Sunday, May 5, 2024

The Enduring Appeal of the English Stately Home: from Medieval Castles to Downton Abbey

english country house

“It was so much work, but it turned out beautiful.” The firm wanted the space to feel “light and airy and breezy,” and incorporated fabrics and wall coverings by Thibaut in a soft color palette. Peltier and designer Marina Kelly installed an arch to divide the bedroom from the sitting area, breaking up the large space. A palette of whites, deep blues, and gold creates an elegant atmosphere in the formal living room, which was designed by Rachel Duarte. The designer established two seating areas within the space, including a cozy gathering spot with chaise longues that flank the original carved marble fireplace. The room’s coffered ceilings were enhanced with a faux-wood decorative painting by Jhon Ardilla. “I really feel like the dining room is a forgotten room,” says the designer, who set out to prove how vital the space is to a home.

ENGLISH MANSIONS AND COUNTRY HOUSES

Over the winter, ditches would be dug out in the fields and filled with water, which would then freeze. The ice would remain frozen for many months and would be used in the kitchen to store perishable foods and to make ice creams and sorbets. Luton Hoo started as the seat of the 3rd Earl of Bute — then the Prime Minister to George III — before being passed down from one titled family to another. Like many other English country houses, its gardens were designed by Capability Brown, while the original Mansion House is a work of Scottish architect, Robert Adam.

Townhouse Style

Stoneleigh Abbey stands beside the River Avon, near Kenilworth, on lands granted to Cistercian monks by King Henry II in 1154. The Monastery was dissolved by King Henry VIII and turned into a family home for the Leigh’s. Built to resemble an Italian place, the house was used as a hunting lodge and leased to favourable members of the Royal family. This changing workforce also resulted in increased rural to urban migration after the war reached its conclusion, with many seeking different types of jobs, with fixed hours, better wages and the promise of more home life. Arrangements such as these became commonplace during the Gilded Age in America, where rapid industrialisation, wage rises and economic growth led to an influx of people seeking to achieve the American Dream.

Stoneleigh Manor – Warwickshire

For many, their money offered them a useful bargaining tool and the promise of an acquisition of status through the ranks of English nobility. On the other side of the Atlantic, it merely represented a desperate attempt to maintain the status quo without losing rank, prestige and standards of living. With power and income dwindling in the face of changes, many owners had to find another source of income. Some would find this in the trade and banking sector which proved risky, whilst others turned their attentions to wealthy heiresses across the pond who might be attracted by the prospect of an English title. By the late nineteenth century however, times were changing and the traditional ways of the higher echelons of society looked to be under threat from a number of different sources.

Gothic Revival Style

english country house

Downton Abbey gave a helpful insight into the difference between a stately pile where Lord Grantham lived as depicted by Highclere, compared to the village manor house lived in by his mother the Dowager. Mansion houses can also be a term used in London and other large cities where large buildings have been divided up into apartments. The common denominator of this category of English country houses is that they were designed to be lived in with a certain degree of ceremony and pomp. It was not unusual for the family to have a small suite of rooms for withdrawing in privacy away from the multitude that lived in the household.

Andrew’s day trip exploring the architecture of Bath

The stable houses up to a dozen horses and is painted in Farrow & Ball’s Pitch Black, with reclaimed-barnwood shutters. Instead, the construction materials create their own kind of texture and layering. The corrugated metal that makes up most of the ceilings was carefully placed — by virtue of a graph drawn up by the designer — so that the rusted pieces would not be grouped together. The custom concrete sofas on a screened porch are topped with Brenda Antin pillows, the 1990 Mats Theselius chair is Swedish, the 1953 Bigfoot cocktail table is by Paul Frank, and the wall is clad in reclaimed farmhouse boards. Most concrete block (CMU) homes have 2 x 4 or 2 x 6 exterior walls on the 2nd story.

648 plans found!

Tours of Badminton House gardens and the walled garden are offered at £20 per head, with a minimum group size of 15. Inside the house, you can enjoy a fine display of artwork, antiques and history (some of it more flattering than others- Hinton has been around since Colonialism and slavery) but be sure to head outside to the gardens- that’s where the estate really shines. Hinton Ampner is a country house near Winchester and is one of the most beautiful places to visit on a Hampshire road trip.

In a similar vein, the gentry – a social class of landowners – could be wealthy enough to live an independently wealthy lifestyle without ever earning a title. Because not all gentry could afford a townhouse, they were the only ones who lived in a country home full-time. No article on Stately homes in England would be complete without a visit to the stunning Chatsworth House in Derbyshire. Snowshill Manor is located in the Cotswolds in central England, midway between Cheltenham and Stratford-upon-Avon and around 40 miles from Oxford.

These were essentially architect-designed homes intended to display the wealth of the family with great opulence and luxury. These lavish homes were constructed and commissioned, with architects seeking to make their mark with impressive design features. A Georgian mansion built around a 16th century turreted castle, Paul Getty’s Wormsley Park estate needed some adjustment when he purchased it in 1984. While many properties of this type need updated plumbing or new heating, what Getty needed was more space to store his books.

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Or if you carry a picnic, you could even make a wonderful day out of your visit. The estate also includes wine cellars, a number of gardens, seasonal trails and playgrounds for children. Some of these are not currently open to visitors due to the pandemic but otherwise are open all year throughout.

Cape Cod homes are built of local wood and stone to withstand the northeastern weather. This exterior weathering provides an iconic weathered-blue color to these homes. In the master bedroom, for example, Marks hung a wall of artworks from the couple’s collection above a decidedly feminine Italian giltwood settee.

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As the Pasadena Showcase House of Design enters its 59th year, it’s returning to a familiar setting. The Potter Daniels Manor, the English Tudor Revival–style residence that hosted the 1975 and 1996 showcase houses, has been reimagined with 30 new interior and exterior spaces for the 2024 edition, which is now open until May 19. Shingle-style houses were designed as a work of art and encouraged creativity in their use of shapes and features.

Despite this slow decline, so necessary was the country house for entertaining and prestige that in 1917 Viscount Lee of Fareham donated his country house Chequers to the nation for the use of a prime minister who might not possess one of his own. Chequers still fulfills that need today as do both Chevening House and Dorneywood, donated for sole use of high-ranking ministers of the Crown. While a château or a Schloss can be a fortified or unfortified building, a country house, similar to an Ansitz, is usually unfortified.

Snowshill, managed by the National Trust, consists of a Tudor manor house set in extensive grounds which include formal gardens, orchards and farmland. One of the most famous architects involved in the design and construction of great country homes was Inigo Jones, who introduced a Palladian style of architecture to England, inspired by his travels in Renaissance Italy. Today, many country houses have become hotels,[18] schools, hospitals and museums, while others have survived as conserved ruins, but from the early 20th century until the early 1970s, hundreds of country houses were demolished. Houses that survived destruction are now mostly Grade I or II listed as buildings of historic interest with restrictions on restoration and re-creation work. In 2016, she decided to sell the property, and it was on and off the market for three years. Shingle-style homes took influence from Colonial architecture rather than Medieval Europe.

The grounds and woodlands are a wonderful place to explore on a winter’s day or take and enjoy a picnic during summer. There’s a walled garden and a pretty church nearby, both of which are worth a visit. Located on twenty acres of beautiful land, you will have a lot to explore and appreciate this beautiful manor home.

Ornamentation became simpler towards the end of the Victorian-era and Shingle-style homes are best known for their creative floor plans and signature shingles on exterior walls. Pattern books were becoming a popular way for craftsmen to build homes in different styles. This flexibility meant Italianate features were accessible for a variety of homes including large estates and urban townhouses. Federal-style homes became popular after the American Revolution and were a refined upgrade to the popular Georgian house style. They have the same recurring shape and symmetry as other Colonial house styles, but their delicate ornamentation sets them apart.

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