Hidden Treasures of the National Trust

S3 E2 The Nude in the Attic

本集简介

The compelling and sometimes scandalous family stories behind two very different National Trust houses are revealed.

In Knole House, the sprawling Tudor ancestral seat of the Sackville family, a life-size nude statue of 18th-century ballet dancer Giovana Zanerini, commissioned by her lover John Frederick, is being conserved to slow the aging process and restore her legendary looks. Two other heirlooms at Knole - a set of 400-year-old rolled-up animal skin parchments - are so delicate that they haven't been unrolled for many years.

At the traditional Lake District farmhouse Townend, a key part of the archive of the Browne family of yeoman farmers - a bound volume of 18th-century letters - is being conserved using traditional book-binding skills, and scientific paint analysis has revealed the house's original Victorian paint scheme.

上一集

2025/05/16 S3 E1

The Doll's House

In this episode, the houses that became retreats, and places of inspiration, for three literary legends.

At Hill Top, the countryside escape of Beatrix Potter, a collection of over 70 miniature pieces under the roof of Beatrix's own dolls' house is undergoing major conservation before a new exhibition.

The tiny woodland cottage of Clouds Hill, Dorset, was a refuge for TE Lawrence, popularly known as Lawrence of Arabia. In the sparsely furnished upstairs room, a portrait of a young soldier on a Cornish beach has sparked debate on whether it portrays Lawrence himself.

Lamb House in Rye was the home of celebrated Victorian writer Henry James, who wrote many of his greatest later works in the house's Green Room. Today, James's writing room is looking a little off-colour, and a damp problem means the walls are in urgent need of replastering and repainting.

下一集

2025/05/16 S3 E3

Peacocks and Elephants

Kedleston Hall was once home to Lord Curzon, the viceroy of India at the height of the British Raj. The famous Peacock Dress - named for the embroidered peacock feathers that cover it - can be found in Kedleston's collection. Famously worn by Lord Curzon's wife, Mary, it's now in dire need of repair.

Meanwhile, at the baroque mansion of Dryham Park in Gloucestershire, conservation work is needed on a rare but damaged painting of the port of Bridgetown, Barbados, which belonged to 17th-century colonial bureaucrat William Blathwayt. Barbados at the time was the centre of sugar production and intrinsically linked with the horrors of slavery, and the painting is thought to show an important but unknown event in the island's history.

当前季

The mystery of whether a painting of a beautiful youth is really of Lawrence of Arabia, an exquisite peacock dress worn by the wife of the Viceroy of India flutters back to life and the dolls' house that inspired Beatrix Potter to write one of her most beloved stories all feature in the brand-new series of Hidden Treasures of the National Trust, narrated by actor and national treasure himself, Toby Jones.

This year, the series showcases experts and volunteers who care for the 500 places the National Trust looks after – such as June, who gets down on her hands and knees in the marble hall at Kedleston Hall to count the cracks in its design masterpiece; Pete, head gardener at Hill Top, Beatrix Potter's Lake District farmhouse, who admits he is frequently mistaken for Peter Rabbit's Mr McGregor; and archaeologist Martin who's trying to unearth one last mystery from under the ruins of Corfe Castle before he retires.