It took the passion of a father and son, hard work and an endless haemorrhaging of money to prevent Goodwood House near Chichester, West Sussex, from quietly crumbling towards its twilight years. Today, although at first glance it resembles a museum, the house has been lovingly restored as a family home. Children’s voices echo in the corridors, family photographs are scattered around and, in the private wing, the trappings of modern life are discreetly on display.
The original country house was built in the early 1600s and developed and extended over the next century. The Regency State Apartments, together with the round towers topped with green cupolas, were added by the architect James Wyatt in the early 1800s. The Apartments, which comprise nine rooms including an Egyptian dining room, music room and the Yellow Drawing Room, are open to the public on selected days. Today the main house also includes 24 bedrooms, three kitchens, two libraries, a ballroom and 10 bathrooms.
The Duke of Richmond relinquished control of Goodwood Estate in 1994, passing it to his eldest son, the Earl of March, who was eager to begin implementing ideas he had been formulating most of his life. “My father had the huge task of saving the house structurally,” says March, 49. “As an accountant he was more practical, whereas I’m better at interiors, and the task of restoring the rooms greatly appealed to me.”
Father and son complemented each other’s strengths and, as a former photographer, March’s artistic eye was well suited to the job. “Each step of the way it seems as though the house was trying to tell me how it should look,” he says. “Objects forgotten in the attics have come to light at just the right time. We even unearthed a plan made by the third duke showing where the paintings should hang. Some rooms had never been entirely completed, but documents have shown me how they were intended to look. Where we had no guidance, we spent a great deal of time on research.”
The Egyptian dining room had been painted over, but when stripped it revealed a vast expanse of scagliola (18th-century plaster marbling). Details of ornately carved sphinxes and pharaohs have been restored to the room. The intricate work involved recasting the bronze crocodiles decorating the backs of the chairs, and a redesigned cornice.
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While meticulously adhering to his ancestors’ intentions, March has managed to balance the opulence of a stately home with the requirements of living in it with his wife, Janet Astor, and four young children. Although he has concentrated mainly on the interior, he has built an imposing classical entrance to the private west wing; completed last month, it is the first large-scale structural change to be carried out at Goodwood for 200 years. March had found that increasingly family and friends were using the rather dingy back door to enter this side of the house. He instructed the architect Christopher Smallwood to build an imposing two-storey entrance hall that has bedrooms above and an additional kitchen.
The estate income pays for the renovation, which, at more than £100,000 a room, has had to be done gradually, as financing allows. March takes the role as trustee of his home seriously.
“I always knew I’d take over the running of the estate from my father. That is what he had done, and I hope it will continue with each generation. He didn’t pressure me into it, for which I’m grateful, and I had 20 years of living and working in London before coming here. It was slightly daunting to be left in charge, but my father had already done so much.”
In 1969, when the Duke of Richmond moved in, he was determined to reverse the downward spiral; the alternatives were to knock the house down or endow it to the National Trust.
“I am glad I had that time in London, because these estates are bloody difficult,” his son says. “When it was my turn, at least the house was dry and all the nasty bits, such as mending the roof, had been done.
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“The racecourse was ticking over but the cost of running a house like this is huge, and I knew I had to develop revenue. I have been lucky that motor racing and our other ventures have taken off.”
Next weekend brings the Goodwood Revival, the world’s biggest historic motor racing event, which recreates the glory days when Goodwood’s motor circuit was one of Britain’s leading racing venues, from its opening in 1948 to its final race in 1966. One of March’s fondest memories is of burning blisters on his fingers with a glue gun at two in the morning just before another big event. Drill holes in the newly extended cabinets housing the Sèvres porcelain in the card room needed to be disguised, and he was trickling the glue along strips of burgundy ribbon. Janet kept him company, dusting the priceless china.
March’s attention to detail is legendary, and can be seen in the authenticity of the colours used in the restoration. The rich red of the music room walls was chosen to match the spine of a book in the library; many of the soft furnishings have been woven from ancient swatches of fabric. He has a team of architects, designers and a curator, and he oversees proceedings as closely as any other man running a business from home.
It is incongruous to find a 12,000-acre estate — incorporating a hotel, a racing circuit, 150 other properties and an organic farm — that is, at its heart, primarily a family home. It is brought alive by the sound of children playing cricket in the vast rooms and skateboarding in the corridors.
With four sisters, his four young children and an 18-year-old daughter from his first marriage, March’s home is always full of people, quite apart from the 600,000 members of the public who visit the estate each year.
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Goodwood has been in the family for more than 300 years, since the reign of Charles II. Louise Renée de Keroualle, the king’s mistress, gave birth to the first duke in 1672. The family fortune flourished from the dues paid on Newcastle coal, which amounted to about £20,000 a year in the 18th century.
Successive dukes built on this prosperity, adding extensions, follies and the racecourse, but by the second world war the estate was in decline. March’s grandparents allowed it be turned into a war hospital and then into offices and flats for the remaining staff. London became the focus, but Goodwood was still dusted down for special occasions and royal visits.
“My grandmother was wonderful,” March recalls. “Whenever we visited, our beds would be covered in presents, and I remember Coca-Cola, tennis and croquet. The smell of summer here still floods me with nostalgia.”
The Goodwood Revival takes place on September 3-5. Tickets must be bought in advance on 01243 775 055, www.goodwood.co.uk; day tickets from £15-£40, weekend tickets £70. For information on visiting Goodwood House, call 01243 755 000