in 1920–21 on the site of earlier structures. From 1930, it was owned by the Hon Mrs Esmond ("Peggy") Harmsworth, at that time wife of Esmond Harmsworth (later 2nd Viscount Rothermere). During her time at Athelhampton, famous visitors included Noel Coward and Douglas Fairbanks Jnr. In 1949 it was purchased by Rodney Philipps, who lived there with his wife Marika and her mother Marevna, the Russian-French painter who produced a number of paintings of Athelhampton at this time. In 1957, Athelhampton was acquired by Robert Victor Cooke, and remained in the ownership of the Cooke family for three generations in all, with his son Robert Cooke taking over in 1966 and Patrick Cooke inheriting it in 1995. The Cooke family carried out important restoration work and extension of the gardens, as well as opening the house and gardens to regular public access for the first time. A serious fire in late 1992 destroyed most of the attic and first floor of the east wing. Investigation after the fire indicated that the layout of the rooms on the first floor, built as a service wing, had been altered since the building's inception. A life-size sketch of a classical fireplace was also revealed on the plasterwork behind panelling over an existing fireplace. In 2019, after 62 years of ownership by the family, Patrick Cooke retired and the house was purchased by economist and author Giles Keating, who has undertaken further restoration. The magnificent Elizabethan kitchen, whose range had been bricked in and concealed behind modern units, has been sensitively restored and opened to the public for the first time, and many other historic rooms previously closed are now available to visit, with new lighting installed for the hammerbeam roof in the Great Hall. Furniture, lighting, soft furnishings and finishes include work by one of the country's last traditional weavers and by local blacksmiths, stonemasons and joiners, alongside items from the Tudor and later periods. Concealed solar panels and batteries, powering heat pumps, have allowed the removal of gas and oil and the estate now has net zero carbon emissions from current energy usage. The house and gardens are open to the public almost all the year. The Gardens at Athelhampton House The heart of the gardens at Athelhampton was designed and built by Inigo Thomas in 1891-2, commissioned by Lafontaine. Thomas had studied architecture with Charles Robert Ashbee and had extensively researched