Country House Revisited

Transcription

Country House Revisited
The Economic and Cultural Impact of
the English Country House
as a Heritage Site
Visit to Castle Howard in Yorkshire
27 May 2011
Elizabeth H. Bishop
Masters in Museum Studies 2011
University of Leicester
School of Museum Studies
1
Abstr act
Country House Revisited:
The Economic and Cultural Impact
of the English Country House
as a Heritage Site
Elizabeth H. Bishop
This dissertation is an exploration of the economic impact, cultural significance, and
the future and sustainability of the English country house as a heritage site, with the primary
aim to demonstrate that the stately homes of England significantly contribute to the economy
and culture of England on both a national and local community level. This topic has been
developed due to a lack of literature which examines the country house’s economic and
cultural impact exclusively, as the majority of research currently being undertaken examines
the wider heritage tourism industry.
This study commences with a brief history of the English country house as well as
country house visiting to provide insight into the country house’s evolution from private
residence to national icon. This is followed by an extensive review of the relevant literature,
which serves as a theoretical framework, with supporting evidence gained through multiple
site visits and an interview, for the in-depth analysis of two case studies. The case studies,
which are Chatsworth House, located in Derbyshire, and Seaton Delaval Hall, located in
Northumberland, both demonstrate the impact of the country house, while at the same time,
differing from one another in terms of ownership status, location, visitor figures and funding
strategies.
The literature review and case studies reveal that the country house’s economic impact,
through encouraging visitor expenditure and providing employment opportunities, is
substantial. In addition, the cultural significance of the country house is related to the
creation of national and local identities, as well as the unique experience presented to visitors.
To secure the survival of the English country house, many owners and organizations are
turning not these tourists, but to the local communities. Ultimately, this work concludes that
it is the country house’s proven ability to adapt and evolve which will allow for their
continued existence.
© 2012 Elizabeth Hamilton Bishop. All Rights Reserved.
2
Contents
• List of Illustrations ........................................................................................................ 2
• List of Acronyms ................................................................................................................ 3
• Chapter One: Introduction .......................................................................................... 4
o Methodology ............................................................................................................................... 6
o A Brief History of the English Country House ..................................................... 8
o The Origins of Country House Visiting ........................................................................ 11
• Chapter Two: The Economic Impact, Cultural Significance
and Future of the English Country House as a Heritage Site ............ 13
o The Economic Impact .............................................................................................................. 14
o The Cultural Significance .................................................................................................. 19
o The Future and Sustainability ........................................................................................... 24
• Chapter Three: The Ultimate Stately Home Business:
The Chatsworth House Trust, A Case Study ................................................... 28
o A Brief History of Chatsworth House ........................................................................ 30
o The Economic Impact of Chatsworth House ............................................................ 32
o The Cultural Significance of Chatsworth House ............................................... 35
o The Future and Sustainability of Chatsworth House ........................................ 37
• Chapter Four: “Save It, Shape It!”:
Seaton Delaval Hall, A Case Study ....................................................................... 39
o A Brief History of Seaton Delaval Hall ..................................................................... 40
o The Economic Impact of Seaton Delaval Hall ........................................................ 42
o The Cultural Significance of Seaton Delaval Hall ............................................ 44
o The Future and Sustainability of Seaton Delaval Hall .................................... 46
• Chapter Five: Conclusion ............................................................................................. 48
• Appendices
o Appendix A: Historic House Association (HHA)
English Country House Members ............................................................................ 51
o Appendix B: Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA)
English Country House Members Visitor Numbers .......................................... 53
o Appendix C: List of National Trust’s English Country Houses .................. 54
o Appendix D: List of English Heritage’s English Country Houses ............... 55
• Bibliography .......................................................................................................................... 56
1
List of Illu str ation s
Title Page:
•
‘Castle Howard’, photograph by Author, 27 May 2011.
•
‘Vintage photographic picture frame: Image 8663598’, photography by
Thomas Bethge, in 123RF <http://www.123rf.com/photo_8663598_vintagephotographic-picture-frame.html> [purchased 3 June 2011].
Chapter One:
•
Figure 1.1: Harewood House.......................................................................................... 9
•
Figure 1.2: Castle Howard from across the lake ........................................................ 11
•
Figure 1.3: Castle Howard Mausoleum........................................................................ 11
Chapter Two:
•
Figure 2.1: Warwick Castle ............................................................................................ 14
•
Figure 2.2: Heritage Based Tourism Estimates .......................................................... 16
•
Figure 2.3: Estimated Number of English Country Houses open to the Public... 18
•
Figure 2.4: Geopods at Harewood House .................................................................... 23
•
Figure 2.5: Penguin Enclosure at Harewood House .................................................. 23
•
Figure 2.6: Room view of the kitchen at Wordsworth House, Cumbria ............... 24
•
Figure 2.7: Belvoir Castle seen from Woolsthorpe by Belvoir ............................... 26
Chapter Three:
•
Figure 3.1: Chatsworth showing Hunting Tower ....................................................... 29
•
Figure 3.2: Bess Of Hardwick As A Young Woman, by The English School,
c16th (1550s) oil on panel, at Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire ....................................... 30
•
Figure 3.3: The east front of Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire, in the snow ................. 31
Figure 3.4: Chatsworth House Visitor Numbers ........................................................ 33
•
Figure 3.5: Chatsworth House Trust: Total Income Resources and
Total Resources Extended ............................................................................................... 33
Figure 3.6: Chatsworth House Surrounding Area Map ............................................ 34
•
Figure 3.7: Chatsworth House Trust: Charitable Donations .................................... 36
•
Figure 3.8: The Ceremonial Entrance Hall at Chatsworth House .......................... 37
•
Figure 3.9: The Chapel at Chatsworth House ............................................................. 37
•
Figure 3.10: The Cascade at Chatsworth ..................................................................... 38
2
Chapter Four:
•
Figure 4.1: Seaton Delaval Hall ..................................................................................... 39
•
Figure 4.2: Admiral George Delaval (1660-1723) by Godfrey Kneller,
painting at Seaton Delaval Hall, Northumberland ..................................................... 40
Figure 4.3: The Main Hall of Seaton Delaval Hall .................................................... 41
•
Figure 4.4: West Wing of Seaton Delaval Hall .......................................................... 46
•
Figure 4.5: Welcome to Seaton Delaval Hall Sign .................................................... 47
Chapter Five:
•
Figure 5.1: Seaton Delaval Hall ..................................................................................... 50
List of Acron ym s
AHD .......................................................................Authorized Heritage Discourse
ALVA....................................................................The Association of Leading Visitor Attractions
CHT ........................................................................Chatsworth House Trust
HHA .......................................................................Historic Houses Association
HLF.........................................................................Heritage Lottery Fund
NTPL .....................................................................National Trust Photo Library
ONS ........................................................................Office of National Statistics
3
Chapter One
Introdu ct ion
There is nothing quite like the English country house anywhere else in the world.
- Vita Sackville-West1
France may have its chateaux, America its mansions, but only England possesses the
treasure that is the country house, the country’s “greatest contribution to Western
civilization”, according to historian Peter Mandler.2 Throughout its long history, the English
country house has acted as a base for power, a leisurely retreat from city life, an income
generator, and as a physical manifestation of the leading architectural and artistic trends over
the centuries. They have inspired poets, painters and musicians, hosted royalty and provided
employment opportunities for countless generations. Yet, as Roy Strong writes, “We take
them for granted. Like our parish churches the country houses seem always to have been
there, since time immemorial part of the fabric of our heritage”. 3 As a result, in the midtwentieth century, the country house was in danger of becoming extinct, as hundreds of
stately homes were either demolished or left to decay by owners no longer able to maintain
them.4 Fortunately though, the country house’s popularity began to rise. Through novels,
such as Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited,5 period films, television shows and public
relations savvy owners bringing stately homes to the forefront of popular culture, the public
has become enthralled with these estates.6 True to form, the country house, once again,
evolved, as it has done since its creation, being subject to the economic drivers, aesthetic
tastes and dominant politics of the time. Under the direction of motivated owners and
organizations such as the National Trust, many stately homes now operate as heritage sites,
allowing access for the public to experience what was before reserved for only the most
powerful and privileged members of society.
1
Vita Sackville-West, English Country Houses (London: Williams Collins of London, 1941), p. 7.
Peter Mandler, The Fall and Rise of the Stately Home (London: Yale University Press, 1997) p. 1.
3
Roy Strong, ‘Introduction: The Country House Dilemma’, in The Destruction of the Country House, 1875 –
1975, ed. by Roy Strong, Marcus Binney and John Harris (London: Thames and Hudson, 1974), pp. 7-10 (p. 7).
4
In 1974, the Victoria and Albert Museum held an exhibition titled The Destruction of the Country House,
which included images of stately homes that had been destroyed during the past century. The exhibition was
ground breaking for the time, and helped draw attention to the issue. See: The Destruction of the Country
House, 1875 – 1975, ed. by Roy Strong, Marcus Binney and John Harris (London: Thames and Hudson, 1974).
5
Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited: The sacred and profane memories of Captain Charles Ryder (London:
Methuen, 1978).
6
Brideshead Revisted was made into a television miniseries in 1981 and a feature length film in 2008. Both
used Castle Howard in Yorkshire as the setting for the fictional Brideshead estate. Currently, such shows as
BBC’s The Country House Revealed and Channel Four’s Country House Rescue keep the public educated on the
current state of many of England’s country houses.
2
4
This dissertation will consider the economic impact and cultural significance of the
English country house in its new form as a heritage site, and examine what strategies are
being implemented to sustain stately homes in order to allow future generations the
opportunity to experience them. While countless works are dedicated to every aspect of the
country house, there is a lack of literature which examines their economic and cultural impact
in relation to serving as a heritage site. Information on the connections between economics,
culture and heritage as well as the heritage industry as a whole are in abundance, but when
stately homes as heritage sites are examined, they are usually allocated to such categories as
built environment or historic houses, and rightly so, but the country house is an identity in its
own right, and needs its own study. The primary aim of this dissertation is to demonstrate
that the English country house as a heritage site significantly contributes to the economy and
culture of England. To accomplish this, three main topics will be examined: the economic
impact, the cultural significance, and the future and sustainability, all in relation to English
country houses which are open to the public. The examination will take the form of a
literature review and two cases of stately homes currently functioning as tourist attractions.
While the topics will be discussed in separate sections throughout this work, they are in
practice very much intertwined, contributing to the overall value of the country house as a
heritage site. The economic impact will be examined from the both the context of the wider
heritage tourism industry and that of local employer. As very little research has been
completed to date which solely examines the country house’s contribution, exact figures will
be difficult to calculate. What is evident, through visitor figures, is that the popularity of
country houses as tourist attractions is increasing. As, what Mandler describes, as a “unique
embodiment of the English character”, 7they offer visitors a complete experience, one which
allows the public to connect with the history of England, while simultaneously being
surrounded in the relatable setting of a dwelling.8 The country house’s appeal to both
domestic and international tourists is an important element for any estate functioning as a
heritage site, but many owners are now turning to their surrounding communities for support
by once again embedding the country house into its local environment.
This work concludes by suggesting that the economic impact of the country house as a
heritage site, while currently under-researched, is more substantial than previously suggested.
In addition, the cultural significance of the country house is tied to the notion of identity, both
of the English nation and of the local communities that surround the estates. Visiting the
country house allows tourists to connect with the past when the aristocracy ruled, and,
7
Mandler, The Fall and Rise of the Stately Home, p. 1.
Linda Young, ‘Is There a Museum in the House? Historic Houses as a Species of Museum’, in Museum
Management and Curatorship (Vol. 22, No. 1, March 2007), pp. 59-77 (p. 75).
8
5
through their actions, shaped present-day England. The country house also communicates
certain social values, particularly that of “aristocratic deference”, which are transmitted to the
visitor, and while these values are not representative of those accepted by every tourist, most
attempts to challenge the values through altering the experience of visiting the house are
rejected.9 While the stately homes of England have never been more popular among visitors,
many owners have determined that the survival of the country house does not lie with these
tourists alone though, but that their local communities are key. To date, this strategy has
proven successful, but only time will tell if the very people the English country house was
originally built to be served by will be the ones to secure its future.
Before continuing, it is necessary to clearly define what actually constitutes an
English country house. For the purposes of this dissertation, the definition Richard Wilson
and Alan Mackley create in their work, The Building of the English Country House, will be
employed: “a large, old house with numerous outbuildings, surrounded by gardens and a
park, the main residence, at least historically, of a sizeable landed estate”. 10 For the house to
be considered a heritage site, it must be open to the public annually, but it need not be on a
full-time basis. While this is a wide definition, the purpose of this dissertation is to capture as
much information as possible, and a wider definition allows for this.
Methodology:
In order to gain a better understand of the history, key issues and current debates
surrounding the English country house as a heritage site, the first step taken was an extensive
review of the relevant literature, the findings of which are included as Chapter Two of this
dissertation.11 The completed literature review provides what Robert K. Yin describes as “a
sufficient blueprint” for the remainder of the study, which takes the form of multiple case
studies.12 Using the review as the theoretical framework, the two case studies examined are
Chatsworth House, located in Derbyshire and privately owned and operated by the
Chatsworth House Trust, and Seaton Delaval Hall, located in Northumberland and recently
acquired by the National Trust from a private owner. Multiple cases studies were conducted
9
Laurajane Smith, ‘Deference and Humility: The Social Values of the Country House’, in Valuing Historic
Environments, ed. by Lisanne Gibson and John Pendlebury (Farnham: Ashgate, 2009), pp. 33-50 (pp. 43-44).
10
Richard Wilson and Alan Mackley, The Building of the English Country House (London: Hambledon
Continuum, 2000), p. 5.
11
As the research questions for this dissertation is defined early and remains unchanged throughout the work,
the F literature review is included as a separate chapter, which, according to research guides, is the normal
practice in such cases. See: Pat Cryer, The Research Student’s Guide to Success, 3rd edn. (Maidenhead: Open
University Press, 2006), p. 234.
12
Robert K.Yin, Case Study Research: Design and Methods, 3 rd edn. (Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc.,
2003), p. 29.
6
as they provide more compelling and complete evidence than a single case study.13 The
houses were selected for the case studies on the basis of availability of relevant information in
regards to the research question as well as their disparity in ownership status, visitor numbers,
funding streams, location and length of time the houses’ main function has been that of
heritage site.14 The case studies are analyzed on both a micro and macro level, as not only are
the houses themselves examined, but they are also studied in the wider economic and cultural
spheres in which they function as heritage sites in England.15
In addition to desk-based work, site visits to four English and one Scottish country
houses were carried out.16 These site visits were invaluable to the research, as they provided
insights into the current state of a wide range of country houses acting as heritage sites that
text-based research could not readily supply. Also, a phone interview was held with a
member of the National Trust North East office, which is responsible for the operation of
Seaton Delaval Hall. This was done in order to gain a better understanding of the Trust’s
motivations behind their ‘Save It, Shape It’ campaign, which is discussed in Chapter Four.
The research method employed, combining a literature review with in-depth case
studies and site-visits, as well as an interview, results in a thorough examination of the
research question posed, and the findings of the completed research is discussed in full in the
conclusion of the work. In order to provide relevant background information on the topics
being discussed throughout this work, brief histories of the English country house and
country house visiting are included below. The English country house has served many
functions throughout its long history, the most recent of which, and the focus of this work, is
that of heritage site, and by examining the country house’s inception and evolution over the
centuries, as well as its longstanding relationship with visitors, a better understanding of the
house’s current impact on English nation and its people can be gained.
13
Ibid., p. 46.
Jonathan Grix emphasizes the importance of choosing case studies based on the amount of “specific
contextual factors” available, as a successful case study will analyze the context in which the selected subject of
study is embedded, not just the subject by itself. See: Jonathan Grix, The Foundations of Research, 2nd edn.
(Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2010), p. 51.
15
Grix, p. 48.
16
The site visits completed included Castle Howard (Yorkshire), Chatsworth House (Derbyshire), Harewood
House (Yorkshire), Seaton Delaval Hall (Northumberland) and Mellerstain House (Scottish Borders). The
houses were selected based on accessibility as well as on relevance to the dissertation topic, as all of the stately
homes serve as heritage sites and are open to the public for at least a portion of each year.
14
7
A Brief History of the English Country House:
The country houses and surrounding estates that are spread throughout the English
countryside today can, according to John Robinson, trace their roots back to the Norman
Conquest of 1066.17 It was William the Conqueror who first introduced the Frankish
feudalism system18, which “laid the foundations of the English country estate as it has
developed over subsequent centuries”.19 The new Norman nobility were granted large tracts
of land from the new king, and through demesne farming20, the nobles were able fund these
large estates as well as build castles or manor houses and accompanying pleasure parks for
hunting.21 It was not until the fourteenth century, when new levels of nobility emerged, that
the country estate changed from this original state. Titles were being bestowed largely on the
basis of the amount of a person’s land holdings, and this caused nobles to begin to acquire
large tracts of land to add their existing estates, as well as to legally secure the estates and the
associated titles’ future through primogeniture.22 As Robinson states, “Without land riches,
no man, however illustrious his ancestry, would long continue to receive an individual
summons”.23 The amount of property owned by the ruling class expanded rapidly once again
with the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII, beginning in mid-sixteenth century, in
which the church’s land was divided and gifted or sold by the crown.24 It is estimated that “as
much as a quarter of the total area of England” was transferred to the country’s landowning
class.25 Increased land holdings meant an increase in country houses, as, Mark Girouard
notes, it was ineffective to have large tracts of land without a country house to serve as
“headquarters from which land was administered”, 26 as the “point of land was the tenants and
the rent that came with it”.27
17
John Martin Robinson, The English Country Estate (London: National Trust, 1988), p.11.
Under Frankish feudal system, the king owned all of the land, which he then leased to his nobles. Serfs
worked the nobles’ land and received a portion of what they produced. In return, they supplied the nobles with
food and service whenever it was demanded.
19
Robinson, p. 11.
20
The term ‘demesne’ refers to the land surrounding a manor which is not occupied by freehold tenants, but was
cultivated by villein or leasehold tenants, both classes being tied, in the case of the villein, only partially, to the
lord’s land. See: ‘Demesne’, in Encyclopedia Britannica <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/
156969/demesne> [accessed 10 July 2011].
21
Robinson, p. 11.
22
Ibid., p. 30.
23
Ibid., p. 30.
24
Ibid., p. 42.
25
Ibid., p. 42.
26
Mark Girouard, Life in the English Country House: A Social and Architectural History (London: Yale
University Press, 1978), p. 3.
27
Ibid., p. 2.
18
8
With the stabilization of the nation after the English Civil War in the mid-seventeenth
century, landowners embarked on the first great era of country house building.28 Drafty
castles were no longer needed to provide protection and the existing manor houses were
inconveniently located in villages, so many nobles either abandoned or demolished their
ancestral homes in order to build new, fashionable country houses that would speak to the
owner’s taste, wealth, social dominance and political power.29 Iconic stately homes such as
Blenheim, Harewood House (see Figure 1.1), Castle Howard and the two case studies
examined in Chapters Three and Four, Chatsworth House and Seaton Delaval Hall, were
either built or greatly altered during this period of building. Also at this time, with the rise of
the Picturesque movement of the late eighteenth century, landowners reshaped the parks and
land surrounding their new country houses into idealized country scenes, with entire villages
being either relocated or destroyed at the cost of
what Heather Clemenson describes as “the less
fortunate members of rural society”.30 As country
houses were in many areas the main source of
employment, the relationship between the estates
and their surrounding community has always been
both economic and cultural in nature, and is
Figure 1.1: ‘Harewood House’, photograph
by Author, 29 May 2011.
examined in greater detail throughout this
dissertation.
From the Middle Ages to the end of the nineteenth century, as Girouard notes,
“anyone who had made money by any means, and was ambitious for himself and his family,
automatically invested in a country estate”.31 The wealth of the nation, up to the 1800s, was
held in the country.32 This all changed with the Industrial Revolution and the rise of the
middle class, both of which happened in the cities, and while stately home building continued
well into the reign of Queen Victoria, English country houses and their landowners were
about to enter a period that would shake the social and financial foundations the estates were
built upon. While the Liberal government’s introduction of death duties in 1894 is often
named as the reason behind the dissolution of many of the country estates, Michael Sayer
succinctly describes the additional circumstances that led to the country house crisis:
28
Wilson, p. 3.
30
Heather A. Clemenson, English Country Houses and Landed Estates (London: Croom Helm, 1982), p. 79.
31
Giruoard, p. 2.
32
Ibid.
29
9
“Since then [1880s] economic, fiscal and social pressures accelerated by two
World Wars and by the depressions of the 1890s and 1930s have caused the
outright break-up of many estates and the sale or reduction of size of most
others”.33
In order to save their estates, many owners began to sell tracts of land, resulting in “the
largest transfer of landed property since the Dissolution of the Monasteries” taking place
in England between 1918 and 1924, according to Robinson.34 No longer able to
maintain their homes, some owners abandoned or destroyed them during this time
period.35 According to Mandler, “over 5 percent of the national stock of country houses
were demolished between the World Wars”.36
It was the National Trust that came to the rescue of many of the endangered
estates. In 1937, Parliament passed the National Trust Act, which serves as the
foundation for the Country House Scheme, allowing owners to pass their houses and
collections to the Trust.37 In return for opening the house to the public for a set amount
of time each year, the owner is allowed to remain in the house and avoid tax and death
duties. During the 1940s and 1950s, a large number of country house owners
approached the National Trust under this scheme, but the Trust was unable to take every
house offered.38 Other owners whose properties had been requisitioned during the
Second World War attempted to sell their homes to the new tenants.39 Even through
this turbulent time in the country house’s history, a significant percentage of owners
were able to keep their homes within the family, and, following the National Trust
model, many turned to tourism, which had always been a part of the country estates as
discussed below, as a means for providing income for their preservation and
maintenance. It was this shift in the main function of the stately home, from family
home to tourist attraction, which resulted in the economic and cultural impact the
English country house as a heritage site has today, as discussed in Chapter Two.
33
Michael Sayer, A Disintegration of a Heritage: Country Houses and their Collections 1979-1992, ed. by Hugh
Massingberd (Wilby: Michael Russell, 1993), p. 16.
34
Robinson, p. 194.
35
Ibid., p. 195.
36
Peter Mandler, ‘Nationalising the Country House’, in Preserving the Past: The Rise of Heritage in Modern
Britain, ed. by Michael Hunter (Stroud: Alan Sutton, 1996), pp. 99-114 (p. 9).
37
‘The History of the National Trust: 1934 – 1965’, in National Trust <http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/wtrust/w-thecharity/w-thecharity_our-past/w-history_trust/w-history_trust-1934_1965.htm> [accessed 1 June
2011] (para. 2 of 11).
38
Robinson, p. 199.
39
10
The Origins of Country House Visiting:
When the owners of English country
houses turned to visitors as a means of
survival, they were not wholly unfamiliar
with the tourist trade, as country house
visiting is not a development of the twentieth
century. The act of opening houses to the
public, as Clemenson notes, “has been the
Figure 1.2: ‘Castle Howard from across the lake’,
photograph by Author, 27 May 2011.
practice of landed society since before the
eighteenth century”.40 Many of the grandest estates were even built with the visitor in mind,
with the country house owner allowing access in order that not only his home be admired, but
also that his art collections be appreciated, and, most importantly, in the hopes that the
visitors would, as Mandler notes, “report on his achievements”.41 This is the case with Castle
Howard, which was built in the eighteenth century and designed by the renowned architect
John Vanbrugh for the 3rd Earl of Carlisle (see Figure 1.2).42 The Earl was not, as Charles
Saumarez Smith remarks, a “colossally rich” man, but he was politically ambitious, and
wanted a house that would reflect to the outside world
the social level he hoped to achieve.43 The current owner,
George Howard, supports this, claiming that, “Castle
Howard has been open to the public ever since it was
built”.44 One can only imagine the powerful impression
left upon the eighteenth century visitor having just
viewed the first dome ever built for a private house, or
Figure 1.3: ‘Castle Howard
Mausoleum’, photograph by Author,
27 May 2011.
the impact of the much admired Mausoleum, which
serves as the final resting place for generations of
Howards (see Figure 1.3).45
In the beginning, visitors to stately homes were restricted to the upper class, and,
before being granted entrance, they were, according to Mandler, “carefully vetted at the lodge
40
Clemenson, p. 166.
42
‘The Castle Howard Story: The Building of Castle Howard’, in Castle Howard
<http://www.castlehoward.co.uk/House-and-Gardens/Discover-the-House/The-Castle-Howard-Story.html>
[accessed 25 May 2011] (para. 2 of 17).
43
Charles Saumarez Smith, The Building of Castle Howard (London: Faber and Faber, 1990), p. 76 – 77.
44
George Howard, ‘Castle Howard’, in The Destruction of the Country House, 1875 – 1975, ed. by Roy Strong,
Marcus Binney and John Harris (London: Thames and Hudson, 1974), p. 167.
45
George Howard, Castle Howard (York: Castle Howard Estate Ltd., 1974), p. 5.
41
11
gates, their dress, servants, conveyances and calling-cards checked for suitability”.46 In the
same vein, an owner of a country house traveled to view fellow landowners’ estates so he
could “keep an eye on his rivals, to spot emerging fashions, to broaden his knowledge and to
hone his discrimination”.47 A wider range of society was given access in the mid-nineteenth
century, which is described by Mandler as “the first great age of country house visiting”.48
With the creation of the railway, soon the countryside was easily accessible to a much larger
portion of the population. Day trips from the cities became the height of fashion in the
Victorian period, and country house owners opened their doors to the middle and lower
classes.49 Some of the most famous houses, described as ‘show-houses’, began to set opening
days and times to accommodate not just the tourist, but also the owner.50 It was also in the
Victorian period that owners began to charge admission fees, though they were careful not to
set them so high that the poorer classes would be excluded.51 By the end of the nineteenth
century, country house owners, after centuries of opening their homes to visitors, began to
complain that the masses of tourists were taking a toll on their houses, and in response, some
landowners restricted the opening times, others closed their estate to the public altogether.52
The two World Wars and the political turmoil of the mid-twentieth century caused a sharp
decline in country house visiting, and it was not until the late 1950s and 1960s that many
owners and the National Trust began to reopen their houses due to a greater demand for
tourist activities in the countryside.53
Throughout the end of the twentieth century to present day, country house visiting,
once a small part of the estate, has become one of the most important functions within many
stately homes, providing much needed financial support. Growing visitor numbers have
solidified the country house’s position within the profitable English heritage tourism industry,
the result of which is economically advantageous for the nation and local communities
through visitor expenditure and employment opportunities. In addition, the stately home, as
a symbol of the English nation and a part of local communities’ identities, offers visitors the
opportunity to experience a direct link to the past which shaped the present.
The country
house must too look to its past in order to secure its future, for it is the stately home’s proven
ability to adapt and evolve which will allow this English institution to survive and be
experienced by future generations of visitors.
46
Mandler, The Fall and Rise of the Stately Home, p. 8-9.
48
Ibid., p. 4.
49
Ibid., p. 73.
50
Ibid., p. 76.
51
Ibid., p. 210.
52
Ibid., p. 211-212.
53
Ibid., p. 371.
47
12
Chapter Two
The Econ omic Impact, Cu ltural S ign ifican ce
and Future of the Eng lish Country Hou se
as a Her it age S ite
To our visitors
Without whose interest many of Britain’s
Historic Homes would be Roofless Ruins
-Lord Montagu, Dedication in The Gilt and the Gingerbread54
The English country house as a heritage site is a familiar concept to the modern day
tourist. Along with such institutions as the British Museum, Stonehenge and the Tower of
London, stately homes are among the most visited attractions in England, drawing millions of
tourists to the countryside every year.55 Because of their appeal as heritage sites, country
houses have become a valuable economic and cultural resource for not just the English
nation, but also the local communities that surround these grand estates. As a part of the
English heritage tourism industry, they contribute to the national and local economies through
the substantial amount of visitor expenditure incurred annually and by providing employment
for locals directly and indirectly through related industries such as catering and
accommodation. Culturally, they represent a direct link to a bygone era, one which shaped the
English national identity. Through the estate, visitors get to experience and actively
participate with this link to the past and the heritage it represents, and while the heritage and
associated social values the country house presents might not be representative of every
English citizen, this has not caused a decrease in their appeal to both international and
domestic visitors. While visitor figures are currently high, in an effort to secure the stately
homes future for later generations of tourists, many owners and organizations are attempting
to further the country house’s appeal and are implementing programs to not only increase
attendance, but to also diversify their audience base. In the end, it is the country house’s
ability to adapt and evolve with the changing needs of the people it serves that has been and
will continue to be essential for its survival. Fortunately for today’s visitors, access to these
54
Lord Montagu was a pioneer in the stately home business and a savvy marketer, turning his estate Beaulieu in
Hampshire into a top destination for tourist. He recognized the visitors’ desire to interact with estate owners,
and regularly lead tours and worked in the gift shop. Lord Montagu eventually wrote a stately home business
guide for other house owners. See: Lord Montague, The Gilt and the Gingerbread: or How to Live in a Stately
Home and Make Money (London: Michael Joseph, 1967).
55
‘Visits Made in 2010 to Visitor Attractions in Membership with Alva’, in Association for Leading Visitor
Attractions <http://www.alva.org.uk/visitor_statistics/> [accessed 1 May 2011].
13
national treasures has never been so open, and hopefully this will continue for as long as the
English country house continues to serve as a valuable asset for the English nation and for all
those who choose to visit.
The Economic Impact:
The key to the economic impact of
the English country house as a heritage site is
tourists and their continued desire to visit
stately homes and spend money in the
process. While country house visiting is not a
new phenomenon, as discussed in the
Figure 2.1: ‘Warwick Castle’, photograph by Author,
3 October 2010.
introduction, the ‘stately home business’,
where estates are run as commercial enterprises, is a relatively recent development.
According to Mandel, who examines the stately home business in detail in his work The Fall
and Rise of the Stately Home, it was the 4th Earl of Warwick who, in the late nineteenth
century, first conceived of and acted upon the idea of running an estate as a moneymaking
tourist attraction.56 Private guides were hired to conduct tours throughout the newly arranged
Warwick Castle (see Figure 2.1), and the castle quickly began to realize a profit and support
itself on the tourist trade at a time when other grand houses were operating at a loss.57 Most
authors, including Adrian Tinniswood, maintain that it was actually the Marquis of Bath who,
in the 1940s, pioneered this new business venture at his estate, Longleat, successfully
promoting it as the ‘Treasure House of the West’.58 In either case, the important point, which
Mandler and Tinniswood both make, is the shift in the main function of the country house.
After the two World Wars and the agricultural and economic depressions of the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the English Country estate was becoming an
endangered species, and in order to survive, it needed to adapt. The stately home business
allowed the country house to change from being a family estate, a seat of power and a
statement of wealth, to a tourist attraction, with the business’s main goal “to attract tourists
deliberately and to see them as a means of financing the home”.59
This shift had, and continues to have, wider implications than just sustaining estates
whose guardians could no longer afford to maintain them. In light of the recent economic
56
During the closure of Castle Warwick, the local town council wrote to the Earl asking him to reopen his estate
as the businesses located in the surrounding towns and villages had suffered due to the lack of tourists. See:
Mandler The Fall and Rise of the Stately Home, p. 218.
57
Mandler The Fall and Rise of the Stately Home, p. 218-219.
58
Adrian Tinniswood, A History of Country House Visiting (Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd., 1989), p. 183.
59
Ibid., p. 184.
14
downturn and the UK government cutting numerous funding streams to heritage
organizations, a number of institutions prepared and distributed reports on the economic
values of heritage in order to inform the policy makers of the importance of the heritage
industry. The aim was to firmly place heritage tourism within the larger tourism sector, an
area the government is keen to support given its substantial income-generating abilities. The
Heritage Lottery Fund’s (HLF) 2010 report Investing in Success: Heritage and the UK
tourism economy, produced in partnership with VisitBritain, examines the economic
contribution of heritage tourism, an area on which little research has been done.60 The report
presents, for the first time, statistical data, which, according to Dame Jenny Abramsky, the
Chair of the Heritage Lottery Fund, proves that the “heritage-based tourism economy is
bigger than other studies have previously suggested”.61 The research, Abramsky states,
shows that heritage tourism is a £12.4 billion a year industry, when money spent on transport,
accommodations, food and shopping is taken into account, making it larger than the
advertising, film or car industries in the UK. 62 Heritage, the report argues, serves as the
bastion of the tourism economy, and the HLF has the data to prove it.63
The source of this data is the Oxford Economics report Economic Impact of the UK
Heritage tourism economy, which was commissioned by HLF and was completed in February
2010.64 The purpose of the report was, for the first time, to investigate the economic impact
of heritage tourism by examining statistics on visitor numbers, visitor spending, employment
in the sector and gross domestic product. HLF commissioned the report to use its findings to
more easily draw comparisons “with other sectors of the UK economy”.65 HLF requested
that Oxford Economics use a wide definition of heritage that includes the historic
environment, under which historic houses are allocated.66 The report, which separates its
findings to either include or exclude green spaces,67 breaks down heritage visitors into
60
Heritage Lottery Fund and VisitBritain, Investing in Success: Heritage and the UK Tourism Economy
(London: Heritage Lottery Fund, 2010), pp. 6-13 (p. 6) <www.hlf.org.uk/aboutus/.../HLF_Tourism_
Impact_single.pdf> [accessed 1 May 2011].
61
Dame Jenny Abramsky, ‘Foreword’, in Investing in Success: Heritage and the UK Tourism Economy, ed. by
Heritage Lottery Fund and VisitBritain (London: Heritage Lottery Fund, 2010), pp. 1-2 (p. 1)
<www.hlf.org.uk/aboutus/.../HLF_Tourism_Impact_single.pdf> [accessed 1 May 2011].
62
Ibid., p. 1.
63
Heritage Lottery Fund and VisitBritain, ‘Heritage and the UK Tourism Economy’, in Investing in Success:
Heritage and the UK Tourism Economy, ed. by Heritage Lottery Fund and VisitBritain (London: Heritage
Lottery Fund, 2010), pp. 6-13 (p. 6) <www.hlf.org.uk/aboutus/.../HLF_Tourism_Impact_single.pdf>
[accessed 1 May 2011].
64
Oxford Economics, Economic Impact of the UK Heritage tourism economy (Oxford: Oxford Economics,
2010) <http://www.hlf.org.uk/aboutus/howwework/Documents/Heritage_Report_Final_2010.pdf>
65
Ibid., 3.
66
Ibid., p. 5.
67
Green places are defined as “public parks, gardens, National Parks, AONB’s, Nature Reserves and Country
Parks, costal visits and undesignated countryside”. See: Oxford Economics, p. 6
15
international tourists, domestic tourists on overnight trips, and domestic day trips.68 The chart
below represents the report’s findings on estimated visitor numbers and visitor expenditure
for heritage tourism (see Figure 2.2):
Heritage Based Tourism Estimates
Visitor Estimates
(excluding
green spaces)
Visitor Estimates
(including green
spaces)
International Trips
4.7 million
9.8 million
£2.6 billion
£4.9 billion
Domestic
Overnight Trips
2.6 million
5.8 million
£0.55 billion
£1.1 billion
Domestic Day Trips
95.3 million
148.2 million
£4.2 billion
£6.4 billion
102.6 million
163.7 million
£7.35 billion
£12.4 billion
Category
Total
Visitor Expenditure
(excluding green
spaces)
Visitor Expenditure
(including green
spaces)
Figure 2.2: ‘Heritage Based Tourism Estimates’, by Author, 8 June 2011, based on information provided by
Oxford Economics, Economic Impact of the UK Heritage tourism economy (Oxford: Oxford Economics, 2010)
<http://www.hlf.org.uk/aboutus/howwework/Documents/Heritage_Report_Final_2010.pdf>
In accordance with the findings of the report, heritage tourism, when green spaces are
included, represents over 14 percent of the overall total estimated UK tourism expenditure of
£86.4 billion and just under 14 percent of the overall estimated visitor numbers of 1,211.3
million.69
VisitBritain commissioned a similar report to HLF’s Investing in Success from
Deloitte titled The Economic Contribution of the Visitor Economy – UK and the nations.70
According to the report, which uses figures from 2009, as opposed to HLF’s report which is
based mostly on statistics from 2007, the new estimate for the total UK tourism expenditure is
£90 billion.71 Even in tough economic times, the tourism industry continues to grow and
heritage tourism along with it. This is supported by the Office of National Statistics’ (ONS)
International Passenger Survey, which tracks, among other aspects, the purpose of
international passengers visit to the UK.72 The ONS produces a report, based on the results of
the Survey, and a new trend has emerged since 2007 - while the number of international
visitors has decreased due to the economic downturn, the number of visitors stating the
purpose of their travel is for a holiday has increased and in 2009, reached a record number of
68
Domestic day trips are defined in the report as being of 3 hours of more from the visitor’s home. See: Oxford
Economics, p. 22.
69
Oxford Economics, p. 22.
70
Deloitte & Touche LLP, The Economic Contribution of the Visitor Economy – UK and the nations (London:
Deloitte MCS Limited, 2010) <http://www.visitbritain.org/Images/Economic%20case%20for%20the%
20Visitor%20Economy%20-%20Phase%202%20-%2026%20July%202010%20-%20FINAL_tcm2914561.pdf>
71
VisitBritain, ‘Key Tourism Facts’, in VisitBritain <http://www.visitbritain.org/Images/
Key%20Tourism%20Facts%20July%2010_tcm139-168291.pdf> [accessed 9 June 2011].
72
Office of National Statistics, ‘International Passenger Survey’, in National Statistics
<http://www.statistics.gov.uk/ssd/surveys/international_passenger_survey.asp> [accessed 9 June 2011].
16
11.4 million.73 Of these overseas visitors, 5 million visited historic houses, the equivalent of
just under 44 percent.74 As for total tourist visiting figures for historic houses in particular,
according to English Heritage, 19 million visits where made by tourists, both international
and domestic, in 2009, which represents a 12 percent increase from 2008.75
While the economic impact of heritage tourism is substantial and well documented
through the reports above, the direct economic impact of English country houses as heritage
sites is less so. Unfortunately, the HLF and VisitBritain reports do not single out the number
of visits to country houses in particular, instead focusing on either the built environment or
historic houses as a whole. It is the same case with the Historic Houses Association HHA,76
which, in the same vein as HLF’s Investing in Success report, produced Inspirational Places –
the value of Britain’s historic houses.77 The HHA created the report in an effort to
communicate the value of privately owned historic properties to the UK economy, ultimately
requesting the government to continue its support of the sector. The report states that houses
under private ownership are “extremely cost effective” for the government, as the owners pay
for the large majority of the expenses associated with the conservation and preservation of the
estates, with little money coming from public grants.78 At the same time, these low cost
attractions draw in around 14 million visitors a year,79 and their effect on “the wider economy
is estimated at an additional £1.6billion”.80 Of the 319 properties listed as open to the public
by HHA, over 54 percent are English country houses (see Appendix A).
The organization that is the closest to providing an estimate for number of visits to
some of England’s country house is the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA).
Of the 42 members of ALVA, which together operate 1,598 attractions, ALVA only lists the
visitor figures for 150 sites, and of those, 34 attractions are stately homes.81 The 2010 total
73
Roger Smith, Travel Trends: 2009, (Newport: Office for National Statistics, 2010), p. 11.
<http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_transport/travel-trends09.pdf> [accessed 9 June 2011].
74
‘Visitor Economy Facts - Updated April 2011’, in VisitBritian <http://www.visitbritain.org/
insightsandstatistics/visitoreconomyfacts/index.aspx> [accessed 9 June 2011] (para. 22 of 22).
75
English Heritage, Heritage Counts 2010 (London: English Heritage, 2010), p. 30. <http://hc.englishheritage.org.uk/content/pub/HC-Eng-2010> [accessed 7 June 2011].
76
The HHA is an organization dedicated to supporting the interests of privately owned historic properties. The
membership is comprised of 1,500 privately owned historic houses, gardens and castles within the United
Kingdom, some of which are open to the public. See:‘About Us’, in Historic Houses Association <
http://www.hha.org.uk/about-us.html> [accessed 7 June 2011] (para. 1 of 5).
77
Historic Houses Association, Inspirational Places – the value of Britain’s historic houses: HHA's policy
proposals for 2010 and beyond (London: Historic Houses Association, 2010) <http://www.hha.org.uk/
DB/policy-news/inspirational-places-the-value-of-britains-histori.html> [accesses 7 June 2011].
78
Ibid., p. 3.
79
Historic Houses Association, Annual Report 2009/2010 (London: Heritage Lottery Fund, 2011)
<http://www.hha.org.uk/annual-report.html> [accessed 7 June 2011].
80
Ibid., p. 2.
81
‘What Is Alva?’, in Association of Leading Visitor Attractions <http://www.alva.org.uk/what_is_alva//>
17
Number of English Country
Houses open to the Public
visitor figure calculated for just these 34 country
homes is 7,785,183 (see Appendix B). The real issue
Owner
behind calculating a total visitor number for English
country houses that are open to the public is that no
one seems to actually know the exact number of
English country houses open to the public. Of course,
National Trust
98 (actual)
English Heritage
17 (actual)
Private Owners
600 (estimated)
Total
the country houses which are under the care of such
organizations as the National Trust and English
Heritage, and comply with the definition set at the
Number of English
Country Houses
715
Figure 2.3: ‘Estimated Number of English
Country Houses open to the Public’, by
Author, 14 June 2011.
beginning of this dissertation, are easily identified (see Appendices C & D); it is the privately
owned houses that are the issue. It has been estimated that there are around 350 privately
owned estates open to the public, with an additional 250 open part-time82, but no complete list
of these homes is readily available, nor are their visitor statistics as private owners are not
required to provide financial information (see Figure 2.3).83
While the exact figure for country house visits may not be available, the economic
impact on local communities near heritage attractions is widely discussed, particularly in
terms of employment. While, historically, estates have provided incomes to people in
surrounding communities through agriculture, domestic service and relevant industrial
enterprises, such as coal mining, with the steady decline of the estates starting in the late
nineteenth century, most of these employment opportunities vanished. The advent of the
stately home business and the adoption of the country house as a desirable heritage site have
once again connected estate and community in economic terms. HLF, English Heritage,
National Trust and HHA all report on the positive effects to local communities. According to
HLF, in 2010 heritage tourism provided for around the equivalent of 195,000 full-time jobs in
the UK.84 English Heritage, in their Heritage Counts 2010 report, claims that, “the economic
impact of heritage tourism is probably most directly felt in the communities surrounding
heritage sites. Historic visitor attractions are local employers, purchasers of local goods and
services, and provide customers for local shops, restaurants and hotels”.85 In accordance with
English Heritage’s statement, the Director General of the National Trust, Dame Fiona
Reynolds, states that for rural areas located near a heritage site considered to be of high
quality, therefore able to draw larger amounts of visitors, the prospect of being employed by
82
‘Opening Doors: Learning in the Historic Environment’, in The Attingham Trust
<http://www.openingdoorsreport.org.uk/l2.php?L1ID=8&L2ID=41> [accessed 9 June 2011] (para. 1 of 15).
83
Bernard Casey, Rachel Dunlop and Sara Selwood, Culture as Commodity? The economics of the arts and built
heritage in the UK (London: Policy Studies Institute, 1996), p. 145.
84
Abramsky, p. 1.
85
English Heritage, Heritage Counts 2010, p. 10.
18
the tourist industry is raised to between 60 and 70 percent, as opposed to 40 percent in
metropolitan areas.86 The HHA, which estimates that the historic properties it represents
employ 30,000 people either directly or by alternative businesses run on the estates, supports
the National Trust’s claim, stating that historic properties are “key players in their local
economies, particularly in rural areas where other opportunities for employment and business
activity are often limited”.87 The country house, by changing into a heritage site and thus
creating employment opportunities for locals, is not only providing for its own continued
existence, it is supplying the same for its neighbors.
As the industry reports demonstrate, the economic impact of heritage tourism, on both
a national and local level, is significant. While the exact figure for the number of English
country houses open to the public cannot currently be identified, as a part of the national
heritage, they are a valuable component of this extremely profitable heritage tourism trade, in
addition to being cost effective to the government, as many estates are still privately owned.
By attracting both international and domestic tourists to the countryside, country houses also
contribute to local economies by providing businesses and individuals with income and
employment opportunities, even during an economic downturn. The ability to attract visitors
who will spend both time and money to view what many consider to be the England’s greatest
cultural achievement, makes the country house a valuable economic asset, but it is their
cultural significance which appeals to tourists, as discussed below.
The Cultural Significance:
What stately homes offer tourists is an experience, one which encompasses, among
other attributes, architecture, art, landscapes and history. The English country house, by
providing this experience, has been adopted as a symbol of national and local identity. They
act as a direct link to the past that shaped the England of today, a view into a way of life that
no longer exists. Through the act of visiting, tourists are validating the cultural significance
of the country house, as well as the associated social values. Whether these values are truly
representative of the English culture has recently become debated, but this has neither
affected the country house’s popularity among visitors, nor its place among the icons of
England. Country houses continue to be among the most beloved elements of the English
countryside.
86
Dame Fiona Reynolds, ‘The swing towards domestic tourism: blip or trend’, in Investing in Success: Heritage
and the UK Tourism Economy, ed. by Heritage Lottery Fund and VisitBritain (London: Heritage Lottery Fund,
2010), pp. 40-41 (p. 41) <www.hlf.org.uk/aboutus/.../HLF_Tourism_Impact_single.pdf>
87
Historic Houses Association, Inspirational Places, p. 2.
19
“They are the quintessence of Englishness”; with this statement Mandler begins his
history of the country house, documenting the stately homes’ journey from their beginning as
statements of aristocratic power and wealth, to being the height of fashion in the Victorian
period, to their decline and, for many, their destruction in the mid-twentieth century, through
to their present status as a treasured national icon. 88 What Mandler captures is not only the
history of the stately home, but also the story of its relationship with the people of Britain
through the ages, and it is this relationship that has allowed the English country house to
evolve from being a privilege for only the upper class, to a part of the English heritage, open
to all levels of society. Mandler’s statement is echoed by a multitude of authors. Gervase
Jackson-Stops writes, “The country house is – like Shakespeare, parliamentary democracy,
afternoon tea and a few other national institutions – among Britain’s greatest contributions to
Western Civilization”.89 This is, Jackson-Stop argues, because the country house is firmly
embedded into the history of the nation and its people.90 Strong declares the same, stating,
“The great houses of England and their occupants represent a continuity within our society”.91
That is, they provide a direct link to the very ancestors that worked to create the England of
today. They have served as the dwellings of powerful men whose political prestige shaped
the country for centuries, they have been the inspiration for poets and artists, such as Pope
and Turner,92 and they have provided a living for the people residing in surrounding
communities. These associations have resulted in the English country house being adopted
as a symbol of the English nation by not only its citizens, but also by people the world over.
Mandler does note that this status of national icon has not always been the case, and national
identity is in itself a development of the mid-nineteenth century, when “something like a
cultural revolution took place”. 93 During this time, a “culture market” grew around the works
of Walter Scott and the Romantic poets who found that the country houses provided the
perfect settings for their historically inspired compositions, furthering the popularity of the
estates and associating them with a romanticized view of the heritage of the English nation.94
Thus, through these creative works, the English country house became tied to the idea of
88
Gervase Jackson-Stops, The Country House in Perspective (London: Pavilion, 1990), p. 6.
90
Ibid.
91
Strong, p. 10.
92
James Lees-Milne, ‘The Country House in our Heritage’, in The Destruction of the Country House, 1875 –
1975, ed. by Roy Strong, Marcus Binney and John Harris (London: Thames and Hudson, 1974), pp. 11-14
(p. 14).
93
94
Ibid., p. 28.
89
20
national identity from the concept’s beginning.95
In support of Mandler’s findings, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett argues it is the
human element, the culture and heritage of the nation that provides its identity, and that what
makes a place unique is “not natural but cultural”.96 This heritage, which she describes as
“cultural production in the present that has recourse to the past”, is created and communicated
to an audience through exhibition. 97 It is through exhibition that heritage, something that is
ever present, just not always identified as such, is bestowed with a “second life”.98 It is these
exhibitions that drive the heritage tourism industry, and the most successful heritage
productions are those that provide the audience with what they perceive as a complete
experience. 99 As heritage sites open to the public, stately homes offer this complete
experience, immersing the visitors into a past world not experienced, for the vast majority of
the world’s population at least, on a regular basis. They provide what Kirshenblatt-Gimblett
explains as a “more real, more immediate, or more complete” experience than if the same
audience just saw the objects after “they have been dismantled and shipped off to a
museum”.100 What English country houses present to visitors can never be reproduced in a
museum setting. While their collections, or in some cases, entire rooms may be removed to
museums for display, their accompanying gardens, parks, and, as is the case with many
houses, resident families cannot. Their appeal as visitor attractions is that all of their many
parts can be experienced as a whole, and it is through this that they are valuable as heritage
sites for the nation.
The allure of the resident families is a theme that appears throughout the literature. It
has even been claimed that the country houses still owned by the aristocratic families which
built them are among the most popular to visit.101 The public’s fascination with the upper
class members of society extends beyond their great houses and reaches into their personal
lives, as Hugh Massingberd explains, “visitors of country houses tend to be more intrigued by
the family, and what has become of it, than the finer points of art and architecture”.102 To
perhaps catch a glimpse of an aristocrat during a visit is an enticing draw for many tourists,
95
On a related note, David Lowenthal has examined the relationship between landscape and national identity on
the theory that when the landscape of a country has been largely constructed through generations of human
alterations, a strong link to national identity is developed. Therefore, national identity and human culture cannot
be separated from its environment. See: David Lowenthal, ‘European and English Landscapes as National
Symbols’, in Geography and National Identity, ed. by David Hooson (Oxford: Blackwell, 1994), pp. 15-39.
96
Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Destination Culture: Tourism, Museums, and Heritage (Berkley: University of
California Press, 1998), p. 140.
97
Ibid., p. 149 - 150.
98
Ibid.
99
Ibid.
100
Ibid., p. 131.
101
Milne, p. 11.
102
Hugh Massingberd, ‘Introduction’, in A Disintegration of a Heritage: Country Houses and their Collections
1979-1992, by Michael Sayer, ed. by Hugh Massingberd (Wilby: Michael Russell, 1993), pp. 10-14 (p. 14).
21
and it is just this “lived-in quality” which Sayer sites as contributing to the overall appeal of a
country house.103 These families, much like the estates themselves, offer a direct link to the
past, a living part of the history of the nation, whose way of life was, and continues to be,
unachievable for most.104
Laurajane Smith, in her article, ‘Deference and Humility: Social Values of the
Country House’, in which she examines the interplay between values, heritage and country
houses, associates the public’s fascination with country house owners and their desire to
experience the estate with the social values related to “aristocratic deference and the idea that
things were better back then”.105 Therefore, through the act of visiting a country house,
tourists are reinforcing the traditional concept of separate social classes, as well as
commemorating a time when the ruling aristocracy was served by the middle and lower
classes. Smith argues that these social values are emphasized and transmitted “into wider
English Society” through a process she titles the ‘Authorized Heritage Discourse’ (AHD). 106
As heritage, in itself, does not have value, but is a “cultural process”107 in which certain
values are given to and transmitted through a heritage site because society chooses to preserve
and impart those values in particular, the English country house, as a heritage site “reinforces
and continually recreates a particular suite of social values that speak to particular sections of
English society” through the AHD.108 Therefore, the AHD not only affects the interpretation
of the country house to the visitors, it also creates a situation in which the experience of
touring a country house is partially constructed by the visitors.109 Though the social values
transmitted through the AHD may have more to do with what a certain segment of society
deems as important rather than the collective whole, as the vast majority of visitors are middle
class, Smith concludes that, because country house are “cherished for the continuity of social
values that they are seen to represent”,110 whenever those values are called into question, such
as displaying information about an estate’s connection to slavery, they are “quietly or actively
rejected”.111 In an age of great diversity, where people have differing concepts of social value
and heritage, how can the values transmitted by country house as a heritage site be considered
truly English? David Lammy MP, the former Minister for Culture, Department for Culture,
Media and Sport, addresses this issue, determining that, “it is up to people, institutions and
103
Sayer, p. 20.
Tinniswood, p. 191.
105
Laurajane Smith, pp. 43-44.
106
Ibid., p. 34.
107
Ibid., p. 33.
108
Ibid., p. 34.
109
Ibid.
110
Ibid., p. 43.
111
Ibid., pp. 47-48.
104
22
civil society to determine their own conceptions of heritage”.112 While Lammy argues that
values from the past need not be discarded, but can be appreciate alongside new ones that are
more representative of a diverse population, and certain organizations, such as the National
Trust, as discussed in the following section, have begun to create programs that reflect this
approach, Smith’s research shows that this strategy is not always accepted by the audience.113
While the values transmitted through a country house visit may not be representative
of those belonging to every English citizen, it does not seem to have affected the house’s
connection to the identity of England nor it’s popularity among tourists. Linda Young, in her
examination of historic houses that act as museums, notes that
visiting a historic house allows the visitor to experience a “direct
personal connection… for everyone lives in a dwelling, and
exploring its similarities and differences from the historic
example is a sure means of engagement”.114 Young continues
by stating that while “house museums remain icons of local
identity”, unfortunately, they seem to be mostly experienced by
tourists, not locals residents.115 This is not always the case
Figure 2.4: ‘Geopods at
Harewood House’, photograph
by Author, 29 May 2011.
though, as demonstrated by Harewood House. Members of the estate visit, on average, 20
times a year!116 While this might be down to the estates diverse range of activities, which
include Geopods117 (see Figure 2.4), a large playground, and an
extensive bird garden (see Figure 2.5), it does demonstrate that
country estates can, once again, become integrated into their
surrounding communities as heritage sites. It is this relationship
Figure 2.5: ‘Penguin
Enclosure at Harewood
House’, photograph by
Author, 29 May 2011.
between stately home and local community that many country
house owners are now turning to in order to help secure the future
of their estates, as discussed in the next section.
112
David Lammy MP, ‘Community, identity and heritage’, in Capturing the Public Value of Heritage: The
Proceedings of the London Conference 25-26 January 2006, ed. by Kate Clark (Swindon: English Heritage,
2006), pp. 65-69 (p. 69).
113
114
Young, p. 75.
115
Ibid.
116
‘Harewood Membership’, in Harewood House <http://www.harewood.org/harewood-card>
[accessed 15 June 2011] (para.10 of 18).
117
There are three Geopods, which are geodesic structures, at Harwood House, one of which serves as the
estate’s gift shop. The remaining two are used for exhibitions or activities.
23
The Future and Sustainability:
While the English Country house as a heritage site is a part of the national identity of
England, this status does not guarantee their future, especially during an economic downturn
and subsequent cuts in government funding. The rising costs of maintaining these sites have
provoked some of those responsible for the upkeep of stately homes to take new approaches
to securing their survival. One such organization is the National Trust, which, under the
leadership of Chairman Sir Simon Jenkins, has recently undertaken a transformation of the
management and presentation practices of the historic properties in their care in order to
provide greater access to a wider audience. In their 2010 report Going Local: Fresh tracks
down old roads: Our strategies for the next decade, the Trust outlines what changes have
already been implemented at their sites as well as the Trust’s plans for the future.118 The
premise behind the changes is the Trust’s recognition that their properties “belong to us all”,
and that, “sharing these treasures is part of the glue which helps to hold our society
together”.119 A major theme of the report is reconnecting historic houses with their local
communities, as this will “help grow a sense of belonging and encourage local pride and
identity”.120 To achieve this, the Trust is encouraging property managers to “interpret freely
what ‘going local’ means to them” as well as to open their houses to local community groups,
hold special events for neighbors and to consult with the surrounding community about
decisions that may affect the house and its use.121 By grounding their historic houses within
their local communities, the Trust is gaining supporters, a valuable resource, especially in the
current economic times.
This tactic of connecting with neighbors has been adopted by English Heritage as
well, and is outlined in their document Sustaining the Historic Environment: New
Perspectives on the Future.122 Sustainability, the report argues, is “only worth doing if it has
high levels of public involvement”.123 In order to achieve this, English Heritage states they
will actively work with local communities to create greater public awareness of their works
and increase opportunities for public involvement.124 Sustaining the historic environment,
which includes country houses, is vital in a time when destruction and change are a large part
118
National Trust, Going Local: Fresh tracks down old roads: Our strategies for the next decade (Swindon:
National Trust, 2010) <www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-strategy-next-decade-17-march.pdf>
[accessed 10 June 2011].
119
Ibid., p. 3.
120
Ibid., p. 10.
121
Ibid.
122
English Heritage, Sustaining the Historic Environment: New Perspectives on the Future (London: English
Heritage, 1997).
123
Ibid., p. 2.
124
Ibid., p. 5.
24
of society, as it is the historic environment which not only “reminds us of our origins”, it
improves the lives of those around it by serving as a retreat from a fast paced world.125
While change is inevitable, and even, it could be argued, crucial for the survival of the
country house, not all of the new ideas put into practice by both organizations and private
owners are met with unanimous support. The new initiative that the Trust’s 2010 Going Local
report introduces, and the one that has caused the most controversy, is that of “bringing places
to life”.126 The Trust, in a concerted effort to draw in more visitors and to make the visitor
experience a more welcoming one, has proclaimed in this document that they no longer want
to be seen as having “put a higher priority on caring for ‘things’ than people”, 127 and that they
are striving to “reduce their ‘look, don’t touch’ atmosphere”.128 To accomplish this, they are
employing tactics such as allowing visitors into previously restricted areas and using live
interpreters (see Figure 2.6).129 While the Trust acknowledges that the houses will be subject
to more “wear and tear”, they do declare in the report their dedication to the continued
maintenance and high conservation standards throughout all of their properties.130 This new
tactic has drawn criticism from members of the heritage industry. Stephen Bayley, a cultural
critic, accused the Trust of “Disney-fying” their properties by dumbing them down in an
effort to appeal to more people.131 During a debate with Jenkins at the 2010 Hay Festival,
Bayley accused the Trust of "queasy
voyeurism", implying that the Trust’s new
tactics, in addition to being patronizing
towards the public, were unnecessary as the
houses are able to and should be allowed to
speak for themselves.132 In his words, “Great
architecture does not need dirty tricks from a
theme park”.133 John Goodall, the
architectural editor of Country Life magazine,
Figure 2.6: ‘Room view of the kitchen at
Wordsworth House, Cumbria’.
©NTPL/Nadia Mackenzie
echoes Bayley’s sentiments and expresses
concern that the Trust is “in danger of
125
Ibid., p. 2.
National Trust, Going Local, p. 8.
127
Ibid.
128
Ibid., p. 9.
129
Ibid.
130
Ibid.
131
Stephen Bayley, ‘Stop this Disneyfication of the National Trust: The public doesn't need a lowbrow
interactive 'gloss' to be added to its heritage sites’, The Times, 18 October 2010, p. 20.
132
Ibid.
133
Ibid.
126
25
misjudging what its actual responsibilities are, in putting forward what is basically a political
agenda about outreach instead of doing what it is actually there to do, which is conserve".134
Goodall is accusing the Trust of risking the welfare of the estates in their care in an effort to
appeal to a more diverse audience base, one that is more representative of the English nation.
By doing so, the Trust could be viewed as bending to the politics of the day in order to
receive more funding from both visitors and the government during a time when funding for
heritage is being cut. Goodall’s statement reflects what English Heritage declared thirteen
years before, that “there is no future in justifying damaging development purely for shortterm economic gains”.135 Jenkins counters this argument with a figure - £100 million - which
is what the Trust spent on conservation works in 2010.136 To keep essential preservation and
maintenance work in progress, the Trust must have a substantial funding stream from year to
year, and increasing visitor support would ensure funds for the future. Whether or not the
Trust’s new direction is the answer to all of the sustainability issues facing the country house,
it has proven to be successful in the short term, as at least a 10 percent increase in visitor
numbers has been reported for all of the Trusts sites that are open to the public since the
strategies have been implemented.137
Another strategy being used by both organizations and private owners is the adoption
of green technology as a way to not only help the environment, but to also reduce estate
running costs. Solar panels, wind turbines and biomass boilers are among the devices being
installed at country estates around England. Again, the National Trust is at the forefront of
the movement, stating, through their green
initiatives, that they plan to reduce their
carbon emissions by 45 percent in ten years.138
Already, plans for installing solar panels at
Hardwick Hall, one of the Trust’s most
popular sites, are in place, along with a
Figure 2.7: ‘Belvoir Castle seen from Woolsthorpe
by Belvoir’, photography by John Sutton for
Georgraph.co.uk, 27 August 2009, in Wikimedia
Commons, under the Creative Commons
Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
<http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Belvoir_
Castle_seen_from_Woolsthorpe_by_Belvoir__geograph.org.uk_-_1772528.jpg> [accessed 14
June 2011].
system for collecting rainwater and installing
a biomass boiler.139 The owners of Belvoir
Castle (see figure 2.7), a 15,000 acres estate
in Leicestershire, have publicized their plans
to install their own biomass boiler, which
134
Sally Williams, ‘A question of trust in presenting the past’, The Sunday Telegraph, 24 October 2010, p.19.
English Heritage, Sustaining the Historic Environment, p. 2.
136
Williams, p.19.
137
Ibid.
138
Rebecca Smithers, ‘National Trust to cut fossil fuel use in half by 2020’, The Guardian, 11 February 2010.
139
Andrea Watson, ‘A Green and Pleasant Estate’, The Express, 20 May 2011, p. 62.
135
26
will use wood chips from the estate’s forest to provide energy-efficient heating.140 In addition,
all 1,800 light bulbs in the house were recently replaced with low-energy bulbs.141 This is all
a part of the estate’s plan for a zero carbon footprint, and the owners are even planning on
using their new green technology as a tourist attraction by building viewing platforms.142
While organizations and owners work to save their stately homes for future
generations to enjoy, by turning them into heritage sites they have, effectively, placed the
power to save these estates into the hands of the public. Currently, country house visiting is a
popular activity among both domestic and international tourists, and the caretakers of these
homes seem, for the most part, to be taking advantage of the trend to bring in as many visitors
as possible, making these estates a valuable economic asset for not only local communities,
but also the nation as a whole. Culturally, country houses offer these same tourists a physical
connection to the history of England. Tactics such as reinstituting the estates into local
community life and green technology allow the country houses of England to continue to
change and reinvent themselves in order to survive. As Mandler concludes, “Only diamonds
last forever; other treasures, created and valued by humans, must, like humans, evolve to
survive”.143
140
Alan Thompson, ‘Castle's green plan is ready to come to boil’, Leicester Mercury, 15 January 2011, p. 21.
Ibid.
142
Ibid.
143
141
27
Chapter Thre e
The Ultimate State ly Ho me Busine ss:
The Ch atsworth Hou se Tr ust
Chatsworth! thy stately mansion, and the pride
Of thy domain, strange contrast do present
To house and home in many a craggy rent
Of the wild Peak; where new-born waters glide
Through fields whose thrifty occupants abide
As in a dear and chosen banishment,
With every semblance of entire content;
So kind is simple Nature, fairly tried!
Yet He whose heart in childhood gave her troth
To pastoral dales, thin-set with modest farms,
May learn, if judgment strengthen with his growth,
That, not for Fancy only, pomp hath charms;
And, strenuous to protect from lawless harms
The extremes of favoured life, may honour both.
- William Wordsworth144
Chatsworth House, situated in the dramatic scenery of the Peak District, inspired
Wordsworth to write his ode to the grand house in 1830.145 The poem captures the
juxtaposition between the wildness of the Peaks and the serenity of the house and surrounding
gardens that has drawn millions of visitors from the time of the estate’s beginnings through to
present day (see Figure 3.1). Today, Chatsworth House is the most visited country house in
England.146 The home of the aristocratic Cavendish family for over 460 years, the estate is
located mostly in Derbyshire, with a small section in neighboring Staffordshire, and consists
of 35,000 acres, which encompasses “farms, woods, moorland, rivers, villages, quarries and
144
William Wordsworth, ‘Chatsworth! Thy stately, and the pride’, in Bartleby.com, <www.bartleby.com/145/>
[accessed 28 June 2011].
145
Ibid.
146
Chatsworth House has the highest visitor figures for any of the English country houses as reported by ALVA.
See Appendix B.
28
other industries”.147 Chatsworth epitomizes the ultimate stately home business, combining the
lucrative tourist attraction of the house, accompanying landscape garden and park with the
traditional activities associated with country estates, such as agriculture and industry. As a
heritage site, Chatsworth not only embraces the role of English icon and contributes to the
local identity of the surrounding communities, the house offers visitors the complete country
house experience, including the occasional opportunity to see a duke or duchess. While
work to secure the future of the Chatsworth estate for the public began in the 1950s, as
discussed below, Chatsworth continues to evolve, diversifying its funding streams and
reaching towards new audiences in an effort to not only survive, but to thrive.
Figure 3.1: ‘Chatsworth showing Hunting Tower’, photograph by Paul Collins, in Wikimedia Commons
<http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chatsworth_showing_hunting_tower.jpg> [accessed 29 June 2011].
147
‘The Chatsworth Estate’, in Chatsworth <http://www.chatsworth.org/files/fom_estate.pdf > [accessed 18
May 2011], p. 1.
29
A Brief History of Chatsworth House:
The first recorded house on the Chatsworth estate was built in the 1550s under the
direction of Sir William Cavendish and his wife Elizabeth, better known by her nickname of
‘Bess of Hardwick’ (see Figure 3.2).148 Bess was a native of Derbyshire, her ancestral home
being only 13 miles from the Chatsworth estate at Hardwick Hall, which she rebuilt in the
1590s.149 While Bess remarried twice after the death of her second husband, Sir Cavendish, it
was their son William who inherited the estate and became the Earl of Devonshire in 1618.150
The house remained virtually unaltered until the 4th Earl of Devonshire began extensive
building works, which resulted in every face of the house being remodeled.151 The 4th Earl
was not only an ambitious builder, he was also a savvy politician, and was appointed the 1st
Duke of Devonshire by the new king, William of Orange.152 It was the 4th Duke of
Devonshire who, in the mid eighteenth century, purchased land to add to the estate, including
the village of Beeley,153 and proceeded to remodel the
surrounding parkland in accordance with the designs created
by Capability Brown.154 Inspired by the Picturesque
movement, the estate village of Edensor, which could be
seen from the house, was demolished and rebuilt in its
present location during this period.155 The 6th Duke of
Devonshire was also interested in gardening, and in the
1820s, commissioned Joseph Paxton, who later designed the
Crystal Palace for the Great Exhibition, to create the garden
Figure 3.2: ‘Bess Of Hardwick As
A Young Woman’, by The
English School, C16th (1550s) oil
on panel, at Hardwick Hall,
Derbyshire.
©NTPL/Angelo Hornak
that can still be experienced during a visit to the estate
today.156 When the 8th Duke inherited the estate in 1908, he
was the first in the line to be subject to the newly
implemented Death Duties, “which amounted to over a half
148
Francis Thompson, A History of Chatsworth: Being a Supplement to the Sixth Duke of Devonshire’s
Handbook (London: Country Life Limited, 1949) p. 23.
149
Hardwick Hall was owned by the Cavendish family until it was acquired by the National Trust is 1957. See:
‘Hardwick Hall’, in National Trust <http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-hardwickhall>
[accessed 19 June 2011] (para. 1 of 6).
150
During the tenure of Bess’ fourth husband, the Earl of Shrewsbury, on the order of Queen Elizabeth I, Mary
Queen of Scots was kept as a prisoner at Chatsworth a number of times over a 15 year period. See: ‘A History
of Chatsworth and the Cavendish Family’, in Chatsworth <http://www.chatsworth.org/files/fom_history.pdf>
[accessed 18 May 2011], p. 1-2.
151
‘A History of Chatsworth and the Cavendish Family’, in Chatsworth <http://www.chatsworth.org/files/
fom_history.pdf> [accessed 18 May 2011], p. 2-3.
152
Ibid., p. 2.
153
Diane Naylor, The Chatsworth Villages: Beeley, Edensor and Pilsley (Ashbourne: Landmark, 2005), p. 10.
154
‘A History of Chatsworth and the Cavendish Family’, p. 5.
155
Naylor, p. 47.
156
‘A History of Chatsworth and the Cavendish Family’, p. 7-8.
30
of a million pounds”.157 The Duke sold a collection of rare books and the family’s house in
London to pay the tax.158 During the Second World War, Chatsworth was requisitioned for
use as a girls’ school, and while the estate was reopened to the public in 1949, the family did
not move back into the house, deciding instead to continue to live in a smaller home on the
estate near Edensor.159 When the 11th Duke of Devonshire succeeded his father in 1950, the
death duties amounted to 80 percent of the inheritance. To pay such a large amount, many
works of art and rare books as well as Hardwick Hall (see Figure 3.3) and its surrounded
estate were “surrendered to the Treasury in lieu of cash”, in addition to thousands of acres of
land being sold.160 At the same time, the 11th Duke established the Chatsworth Settlement
Trustees, a trust which now owns the Cavendish family estates of Chatsworth, Bolton Abbey
in North Yorkshire and Lismore Castle in County Waterford, Ireland.161 This was done to
secure the estates’ preservation by exempting them from “future capital taxation”.162 During
this process, which took seventeen years to complete, the Duke and his family moved back
into Chatsworth and began to modernize the house.163 In 1981, the house was passed to the
Chatsworth House Trust (CHT), a charitable organization founded by the 11th Duke. The
CHT, which was created to “ensure the long term future of Chatsworth for the benefit of
visitors”, oversees the preservation of the house and its contents, the 105 acres of gardens and
1000 acre park all at no public expense. 164 Today, it costs more than £4.5million a year to run
the estate, which is open to the public daily for nine months during the year.165
Figure 3.3: ‘The east front of Hardwick Hall,
Derbyshire, in the snow.’ ©NTPL/Robert Morris
157
Ibid., p. 10
Ibid.
159
Ibid., pp. 11-13.
160
Ibid., pp. 12.
161
‘Welcome to Bolton Abbey, A Place for All Seasons’, in Bolton Abbey <http://www.boltonabbey.com/
welcome_trustees.htm> [accessed 28 June 2011] (para. 1 of 1).
162
‘The Chatsworth Estate’, p. 3.
163
‘A History of Chatsworth and the Cavendish Family’, pp. 12-13.
164
‘Welcome to the Online Ticket Office: Why Gift Aid is so valuable to Chatsworth’, in Chatsworth
<https://www.chatsworth.org/tickets/index.php?page=promoSelected> [accessed 25 May 2011] (para. 3 of 4).
165
Ibid., (para. 4 of 4).
158
31
The Economic Impact of Chatsworth House:
While Chatsworth House is now an efficiently managed tourist attraction, this is a
relatively recent development in the long history of the estate. Even when other houses had
begun to charge admission in the nineteenth century, as Mandler states, “Chatsworth
refrained” from participating in the new trend.166 Tourism was not seen as a means of
generating income to support the preservation of the house and grounds until the 11th Duke
inherited the Cavendish family estates in 1950.167 It was the creation of the CHT, founded
with a “large endowment fund that was created from the sale of works of art from the private
side of the house and other family resources”, which solidified Chatsworth’s status as a
stately home business.168 The Council of Management, which oversees the CHT and consists
of “a majority of non-family members”, is responsible for the preservation and maintenance
of the areas of the house and grounds that are accessible to the public.169 All income
generated from admission charges, which goes directly back to the CHT, covers 80 percent of
the total expense of maintaining the house, with the remaining 20 percent “coming from other
resources” of the CHT.170 As was the 11th Duke’s intention when the CHT was created, “the
Directors of the Trust have never applied for a grant for the restoration of the buildings in
their care”.171 This supports the HHA’s argument that privately owned estates are more cost
effective for the government, for, as is the case with Chatsworth, the government benefits
from visitor expenditure without contributing to the maintenance of the attraction.172
The success behind the CHT’s ability to cover the large cost of maintaining
Chatsworth is the estate’s popularity among paying visitors. Currently, the cost of an adult
‘Discovery Ticket ‘, which allows access to the house, garden, farmyard and adventure
playground, is £16, and does not include parking, which is an additional £2.173 Once on site,
tourists are presented with the opportunity to spend more at various gift shops and eating
establishments, all of which pass a “percentage of turnover… to Chatsworth House Trust in
lieu of rent”.174 This diversification of income streams allows the CHT to continue to operate
at a profit, even when visitor numbers fluctuate year to year. This was the case between 2005
166
In fact, when the 11th Duke inherited the Cavendish family estates, it was Chatsworth that he originally
offered to the government instead of Hardwick Hall. See: Mandler, The Fall and Rise of the Stately Home,
p. 317.
168
‘The Chatsworth House Trust’, in Chatsworth <http://www.chatsworth.org/files/fom_cht.pdf>
[accessed 18 May 2011] , p. 1.
169
170
‘The Chatsworth House Trust’, p. 1.
171
Ibid., p. 2.
172
Historic Houses Association, Inspirational Places, p. 3.
173
‘Welcome to the Online Ticket Office’.
174
167
32
and 2009, where visitor numbers rose and fell,
sometimes up to 15.53 percent (see Figure 3.4).
During this time period, the total income
consistently rose every year, at the median rate of
5.19 percent, and only in 2009, the year that CHT
received the most visitors, did the total resources
extended for the maintenance of the house exceed
total income resources received (see Figure 3.5).
This is due to a series of major projects to renovate
both the interior and exterior of the house and to
provide greater access for visitors, the total
estimated cost of which is £17.3 million, causing
the CHT to outlay further maintenance expenses
than in previous years. 175 The CHT sees this
renovation as an opportunity instead of a
hindrance though, turning the renovation work
on the South façade of the house, which is
Chatsworth House Visitor Numbers
Year
Visitor
Numbers
Percentage
Change from
Previous Year
2005
608,591
n/a
2006
604,403
-0.69%
2007
606,689
0.38%
2008
552,677
-9.77%
2009
652,969
15.34%
Total /
Median
3,741,945
0.38%
Figure 3.4: ‘Chatsworth House Visitor
Numbers’, by Author, based on statistics from
the 2005 – 2009 ‘Chatsworth House Trust
Annual Report’, in Charity Commission
<http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk/
Showcharity/RegisterOfCharities/Document
List.aspx?RegisteredCharityNumber=511149&
SubsidiaryNumber=0&DocType=AccountList>
Chatsworth House Trust:
Total Income Resources and
Total Resources Extended
currently covered with scaffolding and a tarp,
into a guided tour, for an additional £2.176
Chatsworth’s financial success as an
English heritage site does more than support and
preserve the estate; it also contributes greatly to
the £6 billion tourist trade in the East
Midlands.177 The total number of tourists who
come to Derbyshire to experience the
Chatsworth estate annually is estimated to be
over one million, not all of whom are required
to pay admission.178 While the surrounding
Figure 3.5: ‘Chatsworth House Trust: Total
Income Resources and Total Resources
Extended’, by Author, based on statistics
from the 2005 – 2009 ‘Chatsworth House
Trust Annual Report’.
175
‘Chatsworth House Trust Annual Report: 2009’, in Charity Commission <http://www.charitycommission.
gov.uk/Showcharity/RegisterOfCharities/DocumentList.aspx?RegisteredCharityNumber=511149&SubsidiaryN
umber=0&DocType=AccountList> [accessed 31 May 2011], p. 3.
176
‘House & Displays’, in Chatsworth <http://www.chatsworth.org/attractions/house> [accessed 9 July 2011]
(para. 6 of 8).
177
‘Chatsworth Scoops Two Top Tourism Awards’, in Chatsworth <http://www.chatsworth.
org/newsroom/current-news/chatsworth-scoops-two-top-tourism-awards> [accessed 1 July 2011] (para. 4 of 12).
178
‘Chatsworth House Trust Annual Report: 2009’, p. 1.
33
park and nature trails can be used free of charge, the local economy continues to benefit
through tourists spending on food and accommodation, creating employment opportunities in
both areas. According to the Office for National Statistics, as of 2001, 7.43 percent of the
working population in the Chatsworth Ward (see Figure 3.6) was employed by the hotel and
catering industry, 3 percent higher than the English national average.179
Figure 3.6: ‘Chatsworth House Surrounding Area Map’, image by Paul Lithgow, in Wikimedia
Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license
<http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chatsworth_House_Surrounding_Area_Map.jpg>
[accessed 12 July 2011].
In addition, the Chatsworth ward, in 2001, boasted an unemployment rate of just 1.77 percent,
compared to the national average of 3.35 percent.180 The Chatsworth estate claims to directly
employ “more than 550 people… full or part time… in both permanent and seasonal
positions” every year,181 while, as of 2009, the CHT employed the equivalent of 135 full-time
staff members.182 With a population of 1,688 as of 2009, Chatsworth, it can be argued, is a
179
‘Neighbourhood Statistics: Chatsworth Ward: Industry of Employment - All People’, in Office for National
Statistics <http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadTableView.do?a=7&b=6177887&c=
chatsworth&d=14&e=9&g=434189&i=1001x1003x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1309427158378&enc=1&dsFamilyId=
27> [accessed 30 June 2011].
180
‘Neighbourhood Statistics: Chatsworth Ward: Economic Activity - All People’, in Office for National
Statistics <http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadTableView.do?a=7&b=6177887&c=
chatsworth&d=14&e=15&g=434189&i=1001x1003x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1309462177044&enc=1&dsFamilyId
=21> [accessed 30 June 2011].
181
‘Jobs at Chatsworth’, in Chatsworth < http://www.chatsworth.org/jobs-at-chatsworth>
[accessed 30 June 2011] (para. 1 of 40).
182
34
major employer in the Ward.183 Because of these major contributions to the local area in
terms of tourism, East Midlands Tourism awarded Chatsworth House the gold award in the
Large Visitor Attraction category during the 2010 Excellence in England Tourism Awards, as
well as acknowledged the 11th Duke and Duchess with a special Outstanding Contribution to
Regional Tourism award.184 For visitors and locals though, Chatsworth is more than just a
successful business. Known as the ‘jewel of the Peak’, Chatsworth House is a national icon,
a significant contributor to the identities of the surrounding communities and the embodiment
of the classic English country house, as discussed below.
The Cultural Significance of Chatsworth House:
As one of the Treasure Houses of England, Chatsworth House is designated as one of
the ten “most magnificent palaces, houses and castles in England today”.185 The stately home
presents to visitors grandness on such a scale it is easy to image the house as the private
residence of what was once one of England’s most powerful families. Since the time of its
creation, the house has hosted numerous royal figures, inspired famous poets and artists and
witnessed the actions of powerful politicians who shaped the English nation.186 While
Chatsworth might have been built for the enjoyment of the wealthy, by opening its doors as a
heritage site, it has solidified its place among the icons of the English nation. During his
tenure as Minister for Culture, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Lammy established
a website titled Icons: A Portrait of England, where people voted for the icons that best
represented the English nation and its heritage.187 Chatsworth House has not only
been nominated to be among the icons, the estate is consistently listed on the website as
among the Peak District’s best features.188
As for the local communities, Chatsworth has and continues to be a large part of their
local identity, particularly in the case of the estate villages, such as Edensor, which was
demolished and rebuilt during the 1750s, then remodeled in the 1830s, all at the expense the
183
‘Neighbourhood Statistics: Chatsworth Ward: Key Figures for People and Society: Population and
Migration’, in Office for National Statistics <http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/
LeadKeyFigures.do?a=7&b=6177887&c=chatsworth&d=14&e=13&g=434189&i=1001x1003x1004&m=0&r=
1&s=1309463143854&enc=1 [accessed 30 June 2011].
184
‘Chatsworth Scoops Two Top Tourism Awards’, (para. 1-3 of 12).
185
‘Welcome to the Treasure Houses of England’, in The Treasure Houses of England
<http://www.treasurehouses.co.uk/goto.php?sess=+A5E514619+F59+F18435A52&id=17>
[accessed 4 July 2011].
186
‘A History of Chatsworth and the Cavendish Family’, pp. 2-4.
187
‘Icons Ethos’, in Icons: A Portrait of England <http://www.icons.org.uk/> [accessed 1 July 2011]
(para. 2 of 8).
188
‘Chatsworth House’, in Icons: A Portrait of England <http://www.icons.org.uk/nom/nominations/
chatsworth-house> [accessed 1 July 2011].
35
Cavendish family.189 Granted, this was all done at the whim of
the Dukes, most likely the main driving factor being the
Chatsworth House Trust
Charitable Donations
Year
Amount
2005
£50,000
of the living conditions of the villagers. Even though
2006
£25,000
historically the relationship between estate and villages has not
2007
£23,750
always been beneficial for the villagers, the estate has provided
2008
£24,500
not only employment opportunities, but also housing over the
2009
£95,000
Total
£218,250
improvement of their estate’s image than that of the betterment
centuries. This
tradition continues even today, as, according to the CHT, most
of the Chatsworth employees and former employees live in
villages either “wholly or part owned” by the Chatsworth
Figure 3.7: ‘Chatsworth House
Trust: Charitable Donations’, by
Author, based on statistics from
the 2005 – 2009 ‘Chatsworth
House Trust Annual Report’..
Settlement Trustees.190 In addition to the housing connection,
CHT also contributes to charities with connections to the local area. Between 2005 and 2009,
the CHT donated over £218,000 to organizations (see Figure 3. 7), among them the
Devonshire Educational Trust.191 The Devonshire Education Trust is dedicated to “providing
education about the economic, environmental, social and cultural contributions that landed
country estates make to … society”, and despite being set up by the Cavendish family, is not
a part of the Chatsworth estate.192 It does however work closely with the CHT, and
coordinates the estate’s Countryside Days for schools, in which “over one thousand local
primary school children are invited to visit the park free of charge over two days”.193 During
the program, “each outdoor department puts on a display for an exhibition to demonstrate and
explain their work”.194 Through activities such as these, the estate maintains a strong and
active presence in the local community.
Through such actions, and the fact that Chatsworth is still very much a working estate
with the original family still in residence, the stately home seems to retain the grandeur of its
original purpose, as a statement of power and wealth, even though its main function is now
that of a tourist attraction. Tourists, through the act of visiting, get to experience this element
of English heritage which remains mostly intact, and, as Kirshenblatt-Gimblett states, it is this
experience which makes Chatsworth House so successful as a heritage site.195 Touring the
189
Naylor, pp. 47-48.
191
192
‘The Chatsworth Estate’, p. 8
193
Ibid.
194
Ibid.
195
Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, p. 140.
190
36
house, visitors are presented with such sites as sweeping
staircases (see Figure 3.8), richly decorated and furnished rooms
(see Figure 3.9), countless works of art by renowned artists as
well as a sculpture gallery, all of which reinforce the extravagant
existence of generations of Cavendishs who enjoyed not only the
comfortable existence which accompanies inhabiting so opulent
a house, but the social status such an estate ensures. Through
this display, the social values associated with what Smith
describes as “aristocratic deference” are transmitted to
Figure 3.8: ‘The Ceremonial
Entrance Hall at Chatsworth
House’, photograph by
Author, 30 May 2011.
tourists.196 In fact, these communicated
social values could even be considered
a part of the overall allure of
Chatsworth; this ability to actively participate in an atmosphere
reminiscent of the aristocracy’s golden age, and, thereafter, be able
to return to the car park and resume interactions within the
convenience of the modern world. By providing visitors, in a sense,
escapism, the CHT has created a successful heritage site that people
want to interact with, and it is the continued support of these people
that the CHT is relying upon to secure the future of Chatsworth
House.
Figure 3.9: ‘The Chapel
at Chatsworth House’,
photograph by Author,
30 May 2011.
The Future and Sustainability of Chatsworth House:
There is no doubt that Chatsworth house is currently a successful heritage site, run as
an efficient stately home business, while, at the same time, continuing its traditional role as
family residence and working estate. It was, in fact, Chatsworth House which served as the
inspiration for the National Trust’s ‘bringing places to life’ strategy, designed to draw more
visitors to their properties.197 As Sir Jenkins explained: “The great thing at Chatsworth is that
the Duke lives there and the Duchess wanders around with the visitors”.198 While Chatsworth
might serve as inspiration for other stately home owners, the CHT is not complacent; it is
evolving to meet the wants and needs of today’s tourist. The CHT continues to create new
events and exhibitions to keep visitors coming, including workshops covering topics such as
keeping chickens and textile design, plant sales, car rallies, horse trials, theatre performances
196
Valerie Elliott, ‘Trust me, we need more risk, less health and safety, says new chief’, in The Times,
22 November 2008, p. 6.
198
Ibid.
197
37
and concerts.199 It is not only through embracing new tactics that Chatsworth is changing
though. In some cases, the CHT is using the history of the estate to its advantage, as with the
farmyard that has been designed to educate visitors about “the lifecycles and ultimate uses of
the commercial livestock on the estate”.200 Also, the three hundred year old water system (see
Figure 3.10) is now used to power turbines, “which in turn generate about 25 percent of the
house’s electricity”.201 As Girouard notes, when Chatsworth was remodeled by the 1st Duke,
it was “introducing country folk to the latest fashions and trends from the city and court.
Today Chatsworth teaches city folk the ways of the country”.202 It is by embracing both its
past as one of the grandest stately homes in England and its present as one of the most visited
heritage sites, that Chatsworth is prepared for its future.
Figure 3.10: ‘The Cascade at Chatsworth’,
photograph by Author, 30 May 2011.
199
‘All Events’, in Chatsworth <http://www.chatsworth.org/whats-on/all-events> [accessed 1 July 2011].
201
202
Girouard, pp. 9-10.
200
38
Chapter F our
“Save It, Sh ape It !”: 203
Seaton Delaval H all
The most dramatic house in England and the most romantic…
- Francis Ashkam204
Situated near the coast of Northumberland between Blyth and Whitley Bay, Seaton
Delaval Hall is a surprising sight for an area of England known more for coal mining than
stately homes. From the front entrance of the house, the North Sea, only under a mile away,
can be seen in the distance, and while the Hall is surrounded by 400 acres of land, it sits only
a few hundred yards from a main road, visible for all to see (see Figure 4.1). Recently
acquired by the National Trust through a rigorous, locally based fundraising campaign titled
‘Save It, Shape It’, the Hall will now serve as a much needed tourist attraction in a nonaffluent and visitor poor area, as well as a valuable community resource. Also through the
campaign, the local residents have had the opportunity to shape the visitor experience at
Seaton Delaval Hall by expressing their views on what should be offered at this new heritage
site. True to Ashkam’s description of the house, the story of how Seaton Delaval Hall was
saved is just as dramatic and romantic as its history, as well as being an example of a possible
solution for safeguarding the future of the English country house as a heritage site.
Figure 4.1: ‘Seaton Delaval Hall’, photography by Author, 6 June 2011, by kind permission of NTPL.
203
‘Save It, Shape It!’ is the title of the campaign the National Trust launched to fundraise for the acquisition of
Seaton Delaval Hall. See: ‘Seaton Delaval Hall: Save It, Shape It’, in National Trust, <http://www.nationaltrust.
org.uk/main/w-global/w-localtoyou/w-yorkshire_ne/w-appeals-sdlh-2.htm> [accessed 9 July 2011].
204
Francis Askham, The Gay Delavals (London: Jonathan Cape, 1955), p. 13.
39
A Brief History of Seaton Delaval Hall:
The Delavals, for which the Hall is named, had been in the Northumberland region
since the twelfth century, and were the direct descendants of Hamo de la Val, who had come
to England with William the Conqueror a century before.205 In 1717, the Seaton Delaval
estate was purchased by Admiral George Delaval (see Figure 4.2) from his impoverished
cousin Sir John Delaval.206 Shortly thereafter, Admiral Delaval, who had made his vast
fortune at sea, commissioned John Vanbrugh, the architect behind such grand houses as
Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard, to either remodel the current house or build a
completely new stately home to serve as a place for
entertaining.207 Vanbrugh decided the latter was
necessary, and work began around 1721 on the new
house.208 Vanbrugh described the Admiral as being, “very
Gallant in his operations not being dispos’d to starve the
Design at all”.209 With an agreeable, rich bachelor for a
client, Vanbrugh was able to create what many consider to
be his masterpiece.210 Seaton Delaval Hall has, as Vita
Sackville-West describes, “all the grand manner in
miniature”, with its symmetrical side-wings and perfectly
proportioned façade. 211 It is an example of the short-lived
English Baroque style at its finest. Unfortunately, neither
architect nor client would live to see the completion of the
house, and it was Captain Francis Blake Delaval, the
Figure 4.2: ‘Admiral George Delaval’
(1660-1723) by Godfrey Kneller,
painting at Seaton Delaval Hall,
Northumberland.
©NTPL/John Hammond
Admiral’s nephew and heir to the estate, who completed the works around 1728.212
Askham characterizes the Delavals as being “one of the wildest, most extravagant and
unluckiest of families to entertain the eighteenth century”.213 Captain Delaval fathering eight
sons and three daughters, the majority of which were fond of amateur theatrics.214 At one
time, Parliament closed to allow members to watch the infamous Delavals perform Othello at
205
Ibid., p. 21.
Jeremy Musson, The Country Houses of Sir John Vanbrugh: from the archives of Country Life (London:
Aurum Press, 2008), p. 129.
207
Geoffrey Beard, The Work of John Vanbrugh (London: B.T. Batsford Ltd., 1986), p. 64.
208
Musson, p. 129.
209
Ibid., p. 130.
210
Ibid., p. 129.
211
Sackville-West, p. 43.
212
Beard, p. 66.
213
Askham, p. 14.
214
Ibid., p. 33.
206
40
the Drury Lane theatre in London.215 At the Hall, the Delaval family fulfilled Admiral
Delaval’s vision for an entertainment palace and hosted numerous wild parties, some of
which, according to John Piper, included, “pantomimes, dancing bears, bull baitings,
gamblings, tilts and tournaments”.216 After Captain Delaval, who reportedly fell down the
front stairs of the Hall while heavily intoxicated and later died from a fracture in his leg,217
the estate passed to his eldest son Sir Francis Delaval, a notorious spendthrift, who proceeded
to sell the estate to his brother, John Hussey Delaval. 218 In 1814, after the death of Edward
Delaval, Francis and John’s brother and the last remaining heir (John’s only son died after
being kicked by what Piper describes as “an unwilling laundry maid”),219 the Hall was passed
out of the direct Delaval line and to a cousin, Sir Jacob Astley.220 In 1822, the main part of the
house was severely damaged by fire, rendering it, to
this day, uninhabitable (see Figure 4.3).221 SackvilleWest describes the burnt Main Hall as a place, “where
nothing echoes but one’s own footsteps, the leprous
plaster hangs loosely above niches and the broken
statues of Music, Painting, Geography, Sculpture,
Architecture and Astronomy”.222 The house remained
mostly unaltered and uninhabited, with the exception
of serving as a prison camp during World War II, until
the late Lord and Lady Hastings began to repair the
Hall in the 1950’s, creating living quarters in the west
Figure 4.3: ‘The Main Hall of Seaton
Delaval Hall’, photograph by Author, 6
June 2011, by kind permission of NTPL.
wing and reinstating the formal gardens.223 Lord and
Lady Hastings both passed away in 2007, and their son,
the 23rd Lord Hastings, inherited the estate. 224
215
‘Seaton Delaval Hall: 900 Years of History’, in National Trust <http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/wvh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-seaton-delaval-hall/w-seaton_delaval-history.htm> [accessed 1 June 2011] (para. 13
of 29).
216
John Piper, Buildings and Prospects (London: The Architectural Press, 1948), p. 88.
217
Askham, p. 19.
218
Emile de Bruijn, ‘Ups and Downs at Seaton Delaval’, in Treasure Hunt: National Trust Collections
<http://nttreasurehunt.wordpress.com/2010/07/21/ups-and-downs-at-seaton-delaval/> [accessed 18 June 2011]
(para. 8 of 12).
219
Piper, p. 88.
220
Askham, p. 236.
221
Kerry Downes, Vanbrugh (London: A. Zwemmer Ltd., 1977), p. 102.
222
Sackville-West, p. 43.
223
‘Seaton Delaval Hall: 900 Years of History’, (para. 23 of 29).
224
Ibid.
41
The Economics of Seaton Delaval Hall:
Along with the new Lord Hastings’ inheritance came £4.9 million in death duties, and
as he did not want to relocate to the estate, Lord Hastings resolved to sell the house and the
surrounding land.225 As Piper foretold, writing in 1948 that the Hall “would deal with
consignment to the National Trust”,226 the new Lord Hastings began negotiations to sell the
property to the Trust. Speaking with a local reporter from the News Guardian, he stated “I am
very keen to see his [the late Lord Hastings’] vision continued and to safeguard the future of
the house, therefore I would like to give the National Trust every opportunity to acquire the
property”.227 While the government agreed to accept the property in lieu of inheritance tax
under the Acceptance in Lieu scheme, then gift the house to the National Trust, around £9.9
million was still needed to secure the Hall, create an endowment fund and to cover any
necessary costs associated with preparing the estate to be open to visitors.228 The National
Trust agreed to contribute £6.9 million to the cause to create the endowment fund, the largest
amount the Trust has ever pledged for any acquisition, but only under two conditions. 229
According to Sadie Parker, the Public Relations and Communications Consultant for National
Trust North East, the National Trust trustees would only support the acquisition of the Hall if
the land surrounding the house was also secured to “conserve the historic landscape”, and,
most importantly, only “if the community wanted us [the Trust] to do so”.230 As a result of
this requirement, the ‘Save It, Shape It!’ campaign was launched in July 2008 to not only
raise the remaining £3 million through an ambitious and ultimately successful fundraising
campaign, but also to learn what the local community wanted the Trust to do with the stately
home once it became a heritage site.231 The ‘Shape It’ element of the campaign is discussed in
greater detail in the following section.
Before the Trust agreed to support the acquisition of the Seaton Delaval Hall and the
launch of the ‘Save it, Shape it!’, they completed an economic impact assessment of the
communities surrounding the Hall to gauge “what impact the National Trust’s acquisition of
Seaton Delaval Hall would have on the local community in terms of bringing in tourism,
225
Maev Kennedy, ‘Public appeal helps save Seaton Delaval Hall’, The Guardian, 17 December 2009.
Piper, p. 88.
227
‘Appeal to raise £6.2m to buy stately home’, News Guardian, 4 July 2008
<http://www.newsguardian.co.uk/news/local/appeal_to_raise_163_6_2m_to_buy_stately_home_1_1594715>
[accessed 12 May 2011] (para. 22 of 29).
228
Tony Henderson, ‘Hall is Saved for Nation’, Evening Chronicle, 17 December 2009, section A, p. 24.
229
‘Frequently Asked Questions’, in National Trust <http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/wfindaplace/w-seaton-delaval-hall/w-seaton_delaval-saveit/w-seaton_delaval-latest_news/w-seaton_delavalfaqs.htm> [accessed 4 July 2011] (para. 5 of 20).
230
Sadie Parker, Public Relations and Communications Consultant for National Trust North East, interview by
Author, taped recording, 17 June 2011.
231
Ibid.
226
42
and… improving the economy of the area”.232 This was a necessary step in the process, as the
local area surrounding Seaton Delaval Hall is neither affluent nor popular with tourists.
Historically a coal mining community and a shipping port, which the Delaval family was
actively involved in and profited greatly from,233 the area suffered with the decline of the coal
mining industry in the 1980s and 1990s.234 As of 2007, the unemployment rate in the area
was 6.9 percent, 1.5 percent higher than the national rate, and the average weekly gross pay
amounted to £82.50 less than the national average.235 While hotels and restaurants industries
rank among the largest employers in the region, this is not indicative of a large heritage
tourism economy.236 The North East of England in general is not a popular destination among
tourists, receiving the least international visitors and visitor income of any region in England
according to the 2009 International Passenger Survey results.237 Of the 225,000 overseas
tourists that visited the North East in 2009, only 12 percent visited a historic home, while 67
percent visited a pub.238 As for the local population’s prior support of heritage sites before
Seaton Delaval Hall, as Jane Blackburn, the Cultural Coordinator for the Northumberland
Strategic Partnership, notes, most “have never visited a Trust property”.239
This did not stop the local community from supporting the saving of Seaton Delaval
Hall though. Around 30,000 locals participated in hundreds of fundraising activities, which
ranged from an auction of a local artist’s work which raised £15,000, to 50 Scouts sponsoring
a walk which raised £720, 240 to a local girl abstaining from using her cellular phone for a
week and donating the amount she would have spent to the campaign.241 The campaign even
included a video tour of the house with television presenter Dan Snow.242 The
Northumberland County Council donated £100,000 to the cause, 243 as well as created an
232
Ibid.
John and Thomas Delaval invented the ‘Sluice Gate’, which Seaton Sluice is named for, to allow coal barges
to more easily access the harbor. See: ‘Seaton Delaval Hall: 900 Years of History’, (para. 16 of 29).
234
Government Office for the North East, ‘Local Authority Area Profile: Blyth Valley’, in Government Office
Network < http://www.gos.gov.uk/nestore/docs/ourregion/laps/blyth_valley.pdf> [accessed 4 July 2011], p. 4.
235
Ibid., pp. 6-10.
236
Ibid., p. 9.
237
‘Activities Undertaken by Visitors from Overseas in Different Areas of the UK: Updated November 2010’, in
VisitBritain <http://www.visitbritain.org/Images/Activities%20by%20Area%20of%20the%20UK_tcm2914612.pdf> [accessed 9 June 2011], p. 7.
238
Ibid., pp. 3-7.
239
Jon Henley, ‘G2: Welcome to the new village hall: The look-but-don't-touch mantra is out. The National
Trust is undergoing a minor revolution. It wants to open up its land and houses to local people, be it for school
plays, camping or vegetable plots. And it's all starting in Northumberland’, The Guardian, 10 February 2011,
p. 6.
240
Tony Henderson, ‘How the Hall was Won’, The Journal, 17 December 2009, section A, p. 4.
241
Henley, p. 6.
242
‘Delaval TV’, in National Trust <http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-seatondelaval-hall/w-seaton_delaval-saveit/w-seaton_delaval-films.htm> [accessed 5 July 2011].
243
Henderson, ‘Hall is Saved for Nation’, p. 24.
233
43
online raffle for its staff members to raise additional funds.244 One North East, the regional
development agency, announced their donation of £1 million the same day that Their Royal
Highnesses The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall visited the Hall to support the
fundraising efforts. 245 In just eighteen months, the £3 million goal was achieved, and on 17
December 2009, the Trust announced their acquisition of Seaton Delaval Hall.
Seaton Delaval Hall opened to the public on 1 May 2010, and, in just six months,
65,000 people visited the estate,246 surpassing the Trust’s estimation of 40,000 visitors in the
first year of the Hall’s opening to the public.247 Unlike Chatsworth House, the Hall is not
relying on admission as the main source of funding. An adult ticket is just £4.40, and not
only is it not necessary to pass the ticket and shop office located near the parking lot, there
currently are not any ticket check points on site. While there is a café run by a local
restaurateur and a small gift shop, it is clear that the main function of this space is not that of
business enterprise. The greater economic impact Seaton Delaval Hall as a heritage site will
have on the local communities and the nation through drawing tourists to an area that
currently has no tourism industry is yet to been seen due to the Hall opening to the public
only recently. What is certain is that the local people who donated both money and time to
save the Hall are the same people who are now shaping what experiences the stately home
will offer both international and domestic visitors.
The Cultural Significance of Seaton Delaval Hall:
During the ‘Save It, Shape It!’ campaign, the National Trust took, as Parker notes,
“the consultative approach from the very start”.248 Instead of the Trust preserving and
presenting Seaton Delaval Hall in the standard fashion for stately homes, it is the
communities surrounding the Hall that are being given the opportunity to voice their opinions
and, ultimately, have their ideas for the use of the country house implemented; in other words,
a chance to ‘Shape It’. Over 100,000 people, “through tours, events, public meetings, phone
calls, online forums, social networking, emails and letters”, gave their view on what should be
offered at the site.249 This approach works well for the Hall, possibly due to estate’s unique
feature; the fire scarred Main Hall, which contains no furniture, paintings, or any of the
244
‘New Northumberland Council online raffle’, in JustGiving <http://www.justgiving.com/
seatondelavalhall_raffle/2> [accessed 2 July 2011].
245
Henderson, ‘How the Hall was Won’, p. 4.
246
‘One year on at Seaton Delaval Hall’, in One North East <http://www.onenortheast.co.uk/
page/news/article.cfm?articleid=4751&paneldisplay=true> [accessed 9 June 2011] (para. 4 of 10).
247
Henderson, ‘Hall is Saved for Nation’, p. 24.
248
Parker.
249
‘Have your say on our future plans!’, in National Trust <http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/
main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-seaton-delaval-hall/w-seaton_delaval-saveit/w-seaton_delavalfeedback.htm. [accessed 5 July 2011] (para 3 of 10).
44
contents traditionally found in a stately home. The open space lends itself to alternative uses,
allowing for activities other country houses cannot support. Suggestions for uses of Seaton
Delaval Hall range from a wedding venue, to an area to host medieval banquets, to a place
where exhibitions on “local people's history, especially workers, industry and military
connections”, can be displayed.250 Since acquiring the Hall, the Trust has appointed a
Community Engagement Officer to “engage the community in… everything that is happening
at the Hall” and discern “whether we [the Trust] are delivering what the community wants us
to deliver and, if not, … what else we can be doing”.251 In addition, an Events Coordinator
has recently been employed, who will be, according to Parker, “looking at putting on an
events program that’s very relevant to the local community because a lot of the consultation
that came back from the community talked about using the Hall, as a… flexible event
space”. 252 To date, the Trust has announced the Main Hall will be used as a performance
space, inspired from the house’s theatrical past residents, the salon will be able to be rented as
an exhibition space and the walled kitchen garden “will be restored through offering
gardening plots to schools, other community groups and visitors”.253 Local schools will also
be “making full use of the cellars and stables for acting, singing, dancing and storytelling”
and “the parish council aims to meet regularly in the dining room”.254
While Seaton Delaval Hall is an important part of English heritage and national
identity as it is, arguably, Vanbrugh’s finest architectural achievement, through the very act of
working to save and shape Seaton Delaval Hall, the local people have declared the country
house to be an important part of their community identity and heritage as well. While the
region is currently experiencing an economic downturn due to the closure of the coal mining
industry, regional community manager Mark Robinson notes, "20 years of decline don't
weigh up against 200 years of achievement. For people around here, this isn't 'Britain's
industrial heritage’. It's their family history".255 The local community’s enthusiasm for the
Hall is not just inspired by their history though. Seaton Delaval Hall was the private
residence of an aristocratic family for centuries, and both the Hall and its residents not only
witnessed the history of the surrounding communities, they helped shape it. Visitors are
reminded of this aristocratic connection on touring the west wing of the house, which is the
main element of the estate that is reminiscent of a typical country house, as it appears to be in
250
Ibid., (para. 5 of 10).
Parker.
252
Ibid.
253
‘Have your say on our future plans!’, (para. 9 of 10).
254
Henley, p. 6.
255
Ibid.
251
45
the same condition as when the late Lord and
Lady Hastings were in residence (see Figure
4.4). The 22nd Lord Hastings’ study,
unaltered since the time of his passing, is
only visible to visitors through a window, as
the room has been enclosed and preserved in
a shrine-like fashion. It is here that visitors
Figure 4.4: ‘West Wing of Seaton Delaval Hall’,
photograph by Author, 6 June 2011, by kind permission
of NTPL.
most experience Smith’s social value of
“aristocratic deference”, surrounded by the
fine furniture and Delaval family portraits.256 The Hall, therefore, offers visitors dual
experiences; that of the empty Main Hall and the multitude of activities which will take place
there, and that of the classic country house encapsulated in the west wing. Both areas reflect
Kirshenblatt-Gimblett’s argument that a stately home offers visitors a complete experience
that cannot be captured in any other setting. 257
The surrounding community is taking full advantage of these experiences, employing
the country house as both a traditional heritage site and as a community resource. This
perfectly reflects the Trust’s ‘Going Local’ strategy, to foster, as Sir Jenkins remarks, “local
pride and a genuine sense of belonging” through actively engaging community members to
participate in the preservation and presentation of local and national heritage.258 The Trust, by
embracing the local communities commitment to their own history, not only enabled the
country house to be saved, it also has given Seaton Delaval Hall’s neighbors a place to
experience, express and connect with their heritage and the values of their community on a
personal level.
The Future and Sustainability of Seaton Delaval Hall:
What the National Trust encountered during the ‘Save It, Shape It!’ campaign was an
overwhelmingly positive response from a community not traditionally associated with historic
houses. Seaton Delaval Hall is a successful test case for the Trust’s ‘Going Local’ strategy by
actively encouraging community members to become intimately involved with their
surrounding historic properties and environments. According to Parker, moving forward, the
Trust will take “an individual approach to every… potential acquisition”, and “local
community support for any acquisition… will be a vital element of … the decision making
256
Laurajane Smith, p. 43-44.
Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, p. 131.
258
Ibid.
257
46
process”.259 The Trust’s willingness to take different approaches to not only acquiring, but
also bringing these stately homes to life allows for creative techniques for involving
communities and for gauging the success of properties. While it may never bring in visitor
numbers and tourist expenditure figures like those of Chatsworth House, or be as iconic as
Castle Howard or Blenheim, two of Vanbrugh’s earlier works, Seaton Delaval Hall is a
successful heritage site just due to the fact that it brought a community together in support of
what they view as their heritage, which they wanted to preserve so generations of visitors will
be able to experience it well into the future. As the welcome sign to the stately home
declares: ‘Family home for over 900 years: Saved and inspired by you” (see Figure 4.5).
Figure 4.5: ‘Welcome to Seaton Delaval Hall Sign’, photograph by
Author, 6 June 2011, by kind permission of NTPL.
259
Parker.
47
Chapter F ive
Conclusion
The stately Homes of England, How beautiful they stand!
- Felicia Hemans260
The concept of the stately home as a heritage site, while a relatively new approach for
many estates, has been firmly embraced by not only the owners and organizations that strive
to preserve them, but also by the public, whose support is evident through the millions of
visits they make to English country houses annually. Rising visitor numbers, even during an
economic downturn, demonstrate the enduring popularity of these English icons among both
domestic and international tourists. As this work attempts to prove, the country house
functioning as a heritage site is much more than just a tourist attraction. The stately homes of
England are valuable assets, both in terms of economics and culture, to the nation and to the
local communities surrounding the estates. Economically, the country house’s impact is
evidenced through visitor expenditure and employment opportunities. While the exact figures
for the stately home’s contribution to these two areas cannot currently be calculated due to the
lack of information available on the number of country houses open to the public, the
contribution by country houses to the English economy can be estimated by examining them
within the wider context of the heritage tourism industry, which is estimated to generate £12.4
billion a year and provide 195,000 jobs. 261 Culturally, through providing a direct link to the
past which shaped the England of today, the country house has become embedded in the
heritage and identity of England as well as the local communities which surround the estates.
As English Heritage states, “we value the legacy of the past, our archeology and buildings,
because it tells us in an immediate way about who we are, because it is the principle evidence
and record of our history”.262 The more popular country houses with tourists are those that
offer a complete experience and connect with this history by continuing to house an
aristocratic family, as evidenced by Chatsworth House. The resident families bestow the
house with a “lived-in quality”, 263 and it is this quality, so popular with tourists, which the
260
The first line of Felicia Hemans’ poem ‘The Homes of England’, originally published in Blackwoods
Magazine in 1827, is the origin of the phrase ‘stately home’. See: ‘Stately’, in Oxford English Dictionary
<http://www.oed.com.ezproxy.lib.le.ac.uk/view/Entry/189258?redirectedFrom=stately%20home#eid20905813>
[accessed 10 July 2011] (section 4a).
261
Abramsky, p. 1.
262
English Heritage, Sustaining the Historic Environment.
263
Sayer, p. 20.
48
National Trust is trying to capture through their ‘Going Local’ strategy”.264 At the same time,
by choosing to experience this continuation of history, including that of the aristocratic
families who dominated England for centuries, visitors are embracing a particular view of
heritage, one which transmits certain social values, such as the veneration of the aristocracy.
While this is not representative of every member of the English population, challenges to this
view of heritage have been ignored and rejected, as documented by Smith.265 The experience
of the English country house is, therefore, enhanced through offering visitors the opportunity
to interact with a certain type of heritage, one which reflects the view of the middle class,
who constitute the majority of visitors.266 As rising visitor numbers prove, this has
not diminished the popularity of the country house; in fact, it might be part of their appeal.
While visitors are in abundance, a number of owners and organizations are looking for
alternative strategies to secure the future of the English country house as a heritage site. One
tactic is the use of green technology to lower operating costs as well as help save the
environment. Another approach being implemented is turning to the local communities for
support. By allowing greater access, encouraging neighbors to be involved in decisions and
promoting the use of the house to community groups, the English country house’s caretakers
are acknowledging the stately home’s future might lie not with the families who the house
was built to serve, but with the very people the house was built to be served by. Again, this
tactic is demonstrated by National Trust’s controversial ‘Going Local’ strategy, the premise
of which is embodied in the Trust’s ‘Save It, Shape It!’ campaign for Seaton Delaval Hall.267
Through the Trust’s unprecedented approach, the local community not only worked to save
the Hall, they are now the one’s constructing the experience of the country house to fit with
their vision of heritage and culture through presenting the Hall’s aristocratic past and their
community’s history.
The information presented in this dissertation provides evidence in support of the
conclusion that the English country house as a heritage site is a valuable part of the English
economy and culture. Why, then, is the English country house as a heritage site an underresearched topic? As a unique entity, a true understanding of its affects on the nation cannot
be completely understood through simply associating the country house with the heritage
tourism industry. What is needed is a more in-depth study to truly evaluate the country
house’s economic contribution, and to accomplish this, private owners and organizations such
as National Trust and the HHA will need to collaborate through sharing information,
264
National Trust, Going Local, p. 8.
266
Ibid., pp. 43-44.
267
‘Seaton Delaval Hall: Save It, Shape It’.
265
49
strategies and resources. While the economic impact should not overshadow the cultural
significance of the country house, or heritage sites in general, this seems to be the current
situation. As the numerous reports throughout this dissertation attest to, those responsible for
preserving the heritage sites of England are concentrating on the economic impact of the
heritage tourism sector in order to demonstrate the industry’s previously underestimated
contribution and garner financial support during a time when government funding is
diminishing. Ironically, it is the English country house’s cultural significance, to both the
nation and local communities, which is becoming increasingly important in fundraising
efforts. As the case of Seaton Delaval Hall demonstrates, it is the people’s love for these icons
of England which will secure their survival into the future (see Figure 5.1). Through the
combined support of owners, organizations, local communities and visitors, the country house
will continue to evolve and adapt, allowing one of England’s greatest treasures to stand for
centuries to come.
Figure 5.1 ‘Seaton Delaval Hall’. ©Northumbria Flying School/Mike Smith
50
Appendix A: Historic House Association (HHA) English Country House Members268
Country House, County
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
Adlington Hall, Cheshire
Alnwick Castle, Northumberland
Althorp, Northamptonshire
Arbury Hall, Warwickshire
Ardington House, Oxfordshire
Arley Hall , Cheshire
Arundel Castle, West Sussex
Ashridge, Hertfordshire
Avington Park, Hampshire
Beaulieu, Hampshire
Belmont, Kent
Belvoir Castle, Leicestershire
Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire
Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire
Bolton Castle, Yorkshire
Boughton House, Northamptonshire
Bowood House, Wiltshire
Bramall Hall, Cheshire
Breamore House, Hampshire
Brockfield Hall, Yorkshire
Broughton Castle, Oxfordshire
Browsholme Hall, Lancashire
Burghley House, Lincolnshire
Burton Agnes Hall, Yorkshire
Burton Constable Hall, Yorkshire
Caerhays Castle, Cornwall
Capesthorne Hall, Cheshire
Castle Howard, Yorkshire
Catton Hall, Derbyshire
Chatsworth, Derbyshire
Chavenage House, Gloucestershire
Chawton House, Hampshire
Chenies Manor House, Buckinghamshire
Chiddingstone Castle, Kent
Chillingham Castle, Northumberland
Chillington Hall, Staffordshire
Chipchase Castle, Northumberland
Claydon Estate, Buckinghamshire
Cobham Hall, Kent
Combe Sydenham Hall, Somerset
Compton Verney, Warwickshire
Constable Burton Hall, Yorkshire
Corsham Court, Wiltshire
Cottesbrooke Hall, Northamptonshire
Coughton Court, Warwickshire
Cowdray Ruins, West Sussex
Dalemain, Cumbria
Danson House, Kent
Deene Park, Northamptonshire
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
268
Doddington Hall, Lincolnshire
Dorfold Hall, Cheshire
Dorney Court, Berkshire
Downes, Devon
Duncombe Park, Yorkshire
Eastnor Castle, Herefordshire
Elton Hall, Northamptonshire
Englefield House, Berkshire
Euston Hall, Suffolk
Fairfield, Somerset
Finchcocks, Kent
Firle Place, East Sussex
Forde Abbey, Dorset
Fulham Palace, London
Fursdon, Devon
Glemham Hall, Suffolk
Glynde Place, East Sussex
Godinton House, Kent
Goodwood House, West Sussex
Gorhambury House, Hertfordshire
Grimsthorpe Castle, Lincolnshire
Haddon Hall, Derbyshire
Hagley Hall, Worcestershire
Hall Place, Kent
Hampton Court Castle, Herefordshire
Hamptworth Lodge, Wiltshire
Hardwicke Court, Gloucestershire
Harewood House, Yorkshire
Haughley Park, Suffolk
Hellens, Herefordshire
Hever Castle, Kent
Highclere Castle, Berkshire
Highcliffe Castle, Dorset
Hoghton Tower, Lancashire
Holdenby House, Northamptonshire
Hole Park, Kent
Holker Hall, Cumbria
Holkham Hall, Norfolk
Houghton Hall, Norfolk
Hovingham Hall, Yorkshire
Hutton-in-the-Forest, Cumbria
Ingatestone Hall, Essex
Isel Hall, Cumbria
Kelmarsh Hall, Northamptonshire
Kelmscott Manor, Gloucestershire
Kentwell Hall, Suffolk
Kings Weston House, Somerset
Kingston Bagpuize House, Oxfordshire
Kiplin Hall, Yorkshire
The chart is created from information obtained from the HHA’s website. See: ‘Visit a Property’, in Historic
Houses Association <http://www.hha.org.uk/Search/type/visit> [accessed 9 June 2011].
51
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
Knebworth House, Hertfordshire
Lamport Hall, Northamptonshire
Layer Marney Tower, Essex
Leeds Castle, Kent
Leighton Hall, Lancashire
Levens Hall, Cumbria
Longleat House, Wiltshire
Longner Hall, Shropshire
Loseley Park, Surrey
Lulworth Castle, Dorset
Mapperton, Dorset
Markenfield Hall, Yorkshire
Melbourne Hall, Derbyshire
Meols Hall, Merseyside
Millgate House, Yorkshire
Moggerhanger Park, Bedfordshire
Muncaster Castle, Cumbria
Nether Winchendon House, Buckinghamshire
Newby Hall, Yorkshire
Norton Conyers, Yorkshire
Nunwell House, Isle of Wight
Orchard Wyndham, Somerset
Owlpen Manor, Gloucestershire
Parham Park, West Sussex
Pencarrow, Cornwall
Peover Hall, Cheshire
Port Eliot, Cornwall
Powderham Castle, Devon
Prideaux Place, Cornwall
Raby Castle, Durham
Ragley Hall, Warwickshire
Renishaw Hall, Derbyshire
Ripley Castle, Yorkshire
Rockingham Castle, Leicestershire
Rode Hall, Cheshire
Rodmarton Manor, Gloucestershire
Rokeby Park, Durham
Samlesbury Hall, Lancashire
Sand, Devon
Scampston Hall, Yorkshire
Sezincote, Gloucestershire
Shaw House, Berkshire
Sherborne Castle, Dorset
Shipton Hall, Shropshire
Sion Hill Hall, Yorkshire
Sledmere House, Yorkshire
Somerleyton Hall, Suffolk
Squerryes Court, Kent
Stanford Hall, Leicestershire
Stansted Park, West Sussex
Stanway House, Gloucestershire
Stock Gaylard House, Dorset
Stonor Park, Oxfordshire
Stowe House, Buckinghamshire
Stratfield Saye, Hampshire
Sudeley Castle, Gloucestershire
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
52
Sufton Court, Herefordshire
Sutton Park, Yorkshire
Syon House, Middlesex
Taplow Court, Berkshire
Tatton Park, Cheshire
Temple Newsam House, Yorkshire
Titsey Place, Surrey
Trewithen, Cornwall
Turvey House, Bedfordshire
Ugbrooke Park, Devon
Upton Cressett Hall, Shropshire
Walcot Hall, Shropshire
Weston Park, Shropshire
Whatton House, Leicestershire
Whitmore Hall, Staffordshire
Whittington Court, Gloucestershire
Wilton House, Wiltshire
Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire
Wolfeton House, Dorset
Wolterton Park, Norfolk
Appendix B: Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) English Country House Members Visitor Numbers269
English Country House
53
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
269
Attingham Park
Audley End House
Baddesley Clinton
Beaulieu
Belton House
Blenheim Palace
Burghley House
Calke Abbey
Castle Howard
Chartwell
Chatsworth House
Cotehele
Cragside Estate
Dunham Massey
Dyrham Park
Hardwick Hall
Harewood House
Holkham Hall
Home Farm Wimpole
Ickworth
Kenwood House
Killerton
Kingston Lacy
Lanhydrock
Leeds Castle
Montacute House
Mottisfont
Polesden Lacey
Stourhead
Sudbury Hall
Tyntesfield
Waddesdon Manor
Wakehurst Place
Woburn Abbey
Total / Median %
2010 Visitor
Numbers
277,428
120,102
130,696
354,048
264,239
524,593
96,855
247,207
216,566
188,705
716,616
129,486
189,280
196,219
135,920
165,150
247,745
29,459
132,477
159,777
128,783
161,196
203,488
210,362
559,261
125,008
189,072
246,537
361,730
159,178
123,440
323,450
402,180
68,930
7,785,183
2009 Visitor
Numbers
260,035
99,552
131,165
351,975
249,323
537,120
98,411
239,748
232,871
194,323
652,969
132,467
225,823
155,085
137,553
153,010
241,052
N/A
138,769
179,035
116,454
145,662
190,288
214,274
646,801
110,529
162,165
262,176
356,816
165,851
104,451
347,139
456,285
65,937
7,755,114
2008 Visitor
Numbers
216,483
N/A
118,116
312,279
199,548
374,021
86,247
86,247
207, 201
173,764
553,000
118,057
173,757
116,694
124,024
139,360
226,067
N/A
117,977
158,332
105,690
131,881
161,654
97,055
578,072
107,269
134,740
220,680
339,023
177,556
100,991
334,498
442,130
77,771
6,302,983
% Change from
2009 to 2010
6.27%
17.11%
-0.36%
0.59%
5.64%
-2.39%
-1.61%
3.02%
-7.53%
-2.98%
8.88%
-2.30%
-19.31%
20.96%
-1.20%
7.35%
2.70%
N/A
-4.75%
-12.05%
9.57%
9.64%
6.49%
-1.86%
-15.65%
11.58%
14.23%
-6.34%
1.36%
-4.19%
15.38%
-7.32%
-13.45%
4.34%
0.59%
% Change from
2008 to 2009
16.75%
N/A
9.95%
11.28%
19.96%
30.37%
12.36%
64.03%
11.02%
10.58%
15.31%
10.88%
23.06%
24.75%
9.84%
8.92%
6.22%
N/A
14.98%
11.56%
9.24%
9.46%
15.05%
54.71%
10.63%
2.95%
16.91%
15.83%
4.99%
-7.06%
3.31%
3.64%
3.10%
-17.95%
10.95%
% Change from
2008 to 2010
21.97%
N/A
9.63%
11.80%
24.48%
28.70%
10.95%
65.11%
4.32%
7.92%
22.83%
8.83%
8.20%
40.53%
8.75%
15.62%
8.75%
N/A
10.95%
0.90%
17.93%
18.19%
20.56%
53.86%
-3.36%
14.19%
28.74%
10.49%
6.28%
-11.55%
18.19%
-3.42%
-9.93%
-12.83%
10.95%
This chart is created from information obtained from the ALVA’s website. See: ‘Visitor Statistics’, in Association of Leading Visitor Attractions
<http://www.alva.org.uk/visitor_statistics/> [accessed 9 June 2011].
Admission Charge to
Visit House
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Appendix C: List of National Trust’s English Country Houses270
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire
Antony, Cornwall
Ashdown House, Berkshire
Attingham Park, Shropshire
Baddesley Clinton, Warwickshire
Barrington Court, Somerset
Basildon Park, Berkshire
Belton House, Lincolnshire
Beningbrough Hall, North Yorkshire
Benthall Hall, Shropshire
Berrington Hall, Herefordshire
Blickling Estate, Norfolk
Bodiam Castle, East Sussex
Bradley, Devon
Brockhampton Estate, Herefordshire
Buckland Abbey, Devon
Buscot Park, Oxfordshire
Calke Abbey, Derbyshire
Canons Ashby, Northamptonshire
Castle Drogo, Devon
Charlecote Park, Warwickshire
Chastleton House, Oxfordshire
Clandon Park, Surrey
Claydon, Buckinghamshire
Clevedon Court, North Somerset
Cliveden, Buckinghamshire
Compton Castle, Devon
Cotehele, Cornwall
Coughton Court, Warwickshire
Cragside, Northumberland
Croft Castle, Herefordshire
Dudmaston Estate, Shropshire
Dunham Massey, Cheshire
Dunster Castle, Somerset
Dyrham Park, Gloucestershire
East Riddlesden Hall, West Yorkshire
Farnborough Hall, Oxfordshire
Felbrigg Hall, Norfolk
Gawthorpe Hall, Lancashire
Godolphin, Cornwall
Great Chalfield Manor, Wiltshire
Greys Court, Oxfordshire
Ham House, Surrey
Hanbury Hall, Worcestershire
Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire
Hatchlands Park, Surrey
Hinton Ampner, Hampshire
Hughenden Manor, Buckinghamshire
Ickworth, Suffolk
Ightham Mote, Kent
Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
270
Killerton, Devon
Kingston Lacy, Dorset
Knightshayes Court, Devon
Knole, Kent
Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire
Lanhydrock, Cornwall
Little Moreton Hall, Cheshire
Lodge Park, Gloucestershire
Lyme Park, Cheshire
Montacute House, Somerset
Morville Hall, Shropshire
Mottisfont, Hampshire
Moulton Hall, North Yorkshire
Newark Park, Gloucestershire
Nostell Priory, West Yorkshire
Nunnington Hall, North Yorkshire
Nymans, West Sussex
Ormesby Hall, Redcar & Cleveland
Osterley Park and House, Middlesex
Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk
Packwood House, Warwickshire
Petworth House, West Sussex
Philipps House, Wiltshire
Polesden Lacey, Surrey
Rufford Old Hall, Lancashire
Saltram, Devon
Scotney Castle, Kent
Seaton Delaval Hall, Northumberland
Shugborough Estate, Staffordshire
Sizergh Castle, Cumbria
Speke Hall, Liverpool
Stourhead, Wiltshire
Sudbury Hall, Derbyshire
Sunnycroft, Shropshire
Tattershall Castle, Lincolnshire
Tatton Park, Cheshire
The Vyne, Hampshire
Trerice , Cornwall
Tyntesfield, North Somerset
Uppark House, West Sussex
Upton House, Warwickshire
Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire
Wakehurst Place, West Sussex
Wallington, Northumberland
West Wycombe Park, Buckinghamshire
Wilderhope Manor, Shropshire
Wimpole Estate, Cambridgeshire
Chart is created from information obtained on the National Trust’s website. See: ‘Find a Place to Visit’, in
National Trust <http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-beta-map.htm> [accessed 14 June 2011].
54
Appendix D: List of English Heritage’s English Country Houses271
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
Apethorpe Hall, Northamptonshire
Appuldurcombe House, Isle of Wight
Auckland Castle Deer House, Durham
Audley End House and Gardens, Essex
Belsay Hall, Castle and Gardens, Northumberland
Brodsworth Hall and Gardens, South Yorkshire
Burton Agnes Manor House, Yorkshire
Gainsborough Old Hall, Lincolnshire
Hill Hall, Essex
Kirby Hall, Northamptonshire
Osborne House, Isle of Wight
Prudhoe Castle, Northumberland
Sutton Scarsdale Hall, Derbyshire
The Grange at Northington, Hampshire
Walmer Castle and Gardens, Kent
Witley Court and Gardens, Worcestershire
Wrest Park, Bedforshire
271
Chart is created from information obtained on English Heritage’s website. See: ‘Properties Map’, in English
Heritage <http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/> [accessed 14 June 2011].
55
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63

Country House Revisited

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