One Day With Imogen Hervey-Bathurst & James Hervey-Bathurst

ONE DAY WITH | MASTERS & MUSES | WORLD OF CABANA

Sophie Goodwin talks to Imogen Hervey-Bathurst, co-director of Hereford’s gothic triumph, Eastnor Castle, and her co-director father, James Hervey-Bathurst. The immersive fortress has been in the family for some 200 years; Imogen is forging its multi-layered history and untamed sensibility into a new era under James’ calculating eye.

BY SOPHIE GOODWIN | MASTERS & MUSES | 1 OCTOBER 2026

Designed by architect Robert Smirke in Norman revival style, Eastnor is a tussling riot of gothic, Italian renaissance and regency baronial aesthetic. The elaborately hand-painted ceilings, Pugin scheme in the gothic drawing room, multi panel tapestries and forcefully decorated marquetry were added in the 19th century by the romantic and artistic third generation owner, Earl Somers who travelled and collected widely.

Much of the house was locked up and abandoned after WWII until James and Sarah (Peake, daughter of the 1st Baron Ingleby, Imogen’s mother) embarked on a restoration programme in the 1990s with the help of British designer and collector, Bernard Nevill, a professor of textiles at London College of Fashion and a fabric designer for Saint Laurent and Balmain. ‘He loved unlovable things’, explains Imogen.

Eclectic, expansive and evolving, the castle is peppered with paintings by Jacopo Bassano, Salvator Rosa and G.F.Watts, a collection of photographs by Julia Matgaet Cameron, Flemish tapestries commissioned by Catherine de Medici and Assyrian reliefs from 700 BC. Imogen and James talk Cabana through a day at Eastnor.

Imogen Hervey-Bathurst

Before taking on Eastnor Castle Imogen worked in investment for 14 years, principally on the investment research team at Stanhope Capital acting as a director specializing in equity and hedge fund analysis.

I usually wake around 7ish. I would love to be able to sleep longer but once I’m awake I can’t go back to sleep. I am currently mostly in London, living in Notting Hill. I love its sense of street life, there are still independent retailers, and a sense of action and messy productivity. The Kings Road and Marylebone, by contrast, are sanitised and riddled with chain stores. A sense of soul is imperative.

I love pottering and buying random pieces. Like first edition James Bond novels and art deco silverware. Notting Hill has a pulse. However, I come to Eastnor every month for meetings and to check on projects; the dichotomy is very enlivening.

Growing up at Eastnor was an education. It has huge, imposing doors at times and then tiny Hobbit doors. Until I was five-years-old, we were living in a flat on the other side of the castle with its own (tiny, Hobbit style) entrance, so in that way it was like living in a London apartment; I am sure it introduced my love of great heights. People I had never seen before were constantly in and out, from repair workers to water suppliers, there was always activity going on, as much then as now.

When I wake at Eastnor I have one of the best views. My bedroom is high up in a former attic, and I see the sunrise over the lake; the light and colors change dramatically in real time. There are swallows and swift nests in the turrets and fly right past my window. Eastnor is full of idiosyncrasies, there is no symmetry or continuity, my outlook doesn’t exist on the other side of the castle, it is urban with a huge courtyard.

Breakfast is fuss-free. At Eastnor it is old school: marmite on toast. In London, I have my morning cocktail of berocca mixed with grapefruit juice and some kind of granola pot from the Pret-a-Manger next to my office in Notting Hill Gate.

I usually speak to the team at Eastnor at least three times a day. For example, I am now managing a partnership with Oliver Brown to reboot our staff uniforms with rich velvet Nehru jackets in fabulous colors; I’m not into the safe and chintzy Pride and Prejudice look, it needs to be Byronic. I love the feel of Hotel Costes in Paris. La Mamounia in Marrakech has wonderful dress for the staff too. I am also helping to design slippers with Venetian dragons for overnight stays; I can't bear naff merch. A lot of my work is bringing in business and then seeing if it actually can happen. I operate at the point of tension between good ideas and financial and practical constraints.

Lunch at Eastnor is whatever is in the fridge. Sometimes I get a takeaway from the Woodshed café in the deer park. I’m particularly fond of this part of the grounds, it is an unbroken park on the hill where music festivals take place. As we are privately-owned and not a National Trust property, it's always bustling (parking is free). Once a month on a Friday we partner with a local producer for pop-up food offerings.

Anything creative has to happen in the afternoon. That's when I do my best thinking particularly around dusk. The mornings are for more boring administrative tasks – replying to emails or having meetings because I am forced to be in the moment at a time when my concentration would otherwise be poor.

Exercise is of supreme importance to me. I feel terrible if I haven’t gone on a good walk or run every day. Big views and open spaces like the Malvern Hills are really important for clearing the mind. A really good long walk is such a reset and I love the light at sunset. A glass of red wine in the evening also helps.

Dinner at Eastnor is down to Dad and Lucy. I am essentially their guest when I stay. Lucy (Manners, James’ second wife) is a wonderful cook for smaller evenings, for larger occasions we have a cook and choose from a big in-house menu. We have three dining levels: low key kitchen supper, little dining room and big dining room. I love homey food like cheese souffle and venison. I’m permanently cold so I gravitate towards hearty food.

I do not entertain much at Eastnor but when I do – once or maybe twice a year – it is on a grand scale. For that weekend I am as much the client as a family member. There is nothing better than a house party – the rooms coming alive, the fires lit and the immersive glamour of it all. I am indulging in exactly the fantasy we are trying to create for our clients. It is always black tie, the house is sparkly and I want people to sparkle too. Eastnor is so theatrical, like a film set, and part of that is dressing up. There is no point otherwise.

I love our Venetian dragon benches. They are older than the house and have these mythical dragons that protrude out from under the benches and they are grinning slightly – they are literally coming alive. I have never seen anything like them and they also served for inspiration for our new logo. I don’t have much of a collection – yet. But I am very drawn to early modern portraiture. I keep buying Syrian and Moroccan octagonal tables and have recently started to buy antique textiles. I scour online with websites like The Hoarde and Vinterior. I am always bringing buried treasure amongst the junk back from Portobello Road.

When I am trying to come up with ideas my first thought is cinema or stage. Musics wise, I can’t work with vocals so I listen to three soundtracks: The Da Vinci Code, Gladiator, and The Dark Knight Rises. I gravitate towards moody things, like the concepts of power and revenge; it’s not calm, wellness vibes at Eastnor. Decoratively there are a lot of blood reds: no duck egg blue, no cream, no plates on the walls.

I also ask myself, what novel are you in? Eastnor is much more Mr Rochester than Mr Darcy; it is creatively chaotic, an organically arresting mess with no continuity. Each room is different, it feels informal and relaxed despite its overbearing grandeur. I suppose it's because there are no rules due to the artistic chaos.

We have done quite a few collaborations that bring Eastnor to a new audience. We tell the story in a fresh way, including with Watts 1874 where we launched wallpapers and fabrics inspired by the textiles, furniture and wallcoverings replicating the arresting textures of Eastnor. As there is no archive, and wallpapers are glued to the walls, snatches and sections of patterns and designs and details are meticulously taken from the rooms. This includes sections of the coffered ceiling in the dining room, which have been turned using 3D technology into trompe-l’oeil 2D wallpapers. Watts 1874 has magicked 17th-century mythological seascape tapestries in the Long Library (sourced from a palazzo in Mantua) into murals, and a Trastámara painted leather screen in the Great Hall has been translated into both papers and fabrics.

I believe we are in the business of dreams, fantasy and escapism. We are in the entertainment business as much as anything else. I think the family should always live in a part of the house as it means it will always be really personal and that is something that people pick up on. A lot of global expansion has become homogenised in terms of its aesthetic and historic houses are in an exceptional position to stand out because of their unique melange of design, tastes and collections. They are literally impossible to recreate. Experience and storytelling are the most prevalent factors now.

I’m in love with the unabashed drama of Eastnor. There is nothing genteel or manicured about it – it’s rugged and beautiful. The landscape is so unspoilt as it is relatively undeveloped and rural.

The challenges are daily, the principle of which is making something work that was never designed to be a business. I feel particularly lucky to be involved at a time when there has been something of a visual revolution thanks to the internet and social media. We can now reach a global audience which is exciting. In addition, we have partnered with some amazing creative brands and it’s wonderful to see their interpretation of Eastnor.

Dad is more focused on the physical and logistical aspects of running the estate: I deal with branding, digital strategy and strategic partnerships and collaborations. It is a full time job doing nothing: renovations / repairs / maintenance. Trees need moving. He understands the bones of the house and can interface with someone at the Victoria & Albert Museum at the drop of a hat. His work is quite technical. I have four younger sisters, Isabella and Nancy, my two half-sisters, Stella and Minna, live at Eastnor although none are involved in its running.

If not Eastnor, it's Venice. The sheer improbability and ridiculousness of it and there is a surprise around every corner. It’s a warren of delights.

James Hervey-Bathurst

James is heavily invested in historic architecture and cultural heritage preservation in Britain, vice-president of European Historic Houses since 2006. Previously chairman of the World Monuments Fund, he was president of the Historic Houses Association from 2004 to 2008, also working as a consultant in heritage and taxation for Christie's. In 2009 he was a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, in recognition of services to national heritage, appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Herefordshire in 2008.

I am always up between 7am and 8am. I am a night owl, especially if I have had a siesta. From my windows in the morning I have a view of the lake and Malvern Hills. We live on the South East side, on two/three floors. I grew up at the castle, and have always had a good relationship with what it represents.

I inherited the historic estate from my mother in 1988. The castle was in reasonable condition, but needed some spending on the fabric and a lot on the decoration as we re-colonised rooms that had been vacated in 1939. I was happy to have the challenge. I trained in law. But law is not good for commercial work as it makes you too cautious. But there is a lot of law as well in an estate: trusts, tax, land law etc, so it has been useful, but perhaps an MBA would have been better.

Breakfast is with my wife Lucy: orange juice, muesli and toast. Although she does not join me at the start. Work begins at 9.30am; mainly office work and meetings. Organising repairs and checking various areas of the house and grounds. Lucy manages lots of projects within the house, like the decoration/ restoration. She recovers chairs and sources fabrics and is invaluable.

I am mostly focused throughout the day. I shut the office door and do not answer the telephone or work in another room. I walk the dogs every day and try to do 100 strokes on my rowing machine. Classical music helps. Lunch is 1.15pm sharp in the kitchen: meat and salad. Fish on Tuesdays.

The work has evolved considerably. Our restoration started in the 1990s, with Imogen's mother and my first wife Sarah, although in 1884 we were open to visitors for charity, the initial aim being to simply put the rooms back into a usable condition, with furniture, heating, lighting etc. The vision was to have the house as it might have been when the family lived in it all as was originally intended and to be able to let it commercially to pay for its longer-term upkeep. I am proud that people visiting appreciated and enjoy the house as presented and that my eldest daughter, Imogen, wants to take it on.

Evenings are relaxed. Lucy & I have dinner together and have a cooked main course, never pizza or pasta, however. I have a dessert. We entertain once or twice a month and twice a year on a large scale. The overriding aim is making enough money to keep the house and its fabric and services in good order.

The joy is seeing others enjoy it as much as we do. However, the future is uncertain as new capital taxes i.e. IHT will affect sustainability. The pleasure is seeing improvements in various areas, if not all. Introducing new business and occasionally adding to the collection. Handing over is essential, and ideally done before death so there is a chance to share knowledge and discuss plans and challenges.

I love the setting of Eastnor and the Malvern Hills. I love the agricultural landscape of Herefordshire, with distant views of hills etc. I love the spirit of the castle and its large spaces and striking decoration. Otherwise I loved the ancient souk of Aleppo. I love the mosque of Ibn Tulun in Cairo. Each because of their age and architecture.