WHY was this Victorian Gothic MANSION ABANDONED??? Woodchester Mansion

[Music] foreign this is strange I'm at an abandoned Victorian Gothic mansion I know that it is listed grade when 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 Countess each historic house I visit has its own unique atmosphere and story to share but which Hester mansion in gloucestershire 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 Cotswolds 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 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 Winchester'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 it's a 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 piece 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 leaves so or commissioned it I should say so uh the person who commissioned it and had it built was William Lee right he inherited a lot of money from his father who 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 building things like a monastery 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 um like I say didn't inherit the business sense from his father um he was very much a perfectionist and would overspend we've got letters from Puget who did the original designs for the house um who basically said you know what you want can't be done for the money right so he found another architect and so Fusion said I'm not going to involve myself in this yeah although we do have the drawings and it's a very beautiful 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 right 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 there's a lot of water and frost damage to the building so there's two buttresses either side of us here which has caused real structural issues to the building so what you saw outside that big over roof yeah 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 fix all this [Music] all around the building are Clues as to how son might have looked if it had been completed it's as if the builders had put down their tools and completely disappeared as we go past here this rather unassuming block yeah on this side here you can see the original pencil lines that were put in by the Mason for what this would have been carved into so you can sort of make out the shape of it would have been either a cat or sort of chimera-esque creature but it gives you an idea of they were still thinking they were going to finish this when work stopped right it's right so if you follow me I'll show you some of the other things that they were so close to being finished this area here is the grand corridor it's uh again it really sort of has that cathedral-esque impact if I show you in here this is gives you an idea what it should be goodness what so this was all done this was all done this this was a later bit of work done by the grandchildren to by the grandchildren wow so there was a plan to 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 right so they finished this one room um and there are 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 limestone you wouldn't use cement oh I mean I I know that so cement's awful it 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 you were going to tell me that yeah it's it's a so they were patching in places with cement 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 yeah and they're all great 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 it gives you an idea what the house should be like right right this is what it is like my I keep saying oh my goodness because I really can't find any other words right now this is our space but yeah incredibly beautiful [Music] so the little roof that's in the corner over here yes that's Victorian health and safety oh wait 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 just came out of into here you get the idea they'll get a voltage ceiling here yes this would have been the library so you can see the in certain places where the vault is sitting would terminating these sort of cylinders yes there would have been a beautifully carved bookcases that would have gone up to their so this would have been a beautiful beautiful Library yes up above that probably bedrooms family room bedroom and then the floor above with the smaller fireplaces would have been either guest bedrooms children's bedrooms but it's you can really see how it's all put together and they had he had completed the roof right we had completed yeah so the roof was on um it was very much a merry Celeste uh type situation when uh which estimated 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 art former yes so what room again we're missing floors yes 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 it's 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 the time you use that and check it if something's wrong you're going to have a few grumbling 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 is basically sticking out of the walls yes running across these are well this is Victorian scaffolding um so these other sort of pockets in the wall is where that exactly tree AKA scaffolding would have um would have hung if you like yes so that 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 half stone or brick or right right 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 site um is far more heat proof than this uh ulithic 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've used 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 home guard training for D-Day Landings no so the whole park was Americanized ish we've got some lovely pictures of 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 right at home 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 D-Day Landings here building pontoon bridges on the five lakes that go further down the valley um my goodness they've left a few of their marks on the building so there's a Native American Soldier on the confessional booth and they even use the clock tower as a target practice 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 for all the right reasons this is a bathtub yes not the most practical uh one solid piece of stone uh complete with gargoyle bath taps these will all have been controlled by your uh servants 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 but there wasn't modern the they weren't planning any modern plumbing here there was space for for modern plumbing in places they were they were thinking about it so there's actually an example here you can probably see there yes in various walls there are little Rises so you would have had space for water pipes gas pipes so the water would come out how though because 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 yes so the servant could be the other side of the wall there's a it's now our um stationary covered okay but you've had your servant there and they could have turned the Taps and you've had hot or cold running into your bathtub there so you'd never have to get out you wouldn't have to be right being awkward and trying to get around the corner right but um you'd have your nice warm bath oh my goodness we go through here so you've grabbed your nice hot bath but you have a cold shower afterwards but oh so um gargoyles again the victorians love gargles they get everywhere they are a nightmare with Pest Control um so in this space you've got these two gargoy heads so unlike the bath where you've got a hot and a cold one of these this small little guy at the front would have been your pool chain right and the big one would have dumped cold water on your head so refreshing I see so that's it's not hot and cold I see you're saying so this is the pull chain the small yes and when you pull it the big one dumps the cold water yes so this would have basically been a Victorian wet room which is Quite A New Concept for the time it was being built so yes they were thinking of incorporating new technologies um so it's a unique a unique place and can I just ask Matt 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 dotted in different areas so the ladies one is on the first floor okay and the gentleman's one that's on the ground floor uh by what would have been the billiard room okay so 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 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 flag Stones 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 with just a mansion so the site has been reused and reused these come from a Georgian manor house which was pre-existing when would Chester mansion uh well when William Lee bought and commissioned with Chester mansion right so the kitchen and scullery are in exactly the same places if you overlay the floor plans so you've got 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 scullery you can see where the main path would have been so yeah of course so if you were in the Georgian mansion you'd be effectively standing on the kitchen table ah so that's 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 some of them wanted to try and do something with it there is a story that uh one of the grandchildren 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 Belfry so I lived there with my partner and our Old English Sheepdog so um it's it's a lovely Place really yes so do you have heat so it's really cold in here some it's probably the one warm area of the building right and even then it's a it's a bit more a bit more chilly than the because you really are the caretaker of this place yes among everything else we're we're a very small charity uh part of the historic houses Association but um 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 obviously you've got lots of visitors coming so do you ever get a little bit of peace and quiet uh the time you got the most peace and quiet was during lockdown um yeah while it wasn't good for takings I really enjoyed having the sort of the 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 whoever I actually want to make this into a home I've got the structure here wolves 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 and that's for a few different reasons the house itself is grade one listed right so it's of exceptional historical value yes we're also a triple SI which stands for side 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 so the answer is no everybody if you're 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 if you've got about 5 million pounds worth of repair works just to get it to where the stone 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 Winchester Mansion is a part of historic houses we are as is mapperton where we live and it's a grade one listed home as well and you know there are details down below how you can become a member of historic houses 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 when listed triple SI and people come in and do conservation works and they can learn here that they 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 working yes exactly so details down below uh thank you so much thank you Max that was a real pleasure what a treat foreign [Music] is like no other historic house I visited before and it was absolutely fascinating hearing its story from Max if you've enjoyed this video do help us continue to visit these wonderful historic houses across the UK to bring you insights and histories of these buildings and the people who live and work in them by joining our patreon community you'll get exclusive access to extra content and behind the scenes as well as American by Countess merchandise Christmas cards live q and A's and early access to all videos on the American viscounters channel do check it out in the link down below and I very much look forward to seeing you back here very soon for another historic house visit bye everybody [Music] [Music]

Channel: American Viscountess

Views: 104,620

Keywords: julie montagu mapperton house, julie montagu american aristocrat, mapperton house, aristocracy documentary, meghan markle, prince harry, american aristocrat, American viscountess, julie montagu, mapperton, viscountess, viscount, Luke montagu, prince and princess of wales, the royal family, all things royal, royalty, real royalty, bridgerton, the crown, royally obsessed, Italian house renovation, restoration, King Charles III

Id: Dwh--AEWp2g

Length: 22min 28sec (1348 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 10 2023