Combermere has 1,000 acres of grounds and was redecorated in a 2014 project

room, while my mother’s old bedroom is a study.” By 2016, the scheme was complete.

Combermere sits on the CheshireShropshire border, 13 miles from Crewe, and nine miles from the Welsh border. Cheshire is a “contradictory” county. “It’s very rural, but then you’ve got a whole section which is what most people think of as Cheshire, with footballers’ wives, in places like Alderley Edge.”

The land at Combermere features “a huge, natural mere, which is glacial. The house sits in a gentle bowl”.

The 1,000 acres that remain, predominantly the parkland of the original estate, have “a mysterious environmental magic” to them.

Callander Beckett would like Combermere to be “comfortably sustainable” before Peregrine, now 23, takes over: “I would like to hand over a secure business base which doesn’t slightly lurch from year to year.”

Lockdown has made this a little more difficult. Financially, it will be tough for a while: “Not only will 2020 be affected, but 2021 will be too – the first ‘clean’ business year will end up being 2022 because of the impact of having to postpone events.”

Inheritance is a strange thing, she muses. “If it’s been part of your childhood then you are taking on something which you are familiar with. The decision is to stay and make it work, or do something else.

“That is a choice, and more people are realising that they have more choice than they think. Previous generations found it difficult to move [out] because they never saw their houses as anything but their homes. Because we open up our homes now, they are enterprises.”

And thank goodness for that: “We can’t enjoy the view from our bedroom window unless this is a business – otherwise we wouldn’t be here.”

‘I would like to hand over a secure business base which doesn’t lurch from year to year’