The smallest landed estate in England

Photo credit "lostheritage.org.uk" - see right sidebar

History has not been kind to the Carlingfords. Like many landed families where fortunes have be made and squandered over the years, Carlingford Place is now no more. The great Edwardian country house parties are a dim and distant memory consigned to dusty photograph albums. Little by little the great estate has been sold off to meet death duties and the other pressing financial needs of the family and we are reduced to owning the smallest landed estate in England.

When I say small, the Carlingford Estate does still boast some of the finest grouse shooting in the country. The problem is that at just over one square metre its difficult to surprise ones victim. In fact there is little sport shooting a grouse at point blank range - such slayings can better be described as execution and often it's difficult to hang the results of ones efforts let alone cook it.

So! Should one sell the last vestige of greatness? Or perhaps open it up and allow the great unwashed to picnic? Chatsworth seems popular with the public although a little larger and more ostentatious. Longleat pays its way but still, why should the aristocracy charge to prop up their dynasties. No! We will be magnanimous - we will allow full and free access to the entire estate where peacocks once strutted and someday we will publish a photographic record so that it can be remembered what the Carlingfords once were - a beautiful reminder of the carefree days of boaters and hampers before the First World War realigned our values.