We Brits love to peek through the keyhole of the nation's grand houses. Whether that's from the sofa, binging episodes of Downton Abbey, or in person, on a weekend visit to a stately home. But what is it really like to live in a country pile today? Alice Wombwell ponders the question as she takes a sip of coffee ('strong and very milky, please', she instructs husband Steve).
The couple live at Newburgh Priory - a former 12th century Augustinian Priory near Coxwold just half an hour's drive from York - with their five children aged between 12 and 16; two dogs, Zephyr and Penny; two rabbits, and a handful of chickens. If you hear them talk about Stanley and Karen, they are the estate's two robotic mowers who are outside keeping the lawns in shape 24/7 - saving the expense of one full-time grounds person. Alice is an artist and cuts a cool, Bohemian dash with her navy blue nails, over-sized hoop earrings and dark, flared denims.
She is super friendly, chatty and self-deprecating, confessing to having 'Superglued a few things back together' that she has broken over the years. Sitting cross-legged on a squidgy yellow sofa in a grand drawing room that boasts portraits by Van Dyck and Gainsborough on the walls, she expresses fake fury at how the eyes of the woman in the Gainsborough work seem to follow her around the room, disapprovingly. She describes how the whole family pitch in with running the Priory, especially ahead of spring and summer, when the estate opens to the public on.
