3 Lost Country Houses in England

(photo credit: bbc.com)

Some of you may recall in April 2015, the devastating fire at Clandon Park House in Surrey, a National Trust Grade I listed property which housed a priceless collection of porcelain as well as being a beautiful example of an 18th century country house. This was particularly shocking due to the modern fire detection technologies and the lack of live flames within these homes. The fire apparently started in the basement but quickly spread to the rest of the house.

Sadly, whilst this type of disaster is rare today, fire has historically caused the downfall of many country houses across England. The website, lostheritage.org.uk has a full record of all country houses across England which have been ‘lost’ and there is a staggering number which state their cause of loss as ‘fire’. The current total for the number of England’s lost country houses stands at 1,962 and they are classed as lost if they are ‘demolished, severely reduced in size or ruined’.

I have looked through this website and chosen three of my favourites which I thought I would share with you here:


Littlemoor/Littlemore Castle

(Photo credit: Kate Lycett) 

This beautiful and haunting country house stood in Queensbury, Yorkshire and was the home of Herbert Anderton Foster. The house was built in 1891 but only survived for 45 years – an incredibly short period of time compared to other country houses. As was popular at the time, the house was gifted to the Queensbury council in 1937 and the house was stripped of its interiors and demolished before being turned into a public park. Some foundations and cellars did remain but were completely demolished in 1993 after people kept finding ways into the remaining rooms. Sadly nothing remains of this house except a flight of stone stairs which would have led from a terrace to the formal gardens. Kate Lycett writes a beautiful blog about lost country houses and she also paints the loveliest paintings of her interpretation of what the houses looked like whilst still built. Her post about Littlemore can be read by [clicking this link].


Kippax Park

Kippax Park/Kippax Hall is the most elusive of the three houses I have chosen to talk about in this blog, but the scale and age of the building meant that I simply had to include it as it is the largest of the three houses and a true country house. Two online sources date Kippax Hall from the early 1600’s in Queen Elizabeth’s reign and state it was built for Sir Thomas Bland, the first Baronet of Kippax Park. It was extended through the 18th century by the 6th baronet but eventually fell out of family hands in 1928 on the death of the last Bland heir. The house was sold but was left to ruin and was eventually demolished in the 1950’s when it became too dangerous to keep standing. This house is a very sad example of what happens to historical buildings if they are not protected and listed.


Milner Field

(Photo credit: www,milnerfield.co.uk website)

This beautiful and sprawling gothic mansion stood near the world heritage town of Saltaire in Bradford. It was built for Titus Salt Jnr, the youngest son of the famous wool merchant and philanthropist Titus Salt. Saltaire the town was built in it’s entirety by Salt Snr around his gargantuan mill as he wanted to ensure his workers were housed in comfort and with good sanitation. He imposed laws on the town such as no drinking and a curfew to ensure that residents were well behaved and spent their wages responsibly. As the success of the mill led the family to amassing a great fortune, Salt’s youngest son decided he needed a house befitting the family’s wealth. Architect Thomas Harris was commissioned to plan the house and it was built in 1869 on a palatial scale. The family were at the pinnacle of Yorkshire society and even entertained two royal visits. Alas the demand for the fabrics at Salts Mill began to dry up and after some poor investments Titus Salt Jnr died and the house passed into the hands of various different families. Unfortuantely, and for unknown reasons, owners of Milner Fields seemed to be plagued by bad luck and the house gained a reputation for being cursed meaning it was difficult to find tenants or owners for the house. The house was eventually demolished in the 1950’s and all that remains now are some basement rooms and some tiled flooring from the conservatory. More information on the house can be found at www.milnerfield.co.uk

I hope you've enjoyed this post - if you would like to see more posts about lost country houses, please let me know in the comments below or send me a message on my Facebook page: www.facebook.com/charlottefurnesswriter

Abandoned Medieval Villages at Kirby Hall and Tatton Park

(photo credit: Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net) via Wikimedia Commons)

Long sweeping drives, gatehouses and formal gardens are often associated with country houses that people visit across the UK today, but they are often not the first dwelling on that land. There may have been some sort of habitation on the land for centuries, sometimes even millennia and some country houses across England still retain marks of that previous habitation. One example of such evidence are scars on the landscape showing where former buildings or gardens were located. These may have been part of the house you see today or may be evidence of something far older.

In the case of Kirby Hall in Northamptonshire and Tatton Park in Cheshire, scars on their immediate local landscape are evidence of abandoned medieval villages and I thought I would give you some information about these so that if this is something you’re interested in, (abandoned villages fascinate me) then you could always visit and explore the sites for yourself.


Firstly, let’s give you a very brief introduction to medieval villages and why they became abandoned.

Villages themselves all have different origins and histories and grew and adapted over time as the nature of habitation changed across the UK, but it is the sudden abandonment which can be clearer to examine. Historic England notes that,

‘Medieval villages were supported by a communal system of agriculture based on large, unenclosed open arable fields. These large fields were subdivided into strips which were allocated to individual tenants.’

From as early as the 10th century, land owners began to section off large areas of their own lands for the grazing of sheep and other animals, this is commonly known as ‘enclosure’ and this was so devastating to medieval villages because it took away the communal system of agriculture described above where tenants had portions of their own land for cultivating. Village inhabitants found themselves devoid of land for growing their own crops which then meant they couldn't sell their crops for income, and as such many had no choice but to leave and move to villages which still worked in the old way, or to find villages where land was available to rent from the landowners for their own use.

So that is a little introduction, let’s find out what happened specifically at Kirby Hall and Tatton Park . . .


Kirby Hall, Northamptonshire

(photo credit: www.english-heritage.org.uk)

Managed by English Heritage and built by Sir Christopher Hatton, Lord Chancellor to Queen Elizabeth I, construction began in 1570 and continued into the 1600’s. It is a beautiful house, now partly a ruin which has architectural evidence of its change throughout the centuries. The Hall itself is well worth a visit but the nearby abandoned medieval village is particularly special:

Historic England which has the site registered as a national monument notes it as having ‘exceptional earthworks and waterlogged deposits depicting the form and plan of the settlement and fish pond.’

The beginnings of the village are unknown but in the Domesday book of 1086, two dwellings were noted there, one being a small manor. In 1194 the manor was granted to the Knights Hospitaller and between then and 1316 a small but well developed village grew. Unfortunately, in 1487 the tenant of the manor demolished several buildings and enclosed much of the land for sheep grazing and so began the period of decline for the village, ending around the early 18th century when the last house remained (there is some suggestion that this became the predecessor of the nearby Hootens Farm).

In this time as we know Kirby Hall itself had begun construction and it is possible that the village and Hall were connected for some time before its eventual abandonment. If you visit Kirby today you can see the lumps and bumps in the surrounding fields showing you where the houses and streets of the village were located, although they cannot be seen from an aerial view.


Tatton Park, Cheshire

Whilst the sprawling estate of Tatton Park now plays host to both the impressive Tatton Deer Park and Tatton Park Mansion, the Old Hall and it’s abandoned medieval villages also reside within the park and show evidence of habitation on the land as far back as the Iron Age.

“The Tatton [and Northshaw] medieval village[s] with the associated medieval hall and the remains of a mill constitute an important survival fossilised in the landscape of a later parkland. The earthwork remains of house platforms and field boundaries, ridge and furrow cultivation and hollow ways with surviving old road surfaces will provide evidence of the communities who have occupied the site since the Iron Age.” Historic England

These two villages differ from Kirby in that archaeological digs found evidence that the medieval villages had been continuously occupied since around 350BC up to the 18th century when Tatton Park Mansion was built and the land enclosed for parkland and no longer used for arable farming.

Evidence of Tatton village in the park can be seen mostly by Tatton Old Hall where the ruins follow the natural ridge of land north along Tatton Mere Brook and to the north and east of Tatton Old Hall. Because the site is so big, it can be difficult to decipher from standing in the park unless you know what you’re looking for, but the below Google Maps image shows the location of Tatton Village.

To see the evidence from Northshaw Village, this picture shows you that villages location so that if you want to visit, you can easily orientate yourself within the park.

These are just two examples of abandoned medieval villages and indeed better examples do exist but these two are so closely associated with country houses that I have chosen these as examples for today’s blog. More information about abandoned medieval villages can be found online and if you would like more information about Tatton Park or Kirby Hall then keep following my blog for upcoming posts.

Thanks for reading!

Country House's I have worked at: Temple Newsam House

Temple Newsam House, Leeds, West Yorkshire

(photo credit: By Tim Green (Flickr: Temple Newsam) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)

I began working at Temple Newsam House in August 2012 after I left Renishaw Hall and Gardens in Sheffield. I joined Leeds City Council who own and run the House as the Site Development Officer. It was a bit of a strange title and I described myself as Visitor Services Manager to friends and family as it explained better what I did. 

Basically it was my job to manage 30 members of staff, the house stewards, who worked in the shop, in the entrance hall selling tickets and generally stewarded around the House welcoming visitors and giving information. I ensured that the House was clean, safe and ready for visitors each day as well as helping to organise and run seasonal events, weddings, filming shoots and anything else that happened on a day to day business. 

(photo credit: RichTea [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)

Now Temple Newsam is the largest country house that I have worked in which isn't still in private family hands. This meant that I could explore the House in it's entirety (not having to worry about stumbling upon a family or anything like that) and I loved being able to explore and wander it's corridors and rooms. 

The earliest parts of the House date back to 1500-1520 when Sir Philip Darcy first built a house by this name on the site. The site itself had existed for centuries before that as a templar settlement and anglo-saxon inhabitants also owned the land. But the house we see today is Tudor-Jacobean in style and period. The House originally was a four-sided courtyard house but the fourth wall was removed by a later owner so that the long drive which you can still walk up in the parkland could provide a more splendid approach to the House. 

The House has had a rocky history, being seized by the crown twice - once during the pilgrimage of grace in 1537 when Lord Darcy was arrested and executed and secondly in 1565 when Lord Darnley who was born at Temple Newsam married Mary Queen of Scots. After a rocky 16th century existence it passed into the hands of the Ingram family in 1622 and there followed 300 years of family history until in 1922 when the last surviving family member Edward Wood sold it to the Leeds Corporation, contents included for a nominal sum asking only that the House be preserved for future generations.

(photo credit: https://countryhousereader.wordpress.com/2011/03/06/temple-newsam-house-leeds/)

Since then the House has been an archive, museum and wartime hospital until it settled into its current role as a museum displaying the collection and engaging children and adults alike. 

The House has a reputation for being haunted and that is certainly something I can attest to - each new person who comes to work at Temple Newsam has what I call an 'initiation' to the House. Mine occurred one day not long after I started and I was walking down a corridor from the public area to my office. It is quite long and as I was walking I heard someone run up to me from behind - I turned expecting to see either a child running toward me from the public end of the corridor or a member of staff coming to get my attention, but as I turned I noticed the corridor was totally empty. It made my physically jump because I knew I had heard someone run to me. Not only that I had felt that feeling of when someone stands really close to you from behind. I checked the only room off the corridor which was totally empty and so I thought 'right, well at least that's answered that question!'

In my 9 months working there I had a few more paranormal experiences, none of which were very scary and whilst I do think it is definitely haunted, I don't think it is as haunted as some people like to say. 

In the end I left Temple Newsam because I wanted a new challenge, something where I could expand my skills and try something new, but I think back on the House itself very fondly and I feel very privileged that I had the opportunity to work there and to explore the House itself.

Research Trip to Dunham Massey, Cheshire

If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you may know that I have been recently contracted by Pen and Sword Books to write my first non-fiction book. It is currently titled Strong Despite the Skirts, but that may change. I am planning to write a full post about my book, explaining fully what it is about and why I am writing about this topic, but for now I will just summarise.

So the book is about women who ran country houses alongside their gentry husbands. People often think that female country house owners had it easy – they embroidered, met friends and occasionally did some charity work. Whilst there were some ladies who enjoyed doing just that, there were some women who took more of a hand in managing their vast country estates. They hired and fired staff, managed the financial accounts, designed and managed any architectural changes to the house, hand-raised a family as well as participating in all the social niceties expected by society.

So where does Dunham feature in all of this? Well, one of the women I am writing about is Catharine Cox, second wife of George Harry Grey, 7^th Earl of Stamford and Warrington who, among other estates, owned Dunham Massey in Cheshire. Catharine Cox was a circus performer who was famous in London for her acrobatic skills as well as her beauty. As may be expected, George Harry’s decision to marry Catharine caused huge ripples within ‘polite’ society which ended with the couple retreating to their Staffordshire estate, Enfield. I will be writing about Catharine’s story, her marriage and Dunham Massey and Enfield Estate.

I visited Dunham Massey recently with my Mum to research the story about Catharine and George Harry and was thrilled to see that Dunham’s current exhibition about the couple was still open. I have to say that having studied country house management and worked within country houses I was blown away by the exhibition. It was interactive, it included the collection in a way that made it accessible and it was suitable for all ages. There was a combination of sound, images and artist designed pieces and the interpretation panels introduced characters as actors in a play. Not only did I learn lots about Catharine and George Harry, I really enjoyed the process of learning. Well done National Trust, you’ve done a great job of making a country house enjoyable and exciting again!

Let’s talk more about the house and its collections – I loved how much of the house was open. Obviously because it is a national trust property, none of the house is used as a private residence and so more of it can be opened to the public. My favourite room was the Saloon which had a beautiful writing desk on it which my mum said ‘I bet you’d love to be in this room to write your book wouldn’t you?’ I was like ‘YES!’.

My least favourite room was the Green Silk Room which was Catharine’s room whilst she lived at Dunham. I didn’t feel like the room really told me anything about her and the pictures of her on the wall were slightly hidden so I couldn’t even see the pictures properly. The piece of art in the centre of the room was beautiful, depicting the boned structure of a gown with birds that were trapped inside like a cage, representing Catharine’s feelings whilst she was at Dunham.

But I would have liked to see and hear more about Catharine herself. Could they have done another vocal piece, where words she may have said to herself could be heard, things like ‘have I made the right decision?’, ‘oh how I miss my exciting London life and my sister’ etc.

Overall I loved visiting Dunham Massey and I definitely want to return and spend a whole day there - and after all the research I gathered I really can’t wait to start writing about Catharine and George Harry!

Columns and Country Houses - Telling the Difference

Have you ever noticed that a lot of country houses seem to have columns as some part of their decoration or structure? Well despite it seemingly feeling like all country houses have this architectural detail, it is only those of neo-classical design which use them – that is, houses that have used classical Greek architecture as their inspiration. This was particularly popular in the 18^th century when the manor house of the Elizabethan era fell out of popularity and owners wanted homes that were bigger and featured lighter rooms with large windows and an airy feel, although there was also a revival of the Greek style in the 19^th and 20^th centuries and even today columns may be used for architectural detailing on important or high status buildings.

There are three main types or ‘orders’ of column – doric, ionic and Corinthian . . . 

(photo credit: tribunesandtriumps.org)

. . . don’t worry, these names meant nothing to me too when I first started my masters but I am going to show you the difference so that next time you visit a country house with friends you can wow them with your column knowledge (embrace the inner geek!)

Doric:

It begins as you would expect with the simplest of columns. They will have some simple detailing at the top or ‘capital’ as it’s called where it meets a plinth or roofline but that is it. This detailing consists of plain rings, perhaps two or three which get slightly larger until it meets the plinth. In Greek architecture the main trunk was fluted but in more modern times the trunks have also become plain and round. The bottom can sometimes also have the same detailing as the top or if it is to be in keeping with the classical Greek style, it would be straight to the floor. They also widen as they go down the column, meaning the bottom will be larger than the top. These are often the largest of columns and in a country house setting these may be used for structural as well as aesthetic reasons to hold up the roof of a portico or entrance way.

Here is a really good example of doric columns at Chatsworth House's Entrance Gateway.

Photo Credit: By David Wilmot (daramot) (http///flickr.com/photos/david_wilmot/9578022/) [CC BY 2.0 (http///creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Ionic:

The middle column is as you would expect, somewhere between the simple and the flourished. This column will usually be fluted down the trunk but it is at the capital of the column where the difference can be seen the most. Here you will find scrolling detail, often making the top of the column appear square. The bottom of the column is usually finished with simple round detailing, showing how it straddles both styles. It is also straighter and doesn’t finish at the bottom as wide as a doric column.

At Houghton Hall in Norfolk, ionic columns are one of the main architectural features of this side of the Hall. Here the architect has added a plinth and pediment above in keeping with the neo-classical design.

Photo credit: By Hans A. Rosbach (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Corinthian:

This column is the most detailed and extravagant style and would be the most expensive to have as part of a classical Greek building or for use in a country house setting as a talented stonemason would be required to fashion the detailed stonework. Again, the main trunk of the column may be relatively simple, although it is uncommon to find a smooth trunk, most have the fluted lines; however again it is the capital of the column where the detail sets it apart from the others. There is no set design that one must use for the top of the column but the most popular seem to be leaves and small scroll designs. These are often very large and may be up to a metre high on top of the column. In some country house settings, architects have used Corinthian columns to detail the front exterior of the building. In these cases, the columns are there for an aesthetic reason rather than for structural purposes and so the columns may only be a half column – this is a little difficult to explain in words – imagine cutting an orange in half and then setting the open straight end against a wall; the result is an orange that looks as though it is stuck in the wall – this is the effect some architects used on country houses. The reason? It cuts down on cost (you only need to buy half the total number of columns) and also it means the face of the building can be flatter. Some architects also turned their columns into square’s rather than rounded, again so it could fit in with the design of the rest of the house.

Here at Castle Howard you can see they have used corinthian columns to make the stonework more detailed and impressive. This is also an example of what I mean about using one 'face' of the column for aesthetic reasons rather than requiring the whole thing for structural support. You can also see that the columns have been made square rather than round, again to fit in with the design of the house.

(photo credit: By Andrewburdett (Own work) [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)

Some buildings even used all three column designs, although because they have a set order in terms of style and level of decoration, they always appear with doric on the bottom, ionic in the middle and Corinthian at the top. The most famous example is on the colesseum in rome:

However for an English contemporary version, this picture of the Banqueting House in London shows the use of ionic and corinthian columns. 

(photo credit: By en/User/ChrisO (Own work) [GFDL (http///www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http///creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons)

In classical Greek architecture these columns would have a series of plinths above and below to create order and symmetry in the design – however this hasn’t always been used in country house architecture and so for the purposes of keeping this post to a reasonable length I haven’t mentioned them, but if you are interested then a simple Google search will enable you to explore more.

So the next time you’re at a country house or stately home, keep an eye out for columns and see if you can work out which they are:

doric – simple

ionic – scrolls at top

Corinthian – detailed and fancy. . .

ITV's Victoria - Filming Locations

ITV’s Downton Abbey replacement period drama ‘Victoria’ aired on Sunday and Monday night to rave reviews and high viewing numbers. Jenna Coleman makes a stunning Victoria which has been criticised by some, saying Coleman is ‘too pretty’ to be portraying Queen Victoria who was reported to be quite plain. I thought she made a brilliant Queen and I will be interested to see how her acting is as she portrays an older Victoria.

However, it was the filming locations which stole the show for me. I always enjoy watching any period drama and seeing which locations and country estates I can spot, and this programme was no exception. So for this weeks blog I thought you might like a run down of all the filming locations that I spotted in the first two episodes of Victoria . . 

Castle Howard

In the very first seconds of the first episode we see a messenger arriving at Kensington Palace to tell the family of Victoria that the King is dead. The high ceilinged hall where Pench is reclining in front of the fire, and the corridor which the servant runs down to inform the duchess were instantly recognisable to me as Castle Howards most famous interior – Vanbrugh’s Great Hall and adjacent Antique Passage.

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(photo credit: aboutbritain.com)

Wentworth Woodhouse

In the next few seconds of the first episode we see a servant run to tell Sir John Conroy the news of the Kings death as he knelt in the Chapel at Kensington Palace. This is actually the chapel at Wentworth Woodhouse, and we see the exterior of Wentworth later in the episode as seamstress Miss Skerrett gazes hopefully at the House on her first day.

Wentworth is also used as the home of the Duke of Cumberland, Victoria’s scheming Uncle, but only the Marble Saloon is used to represent his home. The Marble Saloon can be seen early on in the first episode and again in the second when the Duke and John Conroy meet to discuss Victoria’s sanity.

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Harewood House

Having worked at Harewood House for a short time as a room steward and being based in the Kitchens, I therefore instantly recognised the kitchens of Harewood House which were used to represent the Kitchens at Buckingham Palace. This was particularly exciting to me as I spent many hours in these rooms welcoming visitors and envying the collection of copper jelly moulds!

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 (photo credit: harewood.org)

Temple Newsam House

Right at the beginning of the second episode Victoria arrives at a location which is not clarified – we assume it to be a private assembly or someone else’s estate as we see the Queen and retinue leaving Buckingham Palace at the beginning of the episode. Nevertheless, despite the lack of clarity, I instantly recognised this location as Temple Newsam House where I worked for a year in 2012. The Great Hall and Dining Room were used for Victoria’s reception to the House and where she discusses her mother’s title. I loved Temple Newsam House as it is such a large and yet beautiful House with lots of lovely rooms from throughout the centuries.

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(photo credits: Leeds City Council)

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These were the four locations that I personally spotted whilst watching the first two episodes. I tried to recognise any locations from the interior rooms used as Buckingham Palace but they are either rooms within the above locations that I haven’t seen before, or they are from other locations.

If there were any locations that you spotted in these episodes which I have not included above please do let me know as I am keen to know where else was used.