Phil Spencer's Stately Homes

Phil hears tales of lovesick ghosts as he surveys Longleat's lavish interior décor and some of the most elaborate gardening in history.

When is a stately home not a stately home? When it's a stately castle. In Leicestershire, Phil tries some medieval pest control and finds evidence of an aristocratic sex scandal and a lost railway.

Phil is off to Norfolk and a grand pile built by Britain's first prime minister, Sir Robert Walpole. He discovers jaw dropping costs, bedrooms, and a giant silver bed.

Phil explores the magnificent Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire and gets to know its formidable builders, John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough, and his wife Sarah. Lady Henrietta Spencer-Churchill, Phil’s host, explains that the palace was a gift to the Marlborough family from their friend Queen Anne, a monument to the Duke’s victory over the French at the Battle of Blenheim in 1704. However, in the archive Phil discovers the build was plagued with problems: fall-outs with the architect, unpaid builders and costs beyond even the wildest estimates. Phil tots up a total in today’s money that makes Blenheim the most expensive house he’s ever visited.