Stately homes of the United Kingdom and Ireland are houses of the past that are valued for their beautiful architecture and craftsmanship or for their associations with an important family. The United Kingdom and Ireland have hundreds of these houses, which date from various periods over the last 1,000 years. Many of them are magnificent buildings that stand amid rolling parkland and colorful gardens. They contain furnishings of great quality, including collections of pictures, china, and silver. A typical example is Chatsworth House, in Derbyshire, built from 1687 to 1707 for the first Duke of Devonshire.
Other stately homes have had political figures, writers, or other famous people living in them. Such houses are often made into museums in memory of the person concerned. Batemans, in Sussex, was the home of the writer Rudyard Kipling, and the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli lived in Hughenden Manor at High Wycombe, in Buckinghamshire, from 1847 to 1881.
Stately homes today
Since World War II (1939-1945), many stately homes have been sold by their owners because of rising costs and high taxation. These houses are now used for various purposes. Bramshill House, in Hampshire, built in the early 1600’s, is now a police college. Charlemont House, in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, dating from 1757, houses the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art. Eltham Lodge, in Kent, built during 1663 and 1664, is a golf club. Some houses, such as Hengrave Hall, in Suffolk, completed in 1525, are religious centers. Others, such as Hampton Court, in London, are administered by a government department.
Despite the difficulties of running a stately home and the great cost of keeping one in good repair, many families still own houses built by their ancestors hundreds of years ago. The state provides financial aid in the form of grants. A large number of owners of stately homes open them to the public. Money paid by the visiting public helps to support such houses. Some owners of stately homes have added special attractions to their property, such as gift shops, narrow-gauge railroads, boating, adventure playgrounds, nature trails, vintage cars, toy museums, and exhibitions.
Stately homes and the state.
In 1950, the British government, alarmed at the demolition of great houses, set up the Historic Buildings Council. In 1983, the Historic Building and Monuments Commission (English Heritage) took over responsibility for England’s stately homes. The Commission’s inspectors travel throughout England, listing houses of architectural, historic, or scientific interest. These houses may not be destroyed or altered without permission, and the owner is responsible for the care of the property. The commission makes cash grants to help the owner meet expenses, providing that the house is opened to the public. Similar functions are performed by Cadw: Welsh Historic Monuments in Wales, by the Historic Building and Monuments directorate in Scotland, and by the Historic Buildings Council in Northern Ireland.
Owners in the United Kingdom who cannot maintain their property can give it to the National Trust. The trust will look after the property and open it for people to visit. In most cases, the owner and the owner’s family continue to live there.
In the Republic of Ireland, the state actively helps to preserve historic buildings. The state collaborates with the conservation An Taisce, which must be consulted on any planning decision that would alter the property.
Stately homes of the past
The Middle Ages, 1100-1550.
Not many of the houses built before 1400 have survived. Most were built of wood, together with plaster or mud, and with thatch roofs, and have been destroyed by fire or decay. Only important people could afford to build with more permanent materials, such as stone or brick. Their houses have lasted over the centuries. One of the earliest of these homes is the stone manor house of Boothby Pagnell in Lincolnshire, built about 1180. At that time, the country consisted of manors (districts), each ruled by a lord of the manor. He lived in the best house in the area, the manor house.
A stone house was more expensive to build than a wooden one. Also, people had to use locally available building materials because transporting such materials was so difficult. There were few roads, and goods traveled mainly by sea or river. Stone structures were put up only where stone was easy to quarry, mainly in Scotland, the north and west of England, and parts of Ireland. In other places, builders used wood or, later, brick.
Medieval houses needed protection from attack because the country was still in an unsettled state. This protection, called fortification, was provided by a moat round the house. The moat was spanned by a drawbridge and defended by a gatehouse with portcullis (see Castle ). The house, of two or three stories, was built round a courtyard. Its windows were small, so they could be protected more easily. On the lower floor, the occupants stored food and household necessities that might be wanted during a siege.
Medieval houses gave their occupants little privacy. Everyone lived, ate, and slept in the great hall (the main room). This large apartment was two stories high and was covered by an open lumber roof. Tapestries hung on the walls helped keep out draughts. The wood or stone floor was strewn with rushes. A great log fire burned day and night in the center of the room. An opening in the roof above served as a chimney to let out the smoke. In place of glass, the windows had only wooden shutters.
After 1400, the country became more settled, and there was less need for fortification. Extra space became available to give some privacy for the lord and his family. A private living room (the solar) was built on the first floor, as well as some bedrooms. Fires burned in wall fireplaces, which had chimney flues, making the rooms less smoky. Many large houses had their own chapel in one room, but the kitchen was still in a separate building in case fire broke out there. Great Dixter, in Sussex, is a characteristic half-timbered manor house of this time.
Elizabethan and Jacobean houses, 1550-1625.
This period was a time of energetic building activity. The country was at peace and becoming more prosperous. Families, from aristocrats to merchants and farmers, built new, more spacious houses.
These houses were designed differently from the medieval ones. No longer built round a courtyard for protection, they now took the shape of a rectangular block with projecting side wings. They were more symmetrical than before. For example, windows, chimney stacks, and decorative features on the left-hand side were balanced by matching ones on the right. Windows were now much larger and contained glass. An impressive ornamented entrance porch extended from ground to roof at the center of the front of the house. Houses of this period had a gallery, a main chamber, and a staircase.
The gallery, on the second or third floor, extended the length of the house. It had windows on three sides and fireplaces on the fourth. It was intended for wintertime relaxation for the whole household—a place for people to walk, to sit, to dance, to sew, and to make music, and for children to play. Aston Hall, in Birmingham, built between 1618 and 1635, contains a typical and beautiful gallery. The house has a decorative plaster ceiling and wood-paneled walls.
The great hall was now becoming less important and the main chamber, which was a drawing room on the second floor, had become the chief reception room.
Up to this time, staircases had been wooden ladders, twisting spirals in a small tower, or stone steps placed outside the house. In Elizabethan houses, broad, richly carved oak staircases first came into use. A good example is at Hatfield House, in Hertfordshire, dating from 1607 to 1612.
The classical house, 1625-1700.
By now, the classical style of building, based on that of ancient Greece and Rome, had begun to be used for house design (see Architecture ). The entrance doorway was built in the center of the facade (front of the house), and there were columns on either side. The roof was sloping, with tall chimney stacks and attic windows set in it.
Inside, the ceilings were of decorative plaster and the walls were paneled in wood. There was an elegant wooden staircase. Rooms were now smaller, and there were more of them. They included an entrance, a staircase hall, a drawing room, a dining room, a kitchen, and several bedrooms.
A number of town houses built in these years, such as Mompesson House, in Salisbury, Wiltshire (dating from about 1710), are open to visitors. Town houses from before this time have not survived in great numbers. Many were built of wood and have been destroyed by fire. Furthermore, land in towns was costly, so older houses were pulled down and new, smaller ones built in their place.
The Georgian house, 1700-1830.
Some experts describe the Georgian period as the golden age of housebuilding in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The skill of artistic craftworkers had been steadily developing since the time of Elizabeth I, who reigned from 1558 to 1603. By 1700, the standard of work in painting, plasterwork, stone carving, metalwork, and furniture making was extremely high. In England, new methods of farming made agriculture more productive and the great landowners much richer. Most of these landowners invested their wealth in building family mansions.
The style of buildings was still classical. A Georgian house generally had an imposing entrance front with a central, columned portico and steps. The principal rooms, located on the second floor, were large and lofty, with painted ceilings and walls decorated with colored plasterwork.
The English custom of building a great house, simple on the outside but richly ornamented inside, was copied extensively, first in Scotland and Ireland, then abroad. The parkland around the mansion looked natural, with large trees, hills, and lakes, but often it was artificially made and huge amounts of earth were moved to create it. A magnificent example is Blenheim Palace and its park, in Oxfordshire.
At this time, architects began designing whole streets or squares with identical classical houses, joined together as a terrace and fronted with classical columns. Early schemes went ahead in Bath, Avon, where the Royal Crescent was completed in 1775, and then in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin. In the 1820’s, classical terraces were built in resorts and spas, such as Brighton (now Brighton and Hove), in Sussex, and Cheltenham, in Gloucestershire.
The Victorian Age, 1830-1900.
More houses were built in the Victorian era than in all the previous 800 years. This building boom was necessary because of the population explosion. The number of people doubled between 1830 and 1900.
Victorian houses tended to be overdecorated, and the interiors were crowded with furniture. The Industrial Revolution had brought factory production methods into building design. Fittings, such as doors, windows, and ceiling plasterwork, were mass-produced.
Heavy curtains of velvet and lace covered the windows, making the rooms dark. Patterned wallpapers and brown paintwork made them seem even gloomier. Many houses had four or five stories. They were heated by coal and lit by gas.
Every large town still possesses many interesting Victorian houses. In the countryside, large important homes were still being built or remodeled from earlier designs. These houses were impressive in size and complexity and were designed in many styles. Typical of these houses is Carlton Towers, in Yorkshire, built between 1871 and 1877.
The 1900’s.
Until 1914, great country houses flourished, even though they needed many servants to run them. The owners were wealthy, and the estates were productive, growing food and providing grazing for cattle and sheep. World War I (1914-1918) changed this picture. Many young men, heirs to these great estates, died fighting in France. Taxation became heavy. Many estates suffered from a depression in agriculture. Servants became more difficult to obtain, and inflation pushed up prices. From 1918 to 1939, many houses were sold and others were abandoned.
The declining fortunes of stately homes led inevitably to the current situation in which many owners must admit visitors to raise money.
See the World Book articles on the counties and regions of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. See also Architecture ; Castle .
