Country House Rescue

Ruth Watson revisits the Rogers family at Riverhill House in Kent to see if Ed and Sarah have made a success of their plans to make the estate pay for itself.

Four generations of the Rogers family live at Riverhill House in Kent, including 87-year-old great grandmother Evelyn Rogers, who has lived in the grounds since the end of World War II.

But over the past 60 years Evelyn has seen the once magnificent estate fall into disrepair.

Evelyn's grandson Ed and his wife Sarah also live in the grounds with their children. Sarah has the ideas and the enthusiasm to turn things around, but as the newest member of the family it's been a struggle for her to implement change.

Ed and Sarah have plenty of news to share with Ruth when she revisits them, including the addition of a new baby. As well as this, their newly extended seven-month season has seen them swamped with an astonishing 10,000 visitors, and the new car park in the site Ruth suggested is full with visitors' cars.

Ed and Sarah show Ruth new features including the Himalayan Hideout, the maze, and the lookout point.

Ed's mother Jane runs the newly-renovated and extended café complete with a large menu and Riverhill souvenirs, and their first year's turnover is an impressive £100 000.

With such a rapid expansion, Ruth is keen to find out if all of this has distracted away from Riverhill's status as a family home, or, instead, has saved it for the future.