When it emerged that Lady Eliza Manners got a reduced fine for speeding last week after claiming ‘cash flow issues’, the snorts of derision were as unmistakable as the turrets atop her family’s ancestral seat.
How on earth could the 24-year-old socialite — youngest daughter of the 11th Duke and Duchess of Rutland, brought up in the splendour of the 356-room Belvoir Castle — have money problems?
Yet Eliza is not the only member of her family to lament the challenges of life as a landed aristocrat.
General view of the State Dining room Christmas decorations at Belvoir Castle
For all their privilege, keeping the Manners’ 1,000-year-old Leicestershire home from falling apart is a costly business.
Her mother Emma, 57, described maintaining the castle as a weekly ‘battle’; running costs alone reach £500,000 a year. And that was before Covid hit, cutting off vital revenue.
Now restrictions are over, they are pinning their hopes on the biggest money-spinner of all: Christmas.
The Duchess has hired Charlotte Lloyd Webber, who runs a theatrical installations company, to present A Regency Christmas.
It will see Belvoir bedecked with a host of fantastical decorations reflecting the property’s history and opened to the public.
Ex-wife of Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s son, Nick, and mother to his grandchild, Molly, 13, interior designer Charlotte is on her fifth year transforming Castle Howard in Yorkshire into an award-winning festive wonderland.
Now living in a cottage on the grounds of Belvoir, she and her design team have been creating festive decor since January, including a kissing bough so big it needs scaffolding to install and a peacock Christmas tree like no other.
The castle hopes to attract up to 1,000 visitors a day over Christmas, which, at £21 per adult ticket, should earn over £500,000
Charlotte says: ‘Stately homes are wonderful, but they are beasts,’ adding that her work has made her ‘aware of the difficulties’ owners face. ‘They’re struggling. It’s nuts.’ She says Emma is ‘beside herself’ with joy at the end result. ‘She was a bit tear-jerked.’
The castle hopes to attract up to 1,000 visitors a day over Christmas, which, at £21 per adult ticket, should earn over £500,000.
But what what does it take to transform the stately home into a festive spectacular? The Mail got an exclusive preview to find out . . .
This is a swathe of dummy text that can be used to indicate how many words fit a particular space. The text contains [25 words] a couple of different paragraphs so, visually, it doesn’t look too repetitive on any
Dresses of festive green must be seen
Made of greenery preserved with glycerin, ‘shoved’ into a chicken wire frame and attached to dummies, the dresses represent the Duchess and her three daughters
A lavish red and gold 131ft long room, the Regent’s Gallery hosts parties and was, Charlotte suspects, where many Regency shindigs were held — hence her decision to house four custom-made, party-ready ‘Christmas tree dresses’ in Regency silhouettes there.
Made of greenery preserved with glycerin, ‘shoved’ into a chicken wire frame and attached to dummies, the dresses represent the Duchess and her three daughters.
‘She loved them,’ laughs Charlotte. ‘She’s like, “can we wear them?”’
Rosemary trim, ivy leaves in the bodice and feathered sleeves give each an individual feel.
Amour amid the armour
On the 9ft-long mantles above the two fireplaces are displays in blue and gold, the colours of the Belvoir Coat of Arms, shot through with a festive red
Dangling 12ft from the 20ft high vaulted ceiling in the castle’s Guard Room, a grand entrance hallway, is a super-sized kissing bough — a series of steel hoops welded together by designer David O’Donnell to make a 5ft-wide
