The Duchess podcast… to save the castle
Last month, Emma, Duchess of Rutland, sat in the drawing room and weighed the pros and cons of living in the sprawling estate. Specifically, Belvoir Castle, pronounced “Beaver”, is a huge and beautiful spot of splendor that crowds on a wooded hilltop in the English countryside, and includes more than 356 rooms and huge neo-Gothic towers and small turrets. The castle has been the family’s residence since the 16th century.
“It’s wonderful, of course, and we’re incredibly lucky, but you can never quite know who lives with you,” says Duchess Emma. “There is no privacy in the way most people might expect from their homes,” she added. And don’t even get me started on ghosts.’
Emma Manners, Duchess of Rutland, at Beaver Castle in Leicestershire, England (Alice Zoo/The New York Times)
How do you finance a heritage castle?
There’s a PS who’s been walking around with a giant flag that needs fixing before it flies over the castle’s 2.5-acre roof. Downstairs, the castle’s tearoom was bustling with tourists sampling the jam cakes made at Beaver’s estate. Nearby, a group of pickup trucks crossed the obstacle course of the recent Tough Mudder endurance event. For the Duchess, who was born Emma Watkins, it was a day like any other.
The daughter of a farmer from the Welsh border, she moved to Beaver in 2001 when her husband became 11th Duke of Rutland, one of the oldest hereditary titles in England. He may have inherited a fairy-tale castle, but they also shouldered £12m (nearly $15.5m) in inheritance taxes, and in the words of the wife: “There are phalanxes of rats and staff who clearly favored the previous occupants of the castle before us.”
In the years since, as Lady of the Castle and Executive Director, the Duchess has brokered photo and event deals, facilitated manor operations, and undertaken restoration tasks charged with protecting Beaver Castle for the next generation.
Recently, despite tabloid ramifications about the castle’s unconventional living arrangements (the duke and duchess have legally separated and lived in different wings since 2012), the fact that historic homes in Britain are increasingly part of a brewing culture war over how the country perceives its past colonialism, the Duchess has shown an increased disposition to be the center of attention, albeit on her own terms.
The running and maintenance costs of Beaver Castle are about £1m a year (Alice Zoo/The New York Times)
In 2020, she started a podcast called “The Duchess”, in which she interviews other duchesses. The Duchess’s Gallery shop on the estate sells branded clothing and household goods. Last year, the Duchess published Accidental Duchess, an autobiography that includes candid accounts of her husband’s serial affairs and a series of miscarriages she suffered while raising five children.
Now 59, she appears as one of the most agreeable public faces of Britain’s aristocracy, at a time when many prefer to keep a low profile. Which means they are more confident than others about making secrets public.
Old homes and the cost of maintaining them
It’s a curious – and very protective – joke of the British cultural landscape in that many of its stately homes can receive visitors even as the families who own them stay in. About a third of historic homes are in the care of conservation and protection charities such as the National Trust or English Heritage, but Beaver Castle in Leicestershire remains privately owned.
“Many homes opened their doors for the first time after World War II, when new sources of income had to be found to cover repair bills,” said Ben Coyle, general manager of the Historic Homes Foundation, a nonprofit that helps preserve some 1,500 private properties. And when the houses were being demolished because the owners were no longer able to keep them.”
Beaver Castle in Leicestershire, England (Alice Zoo/The New York Times)
Beginning in the 1970s, changing laws on inheritance taxes made it financially advantageous to open homes to the public a certain number of days each year, which would provide funds to cover the costs of heritage preservation. (Today, Historic Homes estimates that their combined holdings amount to about £2 billion — about $2.5 billion — in repair and maintenance arrears.)
“We find that visitors really like seeing the historic homes that the owners still live in, rather than them being abstract museum pieces where nobody lives now,” says Coyle.
Some even spend the night at Beaver Castle. The castle – which was a replacement for Windsor Castle in the series “The Crown” and appeared in films including “The Da Vinci Code” and “Young Victoria” – often hosts guests at weekend events and photo shoots. You can stay in the luxurious master bedrooms, many of which have been recently renovated, including one whose walls are covered with hand-painted wallpapers, in collaboration with de Gournay.
Beaver Castle was used to film scenes from the series “The Crown” (Netflix)
In fact, preserving wallpaper is often a priority for the Duchess, who was once an interior decorator (and real estate agent and opera singer). It’s a cornerstone of her new philanthropic initiative, American Friends of Beaver Castle, which will host its inaugural fundraiser at the luxury Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida, next year.
The American admiration for antique British homes, spurred by the popularity of shows such as “The Crown” and “Downton Abbey”, was important to the castle’s financial affairs. In any case, it costs Beaver Castle around £1m a year to run a “steady endowment”, as the Duchess puts it. She is always looking for donors.
“Americans love to trace their roots and the meanings of the history we have here,” she said. It was simply amazing that we had so many listeners from the United States of The Duchess podcast.”
But why would the Duchess of Rutland – who said she didn’t know what a “podcast: podcast” was until the idea was presented to her – agree to interview other women who run lavish homes, including Lady Henrietta Spencer-Churchill of Blenheim Palace, and the Duchess of Argyll of Inverary Castle, and Countess Spencer of Althrop House? Wasn’t she worried that a project of such blatant sophistication and so elitist might backfire? The Duchess seemed shocked at the suggestion.
And she said, “Not for a moment! People can love me or hate me, but I’ve never been one to dwell on the negatives of others. The Duchess’s podcast was about giving people a behind-the-scenes glimpse into what it’s like for a woman to single-handedly run one of these massive properties. The fact that it can be very hard work but a lot more fun. I don’t think I’ve had breakfast in bed once in the two decades I’ve lived here.’
An old-fashioned telephone at Beaver Castle (Alice Zoo/The New York Times)
The podcast was the brainchild of the Duchess’ eldest daughter, Lady Violet Manners, who came up with the idea while studying at UCLA. Her mother said Violet felt there was an audience eager to hear such an audio series. The Duchess, who is a very skillful interviewer, puts herself in the mold of a “classy showgirl,” according to her words, and is always pleased to attend and perform her role.
The Duchess says: “I grew up on a farm. I was not born with a high title or know anything of the world heritage or the aristocracy, but I will do everything in my power to make Beaver Castle prosper as long as I live here.’
The Duchess still believes in seniority, or the right to inherit the eldest son, and doesn’t think her four other children would want to bear the burden of such an inheritance anyway. Lady Violet, Lady Alice, and Lady Eliza, formerly known as the “naughty pretty sisters” because of their London parties so noisy that their neighbors complained to the newspapers, now work in creative consultancy and interior designs, while he works Their brother, Charles, is in the City of London, and his brother, Hugo, is studying at Newcastle University.
The New York Times Service.
