BY ROGER WATSON To describe anywhere as a ‘hidden gem’ is becoming a cliché, in the same vein as describing someone as a ‘national treasure’. There are so many hidden gems and national treasures now that we struggle to find the words to describe those places and people who are neither. But, in the case of Saltmarshe Hall, both ‘hidden’ and ‘gem’ apply in equal … Continue reading Saltmarshe Hall
BY STEWART SLATER There is something about the country house which speaks to the British soul. The National Union of Students may be the largest membership organisation in the land, but add together the National Trust and English Heritage and you comfortably top it. Indeed, the former has more members than all the trades unions affiliated with the TUC combined – thanks, Maggie. Millions of … Continue reading The Country House Theory of Britain
BY FRANK WRIGHT We like to go on holiday in England, that place outside the cities which seems as alien as a night without sirens to us in London. It allows us to be among people from a somewhere that we recognise, to answer in ourselves the call of home that has grown so faint. There are people who are from somewhere – Northerners like … Continue reading Somewhere Precious – An Ode to Cadhay
BY QUENTIN PIGG Stancliffe Hall, not sane, stood by itself against its woods, holding darkness within; it has stood for hundreds of years and may stand for hundreds more. After reading the account of my years spent there, I hope you won’t think it too silly of me to apply the opening lines of Shirly Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House to my former boarding … Continue reading The Haunting of Stancliffe Hall
BY CHARLES EVANS Hatchlands Park is a red-brick country house with surrounding gardens in East Clandon, Surrey, covering 430 acres. It is located near Guildford. The park initially belonged to Chertsey Abbey with the park being mentioned in the Domesday Book. In 1544, after the dissolution of the monasteries, it was granted by Henry VIII to Sir Anthony Browne and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Fitzgerald … Continue reading Hatchlands
BY CHARLES EVANS Melford Hall is a stately home in the village of Long Melford, Suffolk. It is the ancestral seat of the Parker Baronets. The hall was mostly constructed in the 16th century, incorporating parts of a medieval building held by the abbots of Bury St Edmunds which had been in use since before 1065. It has similar roots to nearby Kentwell Hall. It … Continue reading Melford Hall
BY CHARLES EVANS Ascott House was originally a farm house, built in the reign of James I and known as “Ascott Hall”. In 1873 it was acquired by Baron Mayer de Rothschild (of the neighbouring Mentmore Towers estate). The Rothschild family had begun to acquire vast tracts of land in Buckinghamshire earlier in the century, on which they built a series of large mansions from … Continue reading Ascott
BY CHARLES EVANS Holmwood House is the finest and most elaborate residential villa designed by the Scottish architect Alexander “Greek” Thomson. It is also rare in retaining much of its original interior decor, and being open to the public. The villa is located at Cathcart in the southern suburbs of Glasgow. Holmwood is considered to be immensely influential by several architectural historians, because the design … Continue reading Holmwood House
BY CHARLES EVANS Ightham, Kent is a medieval moated manor house. The architectural writer John Newman describes it as “the most complete small medieval manor house in the county.” Ightham Mote and its gardens are owned by the National Trust and are open to the public. The house is a Grade I listed building, and parts of it are a Scheduled Ancient Monument. The origins … Continue reading Ightham
BY CHARLES EVANS Berrington Hall is a country house located north of Leominster, Herefordshire. During the 20th century it was the seat of the Cawley family. It is a neoclassical country house building which was designed by Henry Holland in 1778-81 for Thomas Harley. It has a somewhat austere exterior, but the interiors are subtle and delicate. Berrington Hall is home to the Elmar Digby … Continue reading Berrington
BY CHARLES EVANS Folkington Manor was built in 1843 by the architect W.J Donthorne, near the site of a manor that was recorded in the Domesday Book. The previous manor was home to Viscount Monckton in the 14th century, advisor to King Edward III. The Place, as it was formerly called, is a site of some antiquity, having been the seat of the Culpepers in … Continue reading Folkington
BY CHARLES EVANS Ickworth House is a country house near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England. It is a neoclassical building set in parkland. The house was the residence of the Marquess of Bristol before being sold to the National Trust in 1998. As one of England’s more unusual houses, Ickworth has been unflatteringly described as resembling “a huge bulk, newly arrived from another planet” and … Continue reading Ickworth
BY CHARLES EVANS Felbrigg Hall is a 17th-century English country house near the village of that name in Norfolk. Part of a National Trust property, the unaltered 17th-century house is noted for its Jacobean architecture and fine Georgian interior. Outside the house are a walled garden, an orangery and orchards. The estate originated with the Felbrigg family. It passed to John Wyndham (died 1475), and … Continue reading Felbrigg Hall
BY CHARLES EVANS Seaton Delaval Hall is a Grade I listed country house in Northumberland. It is near the coast just north of Newcastle upon Tyne. Located between Seaton Sluice and Seaton Delaval, it was designed by Sir John Vanbrugh in 1718 for Admiral George Delaval and is now owned by the National Trust. Since completion of the house in 1728, it has had an … Continue reading Seaton Delaval
BY CHARLES EVANS Hinton Ampner House is a stately home with gardens within the civil parish of Bramdean and Hinton Ampner, near Alresford, Hampshire. The garden was created by Ralph Stawell Dutton (1898–1985), the 8th and last Baron Sherborne, starting in 1930, making this a modern 20th-century garden. The property is now more noted for its garden than the house. Previously, the parkland came directly … Continue reading Hinton Ampner
BY CHARLES EVANS Scotney Castle is an English country house with formal gardens south-east of Lamberhurst in the valley of the River Bewl in Kent, England. It belongs to the National Trust. Scotney Castle is not one but two houses. At the top of the hill is the new house, designed by Anthony Salvin in Elizabethan style and built in 1837 for Edward Hussey III, … Continue reading Scotney Castle
BY CHARLES EVANS Standen is an Arts and Crafts house located to the south of East Grinstead, West Sussex, England. The house and its surrounding gardens belong to the National Trust and are open to the public. It is a Grade I listed building. Between 1891 and 1894 architect Philip Webb, who was a friend of William Morris, designed the house for a prosperous London … Continue reading Standen
BY CHARLES EVANS Horton Court lies in a valley in the South Cotswolds. Originally a Norman hall, now a manor house, it has an interesting and diverse history. Horton Court is a stone-built 16th century manor house in Horton, near Chipping Sodbury, South Gloucestershire, England. The building retains a 12th-century Norman hall, and displays some of the earliest Renaissance decorative motifs used in England. It … Continue reading Horton Court
BY CHARLES EVANS ‘That’s She! The Only She! Make an honest woman of her – quick!’ was how Rudyard Kipling and his wife, Carrie, felt the first time they saw Bateman’s. Surrounded by the wooded landscape of the Sussex Weald, this 17th-century house, with its mullioned windows and oak beams, provided a much needed sanctuary to this world-famous writer. The rooms, described by him as … Continue reading Bateman’s
BY CHARLES EVANS Hinchingbrooke House in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, was built around an 11th-century nunnery. After the Reformation, it passed into the hands of the Cromwell family, and subsequently, became the home of the Earls of Sandwich, including John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, reputedly the “inventor” of the modern sandwich. On 8 March 1538, Richard Williams (alias Cromwell) had the grant of the nunnery of … Continue reading Hinchingbrooke
