One of Britain’s oldest stately homes is being lived in again after decades of disrepair. A four and a half year restoration of St Giles House in Dorset, the family home of the Earls of Shaftesbury for hundreds of years, has seen the building returned to use.
The work, which began in 2011, in a bid to secure the future of St Giles House – which dates back to 1651 – was overseen by the 12th Earl of Shaftesbury, Nicholas Ashley-Cooper.
The Georgian mansion, which hadn't been lived in for 50 years and was damaged from leaking roofs and dry rot, was restored with the help of grants from Natural England and the Country Houses Foundation.
Other work on the 5,000 acre estate included dredging a lake, repairing lodges and bridges which were crumbling away, and replanting trees.
And the work to bring back St Giles House into full working order has won the 2015 Historic Houses Association (HHA) & Sotheby’s Restoration Award.
“The most rewarding part was moving the family back into the house again after a period of 50 years,” Lord Shaftesbury told The Art Newspaper yesterday.
Now he plans to expand the use of the stately home for weddings and other events, something which he described as an “exciting and daunting journey.”
