‘We had to demolish most of the house to keep it in the family'
The Petty-Fitzmaurice family has owned Bowood, just outside of Calne, Wiltshire, since 1754. Lord Lansdowne, now aged 84, is passing the stately home on, half a century after opening it to the public.
Opening Bowood was essential, he says. 'It felt all wrong sitting in that house and not having anybody come to enjoy it.' He wasn't driven by 'having to' open – but by wanting to, though he accepts that 'if one hadn't opened, whether we would be sitting around this table would be debatable. '
During his half-century, he has planted two million trees, opened an adventure playground that attracts 50,000 children a year, as well as a golf course, spa, and hotel.
Bowood's story is analogous to that of the wider country house and aristocracy in the 20th century. Before the First World War, there was the Indian summer; then came the tragedy – of war, twice, and its losses.
After that, the rationalisation – in Bowood's case, demolition of 60pc of the house. And then the rebirth, which began in 1975 when Lord Lansdowne opened Bowood's doors to a new age.
In the late 1700s, architects Henry Keene and Robert Adam worked on the house in two parts – the Big House, with its imposing portico, and the Little House, the service wing. By its completion in 1775, it was sprawling.
At the turn of the century it was home to Henry 'Clan' Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquis of Lansdowne, sometime Viceroy of India.
After his death in 1927, Bowood – as well as Derreen, the family's estate in County Kerry – descended down the male line and Clan's grandson Charlie became 7th Marquis in 1936.
War changed everything. In the second week of August 1944, Charlie's brother Ned was killed in Normandy, and nine days later Charlie went missing. He too had been killed.
With that, the main Lansdowne line was out of heirs. The title and estates passed to the brothers' first cousin, the current Lord Lansdowne's father, Major George Mercer Nairne, then assistant to Duff Cooper, the British ambassador to France. As Cooper remembered, George was 'rather stunned by the news'.
George hadn't expected to inherit anything much. Still, he was familiar with the challenges of estate management. As an infant in 1914, he had inherited his father's Perthshire estate, Meikleour.
Now though, he and his American wife Barbara had Bowood and Derreen to add to their plate. During the war, the former had been occupied first by a school and then the Air Ministry, all the while housing Charlie's sisters Ladies Elizabeth Petty-Fitzmaurice and Kitty Bigham.
They were in no rush to leave, and 'my father didn't really want to come here', says Lord Lansdowne. 'He had a lovely home in Scotland – this place was an imposition.'
As children, George and Kitty had played soldiers together at Bowood, and between them, they divided up the Lansdowne estates.
A compromise was reached whereby Kitty and her family – she had married the Hon. Edward Bigham, the future Viscount Mersey in 1933 – would take Derreen in exchange for some of Bowood's contents. Some might say the Bighams got the better deal; Bowood was both vast and riddled with dry rot. There was no prospect of it being lived in again.
With no listings system to prevent him from doing so, George decided that partial demolition was the answer. Shortly after a sale of the 80,000 sq ft Big House's fixtures in June 1955, he tore it down, leaving the 50,000 sq ft Little House to be converted into a comfortable family home.
Lord Lansdowne sees his father had little choice. 'If it hadn't been demolished, it probably would have sat empty for a long time, and then a school or the military would have taken it on. It couldn't have been a private home.'
George and Barbara's tenure at Bowood was short-lived. Barbara died in 1965, and George retreated to Meikleour, handing over Bowood to his 33-year-old son, then Earl of Shelburne, in 1972.
Bowood opened to the public three years later. In so doing, Lord Lansdowne – as he became in 1999 when George died – repositioned his family in public life. They had been politicians – the 1st Marquis had been prime minister as Earl of Shelburne – and their houses were private. Now, they were open for business.
'My father was the last of the line,' says Lord Lansdowne. 'In government, in power, and genuinely influential. Before him, all members of my family had been influential, and I broke the mould. I concentrated on doing things here – I went into local government because I could do it from Bowood.'
He served on the Duchy of Cornwall's council for 11 years, and though he stood as a Conservative candidate in 1979, he hasn't otherwise pursued a political career.
After 50 years, the baton has passed – in 2022, Lord Lansdowne's son Simon, Earl of Kerry, a historian by trade, moved into Bowood with his family. He feels the weight of his new challenge.
'When you're a child running around a beautiful place like this, you don't fully appreciate the responsibility that goes with it, ' he says. But he is using his academic background to help him.
'With a good understanding of our past, I have a good view of where I want to take our future,' he says, as he talks about his agenda, one of 'evolution not revolution'.
He talks about his 'customers' who 'deserve to feel special and valued', and of the importance of sharing Bowood. 'It's a great place to be and we want to show it off to as many people as possible. We really believe that it's something for everyone.'
Lord Kerry thinks Clan would approve of Bowood as it is today – the house drastically reduced in size, with scores of children in the playground, and the walled garden opening in April for the first time, complete with sensory garden.
'He planted many of the trees in the arboretum – he wanted things to go on growing, evolving. Everything he did was with a view to securing a longer term. He would be proud that there is still a long-term vision to the estate. That's what we want to remind our visitors of – that this is evolving history,' he says.
Lord Lansdowne is nodding; he has loved his time at Bowood.
'I've had a really wonderful ride,' he says. 'I'm thrilled that Simon and I are sitting next to each other talking to you. He is much brighter than I am, it didn't take him long to pick up what goes on here. It makes it a joy for me [to leave]. I'm sad to go, but I know that it's going on in good hands.'
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