Carlton Towers: The Yorkshire stately home that appears in ITV's Keeping Up With The Aristocrats

The owners of Carlton Towers, a Grade I-listed country house near Selby, are among those featured in ITV series Keeping Up With The Aristrocrats.
By Grace Newton
Published 17th Jan 2022, 17:08 GMT

The programme follows noble families and couples and provides an insight into their lives during the summer social season.

Lord Gerard Fitzalan-Howard and his wife Emma, styled Lady Gerald, have lived in the house since 1991, moving in just a year after their marriage. Gerard is the younger brother of the current Duke of Norfolk, Edward Fitzalan-Howard, who resides at the family's main seat, Arundel Castle in Sussex.

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Lord Gerald had a classic upper-class childhood, as his father and brother's Norfolk dukedom is considered one of the most senior in the country. The Duke traditionally performs the role of the Earl Marshal and has close ties to the royal family. Lord Gerald was educated at Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire.

Carlton TowersCarlton Towers
Carlton Towers

However, his wife is a doctor's daughter from a middle-class family who was working in recruitment in London when they met at a wedding. They have three children born in the early 1990s - Arthur, Florence and Grace.

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The house had been unoccupied for a long period of time when the couple moved in - it was originally the seat of the Barons Beaumont and passed to the Fitzalan-Howards through marriage. They had to raise considerable funds for restoration.

Lady Gerald has been on TV before - she featured in the Sky Atlantic series Weekend Aristocrats, and the family were seen in another Sky Atlantic production, The Guest Wing.

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Carlton Towers itself is also a TV star - in 1988 it appeared in an adaptation of the Evelyn Waugh novel A Handful of Dust, and it stood in for a French chateau in an episode of The Darling Buds of May.

Its more recent credits include Masterchef, Victoria and the Kay Mellor series Love, Lies & Records.

The house is a popular wedding venue and in 2014 a cookery school opened on the estate. There's a vineyard and parts of the house can be hired for private parties.

Lady Gerald's 60th birthday party features on Keeping Up With The Aristrocrats, with a guest appearance by a magician who saws her in half.

Related topics:ITV