'Secret home' of Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Estate's former owner - Kirkby Fleetham
This is the story of Kirkby Fleetham Hall.
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00:00So what actually brought you to this property 20 years ago?
00:04Well, generally I've always loved houses and never redecorated because I've never lived in them long enough.
00:13So I've always had a passion for old property, love old property.
00:18Started off doing barn conversions, did hundreds of them in Northumberland and in North Yorkshire.
00:26And then I developed a passion for doing country houses in my 20s and just carried on buying them, renovating them and then moving on.
00:36But when I found this place, I just came down the drive and thought, oh my goodness, it's like a little hidden haven.
00:44And it really is. You know, the grounds are just beautiful.
00:47And I was going to sell it and move not long ago, a few years ago, to another country house, which I bought, but I couldn't bear it.
00:58I put it on the market and we did have a buyer, but I just could not bear to sell it because it is just so beautiful.
01:04And here I am 20 odd years later, still here. And I've done many houses in that time, both in the UK and internationally.
01:14Where are some of the most exotic places?
01:16A lot of the houses I've done are in the St. Tropez area. I do have property in the Alps.
01:22I'm currently developing a beautiful resort called Magère, doing luxury ski chalets and also doing a project in Majorca.
01:33But you chose Yorkshire here?
01:35Well, this is this is a house that I want to keep, but my dream is to have houses in all the different locations,
01:43which I've started to do and still share them with other people.
01:48So rent them out for staycations, you know, even the houses in St Tropez and Magère rented out because I can't live in them all the time.
01:57But I want to be able to enjoy the lifestyle of those properties, but then share them when I'm not there.
02:04And this just makes the most idyllic wedding venue, you know, with the church and the grounds and everything we have here.
02:12And you're following in the footsteps of some incredible proprietors.
02:17So the the original owners of here, they have also owned Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal.
02:24Yes. And what is really strange, it was built for the daughter and her birthday is the same day as mine, which is a bit spooky.
02:31And a lot of the stuff that I did here, I didn't have a clue how it was, but I've taken it back to how it originally was without knowing.
02:40Wow. You know, which is quite incredible.
02:42Tell me a bit about what do you know about the family who are originally here for people who don't know anything about this?
02:48Well, you know, Studley Royal is obviously a big landmark in Ripon, Fountains Abbey.
02:56And obviously it was built for their daughter, Sophia.
03:01And then she had the house was in that family for many years.
03:06Then eventually it was extended in the 1750s and then in the 1850s, it was extended again.
03:15And the Courage Brewery family, which is quite a well-known family because Courage Brewery are all over the country.
03:24And they lived here for over 100 years.
03:28And then eventually it became a luxury hotel.
03:32And I think for quite a few years in the 70s, it was a very popular, it was down as one of the best places to stay in the UK.
03:41Again, a hidden secret because it is kind of hidden, you know, it's nestled down and it's in its own little enclave.
03:49But then what happened, you know, over the time, the people who run it as a hotel eventually sold it on and it became a bit of a retreat.
03:59And when I bought it in 2003, it was a bit on its knees.
04:05So it needed really a big refurb, which is what I did with it.
04:09And as I said, I took some of the rooms back to how they would have been originally.
04:16But a lot of the lovely features were still there, which was brilliant.
04:19And obviously you say that by accident, in a way, it's returned to how it was.
04:24And even your own daughter shares the same birthday as the priest.
04:28No, to myself, it shares the same birthday as the priest.
04:31Oh, yourself? Oh, wow.
04:33But it was Sophia, is the name of the girl it was built for.
04:37So my daughter, Sophia or Sophie.
04:40And but the birthday is the same birthday as mine.
04:45Wow. And tell me what it's like living in such a hysterical place with your own family now.
04:51Oh, it's beautiful. And the thing that people say whenever they come here is it's like a home from home.
04:59And that's how we describe it. It's very much a home.
05:02It's not it doesn't feel like a huge grand house at all.
05:07It feels very homely and just a beautiful place to be.
05:12And I never take it for granted how even after 20 odd years of being here, I wonder around and I just think, wow, this is so beautiful.
05:20And everyone who comes to share that same feeling.
05:26And it just has a real heart.
05:30And it's some people describe it as enchanting.
05:34And I think the grounds are enchanting and the house inside.
05:38The rooms are very homely. You know, I've done it in the period.
05:42I haven't modernized it in a modern style, which, of course, a lot of people do with the country houses.
05:48You know, the other country house where I was going to move to, I was going to do that more classic contemporary.
05:54But I do still find as a designer and going and doing houses all over the world that it's important to reflect the interior should reflect the period of the house, how it's meant to be.
06:09And it's interesting because things then naturally look right because that's how they're meant to be and that's how it was designed to be.
06:17So, you know, when I do houses in this in Santa Fe, for example, a lot of them are Provencal, so I reflect that in the interior.
06:25And here it's Georgian predominantly, so there's a lot of Georgian furniture, a lot of nice fabrics from Colfax and Fowler, from Zoffany, from Osborne and Little.
06:37But the more period designers, you know, going back in time who have actually reflected the designs from the archives, you know, how it would have been in the Georgian days.
06:49Lots of Westminster, you know, that very much do all that sort of fabric as well.
06:55And when was it built?
06:58The house, originally part of it was built in 1650. Then it was really, the majority of it was 1750, then it had a transformation in 100 years on, 1850 to 1870.
07:13And when did Sophia move in?
07:15I'm not exactly sure of the exact date of that, but I think it was in the 1750 region, because the church dates back to 1650 and the church is the village church.
07:27And the house was built later, slightly later, but there is an original section of the house that was there.
07:34And then it was, we have paintings in the house where you can see how it was originally.
07:39And obviously you've got the holiday cottages now as well.
07:42Yes. So what I decided to do was, I can't use all of it, obviously.
07:49So what we've nicely done is converted a wing of the hall, which is separated, it's called the bell house.
07:57And within the bell house, we've got a willow tree cottage, and we've also got the granny flat.
08:06But then over at the coach house, which is over by the bridge, the little stone bridge, we've got the old stable yard.
08:14And above the stable yard, we've got the farrier's loft, named after a blacksmith, the farrier.
08:21And we've got the coach house.
08:23And people come here and just love it.
08:26We get permanent, excellent reviews, five star reviews every time, because people come and they just can't believe they've come to this little haven.