Sir Gyles Isham, acclaimed 1930s Hollywood actor, returned to his beloved Northamptonshire seat in 1946 after nearly five years fighting in the Middle East. He described himself as a ‘Desert Rat’ – for he had served as one of the King’s Royal Rifle Corps in World War II, who’d triumphed in the Western Desert campaign.
It must have been a rather odd homecoming. In the intervening years, his invalid father had died, and Sir Gyles had succeeded to title and estate. Yet 146 Period Living that was far from the only difference he encountered as he neared the beautiful country house his family had called home for nearly 400 years.
Perhaps alarm bells began to ring as he approached: the fields surrounding it were no longer familiar swathes from his childhood; instead, he found their contours scarred by ugly Nissan huts. As he got closer still, there were Lamport’s gardens – loved and cared for by successive generations – now, to his horror, swamped by neglect.
