Feature Interview with Michael Pearson, the fourth Viscount Cowdray
The fourth Viscount and Marina, Lady Cowdray, above, in Buck Hall, the centrepiece of Cowdray House
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bureaucracy – and a threat!’ Our main concern was the loss of local planning powers. But we switched our thinking to look at opportunities, namely that more people would come to the area, and we started a leisure department to entertain these people. “We converted redundant farm buildings into cottages, improved the golf club in terms of playing ability – altering greens and tees – and built a new clubhouse, and we've completed the first year of our new farm shop and cafe, which is going very well.” Vehemently anti-GM and pro-organic, Michael says: “This belief that GM will feed the world,
“The forestry has taken 20 years to get back in order after the 1987 gales, but recently we've made a profit,” says Michael. “Forestry and agriculture are only marginally profitable, and residential property – the 330 cottages on the estate – has kept us going. Commercial real estate in Midhurst is struggling: retailers have been hit by out-of-town shopping. We keep rents down to a reasonable level.”
And the polo club? Michael, who ceasedthe subsidies of his father’s day and appointed David Jamison as chairman in 2003 to steer the club to a self-sustaining footing, is pleased with how it runs. “We don’t attend as much as we used to but
“We’re very involved in the polo club’s management. The team creates enough surplus for capital expenditure”
which is pushed by global companies, is dangerous and disruptive. There's evidence – though not proof – that GM harms human health. “Organic goes back to the days of farming naturally pre- and post-war, producing healthier food. We've gone organic apart from 500 acres for potatoes, which are difficult to grow organically. Organic farming has been hit by the recession and supermarkets, but we make a small profit on dairying.” Two more projects in Easebourne are taking shape: a model farm between the A272 and the Lawns, on 40 acres that has been growing rotational potatoes, and a meditation room and events hall behind the estate office. “We want to grow small areas of rotational organic crops, with walkways in between so visitors can see how food is produced,” says Michael. “We have the support of Natural England, the local community and the parish council, and we’re sorting out issues with English Heritage, because it's close to the Ruin. “We've taken back the lease on a 200-year- old chapel previously run as the Easebourne Club, and Marina has turned it into a not-for- profit community meditation centre for anyone to take time out for a peaceful moment. Attached is a larger building – Cowdray Hall – which we will rent out for educational events, such as lectures and films.” The estate’s other enterprises include forestry, residential property and commercial lets.
60 July 2010
www.polotimes.co.uk
we’re very much involved in the management. We’re fortunate to have a good management team that creates enough surplus each year to provide capital expenditure for the following year. “There’s always new equipment needed, or improvements to grounds – and as it’s a members’ club it’s not the aim to make a profit.” He’s delighted by Jamie Packer’s lease of Manor Farm, Selham, where work has started on a new polo base for the Australian patron. The family’s other major plan is to leave the 17-bedroom Victorian mansion that is Cowdray House and move back to Greenhill Farm in nearby Fernhurst, where they lived until 1995. Michael views the move with anticipation and sadness. “While we still have the energy we want to move somewhere more manageable,” he says. “We're beholden to running the house: Marina spends a lot of time managing the 10 staff; at Greenhill we’ll have only three. I believe in sustainability, and it would be expensive and difficult to turn this into a sustainable home. I’ve been here all my life and my family has been here 100 years: I have very good memories, so to lose it will be a wrench. But life moves on. “We will especially miss the views and the garden: it will be sad to lose it because we’ve done a great deal of work.” Michael’s father closed parts of the garden to make it more manageable, which they have reopened, also creating a wonderful lake from a sunken garden. Views to all sides are splendid, from the avenue
of wellingtonias, also visible from the Lawns, to the Ruins and Midhurst through a gap in the trees, the South Downs and a glimpse of Ambersham from the first floor.
When the family moved in they replumbed, rewired and redecorated, also renewing a third of the roof. Especially striking is Buck Hall, the vast vaulted cavern at the house's heart named after a hall in the Ruins. In Michael’s childhood it was bare and functional, with a refectory table at the centre; now it’s homely with peach walls, velvet sofas and family photos, while portraits collected by Michael’s great-grandfather and paintings of family members observe from on high. Flanking a suit of armour are portraits of the first and second Viscounts and “softer” paintings of Michael and Marina. “Daphne [Lakin, Michael’s aunt] visited after we redecorated and said Buck Hall was just like it had been before the war,” recalls Michael.
As well as magnificent ground-floor reception rooms there's an indoor pool, a bowling alley and a billiards room – also containing scores of photo albums – plus the famous outdoor party pool, a 21st birthday present to John Cowdray from his sisters. Michael installed a diving board and a state-of-the-art extra-strong cover – “which the children used as a trampoline!”
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o who will live there next? “We’re looking for a tenant who will take a 20-year lease on the house and 100 acres – including the House Ground and gardens,” says Michael. “That leaves it open for the next generation, and when Perry is 35 he can decide what he’ll do with it. If it's hard to find the right tenant we will consider selling it. Turning it into a hotel wasn’t appealing because we’d need to be partners with the hotelier and we don’t want to go into the hotel business. It would be lost to the family anyway, which is no different to selling it.” Michael is renaming Greenhill Farm Cowdray Lodge: Cowdray House was known as Cowdray Lodge for 78 years after a corner of it was built in 1800 – only when extended to its present layout did it become Cowdray House. And if there's any doubt about Michael's sense of tradition, history and family, his youngest son Monty is named after Montague, the family that presided 500 years ago over what is now Cowdray Ruins. F
Photograph by Vanessa Taylor
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