Chesters

Season 1, Episode 3 of Country House Rescue featured Chesters Estate: a beautiful home located along the Scottish border. The owner inherited it from his grandfather, and he and his wife wanted to be able to move from London into the house. However, it costs approximately 20,000 pounds a year to maintain Chesters, and needs tons of work done to it, as much of it is completely dilapidated. It's a grade 1 listed house ~ which means that it has never been altered or added on to ~ and therefore it is seen as a national treasure, and if they want to re-do things in the house or on the grounds, they would have to have the approval of historic societies for materials they use, etc. Everything has to be completely authentic and approved in order to keep it the treasure it is.
The owner's wife (Ellie) had wanted to re-do the stable block and turn it into an acting school, but to do that would cost too much money. The owner (John) then wanted to re-do the dairy barns and make them into a brewery, but that would also prove to cost too much money, and not have a guaranteed successful income. So, they decided to use the main house and do the acting school idea there, using the attics for a place for the guests to lodge. The trial of this was successful, but in one year they would only bring it approximately 20,000 pounds from it, which was just enough to keep the place running. So they needed more. Ruth Watson then suggested doing day rentals with the house. Various corporations rent homes like this one, and use them as a location to hold seminars, trainings, skill building lectures, etc. From this, they could get between 800 to a 1000 pounds per day (often just for a few hours of use). In the end, this is what they decided to do, and it was a huge success!

In fact, it's been such a great success that they've been able to make Chesters thrive, including being able to do an acting school, and John even now has his brewery! They also opened up private access to the river on their property (River Teviot) for fishing, and have a secret garden opened for "glamping" (posh camping)! They have a website now, and on it you can see all of the things that Chesters offers.

Elmore Court

Season 1, Episode 2 of Country House Rescue featured Elmore Court ~ an estate worth 25,000,000 pounds. 36-year-old Anselm Guise had just inherited it, when his uncle died very suddenly. Anselm was a DJ in London, and suddenly was the owner of the 1,200 acre estate, which has been in his family since 1262. Unfortunately, Anselm was quite immature and basically just liked to party and do whatever he wanted, and when his uncle was alive, he didn't believe Anselm was capable of keeping Elmore Court maintained. So, Anselm wanted to prove him wrong, but was having a hard time since it would cost 40,000 pounds per year to maintain; and there was no money at all for the repairs and redecorating that needed to be done inside and out. In came Ruth Watson (the host of the show) to share her ideas of how to save the estate and make money to keep it maintained throughout the years.
Anselm's idea was to turn the main mansion into a cooking school. Ruth actually liked this idea, and they decided to go with it. Instead of turning the coach house into rooms for people to stay, they just used some of the 18 bedrooms inside the mansion. They had to completely re-do the old kitchens, and to do that, they raised money by bringing things from around the house to auction. In the end, the kitchen conversion was successful, the rooms were neatly made into guest rooms, and the cooking school trial was a complete success! So it looks like Elmore Court will survive!

Here are the screen shots I took throughout the show...

(it has 16 tenanted cottages, and 6 working farms, 

besides the main house)

 

Cothay Manor

I have started watching the first season of Country House Rescue, and I'm enjoying it so much that I thought I would share about it on here. When I'm watching it, I'm constantly "oooh-ing" and "aaah-ing" at the scenery and homes ~ they're incredible! So, to share, I took some screen caps of some of my favourite parts and made them into pictures I can post. Enjoy!

Country House Rescue

For my first post here, I'm going to share a new tv show discovery! I was on the internet yesterday trying to find out if I could watch one of my favourite shows ~ Location, Location, Location ~ on its original broadcasting station (channel 4 in the UK). While I was looking into that, I ran across information for another channel 4 show called Country House Rescue. Reading its name, I thought it was about quaint little country cottages or something, but it's actually quite the opposite! These "country houses" they go to are some of the most incredible historic mansions I've ever seen! For example:

The show is summarized as this:
In each episode, the hotelier and country house expert Ruth Watson visits a struggling country house and tries to turn its fortunes by giving advice and suggestions to the owner/s.

Unfortunately, we can't view it online through channel 4, but I did find one link to watch an episode online (watch it here), and if you search hard enough, you can find some to download as well. It's worth looking for ~ these homes are amazing. It's hard to imagine that people actually live in them still today!
So if you get a chance, check it out. It's a great show... I can't wait to watch more of it!