Ben Cowell: Saving Country Houses

Ben Cowell is the Director General of Historic Houses. Historic Houses represents 1,500 country houses that remain in private ownership as lived-in family homes across the UK, which range from the real-life Downton Abbey (Highclere Castle) to busy tourist attractions such as Knebworth House in Hertfordshire, to lesser-known properties which nonetheless may have remained as family homes for centuries. Ben’s talk will also consider the ways that the Covid19 pandemic has affected this important part of our national heritage.