Lord And Lady Lockdown

Pigs hog the TV limelight as Highclere Castle fights to maintain a stately future

- Olivia Buxton

There are worse places to be in lockdown than Downton Abbey but the owners say “self-isolating” in offices at the 6,000-acre estate has its own troubles.

Familiar to millions as TV’s most famous stately home, Highclere Castle is home to Lord and Lady Carnarvon and, like the rest of us, they are being forced to stay home.

On a normal spring day, Highclere would welcome 1,000 tourists, but having furloughed most of the 150 staff, the only company the Countess can count on is her lambs, foals, British Lop pigs – and her husband Geordie.

“I am standing here wondering what the future holds,” says Lady Fiona Carnarvon as she reflects on when the Castle grounds teemed with production crew filming the hit TV show and the subsequent movie.

“This giant ship has come to a stuttering halt,” she says. “The propellor has been turned off and we are trying to maintain it on calm seas.”

The exuberant Countess (née Fiona Aitken, but known as “Lady C” to her staff) has lived at the real Downton Abbey with her husband, the 8th Earl of Carnarvon, since 2001.

Despite labradors Freya and Stella in tow, she is in subdued spirits as she reschedules tours for later this and next year. Larger events have been postponed.

“On May 8 we were going to have VE day at Highclere but that has been postponed until October 10,” she says. “But it’s important to remember VE day, so that’s why I have rescheduled it and I am extending it into a history festival in collaboration with Chalke Valley. I want to raise money and remember those who served to save us.”