Hidden Heritage

In this episode of Hidden Heritage, Violet Manners is joined by Jason Lindsay, Chairman of Historic Houses, and Marcus Yorke-Long, Head of the Private Office at Charles Russell Speechlys, for a conversation exploring one central question: who owns our heritage now?Heritage is often discussed emotionally, romantically even, but rarely strategically. Yet Britain’s historic houses, estates, collections and landscapes sit at the intersection of identity, economics, policy, private capital and global interest.Together, the conversation examines whether British heritage is fundamentally undervalued as a national asset, why international buyers increasingly recognise value in what Britain itself sometimes overlooks, and what “ownership” really means in 2026. Is heritage something we legally possess, culturally inherit, economically exploit, or simply steward for the next generation?From overseas investment and custodianship to policy failures, succession pressures and the realities facing modern estate owners, this episode explores the tension between heritage as a living responsibility and heritage as a global commodity.Far from a nostalgic conversation, this is a clear-eyed discussion about continuity, stewardship, national identity and the future of Britain’s historic landscape.Because the question is no longer whether the world values British heritage. It is whether Britain values it enough itself.

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Lord Iveagh - Ned Guinness - is custodian of the 22,000-acre Elveden Estate in Suffolk. But inheritance, in his case, is layered.

Elveden was once owned by Maharaja Duleep Singh, redesigned with Mughal splendour, later purchased by the Guinness family, and transformed into Britain’s largest working farm.

In this thoughtful conversation, Ned reflects on:


Growing up with the Guinness name


The legacy of empire and exile at Elveden


Stewardship over sentiment


Farming at scale in modern Britain


Writing his own family history


The future of estates in a changing world

A candid exploration of responsibility, narrative and custodianship.

📖 Ned’s book:Guinness: A Family Succession -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1800753603

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Journalist and author Eleanor Doughty has spent over a decade gaining rare access to Britain’s great estates.

In her Sunday Telegraph column and her book Heirs and Graces, she explores inheritance not as privilege alone - but as duty, burden and identity.

In this episode, Violet and Eleanor discuss:


How Britain’s aristocracy really lives today


The realities behind the Downton fantasy


Trust, discretion and access


Inheritance in the 21st century


Whether the current estate model can survive

An intelligent and clear-eyed conversation about what it truly means to inherit a historic house today.

📖 Eleanor’s book:Heirs and Graces –

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0241555494

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Lady Anne Glenconner has lived more lives than most of us could imagine.

Born at Holkham Hall, Maid of Honour at Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation, and lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret for over three decades, Lady Anne stood at the centre of royal history — and at the creation of Mustique as a legendary private island.

But behind the glamour lies a life shaped equally by resilience: inheritance battles, personal tragedy, a complex marriage, and reinvention as a bestselling author in her late eighties.

In this deeply personal conversation, Lady Anne reflects on:


Growing up at Holkham Hall


Royal service and Princess Margaret beyond the myth


Loss, dignity and survival


Inheritance laws and women’s rights


The future of Britain’s great houses

Candid, witty and unflinching.

📖 Lady Anne’s books:

Lady in Waiting – https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07QWTZDCG

Manners and Mischief – https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0FKMWRL1H

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This week on Hidden Heritage, Violet Manners sits down with Patrick Galbraith — writer, journalist and one of the sharpest contemporary voices examining the British countryside.From birds, deer and gamekeeping to land access, farming and the cultural fabric of rural life, Patrick’s work explores the fault lines shaping modern Britain’s landscapes. Together, we trace his story from the landscapes that first formed him to the people who continue to define countryside life today: farmers, stalkers, ghillies, wildfowlers and land managers whose livelihoods remain deeply tied to the land.At the heart of this conversation is the government’s recent announcement to ban trail hunting, a decision that has sent shockwaves through many rural communities. Violet and Patrick unpack what this means not only politically, but culturally: for hunts, hounds, land management, jobs, tradition, and the wider sense that many countryside voices feel increasingly unheard in national debates.The conversation also explores the wider “countryside wars” unfolding across Britain: rewilding, illegal species releases, deer management, collapsing rural industries, food resilience, and whether Britain’s real challenge is not access to nature, but meaningful engagement with it.This is a conversation about heritage in its truest sense: not nostalgia, but the living relationship between people, place and the skills that shape the land.A thoughtful, provocative and deeply grounded episode on what rural Britain is becoming — and what may yet be lost.

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