-The biggest and grandest stately home in Britain is in trouble.

Now, this place has over 365 rooms, one for every day of the year.

Too big to live in and too expensive to maintain, it's in danger of going to wrack and ruin.

-You can see here the stone is actually just frying away now.

-Literally, you're rubbing that off with your thumb.

It has huge roofs to repair.

-This is one of the hardest ones you can come across because it bends that way.

You just don't get bent slates.

-Structures to rebuild... Now it's down, you can see how knackered it is.

-Yeah.

-When would you think this was last on the ground?

-Back to the 18th century.

-...and stately rooms to restore... But why is it, like, just room after room after room?

-To show off, really.

-I'll be meeting those who are saving it and trying to make my own little mark on history.

If it's rubbish, don't do it just for my benefit.

-No.

Well, we can always use something like this.

It's a little bit better.

-So, it's not going up, is it?

-No.

-[ Laughs ] From castles to stately homes, Britain boasts some of the world's most glorious buildings... But I think it's magnificent.

Nuts but magnificent.

...with hundreds of years of history.

-Why was it hidden under a floorboard?

How did it get there?

-But our heritage is under threat.

-Something like 300-plus rooms are completely derelict.

-Come with me to see some extraordinary buildings being saved... Look at the scale of it.

It's vast.

...meeting the craftspeople dedicated to their rescue... -59 1/2 minutes of preparation, 30 seconds of glory.

-...and witnessing the skills and passion needed to keep these incredible places alive... -I'm leaving something behind that's going to last longer than I am.

It's a good way to make a mark on the world.

-...for us all to visit and enjoy.

♪♪ ♪♪ So, this is a fairly typical driveway through a fairly typical parkland that leads to a stately home, which is anything but typical.

I'm heading for the largest country house anywhere in the U.K., and, until recently, I'd never heard of it.

This is Wentworth Woodhouse in Yorkshire, and it's the Goliath of all our country houses.

It's absolutely vast.

Its west façade is 185 meters across.

It's getting on for twice the width of Buckingham Palace.

Since the 1940s, however, it's proven too big to really live in and has fallen into disrepair.

But, of course, with large buildings comes large restoration costs, and I'm told this could run to over £100 million.

This makes it one of the most expensive heritage rescues anywhere in the U.K.

Wentworth Woodhouse, a genuine sleeping giant.

And it seems strange to me that something so impressive and magnificent could have been not valued for so long -- in fact, left to rot.

Its grandeur and history are so awe-inspiring that you'd be forgiven for not immediately seeing the cracks.

Wentworth Woodhouse was home to one of the most powerful and richest families in the country.

[ Echoing ] You can tell how big it is just from the echo.

[ Laughs ] This place played host to kings and queens and at its height employed hundreds of local people.

Built in the 1720s, it was for over 200 years the seat of the Earls Fitzwilliam, whose immense wealth and power came from coal.

Over those years the family included prime ministers to playboys and at their peak were worth the equivalent of £3 billion.

By the mid-20th century they were so well-connected, the eighth earl was dating Kathleen Kennedy, sister of U.S.

president JFK.

But in 1948, disaster strikes, and they die in an air crash over France.

The tragedy signals the end of an era, and the lights go out on Wentworth.

Three centuries of family ownership disappear into history.

For the next 40 years, the building was leased to various institutions -- a teacher-training college and then Sheffield Polytechnic -- but with heating bills in excess of £1,000 per week, it was unviable and fell into disrepair.

In 2017, the newly formed Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust was granted £7.6 million by the exchequer to save the house for the nation.

Sarah, I thought the downstairs entrance was impressive.

This is another level, isn't it?

Sarah McLeod was brought in to spearhead its restoration.

It's lovely, isn't it?

-It's absolutely stunning.

Yeah, probably one of the finest Georgian rooms in the country.

-This would have been the grand entrance hall or ballroom or... -No, this was the ballroom.

And this is really the heart of the entertainment of the house.

So, there would have been orchestras, grand balls, and, actually, Anna Pavlova, the ballerina, danced here on this very spot.

-Wow!

And, of course, royalty, too.

-Yep.

George V came here in 1912.

And that was a remarkable thing at the time for the king to come up to the industrial north.

Everybody turned out to see him.

Over 40,000 people from the local community came and stood outside to get a glimpse of his face.

-I'll be honest.

It looks in quite good nick.

-Ah, you see, that's because you're in the part of the house at the moment which is the best quality, really.

The staterooms have had the best maintenance over the years because of their precious interiors.

When you go beyond these staterooms and you start to look at the other 300-plus rooms within the house, most of them are in a really poor state, and, in fact, some of them are completely derelict.

-Before work could start on fixing any of the interiors, the first job was to sort out the enormous leaking roof.

And when I say enormous, I'm really not kidding.

The house, not the grounds, just the house is spread over three acres.

You could actually fit three football pitches just on the roof.

Of course, it's no cheap fix.

In 2019, repair work costing £5 million begins.

The scaffold alone cost an incredible £1.2 million.

Over the next 18 months, it's retiled... ...and has new lead and stonework to make it watertight.

So, by the end of 2020, the first phase is complete, and the scaffolding comes down.

But that's only the beginning.

With all that work done, they now have a practically dry house.

However, that's the North Pavilion, and there's still major work to do there.

While work starts inside on some of the 365 rooms, at the North Pavilion, as well as more leaking roofs and stonework, there's a clock that's seen better times and a weather vane, well, that's under the weather.

Overseeing all the restoration is Andy Stamford.

-Morning, Andy.

-Morning!

-Andy, so you're in charge here today.

Big job ahead.

-It is?

Yeah.

This is a day for us where we're lifting the weather vane down.

-It's interesting.

People look up at these things.

They go, "Well, why don't you just carry it down?

It's not that big, is it?"

When you get up there, it's a lot bigger.

-Yeah, it's a lot bigger than you think.

It stands nine foot high, stuck out.

Then it's got a pinnacle support below, which is same again.

-Well, good luck with the lift.

I know that you're professional and you've worked everything out, but I know for a fact, also, you get nervous every time you do one.

-Every time, every time, every time.

-And with good reason.

Built in the early 18th century of wrought iron and copper... Here it comes.

...this neglected 18-foot weather vane weighs in at over 250 kilograms, and no one quite knows whether it will fall to pieces.

♪♪ You're not actually gonna take it off the chain yet, are you?

-No.

-It's still gonna float there.

So, why are you leaving it floating there?

-We're leaving it floating now, because now we're going to build this frame, the framework around it, so it can secure it, because then it's got to be taken inside the building to be restored.

-Now it's down, you can see how knackered it is.

-Yeah, yeah.

-When would you think this was last on the ground?

-Um, really?

It's back to the 18th century.

You know, I think the last time it would come down was when it was put up.

So, it would have been interesting how they got it up there then.

Definitely different to what we've got now with cranes and things.

-The weather vane would be a huge project on its own, but it's really just the tip of the iceberg.

Three centuries of the Yorkshire weather battering rain into the surface means that water trickles into cracks, where it freezes and expands, and that expansion is powerful enough that it then blows chunks off of the stonework.

This building is literally dissolving.

And I'll be joining the team with the huge task of saving it.

♪♪ In Yorkshire, Britain's largest stately home, Wentworth Woodhouse, is undergoing a restoration project that will last decades.

It was the first Marquess of Rockingham who in 1725 built Wentworth Woodhouse as a red-brick mansion facing west.

However, less than a decade later, he decided he preferred the more fashionable Palladian style, so commissioned another adjoining mansion built facing east.

Everyone loves a column, don't they?

Two mansions, one property that now lies empty.

As efforts focus on restoring the North Tower, under cover of its new scaffold tent, the stonemasons are dismantling the balustrades around its roof.

-Just lift it up and offer it forward for us, and then we'll take the weight.

You ready?

One, two, three, up.

-To you?

-Yep.

-As they come apart, head stonemason Sean Knight can see the damage of years of exposure to the elements.

-We're having to set the whole balustrade down purely because the amount of erosion to the stonework at the bottom, it's unsecure and unsafe.

-This one's fractured, completely torn.

-The problem is, over years, it just fails.

The stonework crumbles, and you end up with this, just really friable stone.

Okay.

Can I have a bearer, please?

-All the uprights are in a desperate state.

There are 96 of them in total.

Down on the ground, Sean's working out whether they're even worth saving.

They look like banisters.

-That's very similar.

It's called a baluster.

-A baluster.

-A baluster.

So, if you look up the top of the building, you can see the balustrade as a whole, which encapsulates all of the piers and the balusters and the copings, which form the balustrade.

-The baluster, balustrade.

-That's right.

-I get it now.

-That's right, yeah.

-Interesting here, because you've got one of the old ones that's obviously knackered.

-Yes.

Yeah.

You can see here the stone is actually just frying away now.

-Literally you're rubbing that off with your thumb.

-Yeah.

Yeah.

-So, why is that decayed so badly?

What sort of stone is that?

-This is limestone, okay?

And this comes from Ketton, which is about 100 miles south from here.

So, normally, it wouldn't be in this area.

It's predominantly built out of sandstone.

-I was going to say that because the building isn't limestone.

-No, no.

So, we think that they ran out of stone locally, and we think that they had land owned in that area so they could quarry the stone cheaper.

And then they brought the material up here.

The problem is the limestone, the minerals, as it gets wet, run off the building, and they run down onto sandstone.

They attack it at an accelerated rate.

So, you'd never put limestone above sandstone.

-All 96 limestone balusters need to be replaced with sandstone ones.

They're being made on the other side of the Pennines in Manchester at Mather and Ellis, where they've been cutting all types of stone since the 1880s.

Luckily, the tech has definitely moved on a little bit since then.

Frank Halstead is the man in charge.

-We'll get an architect's drawing.

From that information, we can extract the individual baluster detail and produce a full-size template.

-The metal template is used to guide the cutting blades of a lathe to form the curves of a baluster.

The lathe simply turns a block of stone, called a blank, so that a saw can then cut it, a process, funny enough, called "turning."

-We drop cuts in it, plunge cuts, to take out the bulk of the waste material and rough out the baluster.

-A series of 30 or so cuts are made in the block by raising and lowering a sensor along the template, which guides the saw.

Gary Hughes oversees the process.

-Then take it back up.

Move it along again.

You do that all the way along.

Now it's roughed all out.

I have to break it all up, ready for putting the finishing cuts on it.

What it leaves there now is a rough outline.

♪♪ -To turn rough into smooth, the blade is given a second pass on the rough cut, this time following along the edge of the template.

It's similar to having a key cut for your front door.

The cutting machine follows a guide to copy a specific shape.

♪♪ -That profiled it, roughly finished.

You see all the little lathe lines in it.

But I've got to polish it now so the lines out of it so it's smooth.

-Using abrasive sanding blocks, Gary takes out the last machine marks to end up with a perfect baluster.

It takes a good hour to turn from blank into the finished item.

It's a lot quicker than the old days, when it was all done by hand.

A good job, as there are dozens more bal-oo-sters to make.

Or is it bal-a-ster?

-I call it a bal-a-ster.

Why, what is it?

-Well, across the way in Yorkshire, it's bal-oo-ster.

-Same, old bob.

-Frank?

-I call it a bal-a-ster.

[ Laughs ] I suppose in Yorkshire, over the other side of the hill, they've got their own language, anyway.

[ Laughs ] ♪♪ -Bal-a-ster, bal-oo-ster -- however you say it, we pinched a lot from the Greeks and Romans to get all architecture, what's called "Neoclassicism," and the east side of Wentworth wallows in it, especially its grand portico.

Now, if you're going to build a posh house, you want a posh entrance.

Have a look at this.

"Mea gloria fides."

"My faith is my glory."

Unfortunately, this portico's glory days are numbered, unless a crack restoration team, led by Andrea Walker, can save its decrepit ceiling.

Hello, Andrea?

-Hello.

Hi.

-This is amazing, this place.

It's, um... It looks more like something from Greece than from the Yorkshire countryside.

-Quite dramatic.

Yeah.

And it's meant to look like a classical temple.

-So, what's this stuff up here?

Because it's like -- it's much more detailed.

I thought it would just be a flat ceiling.

But what's it made of?

-It's made of lime plaster.

Traditional lime plaster fares much better than gypsum does.

It's more breathable, it's more flexible, and it lasts outside.

-Unfortunately, time and neglect have still done their worst.

So, the team are having to both repair and replace sections of the ceiling, including hundreds of ornate rose decorations.

They've made a latex mold of the originals, which they use to make new ones.

So, how do you do that?

Can you show me what you do?

-Okay, so what we'll get you to do is mix some plaster first.

-Right, so... -So, start with some water.

-Right.

-And if you want to start mixing that, please?

-I believe the one thing I can do is mix plaster.

I've done years of that.

-[ Laughs ] -And what we're sort of, consistency you're looking for is thick custard.

-Yeah, that'll be fine.

Yep.

-Okay, so let me get out of the way.

-Mm-hmm.

And the next thing we do, we can brush some into the recesses just so we don't get any air pockets.

-Have you got a pair of gloves I could use so I can do some pouring?

-Yes.

Yeah.

There we go.

-Perfect.

Thank you very much.

-Yeah.

Can pour it in.

Yeah.

It's good.

Top it up a bit and cover up those middle sections that you see poking up.

Yeah.

That should be about right.

That's great.

-The plaster will set in less than half an hour.

But before any roses can be glued back on, Andrea's team have to secure and patch up the original lath-and-plaster base.

So, what are you doing at the moment?

You're painting?

-I'm not.

I'm consolidating where things have gone missing, bits of the decoration.

It's left behind this really friable, which is loose, surface.

It's very powdery.

So, before we can do anything, I need to consolidate it to make sure that nothing else is going to fall off.

-Oh, so, like on a rusty car, you can paint stuff on the rust, and it makes it solid again before you start going... -Yeah.

Yes, that's right.

Yeah.

-Oh, I see.

Well, that makes sense.

-Once that's done, then we can start rebuilding it.

-Is this what you wanted to do when you were a kid?

-I had no idea this job existed.

It's the best thing.

We literally watch paint dry.

[ Both laugh ] -As the ceiling is pieced back together and each new rose goes into place, I can see that it's a labor of love... a bit like my rose.

What do you reckon, Andrea?

Is this mold ready to break open?

-Yeah, it should be.

Let's give it a go.

-I'll stand back and let you do that.

-Okay.

-Is it going to be any good?

-We'll see.

Let's see.

-Oh!

How is it?

-It's all right.

It's all right.

-"All right's" not brilliant.

-It's missing a few bits.

-If you do include it as part of the ceiling... -Yeah.

-...I shall forever know that a part of me is up here.

-Well, yes, exactly.

-That's lovely.

But on the other side, if it's rubbish, don't do it just for my benefit.

-No, no.

Well, we can always use something like this.

It's a little bit better.

-So, it's not going up, is it?

-No, I don't think so.

Sorry.

-[ Laughs ] Can I take that then?

-Yes, you can.

-Like that?

-Yeah.

There you go.

-Thanks.

Okay, that's one for the toilet wall.

There's a reason they get the pros in.

♪♪ Back over at the North Tower, there's an 18-foot weather vane to restore.

Conservation expert Harriet Sharman is on the job.

-I'm using this wire wool, and it's just getting rid of any little bits of rust and any vegetation, anything like that.

It's just smoother for when we come to treat the rust and paint it and regild it.

-The next stage of the process is to paint on a base coat.

-This is the very top bit of the weather vane, which we've removed just to make it easier to paint and gild.

It's oil-based so that I can gild on top of it.

As the years go by, after the gold leaf has been applied, any weathering to the gold leaf, any small gaps that may appear, it shouldn't be too obvious with the yellow paint underneath.

-Meanwhile, colleague Valerio Caputi has been cracking on with the main body so that it's ready for a coat of gold.

The first part of the actual gilding is to paint on a sort of glue, called "size."

After 20 minutes or so, the size goes tacky enough for the gold to stick.

-I place the leaf on.

You can be quite hard with the pressing.

If you don't press hard enough, sometimes it will come off quite patchy.

-Gold leaf is pure gold that has been beaten thinner than paper.

-I think we just thought the whole weather vane would take about 60 books.

I think there's about 25 leaves in each book, so it's going to be quite a substantial amount, I think.

-At a pound a leaf, it'll be 1,500 quids' worth of gold alone to regild.

Plus, of course, it will take Harriet and Valerio several days to completely cover the weather vane.

-There we go.

-With all the money being spent, you have to ask yourself why save Wentworth?

Well, for me, it's because of the stories that the building contains that would have been lost if it had crumbled away.

And I don't mean just the posh people who owned it, but the people who built it, the humble people.

For example, this piece of wood was found by three chippies working on the roof, and it has a message on it from the original roofers, which reads, "This roof repaired March 1830, when it was cold and frosty.

Jack Faulding, Jack Vickers, Jack Wragg.

They all liked drink, but none to be had."

You can imagine the lads sat up here freezing, getting the job done and thinking, "I can't wait to get back into the pub for a pint of Yorkshire Ale," Which doesn't sound like a bad idea, does it, lads?

But the three Jacks would never have known that the money that paid their wages would dry up.

As I'll be finding out, the family fortune that built this place would take a severe turn for the worse.

♪♪ At Wentworth Woodhouse in North Yorkshire, stonework on the North Tower is in full swing, but the scale of the work here means progress is slow.

For 200 years, the Fitzwilliams who owned the house made their fortune mining coal, to fuel the Industrial Revolution, but they became victims of their own success, when, in 1946, the minister for fuel, whose job was to satisfy the nation's insatiable appetite for the black stuff, demanded that land around the house be used for opencast mining.

The grounds were decimated right up to the back door, and it certainly made caring for the house itself almost impossible.

For over 70 years, this place was in dramatic decline, bits falling off all over the place.

And, let's face it, it came within a whisker of being completely pulled down.

But bit by bit, Wentworth Woodhouse, the largest stately home that most of the country has never heard of, is actually starting to get its mojo back.

Julie Readman is in charge of maintenance, and I hijacked her weekly inspection to get a sneak tour, starting with the magnificent east-facing staterooms.

-So, here we have the library.

-But always the library?

-No, it was a state bedroom before it was a library.

-Okay.

It's very lovely.

-It is, indeed.

And this is a state dining room, where George V, Queen Mary had their state dinner when they visited in 1912.

-It was all the rage for stately homes to create a corridor of adjoining grand rooms.

This is very grand in here, isn't it?

-It is, indeed.

-It's called an "enfilade."

-This room here is the museum, or the statuary room, where we used to have lots of objects out.

And then this room is the Marble Saloon, the grandest room in the house.

This would have been your-- -Stunning.

-The entrance room.

-And at Wentworth, it is simply room... What's this one?

-This one is the anteroom.

-...after massive room of grandeur and opulence.

-And then this is the Van Dyck room.

-Hang on a second.

This is the what room?

-The Van Dyck room.

-Where's all the Van Dyck's?

-Sadly, no longer here.

-But why is it like just room after room after room?

-Well, it was to show off, really.

So, this is the grandness of the family and the wealth.

-Though it's stripped of its artwork, everywhere there are telltale signs of how opulent this place once was.

It's still obvious the Fitzwilliams did nothing by halves.

Now, this place has over 365 rooms, one for every day of the year.

In fact, weekend guests, when they came to stay, were given a basket of confetti so that they could leave a little trail to find their way back to their rooms.

Hang on.

This is a dead end.

What's through there?

I won't be the first to get lost.

Other guests have included a young Princess Victoria, and, in 1912, George V stayed here with Queen Mary.

But it's the earl's own bedroom which is one of the first interiors to be restored.

Huge chunks of plaster have fallen from the ceiling, where the water's got in.

And as specialist conservator Craig Dickson knows only too well, it's not a simple job to replace.

-We've got the two elements of moldings.

We've got the modillion blocks with the cone-pin details.

We've also got the diamond detail that's in between.

In this room, we've actually lost both of those details.

-It's a bit more off there.

And a little bit more off there.

-Replacement sections for the ceiling are being made in Sheffield, Excel Bespoke moldings, where they can make anything from columns to cornices.

Kian Turpin has been given the tricky task of re-creating the damaged sections.

-This is what I'm on with at the minute, which would, eventually, once it's fully finished, match the original.

-The first job is to re-create a perfect plaster cone.

Plaster of paris is mixed to create a paste.

For the real boffins, it's calcium sulfate hemihydrate, and, mixed with water, will start to go hard in minutes.

Ideal for perfecting your cones, if you know what you're doing.

-This is just to give it a little bit of string with some fiber.

So, we'll wrap it around there.

-It's amazing what you can do with a nail and a bit of string.

-Like that.

Give me something to work with.

Give it some strength, just so it's not just the plaster on its own.

-A timber profile is used to drag plaster around the nail and string... ...to gradually form the shape.

-It's quite a slow process, this one, because it's so small.

See where the string were catching then.

And it pulls it round.

That's not what you want.

Keep it clean, round edge, and we'll make sure no one's catching again, once the plaster thickens up.

-Dragging plaster like this is a method that has been used for centuries.

-It's getting there.

Quite a fiddly, little job.

-It takes nearly an hour to create this first cone and let it dry.

-We just clean it up with a bit of sandpaper, just neating it all up, and then that'll be it.

-Making every cone like this would take forever.

So, the next stage is to use six of Kian's handmade cones to make a mold by pouring liquid rubber over them.

-It's going to be tight.

I don't think it's going to get to the end of them two.

-Using the molds to make more cones, they can then make enough to assemble the 24-piece replica.

-So, this is originally off-site.

As you can see how they've done it back then, they've done it with a little metal pin to sit them in, and that's what we're doing.

-Once all 24 cones have been attached to the baseplate, it can go back to site.

-Putting some small, countersunk holes in there so I can screw it to the timber.

-When they're fixed back in place, they should last another 200 years.

-I think it's absolutely fascinating.

I mean, some of the workmanship that's in this building is incredible.

Compared to the recognition it gets, it's got some of the finest plasterwork that I've ever seen on all the buildings I've really worked on.

And I think people don't understand how much plasterwork there is in this building.

But it is amazing.

-Outside, the clocks on the North Tower stopped back in the 1980s, and, like so much of the house, have been left to wrack and ruin.

-If we just carefully stand up and lift it onto that carpet there.

Yeah.

And then we can carefully carry it to this corner, mate.

-The old lead clockfaces are beyond repair.

-Yes, that come off a lot easier than I thought.

-So, at Jericho Joiners down in the East Midlands, new versions are being made by heritage craftsmen Steve Key, not in lead but in copper.

-There's far less expansion with the copper sheet than there is with the lead.

All I've done is trimmed the copper and then started to fold it over, and we'll fold it over with these tabs all the way round.

And then on the top I've simply got a lead weight that counters the impact, and therefore it doesn't buckle this top edge of the copper.

-Making new clockfaces will take several days, time enough for Sean and the team to assemble the new balustrades.

-Yeah, so we're just pulling a string on through so we can -- when we fix the balusters to, we make sure they're all running in a straight line and they're all running through to the same level.

-They'll be fixed in place with a steel dowel rod glued into the stone with resin.

-So, all I'm doing is putting a bed of mortar down that the baluster will sit on.

So, we bed it out first.

Then we put the resin into the baluster itself, and then we drop it onto the pin.

And then we can level them up as we go along.

-Usually they'd aim to get 20 or so balusters in place in a day, but with double the team on today, they're going for 40.

-This is the last one in this run, so once we get this one on, we can all breathe a sigh of relief.

[ Laughs ] -But Sean's relief will be short-lived.

With two new clockfaces and an 18-foot weather vane to fit, the team still have their work cut out.

At Wentworth Woodhouse in Yorkshire, there's an 18-foot weather vane ready to go back to its rightful home.

-Bring it down nice and steady.

Keep coming down.

It looks very good.

Keep it coming like that.

-Taking it out wasn't as hard as getting it back.

This time, they have to locate the 3-meter-long rod into a 2-inch-square hole.

-Drop it there, moving back to the right.

-Do you want to take it back to your right?

Then we'll drop it.

Yeah, that's the one.

Hold it, hold it.

Come down inches.

Nice and steady.

-After half an hour of hanging in midair, it's in.

-Oh, stop.

Oh, stop.

-Andy, don't touch anything.

It's bang-on.

-Is that all right?

-It's spot-on, mate.

-That there is bob-on.

-After a bit of touching up, bling is back at Wentworth.

-I think it's really good and is in position now, so, hopefully it's going to see another 250 years.

-Back at the joiners, the new clockface, now painted blue, needs to be prepped, ready for gilding.

Steve and gilder Harriet have masked out the face, ready to mark up with the mother of all compasses.

-We've got rings that indicate where the gold will go, so now we can start to mark out for the inner ring for the gold leaf.

-Marking concentric rings allows them to get the numbers around the circle.

Then they have to get the spacings right.

-It's all done by eye, because if it's easy on the eye at this level, then it will be easy on the eye when it's 60 feet up.

Yeah, that looks good.

-Yeah.

-The problem is, when it comes to setting out the numbers, it's so easy to get the Roman numerals the wrong way around because when you read the five, you're reading it on the clock, the five is upside down.

But, of course, on a Roman-numeral clock, everything is read from the center.

So, it's just a case of set the job out, take a pace back, check, double-check because you simply cannot afford to get to the end and then somebody says, "Why is it 10 to 4:00 when both hands are at 12:00?"

-Each number is painstakingly cut out with scalpel blades to expose the surface below.

-So, it's just a gentle touch with a very, very sharp knife.

And it's a very slow process.

-After hours of cutting the shapes, the numbers can be revealed.

-So, you're almost creating a negative to gild onto.

-All set for Harriet's Midas touch with the gold leaf and a little more bling.

♪♪ Now, I can't wait to see how the house will look with all its new jewelry.

A little townie like me still can't help being impressed by its magnificence.

Every time I come here, no matter how many times, I get the same thought.

I grew up in a two up, two down.

This is more like 200 up, 200 down.

♪♪ The last 18 months have seen a lot of changes at Wentworth.

With the last few bits to finish on the North Tower, the scaffold is still up, ready for a grand unveiling.

Behind it, the clock that was literally flaking away... ...is now poised to count time once more.

It's a bang-on perfect replica of the original and should last for decades.

Harriet, Steve.

Oh, there it is.

How amazing is that?

It's a very exciting time.

You know, this is like finally seeing the clockface back up on here again.

It's come back to life, hasn't it?

-Absolutely.

And the people who've worked on it have come back to life.

I can -- trust me.

Because it's been a huge effort.

In all construction, we rely on skill and knowledge and application.

On a heritage building, we have to inject that with some heart and soul.

And that's what this got.

-Just above the clock was a dirty, great weather vane, blackened and rusted by time.

Now it's like a dirty, great medallion.

Oh, Harriet, look at your work.

It looks magnificent.

-Yeah, it looks good.

-And big, too!

-Yeah.

It's massive.

And the ball, you wouldn't be able to two people either side put your arms around it.

It's huge.

-A lot of gold on there.

It's very blingy, isn't it?

-Yeah.

It's great.

I love it.

-And the griffin looks magnificent up there, as well.

You must be very proud of that.

-Yeah, so proud.

We're just really, really pleased with it.

-The last time it was done was 250, 260 years ago.

-Yeah, yeah.

-And it's going to be there for like, you know, I keep saying this, but to all the workmen that I work with, there's this thing about, you know, kids coming up here and going, "Oh, Grandma worked on that."

-Yeah, I know.

I can't wait for that.

It'll be brilliant.

-For all those working on the project, there's something more than a job well-done.

They're building history.

For the stonemasons, a major part of their work was to replace crumbling balustrades, including 96 shiny, new balusters.

Wow.

It's beautiful, isn't it?

-You can actually see all of the new stonework gone in.

So, everything we've replaced over the last few months.

-Yeah.

And you can see where you've, you know, inserted pieces.

And as we go along here, your balusters... -Yeah.

Balusters.

-Balusters.

Yeah.

Look beautiful.

When they pull this down, you're going to be gazing up at a tower that you're going to be responsible for saving, and not only the outside, but everything that's inside it.

That's an amazing thing, isn't it?

-Yes.

It is.

Yeah.

And it means that, you know, as they do the refurb throughout the rest of the building, they haven't got to worry about that water ingress destroying the fabric.

-You're part of this story now.

You're part of the Wentworth Woodhouse story.

-[ Laughs ] Yeah.

It's a proud day.

-Well-done, mate.

-Thank you.

-Really lovely job.

Of course, 5 million quids' worth of new roof, with its slate work, new lead and stone, has enabled the team to start inside.

And the earl's bedroom, where plasterwork was literally falling off the ceiling, is now really fit for a king.

♪♪ Oh, yeah.

This is more like it, isn't it?

-Yeah.

It's great, isn't it?

Made a beautiful job of it.

-If you don't mind me saying, when I came in here last time, it looked a bit secondhand.

-Mm-hmm.

-And now it actually, genuinely, you can feel that this was the earl's bedroom.

-Yeah.

The guys have done a great job on the restoration of the cove-in and the decoration.

Yeah, It's come together beautifully.

We're really pleased.

I mean, it just takes you right back there, doesn't it, to the golden age of the earldoms?

-It feels like the house is sort of slowly coming to life with the work that you're doing.

So, that's one down and, what, 24 to go?

-Yeah, indeed.

That's just the staterooms.

Yes.

Yeah.

There's a lot more rooms besides this.

-Yeah, it is a mammoth task.

But actually when you get to a point like this and you can see a room as it should be, it kind of makes it all worthwhile, doesn't it?

-It does, absolutely.

It's so nice to see a room looking this comfortable.

I could move in tomorrow.

-Are you allowed to do that?

-No.

-You're in charge.

Can you not keep the key and just sneak-- -No.

Sadly not.

-Oh, I don't know.

No one would ever know if you fancied a quick kip in the earl's bed.

Once this place was exclusively for the Earls Fitzwilliam, who shared it with royalty.

But now it's opening up for all of us to enjoy.

The grand portico, which was on the verge of crumbling away... Oh, yes.

Oh, it's beautiful, isn't it?

-Yeah.

It's stunning.

-...will now welcome all who care to visit.

Every single ceiling rose, absolutely perfect.

-Yep.

-Which means that my rose mustn't have made it up there.

You've got to be pleased with that.

-Yeah, we're thrilled with it.

-So, the work that those guys put in is incredible, isn't it?

-Yeah.

About five weeks work, I think.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-This is magnificent now.

You've got more than 50% of the roof done.

-Mm-hmm.

-And but with all these rooms in the house still to do, it's this vast road ahead of you of work.

-Yeah, there is, indeed, I mean, you know, 10, 20 years of work to do here.

-Is that daunting?

-It can be.

You have to take it... It's like eating an elephant.

You can't eat it at once.

You have to eat it one toenail at a time.

[ Both laugh ] Sorry!

-Eating an elephant is one of the more unusual similes.

But I take your point.

Do you think... Are you ready for another royal visit?

-Absolutely.

Any time.

-Really?

-Any time.

-You think you're ready now?

-Yeah.

-If it weren't for dedicated craftsmen and women, this lovable brute of a place could never be enjoyed by the likes of you and me, let alone royalty.

But stripped of its scaffold, it's like the shackles have been thrown off.

And Wentworth Woodhouse can breathe again at last.

This house has been through some tough times and it seemed at one point had only one future -- to be demolished.

And that would have been a great shame for what the locals call the "Jewel of Yorkshire."

But thanks to the dedication of the people who work here and the skills of the craftsmen and craftswomen carrying out the restoration, this jewel is beginning to sparkle again.

Wentworth Woodhouse is coming back to life.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪