Press Coverage 6
For £2,000, stately home opens up a little more
Country house's new way to raise cash with four-day look behind the scenes
The Guardian, Monday September 29 2008
For decades, stately-home owners have opened their grand houses to the public, exchanging a degree of privacy for much-needed funding to fix leaky roofs.
But the visitors are usually kept away from the aristocracy's last bastion, their personal living quarters. Now, an enterprising baronet and a clutch of other stately-home owners in Derbyshire will allow paying guests to go behind the scenes to see what life in an English country house is really like.
The idea is the brainchild of Old Etonians Mark Chichester-Clark and Charles Hurt, who hope to extend the scheme to other areas if it proves successful. The 10 properties on their list so far include Hurt's Casterne Hall - in the family since 1480. For £2,000 for four days - dinners and personal tours included - visitors will also get guided tours of some of Derbyshire's other stately homes such as Chatsworth and Calke Abbey. "It's a hard task keeping these houses," said Chichester-Clark. "The owners are very keen. Everyone's happy to find another source of income."
(The owner of Tissington Hall) Sir Richard Fitzherbert said: bookings would mean much-needed money. "We've been open to day visitors 28 days a year for 10 years but visitor numbers are dropping and unless you've got something really special to offer it's going to be difficult. The hall has been in my family for a long time - we have our 400th anniversary next year and I don't want to be the one to quit on it. Our heating bill can hit the region of £25,000, which is crazy really. We see this as a way to diversify our income and get some regular business. It's not just visiting a country house, it's something special. The more the merrier."
Frances Garnham, assistant policy and campaigns director for the Historic Houses Association, which oversees 1,500 private and charity-owned historic houses in Britain, said: "This initiative is very innovative and one we're going to watch as it's unique. If these houses are to survive they have to be economically viable. Grants have fallen over the last few years. The weather's also been bad, which means visitor numbers are down about 15%. Our members have a backlog of £260m in repairs and some are running on a knife-edge."
