Thrifty aristocrat guidelines: ‘My house has 61 rooms but I get my pens free of charge from hotels’
As Baroness Rawlings sets out her cost-saving guidelines, Sir Richard FitzHerbert explains why he gets his pens for free and re-employs postage fliers as printing paper 
Photograph: Andrew Fox
Sir Richard FitzHerbert, the ninth baronet of Tissington Hall, may possibly live in a stately house with 61 rooms, but the picture of prestige falls away with a single glance at the heating bill.
The 400-year-previous home relies on guests and wedding parties to turn a profit, and so the five-acre garden is cautiously tended, the 48 chimneys are stoked with fires, and £20,000 a 12 months is invested in the rose gardens alone.
When the guests are away, Sir Richard and his wife, Lady Fiona, say they are satisfied to shiver in layers of jumpers. But even right after lengthy battles to install solar panels on the ancient roof, the Hall costs £150,000 a 12 months to run and relies on 7 total-time employees.
And Sir Richard points out that he should share his loo with five,000 visitors a yr if he’s to make a profit on his ancestral house in Derbyshire.
“If we want to keep it tickety-boo and running effectively, we need to have to have staff to search right after it, which signifies domestic, gardeners and maintenance males. And I’ve got one more man who does logs to hold the fires going on our 48 chimneys”, says Sir Richard. “I also do all the jobs as effectively. I indicate, I don’t do a lot of the cleaning but I do all the showman and background stuff and take excursions of the property myself”, he says.
As Baroness Rawlings publishes a assortment of thrifty tips for running a stately house, including buying 200 panama hats in spot of a summertime marquee, Sir Richard says he has his personal approaches of retaining costs reduced.
As an alternative of purchasing pens, Sir Richard will go to hotels to collect a couple of free Biros whenever feasible. Any leaflets and fliers posted to the home are kept and re-employed as printing paper, to conserve the expense of fresh pads. And Sir Richard collects the sticks he finds on morning walks with the puppy and makes use of a handsaw to lower them into logs for the fire. It could sound like tiny bills but as Sir Richard says, “all these tiny items help”.
While it sounds absurd that the owner of this kind of a magnificent property would worry about finances, Sir Richard insists, “I’d swap my financial institution balance for yours any day.”
Following all, the utility expenses and workers only cover the basic necessities to preserve the property running, and are just the beginning of Tissington Hall’s charges.
“Our property was constructed in 1609 and the plumbing is pre-historic, Fred Flintstone would be proud of it. There are seven bathrooms but only 3 work. So it sounds like we can have 20 individuals to remain but it would be rather dirty”, says Sir Richard.
Changing the plumbing program would expense £125,000 plus VAT whilst a new, more productive boiler would be a additional £80,000 plus VAT. The roof is leaking, there are considerations about the electrical wiring and maintenance work is essential to make positive none of the chimneys collapse.
Tissington Hall brings in about £300,000 to £400,000 a year but any money spent on repairs could simply push Sir Richard into a loss.
Meanwhile, says Sir Richard, “we’re becoming taxed each and every and every single way”.
“I personally feel it is going to be a struggle for some people. We’ve received a big income but we’ve received large expenses as well. These houses are not low-cost to run. If the nation wants to preserve our heritage, you have got to permit some flexibility, particularly if we’re generating and preserving jobs”, he says.
Sir Richard worries that, whilst he ploughs his income into upkeep, political concern for Britain’s previous properties is waning.
“I really don’t feel this government values heritage as a lot as they say they do. I can fairly comprehend that as we’re not specifically sexy, but a good deal of visitors come to this nation and heritage is a single of the factors they come”, he says. “We attempt and preserve the area going. It is been in our family for 500 many years, I’d like to consider and maintain it that way.”
The ninth baronet of Tissington Hall ends our conversation to run yet another errand focused to the upkeep of his stately property. Sir Richard is off to the newsagents, he says, to get his weekly lottery ticket.