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Auction raises funds to bring Parham House back to life after fire
08/05/25
The entrepreneur James Perkins can teach the National Trust a thing or two about approaching a fire-gutted wreck with a can-do attitude. He bought the ruin of Parnham House for £2.5 million after its previous owner set it alight in 2017 and is now raising money for its restoration, which he estimates will cost £25 million.
The people at Parham are passionate about bringing the house back to life. This is what they posted on Instagram in 2022:
“As we start this new year we are thankful to our team and their endless hard work – this is no mean feat but everyone has the same passion as us and comes to work everyday with great enthusiasm… we know we have a sensitive project and we respect and love this house.”
The Daily Telegraph reports:
A MUSIC entrepreneur is selling a 10ft-tall woolly mammoth fossil to help fund the restoration of his fire-damaged stately home.
James Perkins, a former rave promoter, bought the burnt-out shell of Parnham House in Dorset for £2.5 million in 2020 and estimates that the restoration will cost 10 times that amount.
Now, he is auctioning his eclectic collection of rare fossils, taxidermy animals, unusual artworks and furniture. The 448 lots, which are being sold with the Newbury-based auctioneers Dreweatts, are expected to fetch £1.66 million.
They include entire prehistoric skeletons, including a woolly mammoth fossil found in Poland that is at least 11,700 years old and is in exceptional condition. It is valued at £300,000.
Speaking previously to The Telegraph about the sale, he said:
“If you don’t feel a little bit of pain, then you can’t expect anyone to do the same – you can’t give people your secondary bits, you’ve got to sell them your treasures. I’m not beholden to anything.”
Parnham House is a Grade I-listed historic property dating back to the 1400s and one of Dorset’s oldest stately homes. The property was ravaged by fire in 2017 and its owner, the Austrian banker Michael Treichl, was found dead in Lake Geneva two months later.
At the time of his death, Treichl was on bail following his arrest for starting the fire and he is thought to have taken his own life.
Mr Perkins, 57, who previously bought the 17th-century Aynhoe Park in Northamptonshire and turned it into a party and events venue, hopes to create something similar with Parnham Park.
He said:
“We could be the next Buckingham Palace of Dorset. It could be amazing for tourism, for people coming wanting to see what an eccentric British country house could look like. This is a very special house that should not have been allowed to fall into this disrepair.”
He added:
“You’ve got to have the heating on and fill the properties full of quirky, eccentric, wonderful specimen pieces – exactly as someone would have done when they were on their grand tour… You’ve got to make people want to come and visit – you’ve got to make them feel at home.
They can stay up late if they want to, as long as people are respectful of your home. We like having guests anyway, so it’s an extended version of having house guests – just this time people pay.”
They can stay up late if they want to, as long as people are respectful of your home. We like having guests anyway, so it’s an extended version of having house guests – just this time people pay.”
Among the collection being sold by Mr Perkins is a complete 180-million-year-old ichthyosaur skeleton, which is about 9ft long and expected to fetch £180,000. Four prints by Damien Hirst with an estimate of £18,000 and tables created by Jacques Duval-brasseur, including an £18,000 low table made from a petrified tree and gilt bronze, are also for sale.
“I’m sure there’s better ways of making money,” he said, “but you’ve got to enjoy doing it. I’ve enjoyed saving these old buildings.
So many of these houses get turned into second-class venues where they get a dollop of gloss white, and that’s not why they were built.”
So many of these houses get turned into second-class venues where they get a dollop of gloss white, and that’s not why they were built.”
Also being sold is some art created by Mr Perkins, including an oil-on-canvas painting of a full moon valued at £8,000, and The Model, a skeleton of a giraffe in heels that has an estimate of £15,000. An ostrich-feather four-poster bed has an estimate of £12,000, while a large royal coat of arms is expected to fetch £10,000.
Mr Perkins said:
“This sale … marks an important milestone in Parnham’s evolution ahead of some major structural repair, as the proceeds will help us restore the estate to its former glory and establish a unique destination for lovers of art, design and grand entertainment.”
In 2018 Country Life reported that the house was on the market:
One of the oldest country houses in Dorset – and, for that matter, England – has come up for sale. The glorious, Grade I-listed Parnham House near Beaminster is for sale via Knight Frank at a guide price of £3 million.
It’s an incredibly beautiful Elizabethan country house laid out in an E shape over some 38,000 sq ft (for the sake of comparison that’s not far off the White House, at 55,000 sq ft). It’s located just seven miles inland from the World Heritage Jurassic Coast, is approached via a dramatic sweeping driveway, has a long and distinguished history and comes with 132 acres of parkland.
There is one small catch, however: the whole place has been gutted by fire, and is in danger of falling down.
Tragically, the interior of this magnificent manor house was gutted by a catastrophic blaze that ripped through the building in April last year, leaving the external walls standing but unstable and the entire house in need of urgent restoration.
