Plas Newydd National Treasures of Wales

The National Trust has more than four million members.

It's Britain's largest landowner.

As English as cream teas...

or is it?

Because it all began in Wales,

where it continues to look after

the treasures of this beautiful country.

But I want to find out what the future holds

for this guardian of our shared past.

Well, there we are.

That's what I call a classic National Trust property.

One of the great stately homes of -

ha-ha, I nearly said England -

of Wales.

It was built by successive Lords

and Barons and Marquises

until, in the 1970s,

it simply became too expensive for them to look after.

But...

if they couldn't manage it...

how can National Trust Wales expect to?

To find out, I'm going to investigate Plas Newydd,

on the island of Anglesey, North West Wales,

once the family home of the Marquis of Anglesey.

We're actually quite a long way

from the fantasy of Downtown Abbey.

I'll be looking at some intriguing fine art.

It's not just a house for connoisseurs,

it's also a house for nosey parkers.

I want to find out how this place is run...

I wouldn't like to be the cleaner in here.

..and investigate how they intend to tackle

this mansion's challenges.

The first thing that confronts me

is a monument from the deep past.

5,000 years ago,

a Neolithic chieftain

decided that this extraordinary place,

with its spectacular views was the ideal place to be buried

and put this cromlech here.

And in fact, it was only 600 years ago

that somebody decided it should be called the "Plas Newydd".

So "new" in "new palace",

which is what that means,

is a relative term here.

The original building was put up in medieval times.

It's been rebuilt and remodelled over the centuries,

including major works by the great 18th century architect

James Wyatt.

To get a handle on all this,

I'm meeting property manager Nerys Jones.

And this is the main Gothic hall.

This is the first place people would come to be impressed

when they'd come in as visitors.

Well, I'm impressed.

It's got Tudor foundations.

What you see really then, is an 18th century building,

but it's had turrets and towers added here and there.

Basically, what we're looking at

is a house that was lived in by a family

with different Marquises and different Lords,

coming along at various stages

and adding bits to it.

They'd add their own stamp, according to their taste.

Right. And what's this through here?

'And there's a lot of taste to cover in 600 years,

'which is the challenge here.

'I'm about to be introduced, however,

'to the man who really put the house and the family and North West Wales

'at the centre of world affairs.'

And here we see the first Marquis.

'Henry William Paget became the first Lord Anglesey in 1815

'as a reward for his bravery

'at the battle of Waterloo.'

He was hit by grapeshot

and he turned to the Duke of Wellington.

He said, "By God, Sir,

"I've lost my leg."

Duke of Wellington turned and looked and said,

"By God, Sir, so you have,"

and went on surveying the battle.

'Thanks to Lord Anglesey, however,

'the Pagets became such a powerful family

'that the Plas Newydd was merely a country retreat

'for successive Marquises.

'That was until the end of the Victorian Era,

'when Henry Cyril Paget inherited the estate.'

There we are, that's the fifth Marquis here,

looking utterly magnificent.

He was the sort of black sheep of the family because

he was a very glittery individual

and he inherited the estate and the title,

and an income of £250,000 a year,

which is equivalent of about 25 million a year, which he spent.

The first to really call Plas Newydd his home,

the fifth Marquis set about indulging his interest in jewellery,

pink poodles and perfumed cars.

He built a 150-seat theatre here.

He'd give free shows for all the local people.

He spent an absolute fortune on cars, clothes and entertaining.

And after spending half a billion, Henry was declared bankrupt in 1904.

This was a significant moment for this house and his family,

and eventually for the Trust,

because his creditors organised a 40-day sale

in which the treasures were sold off.

The house became less of a showpiece and more of a family home.

'By 1976,

'the seventh Marquis, Henry Paget,

'could no longer afford to maintain Plas Newydd.

'He handed it over to the care of the Trust.

'He continued to play an active part in how it was run

'until his death in 2013.

'Now that responsibility falls on Nerys.

'This is a lovely place in a lovely setting,

'but it could also be argued that that is part of its problem.'

What a fantastic view to wake up to.

There's Snowdon, quite visible,

because the seventh Marquis insisted

that the National Trust bought that land over there,

so the vista was perfect.

But in a way, of course, that is a little bit of the problem,

because that beautiful view there

is of a wild and remote part of Wales.

We're in a far north-west corner.

There are towns here,

there's Bangor and there's Caernarfon,

but we are actually quite a long way,

a good day trip

from those huge centres of population, like Manchester.

So, how do we get the visitors

to come here on a regular basis?

'At the moment, we get about 93,000 visitors every year.

'We're a small property here

'compared to other National Trust properties.'

And we don't get as many visitors because of where we're situated.

You've got to think of new ideas to encourage visitors to come back?

Definitely. If we don't have visitors,

it means we don't build up funds to keep this place for ever.

So we do have to also work

a bit like a visitor attraction,

in that we need new things for people to see.

Whether that's opening a new room to the public,

maybe letting them into the cellars,

or putting on a series of events, whether outside or inside,

to attract people to come back again and again.

'That's a lot of ambition

'and something immediately becomes apparent.

'I think it may be connected with that bankruptcy sale

'100 years ago.'

Katherine Manners,

distant relative,

painted by Van Dyke.

But there aren't really,

in this house,

so many very important pieces

that people come here to tick them off,

like they might at the National Gallery.

The Trust has to sell this house to visitors

on a different principle.

And for that purpose,

the most interesting painting here

is not an "old master" at all.

'Said to be the largest mural in Europe,

'this painting was commissioned

'to decorate the dining room in 1936.

'The artist, Rex Whistler,

'has a museum dedicated to his work in the old kitchen,

'but it is his relationship with the family

'that the Trust really wants to unlock and use,

'and the picture is the key.

'Whistler paints himself here, with a brush.

'The young boy stealing an apple

is his pal, the future seventh Marquis, as a child.

'But it was the girl in the boat,

'Lady Caroline, the little boy's sister,

'who became an obsession for the artist, Whistler.'

He was said to be the model for Charles Ryder

in Brideshead Revisited,

someone who is in love

with the idea of a great stately home

and also...

..so they say,

in love with the daughter of the house.

'The relationship was undoubtedly intense while it lasted,

'as his portraits of her reveal.

'But this is the question -

'can the National Trust use stories like this

'to make up for what was lost in the bankruptcy sale?'

There's a great story here

and as you go down here, is a love story.

'Justin Albert, Trust Director in Wales,

'certainly seems to have that ambition.'

That thing the National Trust calls "spirit of place",

but just storytelling, is phenomenal.

The story behind this family,

that it was a pleasure house that turned into a family house

is, in itself, a reason to come here. You can come and wander round here

and you can be the Angleseys for a day, and that's kind of fun.

'Can the Trust preserve the atmosphere and look

'of a family home from the 1930s?'

So let's go into Lady Anglesey's lounge.

And you can see the feminine influence of Sibyl Colefax here.

'Sibyl Colefax was the society decorator

'who re-invented the idea of the country house.

'She aimed at comfort, not display.

'The Trust is not intending to create

'a historical museum behind red ropes,

'but allow the public to enjoy that comfort

'and poke about in a house that remained largely unchanged

'over the last 80 years.

With the passing of the last Marquis of Anglesey,

she now has a blank sheet of paper. She can now do what she wants to do.

She'll talk to the family. She'll reflect their wishes.

I believe very strongly, as she does, that the family should be part

of the decision-making, because without a family, the place is dead.

-Why? This is a National Trust property.

-Why should...?

Why is the family still involved in something

which effectively has now become...

into the ownership of a much bigger group,

which is the National Trust?

Whatever you think about the aristocracy, whatever you think,

they have a validity in the houses that they lived in

and built and procreated in

and did all the fun things over the millennia and centuries,

without a family being involved with that, the place is dead.

There's no spirit.

'And a way to experience this "spirit", for the Trust,

'is "free flow", where you can walk around, unguided,

'at your own pace.'

It's not just a house for connoisseurs,

it's also a house for nosey parkers.

My aim is that every room looks

as if Lord Anglesey has just left the room,

so it does look like a home that is lived in.

'This idea extends throughout the house

'and the latest challenge is this room.

'The seventh Marquis, the last to live here,

'died in 2013.

'This is his study.

'It is exactly as he left it.'

This is the room that he used to work in?

It is. This is his hub of the home.

He's got a desk for every task.

-This is his writing desk, where he would have written his books.

-Yeah.

A correspondence desk, where he would have written

-to friends and family...

-Right.

..a research corner, where he'd do his academic work

and where he wrote his eight volume history of the British Cavalry.

'After the 7th Marquis gave the house

'to National Trust Wales in 1976,

'he remained active in the building conservation movement

'and local affairs.'

I wonder, when people come here, they want to see a proper house.

They don't want to see a mess like this, do they?

I think they do want to see a mess,

but it is an organised mess, I would say.

This is how the seventh Marquis operated

and I think if we tidied this up, we'd just be tidying away

his personality and his character.

You can still smell his cigars

and when we do open it,

I will make sure that his opera will be playing as well.

So it's using all the senses

to evoke that feeling, when people come in.

Are you going to light a cigar?

I don't know if we'll go that far.

At the moment, it still smells of the cigars.

I've noticed that there are parts of the carpet

which are quite worn away.

Are you going to get rid of those?

No, definitely not.

We'd be ruining the spirit of place if we did that.

Lord Anglesey, wherever he sat,

was known for shuffling his feet,

so he would wear away the carpet quite easily.

And every desk in this room...

He's actually eventually decided

to cut out the carpet and stick it down,

so that he doesn't get his feet caught

in the holes that he's been wearing.

'Nerys plans to have the study open for visitors

'in the summer of 2015.

'I'm just glad I'm not one of the cleaners.

'In some of the rooms,

'the Trust are not only conserving signs of the family,

'they're actively creating them.'

It's a goose's egg cup that way

and a hen's egg cup that way.

Oh, that's very good, isn't it?

'Here's an imaginary breakfast,

'with clear evidence of where Lord Anglesey would sit.'

'And they've taken one of his jackets out of storage

'to complete the scene.

'What do we call this?

'Creative curation?

'In the living room,

'it's tea time.'

Yeah, it's all laid out, just as it might have been,

including rather stale-looking scones

and a used Chronicle, waiting to be read,

as if Lord and Lady Anglesey have just popped out to the shrubbery

to have a row about that oik Whistler trying to chat up

their daughter, Lady Paget.

But how far do you go?

Do you have a couple of damp Labradors

smelling in the hall?

Do you...?

Do you put dirty footprints across the carpet?

Do you ever, as the National Trust,

say, "No, no! Stop! Where it is,

"is enough. We've got there"?

We have to evolve, we have to adapt.

We make mistakes, we will make mistakes.

We'll do some really crappy interpretations at some times,

we'll do some good interpretations, but unless we adapt continuously,

we won't survive.

'One way that Nerys is aiming to survive

'is to develop the story of the house

'by bringing back a member of the family

'currently conspicuous in his absence.

'The more respectable members of the family,

'like the first Marquis,

'have their own museums to tell their stories.

'But hardly visible at all

'is the most colourful character...

'..the fifth Marquis,

'the dancing Marquis.'

In a way, the family didn't really want him to be on display.

They tended to not refer to him.

So Nerys has brought him back into prominence,

perhaps, against the family's wishes.

'Nerys is hoping to convince Justin

'to invest in a part of the estate that she thinks could illuminate

'the Victorian party atmosphere of the fifth Marquis -

'a series of tunnels from the house

'run directly to the Menai Straits.'

Definitely needs to be part of the visit

because it's such a historic part of the house.

'Nerys is hoping Justin will find money to reopen the tunnels

'and create a new attraction.

'This is how supplies got to the house,

'but it was also a place of recreation.

'When the tide is low,

'the water is held in a pool

'and it would have been lit by torches.

'There are tales of Victorian swimming parties here.'

So this is where the tunnel is, right?

So if you go through here, you'll find a 200-metre tunnel,

leading directly to the house.

Yes. Well, this is where the entrance would have been,

so, um, we're going to have to knock through here.

'The tunnels were closed by the sixth Marquis,

'possibly for safety reasons,

'but also perhaps to distance the family

'from their predecessor's decadent reputation.'

The family itself...

for a long time, didn't really want to recognise

the existence of the Marquis.

As much as, perhaps, the family at one point

disliked how he had made them appear

to the outside world,

he's still part of the history of this place

and he actually meant a lot to the local community here,

and I think that's a really important thing

to bring across to our visitors.

'Whether Nerys is right or wrong

'in welcoming the black sheep back into the family,

'it will cost money,

'and this is a place that eats money.'

There's no stop to conservation,

because things just get worse and worse and worse and worse.

If you look at Plas Newydd,

of the 20 rooms we show,

there's usually another 60 rooms that we can't show

cos they're falling apart.

And that is a continually growing conservation crisis

that National Trust faces.

'The costs of running a place like this

'do keep mounting.

'They need visitors,

'but visitors bring wear and tear.'

The National Trust inherits the actual problems

that the family would have had,

including just...standard maintenance.

Stair rods don't clean themselves,

although they do get the help of volunteers.

But 90,000 visitors quickly take their toll

and this carpet gets worn away.

So much so, that it had to be replaced at the end of the '90s

with a nice new one from Bulgaria.

'Some of the expenses are less visible.'

Well now, here's an important treasure

that not a lot of people notice.

The central heating.

In today's money, it would cost £80,000 in oil

to heat this house.

So you have inherited that problem?

I have.

And what are you doing about that?

We are getting rid of oil

and we're installing a marine source heat pump,

which is going to take heat directly from the Menai Straits,

convert it into electricity

and heat the whole of the mansion.

'This is a major undertaking

'for Nerys and the Trust.

'The heat pump will be one of the biggest in Europe.

'Cutting edge green technology,

'it is expected to save the estate

'over £40,000 a year...

'..but it's not actually a new idea.

'In fact, the last Marquis

'had considered exactly the same solution.'

He was a few years ahead of the National Trust.

I've actually found an article

that the seventh Marquis has ripped out of Country Life,

stuck a note on it, saying,

"Wouldn't this be a good idea? But I'm sure we can't afford it."

Um, and then the National Trust energy people came along

and decided, let's use some energy that we already have all around us,

convert that into the heat

that's going to be used to heat the entire house.

'Unlike the poor old Marquis,

'the organisation does have the funds for big investments like this.

'They're prepared to pay the £600,000

'because they've taken on this place for ever.

'They estimate that the pump will pay for itself over time.

'But the spending doesn't stop at the front door.'

This is not just a great house,

it's inarguably a great setting.

Plas Newydd has 160 acres or more of grounds,

looked after by

four and a half gardeners - that's 30 acres each.

'And everybody has to be aware of the tight budget.'

We're very good at making do

and scavenging

and finding things in skips,

and converting them from, you know, refuse

into the highest-quality visitor attractions.

'The garden we see here dates from the 1780s.

'Part of it was created by the great landscape designer

'Humphry Repton.

'His most visible legacy

'is the grand, mile-long drive.

'While Repton's design would have aimed to absorb the family

'for a whole Summer,

'how can a day visitor appreciate something of this scale?'

People can easily miss

a lot of the very interesting things that there are.

'So Paul is building little features around the gardens

'to help orientate people

'in this huge space.'

Dad, come here!

One of the things I'm quite opposed to is signs.

I don't like signs at all.

They're intrusive and my philosophy has always been,

you get people to move around a place,

not by saying "The such and such is over there" with an arrow pointing,

you have something on the near horizon

which is interesting and draws their attention.

'But the grounds will always throw up unexpected problems.'

I don't know if you can see,

but we've got a couple of sheep in the garden.

Can you stay there?

SHEEP BLEATS That's all right, it's good.

It's very annoying...

and they eat plants,

which costs us a bit of money.

Some of the old plants and trees from years and years ago will die.

Now, do we replant them exactly the same,

or do we add a little bit of our own interpretation?

That's a question we face every day.

Do you think you could get Paul?

There's a tree come down.

-It's not going to roll over anywhere.

-No, it isn't.

This is one of our two Zelkova serratas.

Right, Gill told me this morning it was a Zelkova,

but I didn't get the full name.

Yeah, she tried to call it a "jalfrezi" at first

and realised that was an Indian curry!

'The Trust cannot simply "look after" a place.

'Their mission evolves continuously.

'There is still hidden potential to be uncovered.

'Nerys takes me down to the cellars,

'where the family stored their bits and bobs.

'But what bits, and what bobs!'

And the whole of this cellar...

..is full of stuff like this?

It's just full of family treasures.

They've all been stored away for years and years

and now we're unwrapping them.

Wrapped away, as if it was of no consequence,

is a spyglass that belonged to Napoleon.

Some of the first Marquis' crutches.

You can see the "A" for "Anglesey" on it.

'And here's another useful find,

'something given to the fifth Marquis

'by the locals of Menai Bridge, back in 1896.'

"Our most hearty congratulations

"upon your attaining the 21st anniversary of your birth."

Crawlers.

Down here, we have...

What, 100 Christmases?

You know, "Darling, what have you brought me?"

"I brought you this trowel."

"Darling, what did you think of the pen I bought you?"

"I loved it, darling. I loved it."

"And what do you do with it?

"You put it with the others."

-I know how she feels, you know?

-NERYS LAUGHS

I've had Christmases like that as well.

'If Nerys has her way,

'these unconsidered trifles of a family's life

'are destined to make their way into the daylight.

'Meanwhile, the diary of visitor attractions continues.

'Nerys has organised VIP fee-paying events,

'like this tea in the Whistler room.'

We wouldn't normally let anybody sit there, let alone eat there,

so it's definitely a special occasion.

'Previously unseen bedrooms and bathrooms are being opened to view.'

It's nice, because for years, obviously, it's been closed off to the public.

And the only people that have been able to see this room would have been the Anglesey's guests.

'And the heat is on.'

It's really nicely warm now.

The history of this house, from the time of the first Baron Paget,

has been one of extraordinary complexity

and invention and change,

and now the Trust own it.

They've owned it for a tiny amount of time by comparison,

perhaps they'll own it for a further 600 years,

but does their ownership mean

that the story has finished?

Or are there future changes to come?

'I put that to Justin.'

However much we play around a little bit,

by opening up another room or opening up a tunnel,

or looking after the grounds or perhaps growing another tree,

or even putting an exhibition in the stables over there,

or change anything,

essentially, what's happened is,

we've reached a moment in time where we say, "Finish, full stop.

-"That's it."

-I hope not.

I hope not... I really hope not,

I hope this house grows and builds its collection.

There's elements here that will always stay the same,

but there's elements we can change.

And I think the National Trust

will become more of a curatorial organisation.

If we don't move with the times, we will stagnate,

and Nerys will have less and less and less visitors every year.

Of course, in the old days,

if you were a Baron or a Lord,

or even a dancing Marquis,

then you could pretty much do what you liked with this place.

You could add an extra wing or an octagonal tower,

or knock a bit down, or even go off to the south of France

and forget about it all together.

But if you're National Trust Wales,

you don't have that option

and there'll always be quite a few people

keeping an eye on you.