0:00:02 > 0:00:04Our great country houses...
0:00:04 > 0:00:09The most familiar, yet intriguing, sights Britain has to offer.
0:00:09 > 0:00:12Standing like sentinels in the landscape.
0:00:15 > 0:00:20Hundreds of thousands of us visit them every year, but not all are open to the public.
0:00:20 > 0:00:23I've been granted the privileged opportunity
0:00:23 > 0:00:28to pass through the portals of six of our greatest country houses
0:00:28 > 0:00:30normally hidden from public view.
0:00:32 > 0:00:38They've seen five centuries of British history, up close and personal.
0:00:40 > 0:00:45The families who built these houses played their part in great affairs of state.
0:00:47 > 0:00:51Central to their dreams, the great house -
0:00:51 > 0:00:53the ultimate status symbol.
0:00:53 > 0:00:57But all too often, also, the ultimate money drainer.
0:00:57 > 0:01:03Few of these families went the distance, but their houses did, with their secrets intact.
0:01:05 > 0:01:09This is their story, but it's also our story,
0:01:09 > 0:01:14for these houses offer a guided tour of our nation's hidden history.
0:01:31 > 0:01:32Back in the Middle Ages,
0:01:32 > 0:01:36it would have been madness to build anything so fanciful,
0:01:36 > 0:01:39so ostentatious, so open to attack,
0:01:39 > 0:01:43as a beautiful, undefended country house.
0:01:43 > 0:01:46They owe their birth to two primal forces.
0:01:46 > 0:01:52Peace, after decades of war, and to the all-too human desire to show off.
0:01:55 > 0:01:59It began in England, 500 years ago.
0:01:59 > 0:02:06Country houses were a creation of the Tudor age, taking root across the landscape.
0:02:07 > 0:02:10I'm on my way to explore one of the earliest...
0:02:12 > 0:02:14..South Wraxall Manor.
0:02:16 > 0:02:19This house, and the power-hungry family that built it,
0:02:19 > 0:02:22the Longs of Wiltshire,
0:02:22 > 0:02:26brilliantly embody the spirit of late medieval and Tudor England -
0:02:26 > 0:02:31ruthless opportunism, new money, social climbing.
0:02:33 > 0:02:38This really is one of England's most special and secret homes.
0:02:38 > 0:02:41It didn't just spring into the world fully formed, as you see it today.
0:02:41 > 0:02:48Its origins lie in this early 15th-Century Great Hall, with its projecting porch, and then,
0:02:48 > 0:02:55over the next 180 years or so, the house grew to reflect the expanding fortunes of the Long family.
0:02:57 > 0:03:00Beginning as a kind of medieval starter home,
0:03:00 > 0:03:03just a few small rooms clustered round a central hall,
0:03:03 > 0:03:07South Wraxall blossomed into one of the most beautiful homes in Wiltshire.
0:03:10 > 0:03:18It's a hidden gem, with its lush interiors, exquisite decoration and wealth of sumptuous fireplaces,
0:03:18 > 0:03:22all perfectly preserved through the centuries.
0:03:22 > 0:03:28But Wraxall also stands as a monument to the Long family's ruthless rise to the top.
0:03:29 > 0:03:35Simple country folk, who reinvented themselves as a hard-nosed dynasty of national statesmen.
0:03:37 > 0:03:41The house was an extension of their personality -
0:03:41 > 0:03:45ostentatious, but brutal and determined.
0:03:45 > 0:03:49Its beauty masks a darker tale of violence, even murder...
0:03:52 > 0:03:55..a darkness hinted at above the front door itself.
0:03:57 > 0:04:02Up there, on the oldest part of the house, is a startling series of gargoyles.
0:04:04 > 0:04:11One shows a beast - a lion or a dog - devouring a naked man, head first.
0:04:12 > 0:04:18Another shows a man being devoured feet first, or perhaps, vomited up.
0:04:20 > 0:04:21What can these mean?
0:04:22 > 0:04:27Are they warnings? Or are they declarations of intent?
0:04:28 > 0:04:32Wraxall's hideous beasts seem to be saying to all who approach,
0:04:32 > 0:04:34"Don't mess with me".
0:04:39 > 0:04:44These terrifying gargoyles were probably the brainchild of Robert Long,
0:04:44 > 0:04:51the man whose fierce ambition gave birth to this house, where he ruled as its first lord of the manor.
0:04:55 > 0:04:56Oh, this is tremendous.
0:04:56 > 0:04:59It's like going back in time.
0:05:00 > 0:05:07This is a stupendous medieval great hall, the beating heart of the home.
0:05:07 > 0:05:13It's so well preserved - a magnificent relic of our ancient past.
0:05:13 > 0:05:18Look up here, there's a terrific traceried window and, then,
0:05:18 > 0:05:21my word...the roof timbers.
0:05:23 > 0:05:31This mighty truss up here and, between the trusses, these delightful cusped panels.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34All of this, of course, was to do more than keep the rain out.
0:05:34 > 0:05:42It was to be seen and admired - to express status, taste and power.
0:05:42 > 0:05:46This is very much a medieval design statement.
0:05:50 > 0:05:54A statement of Robert Long's enormous egotism and drive,
0:05:54 > 0:05:58for he was both a new monied hotshot lawyer and a Wiltshire MP,
0:05:58 > 0:06:04the first of over 70 Longs who made their way into Parliament.
0:06:04 > 0:06:07On high days and holidays, he'd have wined and dined
0:06:07 > 0:06:13distinguished guests here, holding court in his own private fiefdom.
0:06:13 > 0:06:21In the centre of the hall, just about here, would have been originally a roaring open fire, with the smoke
0:06:21 > 0:06:26curling up past the roof timbers and leaving through a hole right up there.
0:06:26 > 0:06:30People sitting here would have seen, through the smoke,
0:06:30 > 0:06:34strange beings. Now, in a church in this period,
0:06:34 > 0:06:41those beings would most likely have been angels, but here, they are smirking,
0:06:41 > 0:06:44impish apes or monkeys.
0:06:50 > 0:06:58Seems to me there's an anti-clerical joke going on here, because in that corner is a carving of a monk.
0:07:00 > 0:07:05So there's a pun. Monks are monkeys and monkeys are monks.
0:07:05 > 0:07:09Long clearly had a wicked sense of humour.
0:07:12 > 0:07:16But it wasn't just Robert Long's sense of humour that was wicked.
0:07:16 > 0:07:20The story of Wraxall and the relentless rise of the Long dynasty
0:07:20 > 0:07:24is a tale of generations of double crossing and dodgy dealing.
0:07:26 > 0:07:32Here, you've a copy of the Longs' family tree, compiled in the 17th century.
0:07:32 > 0:07:37At the top is Robert Long, who died in 1446,
0:07:37 > 0:07:43but of course, families do not spring from nowhere, and we now understand
0:07:43 > 0:07:47that Robert Long's father was a chap called Long Thomas,
0:07:47 > 0:07:51a man embroiled in the rustling of livestock.
0:07:51 > 0:07:58So clearly at this stage in the 15th century, the Longs have a rather chequered history.
0:07:58 > 0:08:04More detail is provided by the History of Parliament. "Robert Long,
0:08:04 > 0:08:07"the founder of an important Wiltshire family,
0:08:07 > 0:08:11"though he was apparently of quite lowly origins,
0:08:11 > 0:08:16"and Robert was set up by one of the old Lords Hungerford" -
0:08:16 > 0:08:20a big local family - "and indeed, through this connection,
0:08:20 > 0:08:27"he became wealthy, he became a man of prestige and a man of power in his own right."
0:08:27 > 0:08:34Also we know that he used that power, when he felt like it, in a very unscrupulous manner.
0:08:34 > 0:08:36It says that here as well. He would abuse it.
0:08:36 > 0:08:41"He could fleece clients of their fees." So there we have it.
0:08:41 > 0:08:42This beautiful house
0:08:42 > 0:08:49founded on a fortune made in the most corrupt manner,
0:08:49 > 0:08:51by a most conniving fellow.
0:08:56 > 0:08:58But don't just take my word for it.
0:08:58 > 0:09:04To get a bigger understanding of how this combative, upwardly mobile family forced its way to the top,
0:09:04 > 0:09:09I'm off to meet one of their modern descendents, Sara Morrison.
0:09:09 > 0:09:14Well, we are surrounded by portraits of generations of Longs.
0:09:14 > 0:09:16What do you think it meant for them, South Wraxall?
0:09:16 > 0:09:21Their background is, well, shall we say chequered? What do you know about that?
0:09:21 > 0:09:23Well, it always struck me on what one heard,
0:09:23 > 0:09:27probably apocryphal stories as a child, that they were
0:09:27 > 0:09:32the most frightful cads and, probably,
0:09:32 > 0:09:36quite classy thieves, cattle thieves in particular.
0:09:36 > 0:09:38I think that's rather an honourable origin.
0:09:38 > 0:09:42I mean, that's a perfectly good learning curve for any family.
0:09:42 > 0:09:46Robber barons have a great history in this country.
0:09:46 > 0:09:52I always fancied that the original Long was such a classy cattle thief
0:09:52 > 0:09:59- that he was eventually rewarded by being given his pile of grey stones called the Manor House.- Yes.
0:09:59 > 0:10:05My Long relations still existed when I was a child, pooh-poohed it, because they liked to think
0:10:05 > 0:10:09they were more respectable than that, but certainly, as a child, it seemed to me
0:10:09 > 0:10:13that the right way to start in life was stealing other people's cows.
0:10:13 > 0:10:19And they seem to have been involved in law and Parliament,
0:10:19 > 0:10:22almost professional members of Parliament.
0:10:24 > 0:10:31The perfect beginning for maximum mischief-making on at least a county scale, if not a national scale.
0:10:31 > 0:10:38To be lawyers and politicians and hand in glove with local business is a very good mixture,
0:10:38 > 0:10:41for either making a great deal of money or going to jail,
0:10:41 > 0:10:44and I should think they probably did both in equal quantities,
0:10:44 > 0:10:49but I think all of them had a pretty devious self-serving touch,
0:10:49 > 0:10:53most particularly when it came to choosing who they married.
0:10:53 > 0:10:57I think they enriched their genes quite profitably,
0:10:57 > 0:11:00- literally and metaphorically, at almost every stage.- Mmm.
0:11:00 > 0:11:05They were efficient breeders, efficient marriers
0:11:05 > 0:11:10and efficient self-serving...individuals.
0:11:12 > 0:11:17In 1490, Robert Long's nephew, Thomas, inherited Wraxall Manor.
0:11:17 > 0:11:24In a mere 50 years, the Longs had become contenders in aristocratic circles, enabling Thomas to marry
0:11:24 > 0:11:31Margerie, daughter of Sir Geoffrey Darrell, the wealthy owner of the nearby estate of Draycott.
0:11:33 > 0:11:36Wraxall was becoming a showpiece for a family on the make -
0:11:36 > 0:11:41hungry for recognition, climbing the social ladder.
0:11:41 > 0:11:49Thomas's main contribution to the fabric of South Wraxall is this splendid symbolic gatehouse.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52It's very much tangible evidence of the new luxuries and freedoms
0:11:52 > 0:11:57of the English country house and very different to gatehouses of earlier periods,
0:11:57 > 0:12:03which are serious bits of defensive architecture, with battlements, moats and watchtowers.
0:12:05 > 0:12:10His gatehouse was a reflection of the huge changes in English society,
0:12:10 > 0:12:14brought about by Henry VII's reign and the dawn of the Tudor era.
0:12:14 > 0:12:19The old feudal order gave way to peace and prosperity.
0:12:19 > 0:12:23No need now for the castellated fortifications of a war-like age.
0:12:25 > 0:12:29It was goodbye to the drawbridge, hello to the welcome mat.
0:12:29 > 0:12:33So the gatehouse was no longer a place to repel enemies.
0:12:33 > 0:12:36It was more of a porter's lodge.
0:12:36 > 0:12:40The porter would come here and look through the little squint windows
0:12:40 > 0:12:45to see who was coming and report back to the people in the main house.
0:12:45 > 0:12:49All, really, I suppose the early, very early, 16th century equivalent
0:12:49 > 0:12:53to a modern-day video surveillance system.
0:12:56 > 0:13:01Visitors passing through Thomas's gatehouse would have been struck by one particular detail,
0:13:01 > 0:13:06a carving of a fetterlock, an ancient padlock used to shackle prisoners.
0:13:08 > 0:13:11The fetterlock was the ancient ancestral crest of Draycott,
0:13:11 > 0:13:15the estate Thomas eventually inherited through his marriage,
0:13:15 > 0:13:19so he just nabbed it as the Longs' first badge of honour.
0:13:21 > 0:13:28At the time, only high-class families could display heraldic devices, so by putting the fetterlock
0:13:28 > 0:13:33on the gatehouse, Thomas was making it clear to all people that the Longs
0:13:33 > 0:13:37had arrived, that they'd been elevated in stature and grandeur.
0:13:40 > 0:13:45Elevated, in fact, into royal circles.
0:13:46 > 0:13:53In 1496, Thomas helped Henry VII to capture the treacherous pretender to the throne, Perkin Warbeck.
0:13:55 > 0:14:01He was knighted at the wedding of Prince Arthur, the elder brother of the future King Henry VIII.
0:14:05 > 0:14:09And with Henry VIII's reign came a frenzy of country house building.
0:14:13 > 0:14:18Throughout England, the newly rich, with their huge disposable incomes,
0:14:18 > 0:14:23built trophy homes that boasted of wealth, taste and social aspiration.
0:14:24 > 0:14:27Henry was obsessed by building.
0:14:27 > 0:14:32He initiated a vast programme, that resulted in the purchase,
0:14:32 > 0:14:37the building or the remodelling of 55 palaces and large houses.
0:14:37 > 0:14:43He promoted the idea that a fine building was the badge of a fine man.
0:14:48 > 0:14:50Few Tudor royal homes survive.
0:14:51 > 0:14:53This is one of them, Hampton Court.
0:14:56 > 0:14:59Inside, it holds a fascinating painting
0:14:59 > 0:15:03that captures the Tudor's mania for showing off through building.
0:15:04 > 0:15:09This is The Field of the Cloth of Gold, a celebration held in 1520
0:15:09 > 0:15:16to forge an alliance between Henry VIII and King Francis of France.
0:15:17 > 0:15:20This was status architecture gone crazy,
0:15:20 > 0:15:24where pavilions were actually clad in fabrics woven from pure gold.
0:15:26 > 0:15:28It's brilliant, it's like a cartoon,
0:15:28 > 0:15:30really, or one of those graphic novels today,
0:15:30 > 0:15:33where you can see everything happening all at once,
0:15:33 > 0:15:36- and the golden tents give their name to the whole occasion.- Yes.
0:15:36 > 0:15:39- It's called The Field of the Cloth of Gold.- Yes.
0:15:39 > 0:15:45It was this party town they constructed outside Calais, and in the top tent there,
0:15:45 > 0:15:48that's the meeting of the kings, as brothers. They're friends at this point.
0:15:48 > 0:15:52- It doesn't last. - That's right, a celebration of peace that doesn't last.
0:15:52 > 0:15:56No, they're at war just a few years afterwards again.
0:15:56 > 0:15:58And in order to show their friendship,
0:15:58 > 0:16:05first they embraced and later on, they jousted and they danced and they had a wrestling match.
0:16:05 > 0:16:10And this pavilion here is a sort of welcome area, and it shows
0:16:10 > 0:16:15a lot of the main features of Tudor party architecture,
0:16:15 > 0:16:18- so it's very highly decorated. - Everything's ornamental.
0:16:18 > 0:16:21He's got statues on it, he's got the royal coat of arms.
0:16:21 > 0:16:23It's got HR for Henry, it's got the Tudor roses,
0:16:23 > 0:16:27and the splendour of a court doesn't just lie in the buildings, it lies in the people,
0:16:27 > 0:16:34the richly-dressed masses of people, and if you were a Tudor courtier
0:16:34 > 0:16:38you had to invest an awful lot in your appearance, so to buy a suit fit for wear at court,
0:16:38 > 0:16:41just a plain suit, cost the same amount of money as the rent
0:16:41 > 0:16:44- on a London townhouse for the whole year.- Really?
0:16:48 > 0:16:54So being one of the king's men at the Cloth of Gold meant you had really made it into the elite.
0:16:56 > 0:17:01This was a pivotal turning point in the fortunes of the Long family,
0:17:01 > 0:17:04for one of Henry's courtiers at the pageant was the man who inherited
0:17:04 > 0:17:10South Wraxall in 1508, Sir Henry Long.
0:17:11 > 0:17:16Henry Long gets knighted by Henry, and he was here at the party, so he may be one of these
0:17:16 > 0:17:22- little figures in the procession, or maybe watching the jousting. - But also I believe the Longs,
0:17:22 > 0:17:29I mean, Henry's here, but his son, of course, gets involved in the royal household, doesn't he, Robert Long?
0:17:29 > 0:17:33Well, Robert Long gets a significant position at court in the royal household,
0:17:33 > 0:17:38because he's made a Squire of the Body to Henry VIII, which means that he has a very significant job.
0:17:38 > 0:17:41- He helps the king to get dressed in the morning.- Yes.
0:17:41 > 0:17:46This is a position of enormous privilege, because if you were an assassin, this was your chance.
0:17:46 > 0:17:49You had to have really trustworthy people doing this job.
0:17:49 > 0:17:52Clearly the Longs were trustworthy, they were trusted?
0:17:52 > 0:17:55They were given very, very intimate access to the king?
0:17:55 > 0:17:58- Yeah and that means in a great position to ask for favours.- Yes.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01There's a record, in fact, that the best time to ask the king
0:18:01 > 0:18:06for a favour was when, after he'd had wine in the evening, when he was seated upon his closed stool.
0:18:06 > 0:18:09OK, you approach him with his codpiece.
0:18:09 > 0:18:12- He was then relaxed. - Got no defences, yes.
0:18:12 > 0:18:15I think what your guys, the Longs, tell us about the Tudor age
0:18:15 > 0:18:18- is that it's an age of mobility. - Yeah.
0:18:18 > 0:18:21You can see them rising up through the ranks,
0:18:21 > 0:18:24entering royal circles, becoming part of royal circles.
0:18:27 > 0:18:30As the ferociously single-minded Henry became
0:18:30 > 0:18:35the highest-ranking Long so far, so his influence rose across Wiltshire.
0:18:36 > 0:18:38The county was his for the taking,
0:18:38 > 0:18:44because Henry VIII had opened up amazing opportunities for land ownership.
0:18:45 > 0:18:50When he broke with the Roman Catholic Church in 1534, it launched the Reformation
0:18:50 > 0:18:54and, ultimately, led to the dissolution of the monasteries.
0:18:55 > 0:18:58Land that had been sacred for centuries fell into the hands
0:18:58 > 0:19:00of people like Henry Long -
0:19:00 > 0:19:04ruthless capitalists, who didn't miss a chance.
0:19:05 > 0:19:10Henry's royal connections paid huge dividends at the time of the dissolution,
0:19:10 > 0:19:15when he acquired large amounts of former monastic land from the Crown,
0:19:15 > 0:19:22including St Mary's Priory, near Kington St Michael, and Bradenstoke Priory, here in Wiltshire.
0:19:24 > 0:19:29Many of the old monastic buildings were turned into sumptuous private homes.
0:19:30 > 0:19:35Others were looted of the materials, to build new country houses.
0:19:37 > 0:19:39Bradenstoke itself is now ruined,
0:19:39 > 0:19:41barely even a shadow of its former self.
0:19:44 > 0:19:46But poking around in the dark,
0:19:46 > 0:19:50dank undercroft provides food for thought.
0:19:50 > 0:19:55It's a sobering reminder of how the king's sweeping reform
0:19:55 > 0:19:59brought untold reward to greedy, material folk, like Henry Long.
0:20:01 > 0:20:04Probably not rendered since the dissolution of the monasteries.
0:20:07 > 0:20:11The dissolution was a blaze of destruction.
0:20:11 > 0:20:17From its spoils, Henry could fund his own programme of construction.
0:20:24 > 0:20:29Back at South Wraxall Manor, Long, now a profiteering landlord,
0:20:29 > 0:20:34filled the house with a sophisticated decor the Tudor age expected.
0:20:36 > 0:20:43He modernised many parts of the building, adding all the mod cons of the early 16th century,
0:20:43 > 0:20:46such as fireplaces to all the rooms.
0:20:48 > 0:20:52As a man who had lived it up at The Field of the Cloth of Gold,
0:20:52 > 0:20:56Henry doubtless had a taste for the finer things in life,
0:20:56 > 0:21:02summed up by one writer of the period as, "stately and curious workmanship".
0:21:04 > 0:21:07This is "stately and curious workmanship", indeed.
0:21:07 > 0:21:09Look at this wonderful frieze up here.
0:21:11 > 0:21:16Carved acanthus leaf. Lovely. Very modish for the time.
0:21:16 > 0:21:18And below,
0:21:18 > 0:21:22a lovely linen fold carved oak panel.
0:21:22 > 0:21:25Really very, very high quality. Lovely.
0:21:25 > 0:21:31In this room, you can best see what Henry Long did to South Wraxall, very much in the spirit of the time.
0:21:31 > 0:21:37He wanted to increase its sense of privacy, comfort, convenience and luxury.
0:21:37 > 0:21:42He added this wonderful fireplace, in what was perhaps, once a larger room.
0:21:42 > 0:21:46He wanted to sit here, away from the noise and bustle in the Great Hall.
0:21:46 > 0:21:50Like I say, be private, be comfortable.
0:21:50 > 0:21:53And it's a lovely fashionable design, this,
0:21:53 > 0:21:59classical corners up here, the Tudor arch very much the theme of the moment.
0:21:59 > 0:22:03Also this fireplace tells a particular romantic tale.
0:22:03 > 0:22:05Look here in this corner.
0:22:05 > 0:22:07Initials...
0:22:07 > 0:22:10HL - Henry Long.
0:22:10 > 0:22:14Then we go along here... There's a wonderful carving, I think, of acanthus leaves
0:22:14 > 0:22:20and vines, commemorating what would happen in front of this fireplace - a good glass of wine.
0:22:20 > 0:22:25Then we get across to this side. Other initials. H, again - Henry.
0:22:25 > 0:22:32E - Eleanor, his second wife, and these initials are linked by a lover's knot. How very lovely.
0:22:32 > 0:22:38So this fireplace commemorates, in stone, their love, for eternity.
0:22:44 > 0:22:48The Tudor enthusiasm for exquisite decoration was meant to say,
0:22:48 > 0:22:51"I am a man of culture and refinement."
0:22:52 > 0:22:56But Henry was a Long, through and through.
0:22:56 > 0:23:01Perhaps his improvement to the house was simply a smokescreen for a much darker personality.
0:23:03 > 0:23:08Local historian Tim Couzens knows all about his wicked ways.
0:23:08 > 0:23:09He was quite a complex character.
0:23:09 > 0:23:13I think you can call him quite unscrupulous, overall.
0:23:13 > 0:23:16He has this, sort of, veneer of respectability.
0:23:16 > 0:23:23He has a brother at court, who is in daily contact with King Henry VIII,
0:23:23 > 0:23:25so, very high powered connections.
0:23:25 > 0:23:30And they kept that influence over a very, very long period of time.
0:23:30 > 0:23:37There's a great quote of him being called "a usurper", "a tyrant" even,
0:23:37 > 0:23:42and all sorts of disputes over land,
0:23:42 > 0:23:47where he could actually pack courts and have magistrates and juries
0:23:47 > 0:23:53that would just come down in his favour and, if they didn't, he actually locked them up.
0:23:53 > 0:23:57And if they still refused to come down in his favour, he actually wrote to King Henry VIII
0:23:57 > 0:24:03and it was directed, "I'll take your names and give me the names of the people that are not
0:24:03 > 0:24:08"acting in favour of Sir Henry Long in Wiltshire and we'll obviously sort them out in some way."
0:24:08 > 0:24:11You can imagine them being shipped off to the Tower.
0:24:11 > 0:24:15It's, sort of, kind of, a picture of a lawless world, where they were
0:24:15 > 0:24:18judge and jury, and they would stop at nothing, really, to achieve
0:24:18 > 0:24:24their ends, whether it's, sort of, about, you know, getting property, getting power, getting riches.
0:24:24 > 0:24:27Really, really, really an alarming world, isn't it?
0:24:27 > 0:24:30Yes. Within the county of Wiltshire, it's almost
0:24:30 > 0:24:36total power of being able to control how things were happening.
0:24:36 > 0:24:41Over a period of time, they're using the house to put the veneer
0:24:41 > 0:24:47of respectability on top of that and, of course, through time, that takes over, but in Wiltshire
0:24:47 > 0:24:52they were using their role as the sheriff to basically act as the law.
0:24:56 > 0:25:01South Wraxall Manor passed to Henry's son, Robert Long, in 1556.
0:25:03 > 0:25:07By then, Robert was the head of an enormously powerful dynasty.
0:25:07 > 0:25:11The Longs now owned nine estates across Wiltshire.
0:25:11 > 0:25:16But Robert had a novel plan for cementing the family's greatness, through building.
0:25:16 > 0:25:20He saw no point in spending any money doing up the manor,
0:25:20 > 0:25:24since only select guests would ever see inside it.
0:25:24 > 0:25:27Far better to big up the Longs' name and stature
0:25:27 > 0:25:32with a self-important gesture in the very heart of the local village.
0:25:32 > 0:25:35Robert did what many noble families did at the time.
0:25:35 > 0:25:42He tarted up the family chapel at the local parish church, in this case St James' at South Wraxall.
0:25:42 > 0:25:45Now, Robert left his mark here.
0:25:45 > 0:25:51Look, RL - Robert Long - and the date, 1566.
0:25:51 > 0:25:54He added this door, so the Longs could enter the church directly,
0:25:54 > 0:26:01rather than mixing with the common parishioners, who would've passed through this arch here.
0:26:01 > 0:26:04I will enter the church as the Longs did.
0:26:14 > 0:26:18This really is the hallowed land of the Longs.
0:26:18 > 0:26:23The family would have sat here, seeing the altar through the squint in front of me.
0:26:23 > 0:26:31Living Longs, surrounded by dead ancestors' bodies, in the crypt below,
0:26:31 > 0:26:34and, on the walls, gigantic monuments.
0:26:34 > 0:26:36Look at this one.
0:26:36 > 0:26:40A wonderful affair dating, I suppose, from the 1490s or so.
0:26:40 > 0:26:45It shows a Long widow. You can see that by her widow's veil,
0:26:45 > 0:26:53but her face tragically destroyed in some frenzied post-Reformation attack.
0:26:53 > 0:26:56The Longs' status symbols are everywhere.
0:26:56 > 0:27:02Here, their coat of arms, and yet again, the fetterlock, positively aglow
0:27:02 > 0:27:05in the chapel's windows.
0:27:08 > 0:27:13I must say, standing here, looking at this glorious stained glass, one's reminded
0:27:13 > 0:27:19of the lost stained glass from the Great Hall at South Wraxall. How wonderful that must have been,
0:27:19 > 0:27:22with celestial light flooding the Great Hall
0:27:22 > 0:27:29and bathing all those sitting there in these glorious hues.
0:27:37 > 0:27:42The Longs' chapel was a very public piece of self-publicity,
0:27:42 > 0:27:48but it's also testament to huge changes in society brought about by the Reformation.
0:27:51 > 0:27:54The Catholic Church's dominance had been overturned.
0:27:54 > 0:27:57Churches became more secular places.
0:27:57 > 0:28:03This allowed ego-driven families, like the Longs, to leave their mark in sacred spaces for all time.
0:28:05 > 0:28:09Blessed not only in this world, but also in the next.
0:28:16 > 0:28:23In 1581, Robert was succeeded by his eldest son, Walter Long,
0:28:23 > 0:28:25a man of enormous prestige.
0:28:25 > 0:28:32Not simply an MP and knight, but also a justice of the peace and rapacious landowner.
0:28:34 > 0:28:40And ultimately, Walter was the true master builder of South Wraxall.
0:28:41 > 0:28:47The manor, as we find it today, is the result of his ambition and verve.
0:28:47 > 0:28:52Beforehand, the house had grown as a series of small extensions.
0:28:52 > 0:28:55Walter tied them all together, built upwards and outwards
0:28:55 > 0:28:59into one great unified building
0:28:59 > 0:29:03that spoke splendidly of the Longs' bigness - bigger than ever before.
0:29:05 > 0:29:08But perhaps more than anything, Walter's story,
0:29:08 > 0:29:12a story that includes a dramatic feud with a local family,
0:29:12 > 0:29:14demonstrates that in Elizabethan England,
0:29:14 > 0:29:18one of the great spurs for building was one-upmanship.
0:29:18 > 0:29:22And building, of course, included the creation of spectacular interiors
0:29:22 > 0:29:27that were seen as badges of honour and status for the family.
0:29:29 > 0:29:33Walter's improvements at South Wraxall captured the fervour
0:29:33 > 0:29:39for elegance and civilised culture that characterised Elizabeth's reign -
0:29:39 > 0:29:44flamboyant displays of taste, wealth and comfort, for in the age of
0:29:44 > 0:29:49Elizabethan socialising, first impressions mattered enormously.
0:29:52 > 0:29:55Hence this sensational fireplace.
0:29:57 > 0:30:02It's dated 1598 and was the height of Renaissance fashion,
0:30:02 > 0:30:07but it contains some very curious and personal details,
0:30:07 > 0:30:09like the clock there in the centre
0:30:09 > 0:30:13is a face of Hercules or the Green Man,
0:30:13 > 0:30:17symbolising, I suppose, strength.
0:30:17 > 0:30:22Here is, once again, the fetterlock
0:30:22 > 0:30:25and below Hercules is a shield with,
0:30:25 > 0:30:29on the left, the Long lion and crosses,
0:30:29 > 0:30:32and on the right a bird,
0:30:32 > 0:30:36the emblem of the Carne family, that's Walter's mother's family.
0:30:36 > 0:30:40So this is not just a great architectural statement,
0:30:40 > 0:30:44but a monument to the family's distinction.
0:30:44 > 0:30:48I imagine Walter standing here with his friends,
0:30:48 > 0:30:53contemplating this fireplace... he would have been very proud.
0:30:56 > 0:30:59And he had much to be proud of.
0:30:59 > 0:31:01During the 16th century,
0:31:01 > 0:31:06European classical design had arrived in England with a vengeance.
0:31:06 > 0:31:13Home-owners added novel classical details as signs of sophistication.
0:31:13 > 0:31:15And Walter Long was no exception.
0:31:15 > 0:31:22The Great Hall's old oak screen was replaced around 1600 in the most fashionable Renaissance manner -
0:31:22 > 0:31:27all part of his thorough updating of Wraxall's decor.
0:31:29 > 0:31:35And in what is now the dining room, we find another of his great fireplaces.
0:31:35 > 0:31:41A masterpiece of symbolism, packed with clues like a cryptic crossword puzzle.
0:31:41 > 0:31:45It really is sensational. The whole fireplace is loaded with messages.
0:31:45 > 0:31:48Here, you see, it says "Faber est quisque."
0:31:48 > 0:31:53I mean, this is saying, "Every man is the architect
0:31:53 > 0:31:55"of his own fortunes."
0:31:55 > 0:32:01And here, "Praised by the good and to be abused by the bad
0:32:01 > 0:32:03"is all praise alike."
0:32:03 > 0:32:07These, I suppose, are moral messages that you can't really argue with.
0:32:07 > 0:32:09They're like mottos in a Christmas cracker.
0:32:09 > 0:32:12But in the middle is a rather more intriguing message,
0:32:12 > 0:32:15"Mors rapit omnia",
0:32:15 > 0:32:18"Death seizes all things."
0:32:18 > 0:32:22And that message is being delivered by a little Caliban creature, a monkey.
0:32:22 > 0:32:24Very strange.
0:32:24 > 0:32:25So peculiar.
0:32:25 > 0:32:29So what was this fireplace, this room, all about originally?
0:32:29 > 0:32:32Well, the first thing is that it was originally much smaller.
0:32:32 > 0:32:36It's now a rather charming, large, well-lit dining room
0:32:36 > 0:32:38that was created about 1700.
0:32:38 > 0:32:43Originally a small closet, just off the Great Hall over there,
0:32:43 > 0:32:48the Great Hall, a place of light, life, entertainment, the present.
0:32:48 > 0:32:51Here, of course, a tiny room, the counterpoint,
0:32:51 > 0:32:55come here to contemplate not this world but the next.
0:32:55 > 0:33:00Death, eternity, the afterlife, all things pass, be prepared,
0:33:00 > 0:33:02memento mori, very much the spirit of
0:33:02 > 0:33:05a late-Elizabethan, a Jacobean world.
0:33:05 > 0:33:08Death is ever present, in life there is death.
0:33:08 > 0:33:11That's the lesson of this little room and the fireplace.
0:33:13 > 0:33:15But there could be more.
0:33:17 > 0:33:19Perhaps Walter's relentless improvements to Wraxall
0:33:19 > 0:33:25were a direct response to the most scandalous and tragic incident in the Long family history.
0:33:27 > 0:33:32For all was not as it seemed behind Walter's highly refined country house.
0:33:32 > 0:33:37Deep down, he was as manipulative and self-important as his ancestors.
0:33:41 > 0:33:44Despite the civilised manners of 17th-century society,
0:33:44 > 0:33:49fierce and bloody rivalries were still raging across England's shires.
0:33:53 > 0:33:57And the Longs were embroiled in a bitter feud of one-upmanship
0:33:57 > 0:34:00with another Wiltshire dynasty, the Danvers.
0:34:02 > 0:34:06Sir Walter was by then high on his own grandeur,
0:34:06 > 0:34:10having married into the fabulously wealthy family of Longleat.
0:34:11 > 0:34:13Together with his brother Henry,
0:34:13 > 0:34:19he was determined to show the Danvers who really ruled the roost around his manor.
0:34:23 > 0:34:26The row started as a petty squabble
0:34:26 > 0:34:30but, by looking at the records in Britain's national archives,
0:34:30 > 0:34:33we can see how it got completely out of hand.
0:34:33 > 0:34:38I'm looking through some of the state papers domestic of Queen Elizabeth I
0:34:38 > 0:34:44and this story is told in these papers in some considerable detail, clearly regarded as an event of,
0:34:44 > 0:34:48well, of national importance and certainly quite some feud.
0:34:48 > 0:34:54"A true declaration of the ground of the conceived mislike of Sir Walter Long, Knight,
0:34:54 > 0:34:57"and Henry Long, Gent, his brother,
0:34:57 > 0:35:03"against Sir John Danvers, Knight, his sons and followers."
0:35:03 > 0:35:07So here we see the characters in this play that's about to unfold in front of me.
0:35:07 > 0:35:09It's incredible.
0:35:09 > 0:35:11The account explains how Henry Long and one of his servants
0:35:11 > 0:35:17carried out a robbery on a Danvers property, provoking their ire.
0:35:17 > 0:35:21All too quickly, it escalated.
0:35:21 > 0:35:23Ah, now here we go.
0:35:23 > 0:35:27This paper talks of "many insolent behaviours"
0:35:27 > 0:35:32and how one of Danvers' servants was murdered by a Long servant
0:35:32 > 0:35:36and another one dangerously wounded.
0:35:36 > 0:35:39Heady stuff. Clearly, the Longs are carrying out enormities
0:35:39 > 0:35:42against their rivals, the Danvers,
0:35:42 > 0:35:47and people are being murdered, wounded. Golly.
0:35:47 > 0:35:51Sir John Danvers, a magistrate, seized the upper hand,
0:35:51 > 0:35:54by charging four of Walter Long's servants with murder.
0:35:54 > 0:35:58When his son Charles tried to make peace by exchanging gentlemanly letters,
0:35:58 > 0:36:01it could all have been settled
0:36:01 > 0:36:05except Walter's brother Henry fired off poisonous letters in return.
0:36:05 > 0:36:10So Henry taunts Sir Charles,
0:36:10 > 0:36:16"Sundry times, sending him word that wheresoever
0:36:16 > 0:36:19"he met him, he would untie his points" -
0:36:19 > 0:36:21he wants to take his trousers down -
0:36:21 > 0:36:29"and whip him with a rod, calling him ass, puppy fool and boy."
0:36:29 > 0:36:32That is fighting talk. Just picture that.
0:36:32 > 0:36:34This really is...
0:36:34 > 0:36:37you know, this is it, isn't it?
0:36:37 > 0:36:40It's heading for an absolute incredible violent collision.
0:36:40 > 0:36:44You can't just call a chap those things, can you, and get away with it?
0:36:44 > 0:36:46BELL CHIMES
0:36:46 > 0:36:48And he couldn't.
0:36:50 > 0:36:54The Danvers boys had been pushed too far, humiliated.
0:36:56 > 0:36:59They wanted revenge.
0:37:00 > 0:37:04On October 4th, accompanied by a gang of over 20 retainers,
0:37:04 > 0:37:07they burst into a house in the village of Corsham,
0:37:07 > 0:37:10where the Longs were having dinner.
0:37:10 > 0:37:13According to the Corsham coroner's court records,
0:37:13 > 0:37:17Henry Danvers "did assault the aforesaid Henry Long
0:37:17 > 0:37:21"and the aforesaid Henry Danvers voluntarily,
0:37:21 > 0:37:25"feloniously and of malice propense,
0:37:25 > 0:37:31"did discharge in and upon the said Long a certain engine called a dag,"
0:37:31 > 0:37:33a type of primitive pistol,
0:37:33 > 0:37:36"charged with powder and a bullet of lead
0:37:36 > 0:37:39"which Henry Danvers had in his right hand
0:37:39 > 0:37:45"and inflict a mortal wound upon the upper part of the body of Long,
0:37:45 > 0:37:52"under the left breast, of which wound he instantly died." Bang!
0:37:56 > 0:37:59As Henry lay dead, the Danvers fled.
0:37:59 > 0:38:01The chase was on.
0:38:04 > 0:38:11The High Sheriff of Wiltshire and the justices of the peace set out to capture them.
0:38:11 > 0:38:14The Danvers headed to Titchfield, near Southampton,
0:38:14 > 0:38:19where their friend, the Earl of Southampton, hid them away.
0:38:19 > 0:38:22In a matter of days, they made a getaway to France,
0:38:22 > 0:38:26evading justice for many years.
0:38:29 > 0:38:33But because the Earl of Southampton was one of William Shakespeare's great patrons,
0:38:33 > 0:38:39some people believe the Longs' feud inspired one of the Bard's greatest plays,
0:38:39 > 0:38:41Romeo And Juliet.
0:38:41 > 0:38:43Historian Jonathan Bate is one of them.
0:38:43 > 0:38:46It's in the mix. The timing is right.
0:38:46 > 0:38:51The events took place in late-1594
0:38:51 > 0:38:54and Romeo And Juliet was written the following year.
0:38:54 > 0:39:01Now, that's not to say that Romeo And Juliet is a dramatisation of the Danvers/Long feud
0:39:01 > 0:39:06but the interesting question is, why does Shakespeare decide to dramatise
0:39:06 > 0:39:11a story about a family feud at this time, at this moment?
0:39:11 > 0:39:16It's the Southampton connection that is the real key here.
0:39:16 > 0:39:18We have to go back to 1592,
0:39:18 > 0:39:22just the moment Shakespeare's establishing himself as a successful playwright,
0:39:22 > 0:39:25but then the theatres get closed down because of plague.
0:39:25 > 0:39:28Well, what a writer does when it's not possible to put on plays
0:39:28 > 0:39:32and make money that way, is target a wealthy patron,
0:39:32 > 0:39:36so Shakespeare leaves London and writes some poems and dedicates them
0:39:36 > 0:39:40to the Earl of Southampton and they seem to have done the trick.
0:39:40 > 0:39:44There's a fair bit of evidence that, by the summer of 1594,
0:39:44 > 0:39:47Shakespeare has got a close connection with the Earl of Southampton
0:39:47 > 0:39:52and he may, indeed, even be staying with Southampton down at Titchfield
0:39:52 > 0:39:56because what happens very soon after this is the theatres re-open
0:39:56 > 0:40:01and new theatre companies form and Shakespeare starts writing some of his greatest plays.
0:40:01 > 0:40:05Well, Shakespeare probably wasn't at the house when the Danvers turned up,
0:40:05 > 0:40:08but he would have found out about them, about it, the feud,
0:40:08 > 0:40:14and I suppose one can say that that the notion of feuding families,
0:40:14 > 0:40:16that inspired him, did it?
0:40:16 > 0:40:20That's right and, of course, the thing about Shakespeare's plays is that,
0:40:20 > 0:40:23although they're usually set abroad, they do feel very English,
0:40:23 > 0:40:27so when you get the servants fighting at the beginning of Romeo And Juliet,
0:40:27 > 0:40:30these are English servants, they have English names.
0:40:30 > 0:40:32So there's a sort of double-take going on.
0:40:32 > 0:40:36Yes, on the one hand, we're in Verona, but on the other hand, we're in England,
0:40:36 > 0:40:41so that means that Shakespeare's audience would have connected the family feud,
0:40:41 > 0:40:43the Capulets and the Montagues in the play,
0:40:43 > 0:40:49with family feuds among great houses in England and certainly the most notorious,
0:40:49 > 0:40:55the most talked about feud of that time, especially in this Southampton circle, was Danvers and Long.
0:40:57 > 0:41:03So it's no mere coincidence that, in the years immediately following his brother's brutal murder,
0:41:03 > 0:41:08Walter Long turned South Wraxall into one of the finest homes of its time.
0:41:10 > 0:41:13Beautifying the manor was about having the upper hand,
0:41:13 > 0:41:17showing that the Longs were still a force to be reckoned with.
0:41:19 > 0:41:25Walter masked his own devious involvement in the affair with domestic glory,
0:41:25 > 0:41:27and it doesn't get more glorious than this.
0:41:28 > 0:41:33This is Walter's most splendid creation at South Wraxall.
0:41:33 > 0:41:37He transformed the Great Chamber into this drawing room.
0:41:37 > 0:41:41It really is a visual explosion, almost an assault.
0:41:41 > 0:41:47Look at these huge windows in front of me and over there, letting light flood inside.
0:41:47 > 0:41:52They are in themselves a statement of wealth, cos glass was still relatively expensive at that time.
0:41:54 > 0:41:57Above, is a splendid barrel-vaulted ceiling,
0:41:57 > 0:42:04a wondrous thing festooned with carvings - faces, suns, moons,
0:42:04 > 0:42:08perhaps even the moustachioed face of Walter Long himself.
0:42:09 > 0:42:12An image of the vault of heaven.
0:42:12 > 0:42:17Best of all, of course, is this overwhelming fireplace.
0:42:17 > 0:42:19Just look at it.
0:42:19 > 0:42:23This is one of the greatest creations of late-Tudor England.
0:42:23 > 0:42:29It was carved by local masons, but nobody knows who designed it.
0:42:29 > 0:42:32Perhaps it was Walter Long himself.
0:42:32 > 0:42:39Certainly is packed with lots of messages and meanings, most of them moral rather than Christian,
0:42:39 > 0:42:46and I suppose many would be appropriate for Walter and this part of the country.
0:42:46 > 0:42:49In the centre we see an image of Pan,
0:42:49 > 0:42:51the god of nature,
0:42:51 > 0:42:55of shepherds and flocks who lived in Arcadia.
0:42:55 > 0:43:02Well, of course, this was wool country at the time and is part of Wiltshire, as beautiful as Arcadia.
0:43:02 > 0:43:10At its end we have, well, here an image of Prudence and over there an image of Justice,
0:43:10 > 0:43:16again very appropriate attributes for Walter as lord of the manor and magistrate.
0:43:16 > 0:43:19He should indeed be prudent and just.
0:43:19 > 0:43:23Each side of Pan we have representations of arithmetic
0:43:23 > 0:43:26and geometry, the attributes of architecture.
0:43:26 > 0:43:32What's really remarkable about this great creation is that it shows how
0:43:32 > 0:43:39Walter Long brought the virtues of Renaissance civilisation to this part of rural Wiltshire.
0:43:43 > 0:43:48Walter's drawing room is the epitome of domestic comfort and grandeur,
0:43:48 > 0:43:52one of the most spectacular rooms of the Elizabethan Age.
0:43:52 > 0:43:55It seems to proclaim victory, showing that Walter Long,
0:43:55 > 0:44:02unlike Henry Danvers, was a civilised fellow, no crude, pistol-wielding assassin.
0:44:03 > 0:44:08The splendour of South Wraxall remains a testament to Walter's ambition.
0:44:08 > 0:44:12He wanted his house to be fit for a king.
0:44:12 > 0:44:17But this wasn't just lofty posturing. He'd pulled it off.
0:44:17 > 0:44:23The family was now beginning to earn its place among the great and powerful in British history.
0:44:23 > 0:44:27The social ascent of the Longs had now reached its peak.
0:44:27 > 0:44:32Incidents in their family's history had perhaps inspired William Shakespeare.
0:44:32 > 0:44:37They were acquainted with Queen Elizabeth and visited by eminent characters
0:44:37 > 0:44:40such as Sir Walter Raleigh, the chap who brought tobacco to England -
0:44:40 > 0:44:44indeed, probably brought tobacco to South Wraxall.
0:44:46 > 0:44:52The Raleigh legend haunts the building today - quite literally, for some.
0:44:52 > 0:44:54Generations of visitors have been spooked
0:44:54 > 0:44:58by a ghostly scent of tobacco smoke appearing as if from nowhere.
0:45:00 > 0:45:03But Raleigh isn't the only spectre to walk these halls.
0:45:03 > 0:45:07Another ghostly tale hangs over Wraxall's history.
0:45:07 > 0:45:14It concerns the dastardly, backstabbing behaviour of Sir Walter's second wife, Catherine.
0:45:14 > 0:45:17By now, the Longs' tradition of cunning and conniving
0:45:17 > 0:45:21was so ingrained that the family was turning on itself.
0:45:21 > 0:45:25Catherine was the ultimate wicked stepmother,
0:45:25 > 0:45:27masterminding a devious plan to prevent
0:45:27 > 0:45:33Walter's eldest son, John Long, from inheriting the family fortune.
0:45:33 > 0:45:37As the 17th-century historian John Aubrey tells it...
0:45:37 > 0:45:43"The second wife did use much artifice to render the son by the first wife,
0:45:43 > 0:45:48"who had not much Promethean fire, odious to his father.
0:45:48 > 0:45:53"She would get her acquaintances to make him drunk
0:45:53 > 0:45:57"and then expose him in that condition to his father.
0:45:57 > 0:46:02"She never left off her attempts till she got Sir Walter to disinherit him."
0:46:04 > 0:46:09With the help of her lawyer brother, Catherine plotted to change Walter's will,
0:46:09 > 0:46:16to leave all the family's considerable riches to their first-born son, also named Walter.
0:46:16 > 0:46:21But her dastardly scheme seems to have aroused the spirits of South Wraxall.
0:46:21 > 0:46:27The clerk employed to commit John's fate to paper was horrified when
0:46:27 > 0:46:33"a fine white hand interposed between the writing and the candle.
0:46:33 > 0:46:37"He could discern it was a woman's hand - and then vanished."
0:46:37 > 0:46:41This happened not once, not twice, but thrice.
0:46:41 > 0:46:44The clerk was terrified.
0:46:44 > 0:46:49He imagined - he was sure - it was the hand of the late Lady Long.
0:46:49 > 0:46:53He threw down his pen and he refused to continue writing.
0:46:57 > 0:46:59In the end, there was a compromise.
0:46:59 > 0:47:02Young Walter got the house nearby at Draycott.
0:47:02 > 0:47:05Young John inherited Wraxall.
0:47:05 > 0:47:11Perhaps John's mother had indeed saved the day, from the afterlife.
0:47:11 > 0:47:17And fanciful though the tale of the white hand seems, there is something haunting about South Wraxall.
0:47:20 > 0:47:25There's a strange aura that's got me thinking about the very origin of the building.
0:47:26 > 0:47:34So here we are, back where we started, back to these extraordinary man-eating gargoyles.
0:47:34 > 0:47:42But I wonder, it now occurs to me, these were created not so much to ward off evil,
0:47:42 > 0:47:47but as to act as warnings - warnings from the past to the future,
0:47:47 > 0:47:51warnings that this is an ancient haunted site.
0:47:51 > 0:47:57Even in the 15th century, this was a strange and magical realm.
0:48:05 > 0:48:10By the 18th century, the haunted tag stuck to Wraxall Manor.
0:48:10 > 0:48:15In the family's eyes, the building had become tainted by a curse.
0:48:15 > 0:48:20With 14,000 acres of land and many houses at their disposal,
0:48:20 > 0:48:25they neither wanted nor needed to live there.
0:48:25 > 0:48:28Wraxall was a mere bauble in their empire,
0:48:28 > 0:48:33used as a rest home for spinster aunts or often just left empty.
0:48:33 > 0:48:37But that, ironically, is what saved it.
0:48:37 > 0:48:44Never modernised to adapt to changing tastes and fashions, it remained trapped in time.
0:48:49 > 0:48:54But as the 20th century arrived, the Long empire was in sharp decline.
0:48:54 > 0:48:59Most of their estates and lands were sold off and South Wraxall Manor
0:48:59 > 0:49:04once again became the main residence of what was left of the Long family.
0:49:04 > 0:49:07Sara Morrison grew up there.
0:49:07 > 0:49:12I was there until I was five with my father, until the beginning of the war.
0:49:12 > 0:49:19And so I remember it through rose-tinted spectacles as a small child.
0:49:19 > 0:49:23Old Walter Long, my great- grandfather, and my father's father,
0:49:23 > 0:49:26- had been killed in the First World War.- Yes.
0:49:26 > 0:49:33And so getting it back was sort of my father recapturing it, if you like, for the Longs.
0:49:33 > 0:49:40When Sara's father was tragically killed in the Second World War, she inherited the house,
0:49:40 > 0:49:46which was soon rented out to a family friend, Lord Rothermere, owner of the Daily Mail.
0:49:46 > 0:49:51I had the unusual experience of spending a lot of holidays there, as it were, a guest in my own house.
0:49:51 > 0:49:59And so I had a sort of second childhood at Wraxall in the late-40s and early-50s,
0:49:59 > 0:50:06when it was under Rothermere command, and the whole world walked through its front door.
0:50:06 > 0:50:08- Evelyn Waugh...- Yeah.
0:50:08 > 0:50:10..I remember, because he was so disagreeable.
0:50:10 > 0:50:13And I remember being told that we'd got to mind our manners
0:50:13 > 0:50:16if we were going to have lunch in the dining room,
0:50:16 > 0:50:21because people like Evelyn Waugh took great exception to unpleasant children.
0:50:21 > 0:50:26What those grown-ups didn't understand is that we took great exception to unpleasant grown-ups.
0:50:26 > 0:50:28And I remember Ian Fleming there,
0:50:28 > 0:50:32because we were told that he was frightfully glamorous and a spy,
0:50:32 > 0:50:35and us looking at this figure, sort of leaning back in his chair
0:50:35 > 0:50:38and saying, "If he was a spy, absolutely ridiculous,
0:50:38 > 0:50:42"anybody would see that he was a ridiculous Englishman at 500 yards -
0:50:42 > 0:50:45"can't possibly have been a spy, they don't look like that!"
0:50:45 > 0:50:47And being told that we were...
0:50:47 > 0:50:49And did he like a dry Martini?
0:50:49 > 0:50:52He, er...
0:50:52 > 0:50:54Do you know, he did in those days,
0:50:54 > 0:50:58and of course that's an odd thought, to think that that was the last time
0:50:58 > 0:51:01that one heard the constant noise of cocktail shakers.
0:51:01 > 0:51:05To move on a bit, then, you're a guest in your own home.
0:51:05 > 0:51:09Then eventually you are mistress of your own home - when did that happen?
0:51:09 > 0:51:13Well, that happened when, rather tactfully, I married a Wiltshireman,
0:51:13 > 0:51:18and my grandmother reckoned that the minute Charlie and I were married, we would live at Wraxall.
0:51:18 > 0:51:24He was 21 and I was 19, and we moved into Wraxall.
0:51:24 > 0:51:28To begin with, I was thrilled, but increasingly it became obvious
0:51:28 > 0:51:34that unless one could afford to do it really easily and really well
0:51:34 > 0:51:40and wanted to become something of a slave to a medieval museum,
0:51:40 > 0:51:47it was just not the way that suited us to live indefinitely at that stage.
0:51:47 > 0:51:53We were very young and eventually moved out in about 1965.
0:51:53 > 0:51:56Oh, you moved out then? It was let?
0:51:56 > 0:51:58- No, no, we sold it then, we sold it. - You sold it in '65?
0:51:58 > 0:52:05Sold it in '65. At the time, strange to say, it was a no-brainer.
0:52:05 > 0:52:11Tomorrow mattered more than yesterday, as it were, and it just seemed that it was going to be
0:52:11 > 0:52:16the wrong thing to do, to try and keep it, against the odds.
0:52:16 > 0:52:18I thought the time had come.
0:52:20 > 0:52:24The bad moment when I left, which was meant so very kindly,
0:52:24 > 0:52:30was the village sadly asked me to go to the village hall
0:52:30 > 0:52:34and the village gave a goodbye party for the last Long.
0:52:34 > 0:52:36That, that was bad.
0:52:36 > 0:52:39That was exactly like going to one's own funeral.
0:52:39 > 0:52:44And in fact I felt that it would have been more suitable if they'd shot me instead of being nice.
0:52:49 > 0:52:54The evening I actually left there and was the last member of the family to go,
0:52:54 > 0:52:57I did sort of feel that I was...
0:52:57 > 0:53:02Oh, I don't know, spitting on the altar of the ancestors or killing them all, all over again.
0:53:02 > 0:53:08And just for a moment I thought, "Oh, maybe I am very, very unpleasant indeed
0:53:08 > 0:53:10"and shouldn't be doing this."
0:53:10 > 0:53:15But I'm a complete meritocrat.
0:53:15 > 0:53:21I think the Longs had a hell of a good run and rather a long one in Wiltshire.
0:53:23 > 0:53:29But I'll feel that it's rather suitable that a house that had lived through so much history
0:53:29 > 0:53:32should be casting its sort of historic shadow
0:53:32 > 0:53:35over essentially new modern people
0:53:35 > 0:53:41as opposed to anachronistic old bits of yesterday, like me.
0:53:43 > 0:53:46In the 40 years after the Longs departed for good,
0:53:46 > 0:53:54South Wraxall changed hands three times, the latter owner planning to convert it into a luxury hotel.
0:53:54 > 0:53:59Then, in 2004, its fortunes turned when it was spotted in Los Angeles
0:53:59 > 0:54:02by some very modern people indeed.
0:54:05 > 0:54:09Rock musician John Taylor of Duran Duran and his wife,
0:54:09 > 0:54:15Gela Nash-Taylor, co-founder of fashion label Juicy Couture.
0:54:15 > 0:54:19'For Gela, it was love at first sight.
0:54:20 > 0:54:26'The manor's current restoration and authentic furnishings are all down to her determination
0:54:26 > 0:54:30'to create the perfect embodiment of English country-house living.'
0:54:33 > 0:54:37Did you have an image in your mind of the sort of English house you wanted?
0:54:37 > 0:54:41- Yes.- Oh!- I was obsessed with Gosford Park and that was...
0:54:41 > 0:54:44I think that's got to be every American's fantasy, is Gosford Park.
0:54:44 > 0:54:47So in my head that's what I was looking for.
0:54:47 > 0:54:50I mean, for me, it was the whole combination of
0:54:50 > 0:54:52the silver services and dressing for dinner.
0:54:52 > 0:54:56And I think it's fun to be an American in an English world like that, too,
0:54:56 > 0:55:00because I think we probably see things a little bit different.
0:55:00 > 0:55:07I saw it in Country Life and called up and had to come and see it, flew over to see it.
0:55:07 > 0:55:10And then the first time I saw it, it was very dark,
0:55:10 > 0:55:15and I'd never been inside a manor house before. And it was crazy.
0:55:15 > 0:55:20I mean, the fireplaces just were unbelievable,
0:55:20 > 0:55:23and when I first would come to stay here, every night before I went to bed,
0:55:23 > 0:55:27I would walk in that room and just, because I'm a designer
0:55:27 > 0:55:30and I'm affected by my surroundings and by aesthetics,
0:55:30 > 0:55:33this place is just, it's heaven.
0:55:33 > 0:55:37I mean, you just come here and the beauty of the house
0:55:37 > 0:55:40just speaks to you, it's just incredible to live here.
0:55:42 > 0:55:46You really can't help, when you're sitting around, to sort of think,
0:55:46 > 0:55:50you know, who was here before and what were they doing and what were their lives like?
0:55:50 > 0:55:54When you live in such an old, historical place, you think about that, there's no way around it.
0:55:54 > 0:55:59And I think that we, my family, were just so fortunate
0:55:59 > 0:56:04to have stumbled upon it and then met amazing people to help us restore it.
0:56:04 > 0:56:06I definitely wanted it to be English.
0:56:06 > 0:56:11I wanted the bulk of the furniture to be English antiques.
0:56:11 > 0:56:14I wanted to feel when you walked in that it was the way it is.
0:56:14 > 0:56:19It doesn't feel, when you walk in, you don't look around and feel like it was just decorated.
0:56:19 > 0:56:22There's nothing about it that feels that way. It feels authentic.
0:56:22 > 0:56:28There are of course some rather wonderful ghost stories about this house. Do you feel it's haunted?
0:56:28 > 0:56:30Do you ever feel anything like that?
0:56:30 > 0:56:35No, but both of my girls, the first few times they stayed here, came screaming over to us.
0:56:35 > 0:56:38They were sure that there were ghosts in their rooms.
0:56:38 > 0:56:43- And then there's the legend of Sir Walter Raleigh smoking the first pipe...- Yes.- ..in the Raleigh Room.
0:56:43 > 0:56:49- So people will say, "Mmm, did you smell smoke when you were sleeping in that room?" But...- And did you?!
0:56:49 > 0:56:54Well, I never have, no, not personally, but I think if there are ghosts,
0:56:54 > 0:56:58they're happy that we're here, so they're sort of chilled.
0:56:58 > 0:57:00They let us be.
0:57:04 > 0:57:09But South Wraxall is filled with presence, traces and memories.
0:57:09 > 0:57:14To visit the house is to wander through an amazing relic of British history,
0:57:14 > 0:57:19but also to intimately feel the pride, passion and power
0:57:19 > 0:57:22of the unstoppable force of nature that built it -
0:57:22 > 0:57:26the ancient Long dynasty.
0:57:26 > 0:57:30This extraordinary building stands as a permanent monument
0:57:30 > 0:57:34to four men who used any means necessary, fair or foul,
0:57:34 > 0:57:38to make it the hidden architectural marvel it is today -
0:57:40 > 0:57:46Walter, Henry, Thomas and of course Robert, who laid the foundations
0:57:46 > 0:57:51with his magnificent Great Hall almost 600 years ago.
0:57:52 > 0:57:55Amazing.
0:57:55 > 0:58:00South Wraxall Manor retains its magical quality,
0:58:00 > 0:58:02its labyrinth-like charm -
0:58:02 > 0:58:06around every corner, a new delight, a new telling detail.
0:58:06 > 0:58:11But taken all together, it's transported me back to the Tudor Age,
0:58:11 > 0:58:16the age that saw the birth of the great English country house.
0:58:38 > 0:58:41Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:41 > 0:58:44E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk