News from home: the saving of Apethorpe Palace. A triumph for English cultural and country life alike

The 20th century was a time of great tragedy for the English country house. Across the country, grand mansions were razed to the ground as they became too expensive to run, their owners bankrupted by death duties and crippled by a changing world that rendered the old order of squire and servants obsolete. Architectural masterpieces were reduced to piles of rubble, their contents dispersed. Coleshill in Berkshire by Sir Roger Pratt, the first country house to have a double-pile plan with bisecting corridor, the magnificent London mansion of the Dukes of Devonshire, Deepdene in Surrey with its glorious ornamental gardens: all were destroyed. Many now exist only in archives, including that belonging to Country Life magazine, and in the pages of books such as England’s Lost Houses by Giles Worsley. Forty years ago this year, the heartbreaking exhibition at the V&A museum in London entitled ‘The Destruction of the Country House’ brought home just how many architectural treasures had been lost to the maw of money-saving and modernisation.

The south front of Apethorpe Palace, now safe from ruin

Thankfully, things have improved and the great homes of Britain are now preserved by legions of dedicated private owners supported by the Historic Houses Association, not to mention the public bodies of the National Trust and English Heritage. Finding the money to keep the roof secure may still be a headache (when will the Government see sense and introduce VAT relief on repairs and restoration of old buildings?!), but paying visitors and innovative estate businesses mean many important houses have been saved. Now, another disaster has been averted with the sale of Apethorpe Palace in Northamptonshire to Jean-Christophe Iseux, Baron von Pfetten of Selore in Burgundy, France. He will dedicate himself and his family to restoring the Grade I-listed Jacobean palace to its former glory. Dr Simon Thurley, chief executive of English Heritage, calls Apethorpe ‘unquestionably one of England’s great houses’, and its preservation is to be celebrated.

The Baron and Baroness von Pfetten and their daughter, Charlotte

Apethorpe’s importance derives from the architectural details that survive from almost every period of history, particularly its set of Jacobean state rooms, one of the most complete in the country. They are redolent of its glory days around the turn of the 17th century, when 13 royal visits were made between 1565 and 1636. Sir Walter Mildmay, the highest-paid civil servant under Elizabeth I, welcomed his queen here in 1566, and his son Anthony first entertained  James I in 1603. It is said that it was here that the king met his future favourite, George Villiers, later Duke of Buckingham in 1614; two interconnecting bedrooms are known as the King’s Chamber and the Duke’s Chamber. Sir Anthony’s son-in-law, Sir Francis Fane, was granted timber from the crown forest to remodel the state apartments, including the Withdrawing Chamber, Great Chamber and Long Gallery, ‘for the more commodious entertainment of his Majesty and his company at his repair into those parts for his princely recreation there’, proof of the king’s admiration for the house. Sadly, most of the work was completed after James’s death in 1625.

The Long Gallery today and (below) in 1909, 

when it was photographed for Country Life magazine 

Courtesy of the Country Life Picture Library

Apethorpe’s subsequent history was less illustrious. It remained in the Fane family until 1904, when it was sold into the Brassey family, who employed Sir Reginald Blomfield to restore its 17th-century character. In 1949, the Brasseys sold it to a school, which added inappropriate modern buildings. When the school left, it was acquired by a private owner in 1982, who never occupied it and allowed it to decay. Over the succeeding two decades, it began to crumble, neglected and ignored but for the vital ministrations of caretaker George Kelley. English Heritage placed it on the At Risk register in 1989, and, after lengthy public enquiries and legal wrangling, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport acquired it by compulsory purchase in 2004. Since then, £8 million worth of repairs have been carried out to save the magnificent plaster ceilings and shore up the masonry, but there is a tremendous amount still to do, which will fall to Baron von Pfetten. The work will be of importance to all, as Dr Thurley points out: ‘Baron von Pfetten has agreed to an 80-year commitment of 50 days public opening a year, a far more extensive undertaking than the normal period of 10 years in the case of English Heritage grant-aided properties.’ Thus this seminal building will reach a wider audience than ever before.

The glorious Jacobean plasterwork 

of the King's Room at Apethorpe Palace

Courtesy of the Country Life Picture Library

I have no doubt that Baron von Pfetten will rise to the challenge. I say this with authority, because he has been a great friend of mine for years, and I am honoured to be a member of his private hunt, the Equipage de Selore, based in a wild, lonely, beautiful part of Burgundy in the heart of France. It is a place where the centuries fall away, where nothing matters but the thrill of the chase. Amid the deep, dark Foret du Briffault, 10,000 acres of forest laid out for hunting before the Revolution, we follow roe deer and foxes along arrow-straight tracks, over ditches and fallen trees, through bogs and undergrowth, past piles of timber destined for wine barrels, with not a sound to be heard but the beat of the horses’ feet and the distant music of the hounds. It’s not like English hunting, where followers keep together and at a distance, shadowing the field master to stay in touch and watching the action unfold across field and moor. In Burgundy, everyone must keep their wits about them, their horse’s head pointing towards the quarry, their ears open and their mouths shut. There’s no coffee-housing here – everyone must help Jean-Christophe, as master and huntsman, keep up with a pack of fast, independent blanc-et-noir hounds that are quite capable of leaving everyone behind. It’s a thrilling experience: mist rising from the damp ground, an occasional buck leaping across an open space, the deep echo of the hounds’ voices reverberating through the trees. 

Alistair Campbell (former joint-master), Baron von Pfetten and joint-master 

Prince Georg von Sachsen-Weimar with Baroness von Pfetten 

and one-year-old Charlotte at Selore

Moving off into the forest at Briffault

A typical forest track, to be taken at full gallop...

unless the sun comes out - a rare occurrence!

Blowing a fanfare at the pre-hunting Blessing of the Hounds

on St Hubert's Day in November

Nadia and Jean-Christophe at the Blessing of the Hounds

Jean-Christophe on Java at Selore, with Gallant, 

second at the World Dog Show 2011

Back at Château de Selore, dinner for humans is only partaken after the hounds have been fed, whereupon everyone repairs to a dining room now fully restored to its 18th-century splendour. Jean-Christophe and his Italian wife, Nadia, a trained architect, have restored the state rooms at Selore over 10 years, opening up the chapel, relaying the floors and repainting the decoration on the beamed ceilings in dining rooms, drawing rooms and ballroom in their original rich colours and delicate patterns. It is a process that has given them an ideal preparation for tackling Apethorpe, both in the technical expertise needed and in the patience required to cope with a lengthy, painstaking job.  

Château de Selore in Burgundy, where Jean-Christophe 

has restored the superb painted state rooms

Success in the field is matched on the flags: Jean-Christophe with

Colonel '08, the first foxhound to be crowned Champion of Champions 

at World Dog Show in Brussels, 2011

The summer puppy show at Selore: judges Pierre Astier (president 

of the French Hound Club) and Georg von Sachsen-Weimar with

Jean-Christophe and Fromen, champion bitch, and Faisant, champion dog

For those concerned by the idea of another dreaded ‘foreigner’ taking over an historic English house, fear not. There are already many strong connections between this ancient European family and their adopted country – the clincher being that they subscribe to Country Life, always a good sign. Jean-Christophe is well respected in the English hunting world and the Selore pack includes English hounds, drafts from packs such as the Duke of Beaufort’s and the Brocklesby. He serves as a joint-master of the Woodland Pytchley, the kennels of which lie not far from Apethorpe, and his small daughter, Charlotte, will no doubt soon be following in her father’s footsteps. An Anglophile French baron and local MFH: an ideal combination for the saviour of a Jacobean marvel. Ten years after the British Government intervened to save Apethorpe from total ruin, a new and happy chapter looks set to begin. 

Me, Jean-Christophe, Georg, Madame and Antonia Cosby

mud-bespattered and Champagne in hand!