Transformed for a modern age, this historic ancestral home now successfully embraces family life and guests within its grand walls
AT HOME
Lord and Lady Fitzalan Howard live in Lord Geralds ancestral home, Carlton Towers in Yorkshire, with children Arthur, 20, Flossie, 18, and Grace, 16, as well as family dogs Sprout, a Jack Russell, and black labradors Frank and Bowser. The house, dating from the 15th century, has undergone many alterations over the centuries.
Family life in a stately home has its complications, especially when the house in question still retains aged Edwardian plumbing. "We moved up to Yorkshire to live at Carlton Towers when Arthur, our eldest son, was just a month old," recalls Lady Gerald Fitzalan Howard. "The original kitchen was about half a mile from our bedroom and the heating was pretty basic, so sprinting between the two with a babe in arms helped me keep warm," she laughs.
Lady Gerald, or Emma, as she prefers to be called, was married to Lord Gerald, the brother of the Duke of Norfolk some twenty years ago. Since then, the couples aim has been to make Carlton Towers earn its living as a business as well as being a family home. "The estate, which encompasses over 3000 acres, has been in Geralds family for centuries," says Emma. "In the Domesday Book there is a mention of a house on this site but there are no visible remains of it. However, the earliest part of the existing house is Jacobean and dates from 1614 and that is the part in which we live," she adds, relaxing for a brief moment in the family kitchen. Daughters, Flossie and Grace, are home from school for the half - term and need lunch. Emma continues to explain that, in the late eighteenth century, the long east wing was added by Thomas Stapleton, which contained a neo - classical chapel as well as incorporating extensive stabling for the horses he bred and raced. In due course, the house passed to his great nephew, the 8th Lord Beaumont, who put his own mark on the house by gothicising the facade and converting the chapel into an enfilade of state rooms with a series of smaller rooms behind. His son Henry, the 9th Lord Beaumont, embarked on yet another extravagant building programme having engaged Edward Pugin, the architect son of Augustus Pugin who designed the Houses of Parliament. Edward Pugins hugely ambitious designs for the house, which involved adding turrets, castellations, gargoyles and innumerable coats of arms, subsequently led to a name change. "Carlton House was upgraded and became Carlton Towers," she adds.
Soon after moving to Carlton, Emma embarked upon an improvement programme of her own, but rather than building yet more turrets she concentrated on modernising what was already there. "One of the ways that Carlton Towers earns its keep is as a venue for parties, weddings, shoots and various corporate events, so the first stage involved doing up five bedrooms and bathrooms where guests could stay. But for a shooting weekend one needs at least eight bedrooms, so we started thinking about refurbishing the whole of the east wing to create eleven more bedrooms and bathrooms for commercial guests," she explains.
The rooms had not been touched for decades, so it was an immense operation, which involved not only redecoration and new furniture but installing new bathrooms. Although Emma had no professional experience of interior design when she arrived in Yorkshire, she learnt on the job. "It was a baptism of fire but it has led to me doing several development properties for clients in and around London, so I must have done something right," she says. "Interior design had always interested me but taking on a house of this size certainly made me more aware, if only because mistakes are so costly to rectify. When we first moved up here I chose an ornate wallpaper in dark reds and greens for one of the family bedrooms. I thought it looked very dramatic then, but these days it just seems rather dated." She shrugs. "The cost of re - papering is hard to justify when theres so much else that needs doing. Like everyone else I have a budget to stick to and Ive learnt that what best suits a house like this are classic designs in subtle colours. There are some exceptions, of course, such as the dining room. It was green and oppressive when we moved in, so I replaced it with a raspberry and gold damask pattern eighteen years ago. The cornice is still green but I didnt tamper with that as it is gilded and I love the way the gold glints in the candlelight."
What transformed family life the most was creating the new kitchen. "The old kitchen was cold and hugely impractical being miles away from our dining room, so I commandeered what had been my father - in - laws study, knocked down the wall between it and the passageway behind, installed an Aga and a few cupboards and we were all immediately warmer and happier. The dining room is now conveniently next door but unless weve got crowds of friends and family staying, we always eat in the kitchen. Much easier," says Emma, briskly.
The refurbishment of the east wing was made considerably easier by Emmas decision to choose fabrics and wallpapers principally from one firm.
"I had loved the design and natural colours in Adams Eden, a Lewis & Wood design Id used to reupholster an old sofa in our Morning Room. So when I started on the east wing rooms, instead of Chelsea Harbour, I headed for Stroud where the company is based. In the showroom the fabrics are displayed in large swatches so that one can see the scale and what works with what. Whilst I wanted each room to be different, I felt it was important for the overall scheme to feel cohesive and have a sense of continuity; I think I achieved that without the bedrooms looking too matched or coordinated. For a project of that size, one stop shopping was the answer."
Emmas pragmatic approach to living in an historic house has undoubtedly given Carlton Towers a new lease of life. "The house is plenty large enough to have dual roles - guests have the east wing all to themselves and we have marvellous staff who come in to handle the cooking and housekeeping during their stay. No such luck in the south wing," says Emma, laughing, as she dons an apron and starts preparing lunch for the family.
ABOVE
The family live in the Jacobean part of the house. On the mahogany hall table are an oriental ginger jar and pair of crystal lamps; for similar lamp bases try Vaughan. RIGHT An armchair covered in Benaki in Nutmeg by Lewis & Wood blends well with the tones of the wooden floorboards and mellow colours in the Morning Room. Other armchairs are covered in ochre woven silk damask from Andrew Martin. The sisal rug was made by a local company.
LEFT
To harmonise with the existing decoration of the Morning Room, Emma reupholstered the Laura Ashley sofa using Adams Eden in Ivory from Lewis & Wood.
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP RIGHT
The curtains and bed dressings in the main bedroom are a Design Archives toile de jouy.
The walls of the twin bedroom are papered in Chateau Gesso by Lewis &Wood. The buttoned bed heads are from Dormy House and the mirrors from the Chandelier & Mirror Company. The contemporary Aubusson - style needlework rug was bought at auction.
ABOVE LEFT
In the east wing, a four - poster bed is hung with striped Tulsi cotton from Malabar. The walls are papered in Chateau Sienna by Lewis & Wood. ABOVE RIGHT In the bathroom adjoining the main bedroom, a horseshoe chair covered in Pennant striped linen from Oka, contrasts with dark green Soho striped wallpaper from Cole & Son.
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The interior