Sarah Beeny's OWN restoration nightmare! Why did she rip apart her own 97-room listed mansion without planning permission?

Rise Hall stood empty and forlorn, its once imperious Ionic columns crumbling, its slate roof under threat of collapse.


The 97-room mansion, one of the East Riding’s finest stately homes, was a restoration project no one was brave enough to take on.


But then Sarah Beeny, television’s ubiquitous property expert, came across the house in East Yorkshire — and it was love at first sight. She and her husband, artist Graham Swift, bought it for just £435,000 and set about restoring the country pile.


Last year, ten years on, 39-year-old Miss Beeny opened its doors to the public in a television programme about the project.   More Read