The Telegraph
·Jul 2026
Ben Goldsmith: I Commissioned a History of My House. The Findings Were Unbelievable
Ben Goldsmith commissioned a 15,000-word history of Cannwood, his Somerset home, and learned that the land had defeated generations of farmers before becoming a cheesemaking school and later a private country estate. The research uncovered links between the property and Goldsmith’s family, including a poem by Seamus Heaney, while documenting the death of his daughter Iris in a 2019 quad-bike accident. Goldsmith says the farm’s current rewilding, with Longhorn cattle, Tamworth pigs and Exmoor ponies, is a tribute to Iris. The piece also describes the growing popularity of house-history research and explains how owners can investigate former residents and a property’s architectural evolution.