Hello everybody! This is THE big announcement. AHHHHH!
As you know, Luke and I have been quietly building since the spring.
I haven’t said much about it here, but now I cannot keep it to myself for a second longer.
You know how much I love this world. The great houses. The period dramas we all secretly rewatch. The royal history, the glamour, the scandal, the sheer beauty of it all. For months now, Luke and our brilliant team have been building a place where all of that lives under one roof. A home for people like us, and like you.
Here’s something I have noticed. So many of us ALSO adore this world, the sweeping staircases, the portraits, the gardens, the drama of it all, and yet most of the time we are pressing our noses against the glass. You watch the show. You visit once a year if you are lucky. You read the book. But you cannot quite get inside, not really, not the way you long to.
That is exactly the feeling Luke and I set out to fix. What if you didn’t have to wait for a rare open day, or a plane ticket across the ocean? What if this world could come to you, wherever you are, whenever you like?
Introducing Stately
It’s a new online members club and community celebrating Britain’s historic houses, royal history, aristocratic traditions and period drama, launching this November. Stately gives you the chance to go behind the scenes of some of the country’s most glorious homes, and to meet the people who keep them flourishing in the twenty-first century.
Think of it as the new online home for anyone captivated by Britain’s great houses, and the stories, people and traditions around them. Royal history. Aristocratic life. The glamour and the etiquette. Even the locations made famous by film and television.
Luke and I are hosting it ourselves, and we will bring our members closer to this extraordinary world through exclusive content, online events, and a genuinely vibrant community of like-minded enthusiasts.
Here’s what that looks like:
Daily posts on stately news, royal history and period drama recaps
Original films, made with exclusive access to a handful of carefully chosen historic houses, taking you behind the scenes with the families, custodians, historians and experts working to preserve these remarkable properties for future generations
Weekly episodes from Mapperton, celebrating the joys (and the challenges) of keeping our own historic estate standing
Monthly episodes of American Countess, which Stately members will see first, before anyone else, as I visit friends and other owners of great houses across the UK
And then there are the online events. Monthly pub quizzes, symposiums, expert talks, cook alongs and seasonal workshops, all giving you the chance to learn, ask questions and share the experience, without leaving your own sofa. There will be chats and team challenges too (yes, including that monthly pub quiz), the kind of thing that turns a shared passion into a genuine friendship.
Whether you dream of exploring a country house, live for royal history, adore a good period drama, or simply love the beauty and the stories of Britain’s historic places, Stately is built to bring that world to you, wherever home happens to be.
Some of you have been reading this newsletter for years, and I would love nothing more than to have you be first through the door when it opens in November.
This is going to be the trip of a lifetime, and I cannot wait to have you along for it.
With love,
Julie x