New Year at the real Downtown Abbey: Lord and Lady Carnarvon look forward and reflect.

In this New Year special episode, I'm delighted to sit down with my husband. We reflect on the challenges and highlights of 2025, including our memorable 'Weekend to Remember' event and the exciting premiere of the 'Grand Finale' film. We also discuss the personal joys and trials on the farm and in our gardens, and the impact of a very dry summer. Looking forward, we share our excitement for upcoming events in 2026, including the construction of the new garden pavilion, various celebrations, and our special Viking cruise. Highlights include our successful charity efforts, advancements in our gin business and the addition of our adorable new spaniel puppies. Here's to a happy and prosperous 2026 for everyone!

00:00 Welcome and New Year Reflections

00:26 Challenges of 2025

01:03 A Memorable Weekend to Remember

03:32 The Grand Finale Premiere

04:59 Racing Highlights and Future Plans

06:20 Business and Farming Challenges

08:57 Exciting Upcoming Events

11:55 Highclere Castle Gin's Global Recognition

12:57 New Additions and Future Projects

16:33 Concluding Thoughts and New Year Wishes

You can hear more episodes of Lady Carnarvon's Official Podcasts at https://www.ladycarnarvon.com/podcast/

New episodes are published on the first day of every month.

Transcript

Welcome to my podcast, and there's no one I would rather be sitting with as we start a new year than my husband, Jordy. But firstly, a very happy new year to all of you. And thank you Jordy for joining me here today.  

Well, it's great to be thinking back over the past year and, and exciting thoughts about what's coming up in the, in the year to come.

Really, 

we hope those exciting things. It's been quite a challenging year, hasn't it, in 2025, despite the highlights such as the Grand Finale film and, , some of our achievements, it's nevertheless, I think in the wider world, been a hugely challenging year.  

Challenging year for, for, for many people in, in, in the wider world.

And, and, and, and because of the extremely dry summer here, it was quite a challenge both on, uh, obviously on the farm and, and in the gardens. 

Yes, it certainly was. And trying to make sure everybody here had lots to drink of, well, IED I think is the expression, but we have had, we had an amazing summer in terms of the weather.

Good weather does. Help when we have wonderful visitors here. And it, the culmination was, um, firstly our weekend to remember. And then secondly, the grand finale. Do you want to talk a little bit about the weekend? Remember? I just found it. So moving, Jordy.  

Well, well, well, it, it, it was moving and, and course across the, the, the generations from, from the young, all, all the way through to, to really elderly but amazing veterans who actually fought in World War ii, who were there amongst us at our remembrance service on the Sunday when these amazing aircraft from World War II flew past in what was rather luckily for us, nice weather for the day.

It was, I wanted just to pick up the theme of 80 years since the end, since the end of World War ii and think about what our parents and grandparents might have hoped for on VE day, 80 years earlier. And I was wondering, or asking the question, what have we done with their hopes and dreams today? And then to that end, um, asking people to join us.

And different ambassadors from many countries and you know, thousands of people came as well to watch the air display I'm sure. But just to stand together. So I was really proud of all we did , the purpose was to raise money for those who save and serve today. 'cause they are at the front line and it seems a very.

Precarious and fragile world out there today. So I hope it was a, a good weekend. 

It was great for the, for the younger people to see those Wonderful. Machines of the air, which were so important in, in defending freedom back then, still come fly past us to, to be able to say hello to the extraordinary veterans who were so brave in, in, in that period.

And to understand about the, the uniforms and the, even, even the, the sort of, the, the cloth and hairdos at the time as the ladies were having their forties hairdos done. Weren't, weren't they as well. It was such 

fun.   Viking helped sponsor it, and obviously the Perot family from Texas were amazing and helped sponsor the air show, which was just outta this world.

We had one of the last, the last B 17 in this country flew by, as did to Lenna and Spitfires, so it was very moving. It was very rare to 

get a Blen bomber. There are a few Spitfires around. We also had a Mustang American fighter as as, as well. So that was, that was all extraordinary. And we did raise some, some, some, some reasonable amounts for, um, um, for, for sfa, uh, the RAF benevolent fund. 

Yes. And, um, combat stress and, and of, and of course  Soranio who, who out there? Every day in some of the most dangerous and water on areas trying to, to save lives and and help people in a very distressed situation. 

But I hope it was entertaining and meaningful, which is I think lies at the heart of high clear.

And then just one week later, we all then went into London for the premier of the grand finale, which is. Always such an exciting moment. I don't think I ever thought I'd be going to premieres j, let alone a premier where it was our home, which swam up onto the screens in front of us. 

Well, there's glorious scenes from, from the air of the castle set in.

Its sort of would also Silver Sea, but with the Green Sea, with the beauty of the park and the seeded trees. And then you come down to, to all the, the stories of the beloved characters of of of, of Downton Abbey in in, in the movie. Um, and I think they, they did it all, all very well. I think Julia Feathers was, was thinking that it was the, the, there was the grand finale.

So, so people were retiring or, or moving off to other things slightly in, in, in the story, 

but did leave you wondering at the end, didn't they? They did leave, was wondering, wondering at the end. 

And it was great to, to to see, uh, uh, a fantastic version of Royal ASCO for the, with the, with the racing. 'cause that's such a part of the traditional English.

English solo. I know 

you love ASCO racing, so that was one element. But actually I think I probably enjoyed. Watching the grand finale even more a week later was we took the cinema in Newbury and all of us, 140 of us who work here at Highclere all went along and we sat and cheered and laughed and at Popcorn the whole way through.

And it was so relaxing and such fun. I, I loved him because 

we were a bit of the long way back in the vast, uh, similar in Leicester Square. So I actually picked up some more things I hadn't even even noticed the first time around when we were seeing it in a much more intimate setting in Newbury. So that was.

Great. 

It was lovely, wasn't it?  And of course, given, referring back to the Ascot scene, you've had such fun with your mare Pink Lily, haven't you? Over the last few years? Yes. 

Well, pink Lily's been my, my  little chestnut star here and she, she's won seven times. Her won three times a good will, which is her.

Favorite track, and of course I love Goodwill, which it is such a pretty course on, on, on the downs. And they have at her distance you have to climb up the hill and then come down. And she, she, you know, in her best race this year, she was, she, she fought back from being taken on in the last, fell along and still won.

And so it shows that some, she has enormous grit. Never gives up. 

She doesn't give up. No. She's such a sweetie and she's now back here, and hopefully we're going to put her into fold, um, early this year. And I think you've, you've penciled her for Golden Horn, haven't you? Yeah. 

Because he was a, a, a, a great, uh, champion a  a few years ago.

The, the, so 

what distance was he running over Jo? A, 

a a mile and two a mile and a half up. The, the Derby And, and, and the, um.  The after tree off, 

so Oh my goodness. That would, that's say, that would be, if we achieve those, 

those, those, those heights, that would be quite fantastic. But I think it would, it's a, it's a good cross for her, for her breeding and, and if we just, some have just a bit of her deter her determination and grit in her, her foles and I'm sure we'll get somewhere she s That would be 

lovely.

I'm so looking forward to it. We've got another very nice. Um, Colt, though a 2-year-old who's, um, well, he'll be three this year in training with Richard Hanlon. Yes. So I hope he will also give us both. Much pleasure. 

Well, Pearl River. What a what? A Pearl River. What a what? A what a great name. Yeah. 

Thank you.

That's my name. Thank you.  That was handed to me beautifully. Thank you very much. J But on the other hand, looking back, it has been a very challenging year in terms of business. It's bizarre because. Both difficult to find people and yet there's people who are looking for jobs. So in terms of the employment market, it's bizarrely challenging in terms of finding business.

It's quite tough 'cause none of us in this country have got much money. And um, there's just a sense  of wading through quite cla mud, I think, in terms of what we're trying to do 

well, I think, I think that's absolutely true and we were worried early, early on in the year that that, that the.  Our extra spend in the teams gift shop might be a little, little lower than all, but I think because of great retail choice and, and pricing and, and design from, from Sally in the gift shop and, and our kitchen team with everything we do for the teams, it actually went  relatively well.

So I was pleased with the outcome because people, I, I, it's always great when people enjoy themselves in terms, if they're happy, they're gonna be, they're gonna be spending some money, they're gonna be having a great time. And I think , the weather. It was definitely  on our, side for that, and I was so pleased to see people having fun cocktails in our, in , with Lish and the bar at the end of the evening as helping  the High Castle gin.

But it was very challenging to be , a farmer this year across the country. There really was very little rain , from March all the way through, till it finally came in September. So quite a few crops really did partially shrivel up and, , and nearly die. So yields were really very low.  

And marriage to the difficult agricultural situation of this country.

It, it has been a year, which has been, , quite depressing, I think for most farmers because in some ways  food has been its own currency. Perhaps in the past it's the most important. Currency, it's the most important, um, production that any society makes because we all need to eat. And yet it's value in how it's treated is a little bit at odds with that.

So it's in, it's challenged in so many ways, Julie, which is really tough actually, and really hard to keep going. But, um, well, I 

think, I think the, um, um.  Livestock farmers had, had, had to be, had to be very resilient and brave. This year, it was okay for us down in the west country where there was some rain, but other, otherwise it was very difficult to keep your, your, your nice cattle and sheep alive.

In fact, we, we rather, um,  you had to, had to use our, some of our nice haard grass for horses just to keep our, our, our sheep alive.  Um, which, which is what, what you have to do in farming. You have to sacrifice one thing to keep something, something else going   there's a general bit of a feeling that the, the, the, the, the overall government is not so supportive of farmers.

Even they're doing such, such an important job. But I mean, I think that's perhaps things that resolve themselves over, over time. But you need, you need to be pretty resilient to stay in farming right now in, in Britain.  

You certainly do, don't you?  But, um, looking forward, if we have looked back, looking forward as we go through January and February, we've got some of our favorite events.

Valentine's is coming up, um, which is always a popular event in February. And what's lovely is how many wonderful men actually want to treat their wives. That always makes me so happy 'cause I see many of the emails. It's just, it's just heavenly. That's one thing going on as we go forward, then into March and spring.

But our major project, Jordy, is our new garden pavilion, isn't it?  

It is. And this, and this is very, very exciting because, because it's going to be a, a really open and area and nicely built event space that that'll, that will just be, be, be great for people to, to, to, to visit, you know, rather than having the.

 And there's some more temporary Marques and that 

I think it's going to be transformational. Wonderful for all the team here, att clear who will feel they can deliver something in a beautiful space they can be very proud of.  I'm very happy. We did actually achieve the planning permission and replace the marketing, which goes up, down, up, down. 

The ground underneath is always wrecked with a beautiful pavilion, airy and light, and a lovely garden in front with smaller trees filtering the view and spaces to sit in a, a great bar. So, oh my goodness, that's exciting. And a kind of barbecue area. I think with the back I can see that happening.

We need, perhaps need a few jazz bands. Some fun like that, Jie, and I'm immensely grateful to our partners, Viking. They are amazing and I hope it's a great collaboration with their sponsorship over the next 10 years and the way our business will develop alongside all the privileged access for them and and for our other visitors.

Be able to enjoy the space as well. Viking Garden Pavilion. Here we come. No, 

, it's wonderful to be a,  alongside Viking Cruises and they're very successful expanding business.  They're really nice customers who, who obviously love the quality of the Viking cruises and the fact they get to, to, to, to visit high clear with.

Always very enthusiastic. When, when, when, when they're here 

and you and I are going on a Viking cruise up road. We are. 

We, I, I, so my, my, my first, I've been on a, on a river cruise with, with the Nile, with you in Egypt. But we haven't, haven't done a river, never done this in Europe yet. And starting at, um.  At, um, in Amster Amsterdam heading to to Basel.

It's a great way of doing it. I 

can't wait to do, it'd be such fun, and there's four couples with three couples coming with us. So I, I just think we are just going to have such a fun time and nothing to worry about or do apart from join some of the excursions and, and eat and admire the views as we go.

So I am. I think we will have a really wonderful and special week. So 

no, very much, very much looking that treat for ourselves in April. April. Looking forward to that in, in April. Absolutely. Yeah. Great. I know, 

and perhaps we might go back to Egypt again later on in November, which should be lovely, but see where that goes.

 Have we 

got the battle proms coming up in August? 

Yes. Our, we, our, our glorious, um, outdoor concert with the fireworks. It really is a terrific evening, early, early August every year. Mostly pressure, rather good weather on that weekend too. 

Oh my goodness. We have been lucky. So that's just simply wonderful.

And I suppose the other big news that, as well as the Viking Pavilion that we received was the fact that. Our  little old gin Highclere castle Gin has with two other gins been voted the three best gins in the entire world by Forbes Magazine. I 

know, I, I was amazed to read, read, read this article. I could har I could hardly believe it.

And they, and they do start off by saying there are thousands of gins and these are the three that have been  finally selected. So we, we, we, you know, it's an enormous accolade and, and a great honor and something that began in the orry.  Atcl.  

Yes. And the fund is Lee Mal from Adam and Regina in Connecticut.

And there we've built a partnership and a going forward together. So I'm, um, really thrilled that,  our every single step is always quite challenging to make. But we now are also a, um, in Canada through the liquor board in Ontario as well as in, I think, is it 30 states in America?  And making some headway on Amazon.

We are  over here. Absolutely. Yes. Yeah. 

 And I have managed now to plant out a patron's walk. I'm not sure whether you've seen it yet. It's lovely. And plant out a number of shrubs to thank all the patrons who have supported friends of Hi Claire. So I've been doing that, which has been such a joy. And I've also planted some little lancia trees to some of our patrons who've been with us for the last three years, not just.

Two, which is so lovely to plant, you know, hydrangeas and viburnums in Philadelphia's all my favorites, shrubs to give people such pleasure and I've made little plaques and names for all of them. So it's really lovely. I've enjoyed doing that. And then we can work our way round into sort of a, a little secret Dell area at the back, which I also want to make George, which I haven't quite made you aware of, but you had two other.

Surprises quite recently, didn't you?  

Oh, the little bundles of joy at age 10 weeks old. The two little cock up boy and girl, ies. I was not expecting them. They are absolutely adorable, but they are certainly quite a lot of work.  

I know, but  they are all my work than yours. The thing is, they are absolutely heavenly and you are right.

I hadn't told you, I didn't also tell you I had quite a sleepless. Weekend before they arrived on the Monday. 'cause I hadn't obviously told you until  they were here. , you took it unbelievably brilliantly. So I'm so grateful that you did. But Patty and Lola are , just joyful and I had the most amazing walk with these two little, um, spaniel puppies and three of my Labradors.

I managed to, I'm slowly introducing them into all my, my dog life. And I had such a lovely, lovely walk. It just made me smile from beginning to end. And they were sort of chasing after Isla, who they sort of idolized, uh, one of the slim Labrador running around much faster than they could go. And you saw that little legs coming afterwards.

It was really cute. So we've got a lovely few months ahead with them as they grow from their puppies. I wish this puppy stage would last a bit longer. It's adorable.  

Yes, they're very good. They, they do already retrieve tennis balls quite, quite well at a very young age, so, you know. Good. That's all exciting stuff.

Well, I'm 

going to continue to practice that all through January and February Jordy so they can be complete rising stars. But everybody here adults, them, which is so sweet.  And I suppose we've got a little bit more work to do in the castle as ever. There's a room on the top floor infantry barracks, which I wanted to, um, redecorate, which I think would be nice.

It's got many of your father's old papers in, which would be lovely to sort the moment. There are piles of paper on the floor, so I open the door, have a look at it, and shut the door again.  

 There's,  the,  picture of Elizabeth Countess of Carrum from the Civil War War period is being cleaned up of, uh, your sister Lucy's help if we got this year.

And that, that'll be fun to hang that when it, when it can, when it comes back. That's exciting. I can't remember, which is exciting.  It'll probably go into the corner of the, of the, of the dining room to be with all the other Stewart. Um. Type paintings. 

How lovely. And there's 

all that exciting new interpretation or re improved interpretation for the Egyptian exhibition we're going to  organize.

That would 

be really nice as well. Yeah, so I think my sister Lucy's done a fantastic job on that. So there are lots of lovely, smaller, manageable projects. And then I'd have to start my next books.  But I hope everyone's been enjoying a year at Highclere, and I hope that's got quite a long way to go yet.

And I was thinking I might try and do a treasure hunter round it. What do you think? Yeah, that's 

be fun. 

It would be, I thought I might put clues in it and I can see what I can find at the end of it.  So that's my next plan. 

Good.  Well, listen, my darling, thank you so much for sitting here with me as we look back and look forward, which is entirely appropriate given that's exactly what the God Janus does for whom January was named, um, by the Romans.

So, um,  looking backwards and forwards, and I wish everybody who's listening a very happy New Year and maybe all find more peace than we found so far.  

Very happy New Year and, and a prosperous time in 2026.  

Brilliant.