Phoenix from the flames
IT was every country-house owner’s worst nightmare when, early one morning in January 1999, handsome Eardisley Park in the picturesque Wye Valley, 15 miles northwest of Hereford, burnt to the ground, leaving only the stone plinth enclosing the basement and the north wall of the classic Grade II*- listed Queen Anne house still standing.
Fortunately, its owners, Nigel and Jane Morris-Jones and their four children, were away at the time, but the disaster was compounded by the fact that they had spent the previous three years restoring the house they had bought in 1996.
The original Queen Anne house was built by William Barnesley, a London merchant who bought the estate in about 1700. It stands on
