would have had your servant there and they could turn the Taps you would have had hot or cold running into your bathtub there so You' never have to get out you wouldn't have to be being awkward and trying to get around the corner right but um you'd have your nice warm bath oh my goodness if we go through here so you've had your nice hot bath but you have a cold shower afterwards but oh so um gargoyles again the victorians love gargoyles don't they they get everywhere they are a nightmare with Pest Control um so in this space you've got these two gargo heads so unlike the bath where you've got a hot and a cold one of these the small little guy at the front would have been your por chain right and the big one would have dumped cold water on your head no so refreshing in the sum I see so that so it's not hot and cold I see what you're saying so this is the pull chain the small and when you pull it the big one dumps the cold water yes so this would have basic been a Victorian wet room which is quite A New Concept for the time it was being built so yes they they were thinking of incorporating new technologies um so it's it's a unique again unique place and can I just ask Max was there only one bathroom completed because of course in these old houses anyway you'd usually only have one bath there was uh there is one bathroom um but there are two toilets um that are doed in different areas so the ladies one is on the first floor okay and the gentleman's one is on the ground floor uh by what would have been the Billard room it was finished so they they're spaced out right right but this was the only place to get your this was the only place where the the uh the family could could wash themselves right [Music] right next we headed down to the old kitchen which was used during the early 20th century by the grandchildren of William Lee but there are also Clues this room saw life before the Mansion was built yeah I can see here this these flagstones so it's different from anything I've seen around so far yes so um this shows a little bit of History that's pre- Woodchester Mansion so the site has been reused and reused these come from a georgean manor house which was pre-existing when Woodchester Mansion uh well when William Lee bought and commissioned wood Chester mansion right so the kitchen and scullery are in exactly the same places if you overlay the floor plans so you've got good so much more so many more years of wear here right and if you were to in your mind's eye see where the wear is running so from where about where I am yeah running out around you then out through the skullery you can see where the main path would have been so of course so if you were in the georan Mansion you would be effectively standing on the kitchen table ah so that's the the space there but it's a incredible okay so the grandchildren of William Lee tried to revive it at some point they had various approaches so uh some of them wanted to try and do something with it there is a story that uh one of the grand children was engaged to a young lady and said I have this lovely manor house uh out in the middle of nowhere they came and visited and the engagement was called off quite quickly understandably but yeah it's it's a it's a lovely place to to work and live so okay I'm going to catch you on that last round to live yes so you live here I do no yes what where where do you live I'm lucky enough to have a flat underneath the belfrey so I I live there with my partner and our old English sheep dog no it's it's a lovely Place really yes so do you have heat some it's really cold in here some it it's probably the one warm area of the building but um even then it's uh it's a bit more bit more chilly than the because you really are the caretaker of this place yes am among everything else we're we're a very small charity uh part of the historic houses Association but um there's there's two members of staff and I'm the one full-time one right that's unbelievable so you live here and what is it like I mean is it I mean I you've got lots of visitors coming so do you ever get a little bit of peace and quiet uh the time we got the most peace and quiet was during lockdown um you know while it wasn't good for takings I really enjoyed having the the sort of place to myself this is the million-dollar question maybe not but um because I don't even think that a million dollars would even dent a hole in this place for the amount of repairs that are needed but but but let's say I came in and I have just Oodles of cash and I said to who whoever I actually want to make this into a home I've got the structure here walls you know ceiling you know and now I want to make it into a family home would that be possible the answer would be no uh that's for a few different reasons the house itself is grade one listed right and so it's of exceptional historical value exactly uh we're also a tri SII which stands for site of special scientific interest so effectively in layman's terms we can't sneeze without getting planning permission so the site is both important for its historical value but also for its importance to to Nature and the environment around it ah so the answer is no everybody if you wondering you cannot buy this house and renovate it probably be better to go for like a church or something like that you might actually have it' probably be cheaper you got about5 Million worth of repair works just to get it to wear the stonem Mason's down tools wow I mean honestly not what I was expecting at all um but it was absolutely brilliant and I do just want to mention you know you mentioned historic houses and wichester Mansion is a part of historic houses we are and that really helps us with grants with understandings with advice in order to make sure that these these houses and even this one of course that is now really grade one listed trip SII and people come in and do conservation works and they can learn here that they um are protected for the future definitely and that's that's one of the whole aims between historic houses and why we enjoy these beautiful places that we're lucky enough to live in and work in yes thank you Max it was a real pleasure what a treat this time on American VI Countess I'm visiting the beautiful Elmore Court in glasure and there is an exciting new project happening here which is all about getting closer to [Music] Nature hello everybody and lovely to see you again thank you so much for joining me here in the drawing room at maon for another fascinating historic house visit Elmore court is a glorious 16th century historic house on the edge of the cotwolds but this site has been home to the guys family since the 13th century anom guys has a very old vision for elmore's future and is opening the house and estate to visitors in a completely inspiring way Elmore is literally going back to its roots or dare I say going [Music] wild hello how are you very very well nice to see you nice to see you wow beautiful day thank you for for making sure that the weather was we try Okay brilliant but is there a big party going on here well we do we do weddings so uh we've got a wedding tomorrow they're arriving later today so uh yeah it's quite it's set up quite a big one okay but it's not Saturday no we do we do weddings Thursdays Fridays Saturdays most Sundays all they Mondays yeah okay so I'm trying to do the maths here and some so that is so it's a lot how many a year is that we do like 160 oh my goodness 160 weddings a year we do so every every weekend we're we're flat out so oh my gosh but that is incredible yeah it's going really well and and people love it I mean this house was built for partying so so this is sort of the where they get married they walk down here yeah so so I mean where we've just come in they generally speaking The wedding will happen here the ceremony will happen here and then people will move out into the kind of reception rooms a drawing room out into the law and we've got a purpose-built bunker made out of mud it's completely soundproof at the back of the house where the party the the dinner and dancing happens so that's kind of like our Marquee it's completely sustainably built and it's and people stay in the house and we've got yeah so we've got 16 bedrooms so uh and then we've got another we've got a Coach House okay I've just spotted some heraldry cod of arms I'm slightly obsessed I have probably a weird obsession with these but I I did when I was walking up I was looking to see if I see the three monsu loers I always look for that to see if we're related we're not related yeah sadly I mean they yeah not related um I mean you know these things do happen actually weirdly but um the see as people get married here is quite nice because those are all families that we've married um the guyses have married um over time so you know so anel tell me how long your family has been here we got given the land in 1262 by Henry theii so goodness so I'm just going to do a little bit of maths here so that's 800 yeah it's getting there getting there to the house isn't the house the oldest part of the house is actually where we are now which dates back to about 1580 but the sellers date back to them incredible hole in the ground but obviously in those days you you didn't unless you were building a castle or you the church nothing got built up Stone really right right so um but we I've got the actual um seal that we were given by Henry the thir um we had to pay one clove of Gilli flow to the crown U which is over here on the wall this is it this is it yeah what yeah that is original Grant of the manner of Elmore by John the son of Hubert deberg out of Kent Grand justi of England in the reign of H Henry thir Henry thir anel the GU M right yes I'm really old you you're that's right you are really old old so anel then is obviously a family name it's a family yes there lots of anels right down yeah and so we yeah so we've got this yeah we got this amazing family tree that goes back all the way so where are we now then in the house so this is this is the drawing room um and um and you know and actually this is a great so when we have events this is where people come back after the ghilly flow which is we named after the rent that we paid which is the event space um they come back in here and this is kind of so there quite a lot of fun happens here it's 2 in the morning beautiful we've got a bar at the end can I go check out that bar yeah you should crack it open oh my goodness and also just is all this original yeah this is all original yeah we' obviously this this isn't original we I mean would be great wouldn't it um but yeah so beautiful carvings all around just absolutely fantastic beautiful okay so just really quickly so I can get my head around so I know land was granted by Henry III and then who built the house which one of your ancestors well it's it's it's not an easy okay one to answer that because it was done it's architecturally it's it's quite unusual because there's lots of bits that were kind of added and subtracted so like there's not one person really um the person who did the most is actually my was was in the 18th century which we know about was say William vingard my great great grandfather okay and of course I've built loads too right you know you built this bar I built this bar importantly and then the ghilly flow and so uh yeah and you're building tree hous building tree houses yeah so fantastic so I'd love to go check about that yeah I mean it's it's that's kind of I mean funny enough i' i' was try I'm really into sustainability and trying to do something different with the environment so um when I first inherited I couldn't all the lamb was in tenant farm with in tencies I couldn't do anything with that and I need to make some money because there's loads of inheritance tax and the house is falling down so the only thing I could really sweat if you like was this house um but since then that was 10 years ago um land has come back in hand right and I'm doing a reing project and we're doing load regenerative agriculture yeah which is kind of different to this and I wanted to have an interface where our guests the hospitality side could kind of interface with the natural side of what we're doing so we've built a l tree houses which just finished now which is really exciting so I can go see them we can go and see them yeah let's go see them okay brilliant brilliant [Music] brilliant AMOM has built six tree houses for guests to stay and experience being in nature and when I visited the finishing touches were being made before the big opening [Music] day now I'm hearing some noise in the background so is that the Treehouse noise yeah so we're yes so we're very very very close to finishing it's all a bit stressful right now because this weekend we've got our first reviewers coming so so it's kind of got to be ready for Saturday literally 5 days ago this was a felt like a building site now it's something like oh proper Road I mean you know the grass is growing really quickly F thank God fantastic everything beginning to look so when people arrive are they they're parking their cars yeah so so each Treehouse has got its own Boardwalk so this is this is um the boardwalk to what we've called sky and this is accessible so it's it's wheelchair accessible and we've got space for two car cars right and we've got electric car charging points for every single one yeah oh my gosh I can come here bring my electric car my e d yeah yeah exactly and then uh and then so this is this one's called kite um and we've got two parking space for this and amazing Dave who's doing the this is incredible wow and then we they you have your own walkway I mean these these have been like so stressful getting right because it's actually really hard to do this without causing any harm to the Woodland and without putting any holes in the ground so they're all um they like concrete little feet oh yes yes I can see yeah difficult yes but lovely it's really cool and we've got this amazing lighting so the night it sort of glows and it's yeah I feel like I'm literally walking into Costa Rica here everybody that's that's the intention okay great so I nailed it didn't I it is it's you know I no but I really do like this is incredible yeah I'm actually astounded right now really I am I I honestly do not feel that I'm in England these trees are white though these are laurels so these are kind of not really indigenous but actually they're quite evocative and you know I love them and they're lovely and and the other things are evergreen so it's going to be like this all year round so um so here we are oh my goodness this is incredible so we've got the housekeeping team are in here at the moment okay okay I don't really have any words right now you know as we know like glamping has been like super big in England lots of people glamping but I've never come across these tree houses before so this is I mean I'm absolutely astonished in what I'm seeing but what made you decide to do tree houses in the first place um I I just love Tre I mean you know I was like I spent so much time in my childhood like clambering around in trees so it's just like it's just one of those things and I've always been in some of these bought kind of Treehouse books like cabin porn or whatever it is and sort of that kind of cabiny thing and and and also I've got you know I love festivals and I love glamping but I kind of that's been I feel a bit done yes I agree and when I was thinking right I need to have I want to have somewhere that people can stay and they can look out of the over the land it was just a complete no-brainer this view is first of all is Sensational glamping you you are kind of you're zipped in yeah you're in there you're zipped in there's not really Windows no no EXA this this is a house this is a house in a up in the trees I mean it's not really I mean really strictly speaking we haven't built it round a tree it's it's it's a building on on stilts you know but I mean you know it's it's and the way it's built into ground is that it's got screw P piles there's no foundation so we've caused very little damage to the actual environment it's in so it's very sensitive we built it with really sustainable materials we tried to get everything that we can it's not being possible to do that completely but I kind of wanted to be that so the kitchens outside so you have to kind of engage with the elements a bit we're kind of forcing people to yes even though there is an oven a little mini kitchenette in the kind of indoor bit okay um so we want people to kind of even in the winter put a jumper on and get the fire going right yes you know blank it up and you know and get get get invol experence and be in nature and be outside and not cuddled away fluffy towel though there is a fluffy towel so it's it's and a fluffy bed and and and there are some of course it's it's comfortable it's comfortable so you know it's it's it's I love I just love and I love Contra I love contrast I love you know because these are quite the way we've designed it it's quite clean lines quite Scandinavian yes yes it is and it's quite contrast against the kind of you know organic explosion of what's happening around it so it's beautiful and then also I love that the bath is there because you can have sort of this beautiful um bird song surrounding you while you're running a hot bath I mean if it were me it' be a cold bath but just listening to the bird song breathing in yeah and being being out here and with this View and with this View and we've you know we've done a wetland scrape and we're hoping that the abundance of not you know the birds and the bees and all the rest of it will just be more and more of a cacophony over time as what's happening out on the land well yes yes well of course and that's part of your reing project because we know that you know with the reing project Comes This increase in biodiversity which means an increase in bird song in bees in in vertebra and all of that oh my goodness this is wonderful can I just go back to the beginning here how long has this project taken to get off the ground this tree The Treehouse is in particular um we I started when we when I kind of decided I'm going to go for it was in 2020 right and that was because of the pandemic I've been thinking about it was like I've got to get on with it it was kind of like an idea but right so dur and and that was cuz the wedding business was so badly hit by the pandemic I was like I need more strings to my bow and also what we're doing with the land I just want to get on with it because I kind of felt like the pandemic was us meddling with nature and what happens you know blah blah blah so it's been from actual decision it's been like three and three yeah incredible listen anom I'm just going to sort of take this all in I mean this is what you want people to do right yeah just be quiet be still just be quiet and be still [Music] yeah and the view from the tree houses looks out onto a landscape which ansom is in the process of giving Back To Nature the rewinding is down here Beyond this Woodland ah and the land out that way and the river Seven's about 5 600 met that way oh my goodness wow wraps around the estate and I didn't know it was that close fantastic really really close yeah and we just I mean this land out here was historically was had been very heavily drained right um to try and make agriculture land so what we've done is we've been breaking the land drains and allowing and letting the land hold hold the water so this bit we're kind of returning it back to um you know what it used to be which was Wetlands which Wetlands exactly you know and Elmore is called Elmore we think because it's eel more more of eels because back in the day there would have been cuz eels I didn't realize this until quite recently they made up more of our diet than all other fish combined in the medieval times oh my goodness so this would have been like a hive of activity in yes so and of course eel the eel story is amazing as well because what we're doing here is by improving eel populations because of the fact they go to the saraso Sea we're impacting on the biodiversity that's happening in the Caribbean Sea which is so this's this kind of amazing is incredible this exciting link between you know doing thing one thing here can have an effect on something and something else the world you know how brilliant so it's excit it's exciting to kind of you stop pulling these levers and you start realizing yes the impact you're having well and exactly and I think I think for many people I mean I know I was in the same boat before we started our reing project um properly that people think of reing as just sort of letting nature go and that's it and I get that but also there's the wetlands I mean we have done stuff I me out here we've done Wetland scrapes yeah um and we broke all the land drains like I said so the L the water doesn't run away and then by putting a scrape it kind of Auto M you get these ponds and that's bringing in already loads of bird life so we're doing that there and then sort of over this way which is is slightly less low-lying the idea is to allow that to become a semi scrubby 20% Woodland cover thing over really long period of time okay okay um and uh and that's kind of over that way and then we've got a herd of Longhorn here already right so you and when did you bring in your Longhorn we they arrived quite recently so it was September 21 okay so a year and a half ago and we've had one lot of babies from them fantastic and we're just about they're carving now as well so round two it's happened and then when when I can afford it we'll fence it and we've going to have you know Pigs and the paries are you doing xmore ponies yeah so we've just we just got our xmore ponies and those yeah fantastic and so exciting and I think it's really worth explaining this for you know everybody who's kind of watching this who doesn't know so much how these these animals in particular work together first of all like to bring back some native species if you like but the cattle are you know they're brilliant at grazing and they're clever grazers and then you bring in the ponies and they're fantastic at browsing and then you bring in the pigs and they're brilliant at the rudling and they all kind of work together to capture card I mean the the big one really I mean for I I really can't wait for the pigs because we've because this has been kind of grze land so it's it's got a strong grassy sword and what we want is other plants to kind of start growing out in these fields but because if a seed lands on the grass it just hasn't got a chance right bringing a pig it will just kind of hammer the ground plow it up essenti reveal the soil and then other plants can start getting in so that's way that way you start getting a diversity away from just grass right and that's what we want and biodiversity and the more I look into it the more I realize that it's it's diversity that is the healthy thing it's like having lots of different species in is the thing that's magic and it's the same in your like your gut or you know like everything is variety is is key is key and and and it's also it's the variety of the biodiversity but also it's the abundance of it so that that they continue to thrive and you're every year you when you're tracking them you're getting you know you can track that you have 100% more moths this year 300% more butterflies you know but even it's the inverte and the sort of ground and what's happening in the mic in the soil it's just everything it's just and it's kind of magic it is Magic happens all on its own and you just and what we need to do and this is I think the biggest thing is to stop interfering it's so easy to kind of kind of go this is happening I wonder if I oh no no no don't if I tinker this if I tinker it'll start but actually the thing is to not you know things and as it finds its feet and rebalances some things are going to go completely wild and you'll suddenly go oh my God it's turning into a kind of thistle hell but actually if you let it go then you'll find plants animals that will come in that will feed on thistles and they'll rebalance that kind of thing so it's that yeah and it's it's it's trusting nature and it's trusting the universe and it's with you know it's and it's us as humans we have this ability to want to control everything and nature can't help ourselves right exactly it's like and it's you know land is not there's I one of the local farmers is talking to me about it and he is like he like couldn't understand that I would not be producing food from the land he like land is for producing food and I was like no it's not no who gives us this divine right to kind of like you know sort of take what we want from it it's it's for all beating Hearts that's right you know and it's we are obviously part of that not saying we shouldn't feed ourselves but it's not at the exclusion of everything else and this is it we're walking on it it was absolutely fascinating talking to anom about his reing plans and to see those amazing tree houses what an incredible place so thank you so much for joining me and I look forward to seeing you back here for another historic house visit but until then enjoy getting out into the landscape wherever you are and however you can bye [Music] everybody

Channel: Abode

Views: 7,569

Keywords: Abode, American Viscountess, American Viscountess series, Victorian Gothic history, Victorian era history, Woodchester Mansion history, Woodchester Mansion tour, abandoned mansion mysteries, beautiful gothic mansion, eerie mansion exploration, eerie mansion tour, gothic architecture details, hidden mansion secrets, historic building secrets, historic home renovation, mansion abandonment reasons, mansion renovation tips, mansion restoration project, mysterious house exploration

Id: OyJJ_a5m3m4

Length: 42min 10sec (2530 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 19 2024