Floors Castle saved from fire
An alert member of staff (who should get a especially generous Christmas bonus this year) saved Floors Castle near Kelso from a potentially devastating fire. The largest private house in Scotland was...
View ArticleCountry house content sales continue
Following on from the recent auction of contents from Powerham Castle in Devon to pay for much needed repairs and maintenance, Lord Gerald Fitzalan Howard, second son of the Duke of Norfolk, is doing...
View ArticleGrand attic sale raises £2m
Lord and Lady Gerald Fitzalan Howard of Carlton Towers had hoped to raise £1m to pay for repairs to his family home through the sale of silverware, furniture and paintings from the Towers. Whilst it’s...
View ArticleA restoration or a recreation: Knightshayes Court, Devon
For all the wonderful work the National Trust has done over the last hundred years saving numerous country houses from demolition, one criticism that has been levelled at it is the almost artificial...
View ArticleWhat goes around; the use of rotunda in UK country houses
The UK aristocracy brought back many souvenirs from their grand tours to Italy – pictures, sculpture, drawings etc – but also a delight in the architecture inspired by the ancient ruins. This...
View ArticleGoing to the country: the country houses of UK Prime Ministers – Part 1
Those in important political roles have often sought to escape the pressures of office by escaping to the calm and tranquillity of the countryside. This has been particularly true of the holder of the...
View ArticleGoing to the country: more country houses of UK Prime Ministers – Part 2
The first part of this series, highlighted the aristocratic background of our early Prime Ministers – Earls and Dukes abound. This meant that a country house was just where they had been brought up...
View ArticleCountry House Rescue returns for Series 3: Wyresdale Park, Lancashire
The history of the country house is sadly often a cycle of rise and fall with the main variable being the speed of each respectively. The old phrase was ‘one generation made the wealth, the second...
View ArticleGuest blogger: Jeremy Musson –‘English Ruins: an odyssey in English history’
Having written all nearly 200 posts since I started writing this blog I now thought it would be interesting to try and broaden the voices involved. So as the first post in this new...
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