BL-24 - Flipbook - Page 76
ENTREPRENEURS
Highclere Castle, the iconic Victorian estate set among sweeping parkland and ancient cedars — and instantly recognisable as the
setting for the much-loved television series Downton Abbey.
LORD CARNARVON AT
HIGHCLERE CASTLE
By Lord Carnarvon
Lord Carnarvon is the 8th Earl of
Carnarvon and custodian of Highclere
Castle, the real-life setting of
Downton Abbey. An entrepreneur and
conservationist, he has revitalised the
estate through ventures such as Highclere
Castle Gin, Horse Feeds and the Egyptian
Exhibition.
D
rive through the gates into
Highclere Park and you
feel as if you are entering
another world, a magical
unfolding landscape. The glorious
18th century parkland offers and
obscures glimpses of the Castle towers
hidden behind the majestic Cedars of
Lebanon.
The Castle itself is a triumph of early
Victorian design and engineering and
(of course) a much-loved key element
in the worldwide success of the
Downton Abbey TV series and feature
昀椀lms.
We never tire of the beauty of the
buildings and landscape, but it is the
glory of past design that has been
the challenge for much of my life.
Whilst it has been a privilege to live
at Highclere since my university days,
I often wondered how to keep this
amazing place together, given that so
many structures – cottages, follies,
parts of the Castle – were slowly
deteriorating.
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BOISDALELIFE.COM
ISSUE 24
Like many other beautiful estates,
Highclere received signi昀椀cant
investment in the late 1800s and
was part of the Belle Époque years
leading up to the start of WWI. The
end of the 昀椀rst war bought a very
different era of much higher taxes and
economic uncertainty, followed by
昀椀nancial depressions in the late 1920s
and 1930s. Fifty years later, the high
in昀氀ation of the 1970s largely curbed
investment in estate infrastructure and
repairs.
My grandfather had kindly given me
a signi昀椀cant part of the Estate when I
reached 25, but I soon discovered this
included cottages much in need of
