Downton Abbey saves real stately home
Andrew Lloyd Webber has scrapped plans to buy Highclere Castle after the Sunday Express revealed the building is to be saved thanks to the success of TV show Downton Abbey.
The theatre impresario infuriated the Earl of Carnarvon by making inquiries about buying his ancestral home, the setting for ITV’s period drama. Lord Lloyd-Webber planned to use the castle to showcase his Pre-Raphaelite art SDHpcollection, worth £100million.
He withdrew after we said last weekend that the Carnarvons hoped to fund a restoration project on the back of the success of the seven-part series.
The 62-year-old composer had been concerned about the Earl’s plans to fund repairs to his £150million property by building 15 houses around the 5,000-acre estate near Newbury, on the Berkshire-Hampshire border.
Lord Lloyd-Webber welcomed the fact that the £11million repairs would be paid for instead by the extra income generated by the expected surge in visitors.
He said: “May I express my joy and relief that the success of the series Downton Abbey has led the Earl of Carnarvon to announce that its ‘star’, Sir Charles Barry’s wonderful Highclere Castle, has been saved.
“I, along with the Highclere Society and the North Wessex Downs Preservation Society, was concerned when the Earl proposed to develop housing in swathes of the north Hampshire Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
“My concern for the area combined with my love of architecture was behind my interest in exploring whether the castle, which is not lived in, could possibly become a publicly accessed long-term home for my art collection.
“Now it has emerged that the television series will generate enough income to save the castle and, presumably, the proposed development need not take place. This is truly a fantastic outcome.”
Last weekend, the Countess of Carnarvon told the Sunday Express how she spruced up one of the castle’s dressing rooms as soon as filming for Downton Abbey finished in the spring. She said visits to their official website had increased dramatically since the opening episode on September 26.
The stately home needs urgent work on 50 rooms on the third floor, a leaking roof and crumbling sandstone turrets.
In July Lord Lloyd-Webber wrote to Basingstoke and Deane council announcing his interest in buying the property. The Carnarvons are on holiday in Egypt and unavailable for comment but this summer the Earl said: “It is absolutely a treasured, long-term family estate and I have never discussed selling it to anyone. It is not for sale. Lord Lloyd-Webber has not approached me directly and the first I knew about him expressing his interest was just before a recent council meeting.”
Highclere Castle dates back to the 14th century but was remodelled in Victorian Gothic style by Sir Charles Barry in 1839 after he had completed the Houses of Parliament.
The fourth episode of Downton Abbey, written by Oscar-winning director Julian Fellowes and starring Dame Maggie Smith, was watched by more than eight million viewers last Sunday.