Stately homes and manor houses егэ ответы

A manor house (often fortified) is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes. There were manor houses in most European countries, where they were sometimes referred to as castles, palaces, and so on.

«Manor house» is also technical term in the UK for a minor late-medieval country house. They were often fortified but this was intended more for show than for defence.

History and architecture

The manor house was the dwelling house, or «capital messuage», of a feudal lord of a manor, which he occupied only on occasional visits if he held many manors. As such it was the place in which sessions of his «court baron», or manor court, were held. Sometimes a steward or seneschal was appointed by the seigneurial lord to oversee and manage his different manorial properties. The day-to-day administration was delegated to an official, who in England was called a bailiff, or reeve.

Although not typically built with strong fortifications as castles were, many manor-houses were partly fortified: they were enclosed within walls or ditches that often included the farm buildings as well. Arranged for defence against robbers and thieves, it was often surrounded by a moat with a drawbridge, and equipped with small gatehouses and watchtowers; but was not provided with a keep or with large towers or lofty curtain walls so as to withstand a siege. The primary feature of the manor-house was its great hall, to which subsidiary apartments were added as the lessening of feudal warfare permitted more peaceful domestic life.

By the beginning of the 16th century, manor-houses as well as small castles began to acquire the character and amenities of the residences of country gentlemen. This late 16th century transformation produced many of the smaller Renaissance châteaux of France and the numerous country mansions of the Elizabethan and Jacobean styles in England.

Manor Houses in the British Isles

Channel Islands

• Sausmarez Manor in Guernsey
• Flamborough Manor
• Longueville Manor, Jersey
• Sark Manor, Sark

England

Main articles: English country houses and Stately homes

Before around 1600, larger houses were usually fortified, reflecting the position of their owners as feudal lords, de facto overlords of their manors. The Tudor period of stability in England saw the building of the first of the unfortified great houses. Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries saw many former ecclesiastical properties granted to the King’s favourites, who then converted them into private country houses. Woburn Abbey, Forde Abbey and many other mansions with Abbey or Priory in their name often date from this period as private houses.

It was during the second half of the reign of Elizabeth I and under her successor James I that the first architect-designed mansions, thought of today as epitomising the English country house, began to make their appearance. Burghley House, Longleat House, and Hatfield House are among the best known.

These houses were not all referred to as «manor houses» or called «Manor». Other terms used include «Palace», «Castle», «Court», «Hall», «Mansion», «Park», «House, «Place» and «Tower».

Alford Manor House Ascott-under-Wychwood Manor Ashton Court Avebury Manor Aydon Castle, Northumberland Barrington Court Baddesley Clinton Bank Hall, Bretherton Barkham Manor, Berkshire Beachborough Manor Begbroke Manor, Oxfordshire Bettiscombe Manor Birtsmorton Court Bitterne Manor Bletchingdon Manor Boarstall Tower Boothby Hall Bradninch Bramall Hall Bromley Palace Brooksby Hall Brympton d’Evercy Bucknell Manor Burghley House Calcot Manor Chambercombe Manor Chavenage House Cheddington Chenies Manor House Childwickbury Manor Clevedon Court

Cothay Manor Cothelstone Manor Cranborne Desning Hall Duns Tew Manor East Riddlesden Hall Edlingham Castle Etal Manor on the Ford Castle and Etal Castle estate Farleigh House Finchcocks Gainsborough Old Hall Garsington Manor Gidea Hall Great Chalfield Manor Great Snoring/Snoring Magna Manor Great Tew Manor Greaves Hall Grimshaw Hall Groby Old Hall Garsington Manor Halsway Manor Halswell House Hampton Gay Manor — burnt out Harlaxton Manor Hartham Park, Corsham Hatfield House Hinxworth Place Hestercombe House Hever Castle, Kent Hughenden Manor Holly Tree House, Benfleet Ightham Mote

Icomb Place Kelmscott Manor Kemerton Court Kirby Muxloe Castle Knole House Lambton Castle Langdon Court Les Augres Manor Lesingham House Levens Hall Linford Manor Little Barford Little Snoring Manor Little Tew Manor Lytes Cary Montacute House Manor House Hotel, Castle Combe Manor House, Steeple Langford Newton Surmaville Northborough, Cambridgeshire Nunnington Hall Orchardleigh Estate Oxon Hoath Owlpen Manor Pixton Park Portledge Manor Poundisford Park Rivington Hall Roos Hall Rufford Old Hall Sandhill Park Sawston Hall Scotney Castle Shutford Manor Simpson’s Place

Snowshill Manor Somerton Castle Speke Hall Stanford Hall Stockbridge Manor Stokesay Castle Ston Easton Park Stourhead Sturminster Newton Sulgrave Sutton Court The Manor House Bishop Bridge Theobalds Thorndon Hall Tyntesfield Ufton Court Waddesdon Manor Walton Hall, Milton Keynes Wanborough Manor Washington Old Hall (ancestral home of George Washington) Water Eaton Manor Whalton Manor Wightwick Manor Wilderhope Manor on Wenlock Edge Wingfield Manor — deserted Woodeaton Manor Woodstock Manor Woolsthorpe Manor Yalding Manor Yarnton Manor

Ireland

• Dunboy Castle, is located on the Beara Peninsula in south-west Ireland
• Ballylickey Manor House on Bantry Bay
• Temple House, Ballymote, County Sligo
• Mount Juliet Estate Manor House, Country Kilkenny
• Temple House Manor, County Westmeath
• Bunratty House, County Clare

Northern Ireland

• Killadeas, ‘Manor House Hotel’, County Fermanagh
• Richhill Castle, County Armagh^[1]

Scotland

• Brodie Castle
• Drum Castle, started as a 13th century tower house.
• Haddo House
• House of Dun
• Lingo House
• Monboddo House
• Muchalls Castle
• Raasay

Wales

• Bodysgallen Hall near Conwy Castle
• Gwydir Castle, Conwy valley, North Wales
• Weobley Castle, Gower
• Tretower Court near Crickhowell
• Llancaiach fawr near Abercynon and Ystrad Mynach

Manor Houses in Western Europe

France

In France, the terms château or manoir are often used synonymously to describe a French manor-house. Maison-forte is another French word to describe a strongly fortified manor-house, which might include two sets of enclosing walls, drawbridges, and a ground-floor hall or salle basse that was used to receive peasants and commoners. The salle basse was also the location of the manor court, with the steward or seigneur’s seating location often marked by the presence of a crédence de justice or wall-cupboard (shelves built into the stone walls to hold documents and books associated with administration of the demesne or droit de justice). The salle haute or upper-hall, reserved for the seigneur and where he received his high-ranking guests, was often accessible by an external spiral staircase. It was commonly «open» up to the roof trusses, as in similar English homes. This larger and more finely decorated hall was usually located above the ground-floor hall. The seigneur and his family’s private chambres were often located off of the upper first-floor hall, and invariably had their own fireplace (with finely decorated chimney-piece) and frequently a latrine.

In addition to having both lower and upper-halls, many French manor-houses also had partly fortified gateways, watchtowers, and enclosing walls that were fitted with arrow or gun loops for added protection. Some larger 16th-century manors, such as the Château de Kerjean in Finistère, Brittany, were even outfitted with ditches and fore-works that included gun platforms for cannons. These defensive arrangements allowed maisons-fortes, and rural manors to be safe from a coup de main perpetrated by an armed band as there was so many during the troubled times of the Hundred Years War and the wars of the Holy League; but it was difficult for them to resist a siege undertaken by a regular army equipped with (siege) engines.^[2]

Château d’Harcourt in Eure, Normandy. Château de Beaumont-le-Richard in Calvados, Normandy. (Fr) Château de Bienassis in Côtes-d’Armor, Brittany. (Fr) Château de Bonnefontaine in Ille-et-Vilaine, Brittany. (Fr) Château de Gratot in Manche, Normandy. Château de Hac, 14th century, Côtes-d’Armor, Brittany Manoir de Kerazan in Finistère, Brittany. (Fr) Château de Kérouzéré in Finistère, Brittany. Château des Milandes in Dordogne, Aquitaine.

Château de Pirou in Manche, Normandy. Château du Plessis-Josso in Morbihan, Brittany. Château de Puymartin in Dordogne, Aquitaine. (French) Château de la Roche-Jagu in Côtes-d’Armor, Brittany. Strategically important maison-forte in Trégor. (Fr) Château des Rochers-Sévigné in Ille-et-Vilaine, Brittany. (Fr) Château de Rustéphan in Finistère, Brittany. Ruins of large 15th–16th century manor house. Château de Trécesson in Morbihan, Brittany. Manoir de Dur-Écu, 16th century manor in Urville-Nacqueville, Normandy. Manoir de Mathan, 16th century manor in Crépon, Normandy. Manoir de Mézarnou, 16th century manor in Finistère, Brittany. (under extensive restoration) Château de la Motte, Joué du Plain

Netherlands

There are many historical manor houses throughout the Netherlands.^[3] Some have been converted into museums, hotels, conference centres, etc. Some are located on estates and in parks.

Many of the earlier houses are the legacy of the feudal heerlijkheid system. The Dutch had a manorial system centred on the local lord’s demesne. In Middle Dutch this was called the vroonhof or vroenhoeve, a word derived from the Proto-Germanic word fraujaz, meaning «lord». This was also called a hof and the lord’s house a hofstede. Other terms were used, including landhuis (or just huis), a ridderhofstad (Utrecht), a stins or state (Friesland), or a havezate (Drente, Overijssel and Gelderland). Some of these buildings were fortified. A number of castles associated with the nobility are found in the country. In Dutch, a building like this was called a kasteel, a slot, a burcht or (in Groningen) a borg.

During the Dutch Golden Age in the 17th century, merchants and regents looking for ways to spend their wealth bought country estates and built grand new homes, often just for summer use. Some purchased existing manor houses and castles from the nobility. Some country houses were built on top of the ruins of earlier castles that had been destroyed during the Dutch Revolt. The owners, aspiring to noble status, adopted the name of the earlier castle.

These country houses or stately homes (called buitenplaats or buitenhuis in Dutch) were located close to the city in picturesque areas with a clean water source. Wealthy families sent their children to the country in the summer because of the putrid canals and diseases in the city. A few still exist, especially along the river Vecht, the river Amstel, the Spaarne in Kennemerland, the river Vliet and in Wassenaar. Some are located near former lakes (now polders) like the Wijkermeer, Watergraafsmeer and the Beemster. In the 19th century, with improvements in water management, new regions came into fashion, such as the Utrecht Hill Ridge (Utrechtse Heuvelrug) and the area around Arnhem.

Today there is a tendency to group these grand buildings together in the category of «castles». There are many castles and buitenplatsen in all twelve provinces. A larger-than-average home is today called a villa or a herenhuis, but despite the grand name this is not the same as a manor house.

A few of the more prominent Dutch manor houses are:

• Huis Doorn (Doorn, near Utrecht)
• Slot Heemstede (Heemstede, near Haarlem)

Manor Houses in Central Europe

Germany

The German equivalent of a manor house is a Gutshof (or Gut, Rittergut, Landgut or Bauerngut). Also used are Herrenhaus and Domane. Schloss (pl. Schlösser) is another German word for a building similar to manor house, stately home, château or palace. Other terms used in German are Burg (castle), Festung (fort/fortress) and and Palais/Palast (palace).

• Gut Altenhof in Dänischer Wohld
• Gut Blomenburg in Selent
• Gut Brodau in Ostholstein
• Gut Emkendorf in Emkendorf
• Gut Knoop in Dänischer Wohld
• Gut Krummbek
• Gut Panker in Ostholstein
• Gut Projensdorf in Dänischer Wohld
• Gut Salzau in Fargau-Pratjau
• Gut Wahlstorf in Otterndorf
• Gut Wellingsbüttel
• Gut Wotersen in Herzogtum Lauenburg
• Schloss Ahrensburg in Ahrensburg
• Schloss Glücksburg in Angeln
• Nütschau Priory in Travenbrück
• Rittergut Kürbitz

Manor Houses in Scandinavia

Denmark

• Berritzgaard Manor
• Børglum Abbey
• Clausholm Castle
• Dragsholm Castle
• Egeskov Castle
• Fuglsang Manor
• Gavnø Castle
• Glorup Manor
• Krogerup Manor
• Nysø Manor
• Rosenholm Castle
• Svanholm Manor
• Vemmetofte Convent

Norway

• Austrått Manor
• Damsgård Manor
• Eidsvollsbygningen
• Fossum hovedgård
• Frogner Hovedgård
• Frogner Hovedgård (Skien)
• Linderud gård
• Jarlsberg Hovedgård
• Store Milde Hovedgård

Sweden

• Augerum
• Charlottenborg

• Djupadals
• Elleholms
• Göholms
• Halltorp
• Harpsund
• Marielund
• Övralid
• Skärva
• Ström
• Tromtö

Manor Houses in the Iberian Peninsula

Spain

A pazo is a type of grand old house found in Galician. Similar to a manor house, a pazo is usually located in the countryside and the former residence of an important nobleman or other important individual. They were of crucial importance to the rural and monastic communities around them. The pazo was a traditional architectural structure associated with a community and social network. It usually consisted of a main building surrounded by gardens, a dovecote and outbuildings such as a small chapels for religious celebrations. The word pazo is derived from the Latin palatiu(m) («palace»).

In Spain a good many old manor houses, palaces, castles and grand homes have been converted into a type of hotel called parador.

Portugal

In Portugal, a manor house is often called a paço, which means «palace» in Portuguese. Many have been converted into a type of hotel called pousada.

• Paço de Lanheses

Manor Houses in Eastern Europe

Estonia

• Alatskivi Manor, Alatskivi Parish, Tartu County
• Aaspere Manor, Haljala Parish, Lääne-Viru County
• Luke Manor, Nõo Parish, Tartu County
• Mooste Manor, Mooste Parish, Põlva County
• Palmse Manor, Vihula Parish, Lääne-Viru County
• Pädaste Manor, Muhu Parish, Saare County
• Riisipere Manor, Nissi Parish, Harju County
• Roosna-Alliku Manor, Roosna-Alliku Parish, Järva County
• Sagadi Manor, Vihula Parish, Lääne-Viru County
• Taagepera Manor, Helme Parish, Valga County
• Vaimõisa Manor, Märjamaa Parish, Rapla County

Latvia

See: List of palaces and manor houses in Latvia

Poland

• Bachorza manor
• Branicki Palace, Białystok
• Castle in Pszczyna
• Dzików Castle
• Jabłonna Palace
• Kozłówka Palace
• Krasiczyn Palace
• Książ
• Przyszowice
• Turew
• Wilanów Palace

For more information, see Dwór (manor house) and Nowy Dwór (nameplaces derived from «New Manor»).

Manor Houses Outside of Europe

The term «manor house» can be used to refer to any grand, stately home, including those that do not have a history rooted in European feudalism.

New Zealand

• Sign of the Takahe (New Zealand)

Sri Lanka

• Temple Trees
• Sirimathipaya Mansion
• Lighthouse

See also

• Country house and Mansion
• Court baron and Court leet
• Dovecote
• Lord of the manor
• Manor court
• Manorialism
• Pele tower and Bastle house
• Quadrangular castle
• Tower house
• Villa

• Eesti mõisate loend (List of Estonian manors in Estonian Wikipedia)
• Liste des châteaux de Bretagne (List of Breton manor houses in the French Wikipedia)
• Luettelo Suomen kartanoista (List of Finnish manor houses in the Finnish Wikipedia)
• There is a short list of Norman manoirs in Pays de Caux.
• Lijst van kastelen in Nederland (From the Dutch Wikipedia, a comprehensive list of castles and manor houses in the Netherlands)
• Lijst van kastelen in België (From the Dutch Wikipedia, a comprehensive list of castles and manor houses in Belgium)

References

External links

• Reality TV show recreating life in an Edwardian manor house.
• Timelines TV Interactive video timeline of British history with section on medieval manors.
• UK Manor House news blog
• Estonian Manors Portal – the English version gives the brief overview of 438 best preserved manor houses in Estonia.
• Portal of Association of Latvia’s castles, palaces and manors – the English version gives the information about all manors and castles in Latvia, routes and photos.

A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord’s manorial courts, communal meals with manorial tenants and great banquets. The term is today loosely applied to various country houses, frequently dating from the late medieval era, which formerly housed the landed gentry.

Manor houses were sometimes fortified, but this was frequently intended more for show than for defence. They existed in most European countries where feudalism existed, where they were sometimes known as castles, palaces, mansions, and so on.

Function[edit]

The lord of the manor may have held several properties within a county or, for example in the case of a feudal baron, spread across a kingdom, which he occupied only on occasional visits. Even so, the business of the manor was directed and controlled by regular manorial courts, which appointed manorial officials such as the bailiff, granted copyhold leases to tenants, resolved disputes between manorial tenants and administered justice in general. A large and suitable building was required within the manor for such purpose, generally in the form of a great hall, and a solar might be attached to form accommodation for the lord. Furthermore, the produce of a small manor might be insufficient to feed a lord and his large family for a full year, and thus he would spend only a few months at each manor and move on to another where stores had been laid up. This also gave the opportunity for the vacated manor house to be cleaned, especially important in the days of the cess-pit, and repaired. Thus such non-resident lords needed to appoint a steward or seneschal to act as their deputy in such matters and to preside at the manorial courts of his different manorial properties. The day-to-day administration was carried out by a resident official in authority at each manor, who in England was called a bailiff, or reeve.

Architecture[edit]

Although not typically built with strong fortifications as were castles, many manor-houses were fortified, which required a royal licence to crenellate. They were often enclosed within walls or ditches which often also included agricultural buildings. Arranged for defence against roaming bands of robbers and thieves,^[1] in days long before police, they were often surrounded by a moat with a drawbridge,^[1] and were equipped with gatehouses and watchtowers, but not, as for castles, with a keep, large towers or lofty curtain walls designed to withstand a siege. The primary feature of the manor house was its great hall, to which subsidiary apartments were added as the lessening of feudal warfare permitted more peaceful domestic life.

By the beginning of the 16th century, manor houses as well as small castles began to acquire the character and amenities of the residences of country gentlemen, and many defensive elements were dispensed with, for example Sutton Place in Surrey, circa 1521. A late 16th-century transformation produced many of the smaller Renaissance châteaux of France and the numerous country mansions of the Elizabethan and Jacobean styles in England.

History[edit]

Before around 1600, larger houses were usually fortified, generally for true defensive purposes but increasingly, as the kingdom became internally more peaceable after the Wars of the Roses, as a form of status-symbol, reflecting the position of their owners as having been worthy to receive royal licence to crenellate. The Tudor period (16th century) of stability in England saw the building of the first of the unfortified great houses, for example Sutton Place in Surrey, circa 1521. The Dissolution of the Monasteries under King Henry VIII resulted in many former monastical properties being sold to the King’s favourites, who then converted them into private country houses, examples being Woburn Abbey, Forde Abbey, Nostell Priory and many other mansions with the suffix Abbey or Priory to their name.

During the second half of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603) and under her successor King James I (1603–1625) the first mansions designed by architects not by mere masons or builders, began to make their appearance. Such houses as Burghley House, Longleat House, and Hatfield House are among the best known of this period and seem today to epitomise the English country house.

Nearly every large medieval manor house had its own deer-park adjoining, emparked (i.e. enclosed) by royal licence, which served primarily as a store of food in the form of venison. Within these licensed parks deer could not be hunted by royalty (with its huge travelling entourage which needed to be fed and entertained), nor by neighbouring land-owners nor by any other persons. During the 16th century many lords of manors moved their residences from their ancient manor houses often situated next to the parish church and near or in the village and built a new manor house within the walls of their ancient deer-parks adjoining. This gave them more privacy and space.^[2]

Naming[edit]

The suffixes given to manor houses today have little substantive meaning, and many have changed over time, thus a manor house may have been known as «Heanton House» in the 18th century and in the 19th century as «Heanton Court» and later as «Heanton Satchville». «Court» was a suffix which came into use in the 16th century, and contemporary topographers felt the need to explain the term to their readers. Thus the Devonshire historian Tristram Risdon (d.1640) clarified the term at least three times in his main work, Survey of Devon:

• «This now lord of these lands Sir Robert Basset hath his dwelling at Heanton-Court, in this parish, an adjunct importing a manor-house in the lord’s signiory».^[3]
• «This Nutwell Court, which signifies a mansion-house in a signiory, came to the family of Prideaux».^[4]
• and regarding the manor of Yarnscombe: «Their house is called «Court», which implieth a manor house, or chief dwelling in a lordship».^[5]

The biographer John Prince, (1643–1723) in his Worthies of Devon, remarked as follows in his biography of John Hill (died 1408), of Hill’s Court in Exeter, Devon:^[6]

The word court annex’d unto the name of the lord, may imply, that Hill had a lordship here; and that the court of his mannor, where the tenants were to pay their suit and service, was usually kept (according to antient custom) at this his mansion-house: this is the reason why many gentlemens’ seats, in this county, and elsewhere, are distinguished by the title of court, or court-house, because the court of the mannor was wont to be held there». The obvious origin of the suffix would appear to be that the building was the location where the manorial courts were held.

True castles, when not royal castles, were generally the residences of feudal barons, whose baronies comprised often several dozen other manors. The manor on which the castle was situated was termed the caput of the barony, thus every true ancient defensive castle was also the manor house of its own manor. The suffix «-Castle» was also used to name certain manor houses, generally built as mock castles, but often as houses rebuilt on the site of a former true castle:

The origin of the suffix «Place» is believed to be a shortened form of «Palace», a term commonly used in Renaissance Italy (Palazzo) to denote a residence of the nobility. The suffix «-Park» came into use in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Manor houses, although mostly forming residences for the lords of the manors on which they were situated, were not historically named with the suffix «Manor», as were many grand country houses built in the 19th century, such as Hughenden Manor or Waddesdon Manor. The usage is often a modern catch-all suffix for an old house on an estate, true manor or not.

The German equivalent of a manor house is a Gutshaus (or Gut, Gutshof, Rittergut, Landgut or Bauerngut). Also Herrenhaus and Domäne are common terms. Schloss (pl. Schlösser) is another German word for a building similar to manor house, stately home, château or palace. Other terms used in German are Burg (castle), Festung (fort/fortress) and Palais/Palast (palace).

France[edit]

In France, the terms château or manoir are often used synonymously to describe a French manor-house. Maison-forte is another French word to describe a strongly fortified house, which may include two sets of enclosing walls, drawbridges, and a ground-floor hall or salle basse that was used to receive peasants and commoners. The salle basse was also the location of the manor court, with the steward or seigneur’s seating location often marked by the presence of a crédence de justice or wall-cupboard (shelves built into the stone walls to hold documents and books associated with administration of the demesne or droit de justice). The salle haute or upper-hall, reserved for the seigneur and where he received his high-ranking guests, was often accessible by an external spiral staircase. It was commonly «open» up to the roof trusses, as in similar English homes. This larger and more finely decorated hall was usually located above the ground-floor hall. The seigneur and his family’s private chambres were often located off of the upper first-floor hall, and invariably had their own fireplace (with finely decorated chimney-piece) and frequently a latrine.

In addition to having both lower and upper halls, many French manor houses also had partly fortified gateways, watchtowers, and enclosing walls that were fitted with arrow or gun loops for added protection. Some larger 16th-century manors, such as the Château de Kerjean in Finistère, Brittany, were even outfitted with ditches and fore-works that included gun platforms for cannons. These defensive arrangements allowed maisons-fortes, and rural manors to be safe from a coup de main perpetrated by an armed band as there was so many during the troubled times of the Hundred Years War and the wars of the Holy League; but it was difficult for them to resist a siege undertaken by a regular army equipped with (siege) engines.^[7]

Netherlands[edit]

There are many historical manor houses throughout the Netherlands. Some have been converted into museums, hotels, conference centres, etc. Some are located on estates and in parks.

Many of the earlier houses are the legacy of the feudal heerlijkheid system. The Dutch had a manorial system centred on the local lord’s demesne. In Middle Dutch this was called the vroonhof or vroenhoeve, a word derived from the Proto-Germanic word fraujaz, meaning «lord». This was also called a hof and the lord’s house a hofstede. Other terms were used, including landhuis (or just huis), a ridderhofstad (Utrecht), a stins or state (Friesland), or a havezate (Drente, Overijssel and Gelderland). Some of these buildings were fortified. A number of castles associated with the nobility are found in the country. In Dutch, a building like this was called a kasteel, a slot, a burcht or (in Groningen) a borg.^[8]

During the Dutch Golden Age in the 17th century, merchants and regents looking for ways to spend their wealth bought country estates and built grand new homes, often just for summer use. Some purchased existing manor houses and castles from the nobility. Some country houses were built on top of the ruins of earlier castles that had been destroyed during the Dutch Revolt. The owners, aspiring to noble status, adopted the name of the earlier castle.

These country houses or stately homes (called buitenplaats or buitenhuis in Dutch) were located close to the city in picturesque areas with a clean water source. Wealthy families sent their children to the country in the summer because of the putrid canals and diseases in the city. A few still exist, especially along the river Vecht, the river Amstel, the Spaarne in Kennemerland, the river Vliet and in Wassenaar. Some are located near former lakes (now polders) like the Wijkermeer, Watergraafsmeer and the Beemster. In the 19th century, with improvements in water management, new regions came into fashion, such as the Utrecht Hill Ridge (Utrechtse Heuvelrug) and the area around Arnhem.

Today there is a tendency to group these grand buildings together in the category of «castles». There are many castles and buitenplaatsen in all twelve provinces. A larger-than-average home is today called a villa or a herenhuis, but despite the grand name this is not the same as a manor house.

Poland[edit]

The architectural form of the Polish manor house (Polish: dwór) evolved around the late Polish Renaissance period and continued until the Second World War, which, together with the communist takeover of Poland, spelled the end of the nobility in Poland. A 1944 decree nationalized most mansions as property of the nobles, but few were adapted to other purposes. Many slowly fell into ruin over the next few decades.

Poland inherited many German-style manor houses (Gutshäuser) after parts of eastern Germany were taken over by Poland after World War II.

Portugal[edit]

In Portugal, it was quite common during the 17th to early 20th centuries for the aristocracy to have country homes. These homes, known as solares (paços, when the manor was a certain stature or size; quintas, when the manor included a sum of land), were found particularly in the northern, usually richer, Portugal, in the Beira, Minho, and Trás-os-Montes provinces. Many have been converted into a type of hotel called pousada.

Quinta is a term used in the Portuguese language-speaking world, which is applied variously to manors homes or to estates as a whole.

Spain[edit]

Casa solariega is the catch-all name for manor houses in Spain. They were the places where heads of noble families resided. Those houses receive a different name depending on the geographical region of Spain where they are located, the noble rank of the owner family, the size of the house and/or the use that the family gave to them. In Spain a good many old manor houses, palaces, castles and grand homes have been converted into a type of hotel called parador.

A Palacio is a sumptuously decorated grand residence, especially a royal residence or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word itself is derived from the Latin name Palātium, for Palatine Hill, the hill which housed the Imperial residences in Rome. Palacio Real is the same as Palacio, but historically used (either now or in the past) by the Spanish Royal Family. Palacio arzobispal is the same as Palacio, but historically used (either now or in the past) by the ecclesiastic authorities (mainly bishops or archbishops). Palacete is bejewelled and built house as a palace, but smaller.

Alcázar is a type of Moorish castle or fortified palace in Spain (and also Portugal) built during Muslim rule, although some founded by Christians. Mostly of the alcázars were built between the 8th and 15th centuries. Many cities in Spain have its alcázar. Palaces built in the Moorish style after the expulsion of the Moors from Spain are often referred to as alcazars as well.

Hacienda is landed estates of significant size located in the south of Spain (Andalusia). They were also very common in the former Spanish Colonies. Some haciendas were plantations, mines or factories. Many haciendas combined these productive activities. They were developed as profit-making, economic enterprises linked to regional or international markets. The owner of an hacienda was termed an hacendado or patrón. The work force on haciendas varied, depending on the type of hacienda and where it was located.

Casona is old manor houses in León, Asturias and Cantabria (Spain) following the so-called «casa montañesa architecture». Most of them were built in the 17th and 18th centuries. Typologically they are halfway between rustic houses and palaces

Quinta is a countryside house closer to the urban core. Initially, «quinta» (fifth) designated the 1/5 part of the production that the lessee (called «quintero») paid to the lessor (owner of the land), but lately the term was applied to the whole property. This term is also very common in the former Spanish Colonies.

Alqueria in Al-Andalus made reference to small rural communities that were located near cities (medinas). Since the 15th century it makes reference to a farmhouse, with an agricultural farm, typical of Levante and the southeastern Spanish, mainly in Granada and Valencia.

A pazo is a type of grand old house found in Galicia. A pazo is usually located in the countryside and the former residence of an important nobleman or other important individual. They were of crucial importance to the rural and monastic communities around them. The pazo was a traditional architectural structure associated with a community and social network. It usually consisted of a main building surrounded by gardens, a dovecote and outbuildings such as a small chapels for religious celebrations. The word pazo is derived from the Latin palatiu(m) («palace»).

The Baserri, called «Caserio» in Spanish, is the typical manor house of the Basque Provinces and Navarre. A baserri represents the core unit of traditional Basque society, as the ancestral home of a family. Traditionally, the household is administered by the etxekoandre (lady of the house) and the etxekojaun (master of the house), each with distinctly defined rights, roles and responsibilities. When the couple reaches a certain age upon which they wish to retire, the baserri is formally handed over to a child. Unusually, the parents were by tradition free to choose any child, male or female, firstborn or later born, to assume the role of etxekoandre or etxekojaun to ensure the child most suitable to the role would inherit the ancestral home. The baserri under traditional law (the fueros) cannot be divided or inherited by more than one person. This is still the case in the Southern Basque Country but the introduction of the Napoleonic Code in France, under which such practices are illegal, greatly upset this tradition in the North. Although the Basques in the north chose to be «creative» with the new laws, it overall resulted in the breakup and ultimate financial ruin of many baserris. In practice the tradition of not breaking up baserris meant that the remaining children had to marry into another baserri, stay on the family baserri as unmarried employees or make their own way in the world (Iglesia o mar o casa real, «Church or sea or royal house»).

A cortijo is a type of traditional rural habitat in the Southern half of Spain, including all of Andalusia and parts of Extremadura and Castile-La Mancha. Cortijos may have their origins in ancient Roman villas, for the word is derived from the Latin cohorticulum, a diminutive of cohors, meaning ‘courtyard’. They are often isolated structures associated with a large family farming or livestock operation in the vast and empty adjoining lands. It would usually include a large house, together with accessory buildings such as workers’ quarters, sheds to house livestock, granaries, oil mills, barns and often a wall enclosing a courtyard. The master of the cortijo or «señorito» would usually live with his family in a two-story building, while the accessory structures were for the labourers and their families —also known as «cortijeros».

United States[edit]

Before the founding of the United States, colonial powers such as Britain, France and the Netherlands made land grants to favored individuals in the original colonies that evolved into large agricultural estates that resembled the manors familiar to Europeans.^{[citation needed]} In fact, founding fathers such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were the owners of large agricultural estates granted by colonial rulers and built large manor houses from which these estates were managed (e.g., Mount Vernon, Monticello). However, there were important distinctions. American agricultural estates often relied on slaves rather than tenant farmers or serfs which were common in Europe at the time. The owners of American agricultural estates did not have noble titles and there was no legally recognized political structure based on an aristocratic, land-owning class. As a result, this limited the development of a feudal or manorial land-owning system to just a few regions such as Tidewater and Piedmont Virginia, the Carolina Low Country, the Mississippi Delta, and the Hudson River Valley in the early years of the republic.^{[citation needed]} Southern California (under Spanish and Mexican administration) also developed a primitive manorial society.^{[citation needed]} However, even these exceptions did not produce European-style manorial social, political and economic structures and with a few notable exceptions, did not result in the extravagant manor houses as found throughout Europe.

Today, relics of early manorial life in the early United States are found in a few places such as the Eastern Shore of Maryland with examples such as Wye Hall and Hope House (Easton, Maryland), Virginia at Monticello and Westover Plantation, the Hudson River Valley of New York at Clermont State Historic Site or along the Mississippi such as Lansdowne (Natchez, Mississippi).^{[citation needed]} Over time, these large estates were usually subdivided as they became economically unsustainable and are now a fraction of their historical extent. In the southern states, the demise of plantation slavery after the Civil War gave rise to a sharecropping agricultural economy that had similarities to European serfdom and lasted into the early 20th century.^{[citation needed]} The Biltmore Estate in North Carolina (which is still owned by descendants of the original builder, a member of the Vanderbilt family) is a more modern, though unsuccessful, attempt at building a small manorial society near Asheville, North Carolina.^{[citation needed]}

Most manor-style homes built since the Civil War were merely country retreats for wealthy industrialists in the late 19th and early 20th century and had little agricultural, administrative or political function.^{[citation needed]} Examples of these homes include Castle Hill (Ipswich, Massachusetts), Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site and Hearst Castle. A rare example of hereditary estate ownership in the United States that includes a manor-type house is Gardiners Island,^{[citation needed]} a private island that has been in the same family since the 17th century and contains a Georgian architecture house. Today, some historically and architecturally significant manor houses in the United States are museums. However, many still function as private residences, including many of the colonial-era manor houses found in Maryland and Virginia a few of which are still held within the original families.^{[citation needed]}

Unlike in Europe, the United States did not create a native architectural style common to Manor houses. A typical architectural style used for American manor-style homes in the mid-Atlantic region is Georgian architecture although a homegrown variant of Georgian did emerge in the late 1700s called Federal architecture.^{[citation needed]} A typical example of a Georgian manor house is Tulip Hill in Maryland.^{[citation needed]} Other styles borrowed from Europe include Châteauesque with Biltmore Estate being an example, Tudor Revival architecture see Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park, and Neoclassical architecture with Monticello being a prominent example.^{[citation needed]} In the Antebellum South, many plantation homes were built in Greek Revival architecture style.^{[citation needed]}

Virginia House is a former sixteenth century English manor house blending three romantic English Tudor designs. In 1925, it was relocated to Richmond, Virginia from main sections dating from the 1620 remodeling of a priory in Warwickshire, England and reconstructed on a hillside overlooking the James River in Windsor Farms.^{[citation needed]} Virginia House is now owned and operated by the Virginia Historical Society. When the interior was re-designed by it owners Alexander and Virginia Weddell, it became a home that was modern for its time with central heating, seven full baths, an up-to-date kitchen, and large closets.^{[citation needed]} The almost eight acres of gardens and grounds on which Virginia House rests were designed by Charles Gillette. The house has been preserved and is largely as it was when the Weddells lived there.^[9] Virginia House is on the National Register of Historic Places listings in Richmond, Virginia.

See also[edit]

• List of manor houses
• Ansitz
• Dovecote
• Manorialism
• Mansion
• Pele tower and Bastle house
• Quadrangular castle
• Schloss, approximate German equivalent to a manor house
• Tower house
• Tower houses in Britain and Ireland
• Townhouse
• Villa

References[edit]

External links[edit]

The dictionary definition of manor house at Wiktionary
Media related to Manor houses at Wikimedia Commons

• Spiers, Richard Phené (1911). «Manor-house» . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.).
• Reality TV show recreating life in an Edwardian manor house.
• Timelines TV Interactive video timeline of British history with section on medieval manors.
• UK Manor House news blog
• Estonian Manors Portal – the English version gives the brief overview of 438 best preserved manor houses in Estonia.
• Portal of Association of Latvia’s castles, palaces and manors – the English version gives the information about all manors and castles in Latvia, routes and photos.

One thing England is known for are its many fine stately homes and manor houses. They’ve had a troubled history in the last century as families have been forced to sell them off or donate them to the National Trust. Many have even been demolished. That being said there are still many beautiful stately homes left to visit in England – the types of buildings you think of when you imagine England.

From homes that were featured in films and TV shows to houses that played major parts in history – here is our list of the Top 11 best Stately Homes in England. We’ve pulled the most amazing pictures from Flickr that we can find and have also put in Trivia bout each home from Wikipedia, along with the location and website link for each Stately Home.

Please keep in mind this post if focused solely on the top Stately Homes and Manor Houses in England, we plan to do posts for Scotland and Wales in the future.

Castle Howard

This palace is best known as the shooting location of the classic British TV series Brideshead Revisited as well as the recent film adaptation.

Wikipedia Trivia:

Castle Howard is a stately home in North Yorkshire, England, 15 miles (24 km) north of York. One of the grandest private residences in Britain, most of it was built between 1699 and 1712 for the 3rd Earl of Carlisle, to a design by Sir John Vanbrugh. It is not a true castle: The word is often used for English country houses constructed after the castle-building era (c.1500) and not intended for a military function.

Castle Howard has been the home of part of the Howard family for more than 300 years. It is familiar to television and movie audiences as the fictional “Brideshead”, both in Granada Television’s 1981 adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited and a two-hour 2008 remake for theatres. Today, it is part of the Treasure Houses of England heritage group.

Location: North Yorkshire

Anglotopia’s Take: Read about the history of Castle Howard in Detail here.

Website: Castle Howard Website

Blenheim Palace

Built by the victorious 1st Duke of Marlborough – Blenheim Palace is best known now as the birthplace of Winston Churchill, who was born there in 1874.

Wikipedia Trivia:

Blenheim Palace is a large and monumental country house situated in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England. It is the only non-episcopal country house in England to hold the title of palace. The palace, one of England’s largest houses, was built between 1705 and circa 1724. UNESCO recognised the palace as a World Heritage Site in 1987.

Its construction was originally intended to be a gift to John Churchill, the 1st Duke of Marlborough from a grateful nation in return for military triumph against the French and Bavarians at the Battle of Blenheim. However, it soon became the subject of political infighting, which led to Marlborough’s exile, the fall from power of his Duchess, and irreparable damage to the reputation of the architect Sir John Vanbrugh.

Designed in the rare, and short-lived, English Baroque style, architectural appreciation of the palace is as divided today as it was in the 1720s.[2] It is unique in its combined usage as a family home, mausoleum and national monument. The palace is also notable as the birthplace and ancestral home of Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill.

The building of the palace was a minefield of political intrigue by Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough. Following the palace’s completion, it became the home of the Churchill family for the following 300 years, and various members of the family have in that period wrought various changes, in the interiors, park and gardens. At the end of the 19th century, the palace and the Churchills were saved from ruin by an American marriage. Thus, the exterior of the palace remains in good repair and exactly as completed.

Location: Oxfordshire

Anglotopia’s Take: Read about the history of Blenheim Palace in Detail here.

Anglotopia Facts: 10 Interesting Facts and Figures about Blenheim Palace.

Website: Official Blenheim Palace Website

Longleat

Longleat is mostly now known for its safari park – touted as the first outside of Africa.

Wikipedia Trivia:

Longleat is an English country house, currently the seat of the Marquesses of Bath, adjacent to the village of Horningsham and near the towns of Warminster in Wiltshire and Frome in Somerset. It is noted for its Elizabethan country house, maze, landscaped parkland and safari park. The house is set in over 900 acres (364 ha) of parkland, landscaped by Capability Brown, with 8,000 acres (32.37 km2) of woods and farmland. It was the first stately home to open to the public, and also claims the first safari park outside Africa.

The house was built by Sir John Thynne, and designed mainly by Robert Smythson, after the original priory was destroyed by fire in 1567. It took 12 years to complete and is widely regarded as one of the finest examples of Elizabethan architecture in Britain. Longleat is currently occupied by Alexander Thynn, 7th Marquess of Bath, a direct descendant of the builder.

Location: Wiltshire/Somerset

Anglotopia’s Take: Read about the history of Longleat in Detail here.

Website: Official Longleat Website

Chatsworth

Photo from Wikipedia

It is the seat of the Duke of Devonshire, and has been home to his family, the Cavendish family, since Bess of Hardwick settled at Chatsworth in 1549. You’ll recognize it at Darcy’s house in the 2005 film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.

Wikipedia Trivia:

In the early 20th century social change and taxes began to affect the Devonshires’ lifestyle. When the 8th Duke died in 1908 over £500,000 of death duties became due. This was a small charge compared to what was to follow forty-two years later, but the estate was already burdened with debt accumulated from the 6th Duke’s extravagances, the failure of the 7th Duke’s business ventures at Barrow-in-Furness, and the depression in British agriculture which had been apparent since the 1870s. In 1912 the family sold twenty-five books printed by William Caxton and a collection of 1,347 volumes of plays which had been acquired by the 6th Duke, including four Shakespeare folios and thirty-nine Shakespeare quartos, to the Huntington Library in California. Tens of thousands of acres of land in Somerset, Sussex and Derbyshire were also sold during, and immediately after, World War I. In 1920 the family’s London mansion, Devonshire House, which occupied a 3 acres (12,000 m2) site on Piccadilly, was sold to developers and demolished. Much of the contents of Devonshire House was moved to Chatsworth and a much smaller house at 2 Carlton Gardens near The Mall was acquired. The Great Conservatory in the garden at Chatsworth was demolished as it needed ten men to run it, huge quantities of coal to heat it, and all the plants had died during the war when no coal had been available for non-essential purposes. To further reduce running costs, there was also talk of pulling down the 6th Duke’s north wing, which was then regarded as having no aesthetic or historical value, however, nothing came of it. Chiswick House, the celebrated Palladian villa in the suburbs of West London which the Devonshires had inherited when the 4th Duke had married Lord Burlington’s daughter was sold to Brentford Council in 1929.

Nonetheless, life at Chatsworth continued much as before. The household was run by a comptroller and domestic staff were still available, although more so in the country than in the cities. The staff at Chatsworth at this time consisted of a butler, under butler, groom of the chambers, valet, three footmen, a housekeeper, the Duchess’s maid, eleven housemaids, two sewing women, a cook, two kitchen maids, a vegetable maid, two or three scullery maids, two stillroom maids, a dairy maid, six laundry maids and the Duchess’s secretary. All of these thirty-eight or thirty-nine people lived in the house. Daily staff included the odd man, upholsterer, scullery-maid, two scrubbing women, laundry porter, steam boiler man, coal man, two porter’s lodge attendants, two night firemen, night porter, two window cleaners, and a team of joiners, plumbers and electricians. The Clerk of Works supervised the maintenance of the house and other properties on the estate. There were also grooms, chauffeurs and gamekeepers. The number of garden staff was somewhere between the eighty of the 6th Duke’s time and the twenty or so of the early 21st century. There was also a librarian, Francis Thompson, who wrote the first book-length account of Chatsworth since the 6th Duke’s handbook.

Most of the UK’s country houses were put to institutional use during World War II. Some of those which were used as barracks were badly damaged, but the 10th Duke, anticipating that schoolgirls would make better tenants than soldiers, arranged for Chatsworth to be occupied by Penrhos College, a girls’ public school in Colwyn Bay, Wales. The school later merged with Rydal School to become Rydal Penrhos a co-educational private school. The contents of the house were packed away in eleven days and 300 girls and their teachers moved in for a six-year stay. The whole of the house was used, including the state rooms which were turned into dormitories. Condensation from the breath of the sleeping girls caused fungus to grow behind some of the pictures. The house was not very comfortable for so many people, with a shortage of hot water, but there were compensations, such as skating on the Canal Pond. The girls grew vegetables in the garden as a contribution to the war effort.

In 1944 Kathleen Kennedy, sister of John F. Kennedy, married William Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington, the elder son of the 10th Duke of Devonshire. However, he was killed in action in Belgium later in 1944, and Kathleen died in a plane crash in 1948. His younger brother Andrew became the 11th Duke in 1950. He was married to Deborah Mitford, one of the Mitford girls and sister to Nancy Mitford, Diana Mitford, Pamela Mitford, Unity Mitford and Jessica Mitford

Location: Derbyshire

Anglotopia’s Take: Read about the history of Chatsworth in Detail here.

Anglotopia’s Visit: Read about our Visit to Chatsworth here.

Anglotopia’s Photo Tour: View almost 50 pictures of Chatsworth inside and out.

Website: Official Chatsworth Website

Lyme Park

Also played Darcy’s home in the 1995 BBC Adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.

Wikipedia Trivia:

Lyme Park is a large estate located south of Disley, Cheshire, England (grid reference SJ964823). It consists of a mansion house surrounded by formal gardens, in a deer park in the Peak District National Park. The house is the largest in Cheshire, and a Grade I listed building.

The estate was granted to Sir Thomas Danyers in 1346 and passed to the Leghs of Lyme by marriage in 1388. It remained in the possession of the Legh family until 1946 when it was given to the National Trust. The house dates from the latter part of the 16th century. Modifications were made to it in the 1720s by Giacomo Leoni, who retained some of the Elizabethan features and added others, particularly the courtyard and the south range. It is difficult to classify Leoni’s work at Lyme, as it contains elements of both Palladian and Baroque styles. Further modifications were made by Lewis Wyatt in the 19th century, especially to the interior. Formal gardens were created and developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The house, gardens and park have been used as locations for filming and they are open to the public. The Lyme Caxton Missal is on display in the library.

Location: Cheshire

Anglotopia’s Take: Read about the history of Lyme Park in Detail here.

Website: Official Lyme Park Website

Hardwick Hall

One of Britain’s best-loved Stately Homes, Hardwick Hall was the second home for the Duchess of Devonshire.

Wikipedia Trivia:

Hardwick Hall, in Derbyshire, is one of the most significant Elizabethan country houses in England. In common with its architect Robert Smythson’s other works at both Longleat House and Wollaton Hall, Hardwick Hall is one of the earliest examples of the English interpretation of the Renaissance style of architecture, which came into fashion when it was no longer thought necessary to fortify one’s home.

Hardwick Hall is situated on a hilltop between Chesterfield and Mansfield, overlooking the Derbyshire countryside. The house was designed for Bess of Hardwick, Countess of Shrewsbury and ancestress of the Dukes of Devonshire, by Robert Smythson in the late 16th century and remained in that family until it was handed over to HM Treasury in lieu of Estate Duty in 1956. The Treasury transferred the house to the National Trust in 1959. As it was a secondary residence of the Dukes of Devonshire, whose main country house was nearby Chatsworth, it was little altered over the centuries and indeed, from the early 19th century, its antique atmosphere was consciously preserved.

Hardwick is a conspicuous statement of the wealth and power of Bess of Hardwick, who was the richest woman in England after Queen Elizabeth I herself. It was one of the first English houses where the great hall was built on an axis through the center of the house rather than at right angles to the entrance. Each of the three main storeys is higher than the one below, and a grand, winding, stone staircase leads up to a suite of state rooms on the second floor, which includes one of the largest long galleries in any English house and a little-altered, tapestry-hung great chamber with a spectacular plaster frieze of hunting scenes. The windows are exceptionally large and numerous for the 16th century and were a powerful statement of wealth at a time when glass was a luxury, leading to the saying, “Hardwick Hall, more glass than wall” (or, in another version, “more window than wall’)[1]. There is a large amount of fine tapestry and furniture from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. A remarkable feature of the house is that much of the present furniture and other contents are listed in an inventory dating from 1601.

Hardwick Hall contains a large collection of embroideries, mostly dating from the late 16th century, many of which are listed in the 1601 inventory. Some of the needlework on display in the house incorporates Bess’s monogram “ES”, and may have been worked on by Bess herself.

Hardwick is open to the public. It has a fine garden, including herbaceous borders, a vegetable and herb garden, and an orchard. The extensive grounds also contain Hardwick Old Hall, a slightly earlier house which was used as guest and service accommodation after the new hall was built. The Old Hall is now a ruin. It is administered by English Heritage on behalf of the National Trust and is also open to the public.

Location: Devonshire

Anglotopia’s Take: Read about the history of Hardwick Hall in Detail here.

Website: Official Hardwick Hall Website

Alnwick Castle

Alnwick Castle is best known as the filming location for the interiors of the Harry Potter films. It’s also famous for it’s poison garden – a garden specially cultivated with dangerous plants.

Wikipedia Trivia:

Yves de Vescy, Baron of Alnwick, erected the first parts of the castle in 1096. It was built to defend England’s northern border against the Scottish invasions and border reivers. It was besieged in 1172 and again in 1174 by William the Lion, King of Scotland and William was captured outside the walls during the Battle of Alnwick. In 1309 it was bought from Antony Bek the Bishop of Durham by Henry de Percy, 1st Baron Percy and it has been owned by the Percy family, the Earls and later Dukes of Northumberland since then. The first Percy lord of Alnwick restored the castle and the Abbot’s Tower, the Middle Gateway and the Constable’s Tower survive from this period. In 1404-5 the Percys rebelled against Henry IV, who besieged and then took the castle.

During the Wars of the Roses it was held against King Edward until its surrender in mid-September 1461 after the Battle of Towton. Re-captured by Sir William Tailboys during the winter he surrendered to Hastings, Sir John Howard and Sir Ralph Grey of Heton in late July 1462. Grey was appointed captain but surrendered after a sharp siege in the early autumn. King Edward responded with vigour and when the Earl of Warwick arrived in November Queen Margaret and her French advisor, Pierre de Brézé were forced to sail to Scotland for help. They organised a mainly Scots relief force which, under George Douglas, 4th Earl of Angus and de Brézé, set out on 22 November. Warwick’s army, commanded by the experienced Earl of Kent and the recently pardoned Lord Scales, prevented news getting through to the starving garrisons. As a result the nearby Bamburgh and Dunstanburgh castles soon agreed terms and surrendered. But Hungerford and Whittingham held Alnwick until Warwick was forced to withdraw when de Breze and Angus arrived on 5 January 1463.

The Lancastrians missed a great chance to bring Warwick to battle instead being content to retire, leaving behind only a token force which surrendered next day.

By May 1463 Alnwick was in Lancastrian hands for the third time since Towton, betrayed by Grey of Heton who tricked the commander, Sir John Astley. Astley was imprisoned and Hungerford resumed command.

After Montagu’s triumphs at Hedgeley Moor and Hexham in 1464 Warwick arrived before Alnwick on 23 June and received its surrender next day.

The 6th Earl of Northumberland carried out renovations in the 16th century. In the second half of the 18th century Robert Adam carried out many alterations. The interiors were largely in a Strawberry Hill[disambiguation needed] gothic style not at all typical of his work, which was usually neoclassical. However in the 19th century Algernon, 4th Duke of Northumberland replaced much of this with less ostentatious architecture designed by Anthony Salvin. According to the official website a large amount of Adam’s work survives, but little or none of it remains in the principal rooms shown to the public, which were redecorated in an opulent Italianate style in the Victorian era by Luigi Canina.

Location: Northumbria

Anglotopia’s Take: Read about the history of Alnwick Castle in Detail here.

Anglotopia’s Fact: 10 Interesting Facts about Alnwick Castle.

Website: Official Alnwick Castle Website

Somerleyton Hall

Most famous for its beautiful gardens.

Wikipedia Trivia:

In 1240, a manor house was built on the site of Somerleyton Hall by Sir Peter Fitzosbert whose daughter married into the Jernegan family. The male line of the Fitzosberts ended, and the Jernegans held the estate until 1604 when John Wentworth bought it. He transformed Somerleyton Hall into a typical East Anglian Tudor-Jacobean mansion. It then passed to the Garney family. The next owner was Admiral Sir Thomas Allin, a native of Lowestoft. He took part in the Battle of Lowestoft (1665) and the Battle of Solebay at Southwold in 1672. Eventually the male line of that family also died out.

Somerleyton Hall and Park were bought in 1843 by Sir Samuel Morton Peto who, for the next seven years, carried out extensive rebuilding. Paintings were specially commissioned for the house, and the gardens and grounds were completely redesigned. Peto employed Prince Albert’s favourite architect John Thomas.

In 1863 the Somerleyton estate was sold to Sir Francis Crossley of Halifax, West Yorkshire who, like Peto, was a philanthropist, a manufacturer, and a Member of Parliament. Sir Francis’ son Savile was created Baron Somerleyton in 1916. The House is now held by the present Lord Somerleyton and inhabited by the family. The family motto is ‘Everything that is good comes from above’.

The formal gardens cover 12 acres (49,000 m²). They feature a yew hedge maze created by William Andrews Nesfield in 1846, and a ridge and furrow greenhouse designed by Joseph Paxton, the architect of The Crystal Palace. There is also a walled garden, an aviary, a loggia and a 90 metre long pergola covered with roses and wisteria. The more informal areas of the garden feature rhododendrons and azaleas and a fine collection of specimen trees.

Location: Suffolk

Website: Official Somerleyton Hall Website

Apsley House

The famous London home of the Duke of Wellington (of Wellington Boot fame).

Wikipedia Trivia:

Apsley House, also known as Number One, London, was the London residence of the Dukes of Wellington and stands alone at Hyde Park Corner, on the south-east corner of Hyde Park, facing south towards the busy traffic circulation system. It is a grade I listed building.

The house is now run by English Heritage and is open to the public as a museum and art gallery, although the 8th Duke of Wellington still uses part of the building as a part-time residence. It is sometimes referred to as the Wellington Museum. It is perhaps the only preserved example of an English aristocratic town house from its period. The practice has been to maintain the rooms as far as possible in the original style and decor. It contains the 1st Duke’s collection of paintings, porcelain, the silver centrepiece made for the Duke in Portugal, c 1815, sculpture and furniture. Antonio Canova’s heroic marble nude of Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker made 1802-10, holding a gilded Nike in the palm of his right hand, and standing 3.45 metres to the raised left hand holding a staff. It was set up for a time in the Louvre and was bought by the Government for Wellington in 1816 (Pevsner) and stands in Adam’s Stairwell.

Location: Central London

Website: Official Apsley House Website

Woburn Abbey

Famous for it’s beautilful gardens – it’s also home to a safari park.

Wikipedia Trivia:

Woburn Abbey, comprising Woburn Park and its buildings, was originally founded as a Cistercian abbey in 1145. Taken from its monastic residents by Henry VIII and given to John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford in 1547, it became the seat of the Russell Family and the Dukes of Bedford. The Abbey was largely rebuilt starting in 1744[1] by the architects Henry Flitcroft and Henry Holland for the 4th Duke. Anna Maria, the wife of the 7th Duke, originated the afternoon tea ritual in 19th-century England.

Following World War II, dry rot had been discovered and half the Abbey was subsequently demolished. When the 12th Duke died in 1953, his son the 13th Duke was exposed to heavy death duties and the Abbey was a half-demolished, half-derelict house. Instead of handing the family estates over to the National Trust, he kept ownership and opened the Abbey to the public for the first time in 1955. It soon gained in popularity as other amusements were added, including Woburn Safari Park on the grounds of the Abbey in 1970. Asked about the unfavourable comments by other aristocrats when he turned the family home into a safari park, the 13th Duke said, “I do not relish the scorn of the peerage, but it is better to be looked down on than overlooked.”

Location: Bedfordshire

Anglotopia’s Take: Read about the history of Woburn Abbey in Detail here.

Website: Official Woburn Abbey Website

Highclere Castle

This iconic home has recently been featured as the shooting location for the hit ITV series Downtown Abbey.

Wikipedia Trivia:

The present castle stands on the site of an earlier house, in turn built on the foundations of the medieval palace of the Bishops of Winchester, who owned this estate from the 8th century. In 1692, Robert Sawyer, a lawyer and college friend of Samuel Pepys, bequeathed a mansion at Highclere to his only daughter, Margaret. Her second son, Robert Sawyer Herbert, inherited Highclere, began its picture collection, and created the garden temples. His nephew and heir Henry Herbert was made Baron Porchester and 1st Earl of Carnarvon by King George III.

In those years, the house was a square, classical mansion, but it was remodelled and all but rebuilt for the third earl by Sir Charles Barry in 1839 to 1842 after he had finished building the Houses of Parliament. It is in the “High Elizabethan” style and faced in Bath stone.

The term “High Elizabethan” with which the house is often tagged refers to the English architecture of the late 16th century and early 17th century when traditional Tudor architecture was being challenged by the newly arrived Italian Renaissance influences. During the 19th century there was a huge Renaissance revival movement of which Sir Charles Barry was a great exponent.

Barry had been inspired to become an architect by the Renaissance architecture of Italy and was very proficient at working in the Renaissance based style which in the 19th century became known as Italianate architecture. His work at Cliveden is considered amongst his finest. At Highclere, however he worked in the English renaissance revival style, but added to it many of the motifs of the Italianate style. This is particularly noticeable in the towers which are slimmer and more refined than those of the other great English Renaissance revival house Mentmore Towers built in the same era. This strong Italianate influence has led to the castle being quite fairly described as in the Italianate style.

The external walls are decorated with strapwork designs and cornicing typical of Renaissance architecture. The Renaissance theme is evident within the castle. Curiously so in the great hall, which like that at Mentmore is modeled on an Italian Renaissance central courtyard, complete with arcades and loggias. However, in an attempt to resemble a medieval English great hall, Barry has mixed styles introducing to the Italianate effect a Gothic influence evident in the points rather than curves of the arches. This mixing of styles was particularly common in this period and would not have been found in a genuine Elizabethan house.

Although the exterior of the north, east and south sides were completed by the time the 3rd Earl died in 1849 and Sir Charles Barry died in 1852, the interior and the west wing (designated as servants’ quarters) were still far from complete. The 4th Earl turned to the architect Thomas Allom, who had worked with Barry, to supervise work on the interior of the Castle, which was completed on 1878.

The 1st Earl rebuilt his park according to a design by Capability Brown during 1774 to 1777, relocating the village in the process (the remains of the church of 1689 are at the south west corner of the castle). The famous 18th century seed collector Bishop Stephen Pococke was a friend and brought Lebanon Cedar seeds from a trip to Lebanon. These beautiful trees can be seen in the garden today. Various follies and eye-catchers exist on the estate. To the east of the house is the Temple, a strange structure erected before 1743 with Corinthian columns from Devonshire House in Piccadilly. “Heaven’s Gate” is an eye-catcher about 18 m high on Sidown Hill, built in 1731 from a design, it is thought, by the 9th Earl of Pembroke. It fell shortly afterwards. The event was witnessed and recorded by a Rev. J Milles, who recorded that “we had not been there above half an hour before we saw it cleave from ye foundations and it fell with such a noise yet was heard at three or four miles [5 or 6 km] distant”.

Location: Hampshire (thought it has a Berkshire address)

Website: Official Highclere Castle Website

Anglotopia’s Take: Read about the history of Highclere Castle in Detail here.

Anglotopia’s Facts: 10 Interesting Facts and Figures about Highclere Castle

Anglotopia’s Visit: Read about our visit to Highclere here.

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In case you’re moving to Toronto and are looking for some modern homes then check out this page.

Some of Scotland’s finest classical manor houses are located in majestic Aberdeenshire.

Always grand in appearance and subtle in style, these houses often have long and hidden histories. 15^th century Haddo House was once the home of a Prime Minister – the house was even lived in by Lady Aberdeen until her passing in 2009.

Whilst Haddo House has been an important home for a series of influential local citizens, Duff House’s architecture has made it one of the most important stately homes in Scotland. The House itself is adorned with an art collection of paintings from the National Galleries of Scotland.

Affectionately named after its creator James Leith, Leith Hall, built in 1650 on the site of a medieval castle, has a fruitful history to be proud of too.  During World War I, the House was used as a military hospital and today, a typical Scottish Laird’s residence, it still remains owned and used by the Leith family – 10 generations on!

There’s also the chance to explore beyond the manor houses themselves. These imposing houses are surrounded by striking woodland walks and charming gardens. Make the most of the day out and take a picnic with you!