When Your Home Is a Castle (and a Tourist Destination)

Dylan Thomas for the Wall Street Journal

Charlie Courtenay’s home has been besieged twice in its 600-year history, first by another branch of the family in the medieval era, then by Parliamentarians during the English Civil War. Today, the armies who storm Powderham Castle in southwest England may consist of tourists, but it still pays to have a battle plan.

Like the homes of many aristocratic British families that have been passed down from generation to generation, Powderham Castle long ago opened its doors to the public to help pay its bills. These days, over 100,000 people come to Powderham’s 3,500-acre estate annually, spending anywhere from $8 to $14 each to attend events or for regular castle tours, estimates the corporate lawyer at Latham & Watkins in London, who is also the 19th Earl of Devon. The family also operates about a dozen businesses on the estate, including a country store and a “deer safari” for tourists seeking to snap photos of the wildlife on the grounds.

Living private lives in a public space is something of a perpetual balancing act for the earl, 41, his wife, 42-year-old actress A.J. Langer of “My So Called Life” fame, and their children, Joscelyn, 9, and Jack, 7. Still, the earl says the sacrifices are worth it. Powderham’s “purpose since the 1300s has been to be a family home,” he says.

Estimates of the number of castles and historic homes in the U.K. vary. Over 1,640 historic homes, castles and gardens are represented by the Historic Houses Association, a U.K. lobbying group. Around 500 of these properties are open to visitors, and attract about 24 million visitors a year, according to the association.

While many house hunters and tourists might, like Elizabeth Bennet at Pemberley, find their spirits “in a high flutter” at the sight of such grand properties, the reality can often sink those of an owner. The country’s steep inheritance tax, which hovers at around 40% at the higher end, has led many families over the decades to open up their homes to visitors as part of a deal with the government to defer inheritance liabilities.

Other families run their homes as businesses to defray maintenance and repair costs, says Ben Cowell, director general of the Historic Houses Association. “Often the family is relegated to an apartment in some other bit of the building,” he says.

Until two years ago, the earl was in Topanga Canyon, Calif., where he and his family they lived a fairly “normal” existence. His desire to be closer to his aging parents was one motivation for his family’s move to the U.K.

Ben Mostyn for the Wall Street Journal

The Earl of Devon says his family began paying the inheritance tax in the 1930s, and his father reluctantly opened up the house to tourists in the 1950s to defray expenses. The earl’s grandparents lived at the castle when he was a child, and he moved in as a teenager. “As a kid, it was quite an intimidating, fascinating place,” he says.

In 2008, the castle lost its wedding license after the earl’s father refused to permit a same-sex wedding on the property. The castle has since regained its civil-ceremony license. The current Earl of Devon extols the openness of the venue to same-sex couples, and tours highlight the role a gay family member played in the estate’s history.

More recently, the earl was in Topanga Canyon, Calif., where he says his family lived a fairly “normal” existence. Two years ago they moved to the U.K., first to London and then a year later to the castle, in part to be closer to his aging parents. The earl’s father died, and as inheritance of titles is patrilineal his son inherited the title.

The estate, however, is currently in probate, and the earl and his wife are managing the property as the executors complete the probate and determine how to proceed.

About half of their roughly 100-room home is open for public viewing Sundays to Fridays, from Easter to Halloween. The Courtenays occupy eight rooms, between the medieval kitchen and great hall. Ropes and doors set off the family’s living area, which the earl says is a “decent size for a family of four.”

Despite the large number of tourists who flock to his home, the earl says the sacrifices are worth it. Powderham’s “purpose since the 1300s has been to be a family home,” he says.

Ben Mostyn for the Wall Street Journal

Sometimes, visitors to the estate get lost and stumble into the family’s private rooms. The earl says that early on in their time at the castle, his very friendly son would ask visiting children to come in and look at his bedroom. As a parent, he says, he needs to be vigilant that his children are protected and that they have their privacy. “You don’t get much outside space that is private,” he adds.

When the guests have gone, though, the family regains the public portions of the house. This year, for instance, they plan to have their Thanksgiving dinner—his wife and the children are Americans—in the wood-paneled State Dining Room. Children’s birthday parties often involve treasure hunts around the castle, through its many secret doors.

Festive as castle living may be, it isn’t cheap. In previous decades, the castle and estate were not profitable, and the Earl of Devon says his father had to sell “considerable” contents of the castle—including millions of dollars’ worth of furniture, art and even a historical manuscript by Marco Polo—over the years to make up for the shortfall.

The earl says the castle and estate cost over $1.2 million to operate annually, and the place is “rarely profitable,” with any surplus revenue reinvested back into the estate. One recent outlay involved a cracked incinerator tower, which the earl says provides no real modern function, is essentially a “Victorian trash chute,” and was necessary to repair. The bill: over $120,000.

Hodsock Priory, near Worksop in Nottinghamshire, has existed for centuries and has been in the Buchanan family for decades. Mr. Buchanan’s father inherited the property and began living there in 1966. A section of the 11,000-square-foot home was converted into an events venue in 2006, and a pavilion added in 2007 serves as a function room for events, including a recent yoga retreat.

Hodsock Priory, near Worksop in Nottinghamshire, has hosted around 500 weddings since a section of the 11,000-square-foot home was converted into an events venue in 2006.

Vanessa Berberian for the Wall Street Journal

The business brings in about $612,000 a year, giving the family a small profit. They are looking into other ways to raise revenue, such as concerts or theater events—taking advantage of George Buchanan’s former career as a manager of rock venues in London.

The main inconvenience that Mr. Buchanan, 41, has experienced since starting the business is an olfactory one.

“It is the after-shave smell, and the smell of gravy on a Saturday afternoon, that is the only invasion of privacy,” he says.

Mr. Buchanan’s wife, Kat, says her secret to survival involves “mobile phones and patience.” The grounds are so large that phones cut down on the time the family needs to spend searching for one another.

The couple’s two boys and two girls—now ranging in age from 6 to 11—love playing “Harry Potter” in the home’s grand rooms, she says, but sometimes they get lost.

Highclere Castle, one of the most famous historic homes thanks largely to its real estate role in the hugely popular ITV series “Downton Abbey,” is inhabited from time to time by George Herbert, the eighth Earl of Carnarvon. The earl says Highclere is doing well: Annual revenue comes to “a few million dollars,” and the business is profitable.

Set in northern England, 181-room Harewood House has been used as a set—most recently for the hit ITV series “Victoria.” The estate is also home to Emmerdale Village, a set built in a field for the ITV soap opera Emmerdale.

David Lascelles, the eighth Earl of Harewood, doesn’t currently live in Harewood House. In a somewhat complex arrangement, his estate leases the house to a trust that is set up to maintain and develop Harewood, its collections and grounds, for the public benefit.

So the great-grandson of George V instead lives in a four-bedroom home on the 4,500-acre estate. And whenever the 66-year-old earl wants to use Harewood House for a personal event, he must book and—if it is available—pay rent for the space, just like any other guest.

“Real life in country houses isn’t like ‘Downton Abbey,’” the earl says. “It is very different in the 21st century.”

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