It was demolished in 1921. Selling the Hope diamond and other properties failed to solve the family problems, leaving no alternative but demolition of the huge, expensive-to-maintain house, which was razed to the ground in 1938, leaving the Duke without a ducal seat. From 1914 onwards there had been a huge exodus away from a life in domestic service; having experienced the less restricted and better paid life away from the great estates, few were anxious to return – this in itself was a further reason that life in the English country house was becoming near impossible to all but the very rich. [25] The small, but vocal, public resistance to this plan caused the Duke of Rutland to write an irate letter to The Times accusing the objectors of "impudence" and going on to say "....fancy my not being allowed to make a necessary alteration to Haddon without first obtaining the leave of some inspector". The Italianate Trentham was so lavish that the Shah of Persia in 1873 remarked to the future King Edward VII, of their host "too grand for a subject, you'll have to have his head off when you come to the throne." Copped Hall - Wikipedia His country house at Sudbourne Hall, near Suffolk ">Orford, Suffolk , (with 50 rooms, owned 1904-1916 by the millionaire parents of Kenneth Clark ) was demolished in 1951. The root of the problem began long before the 20th century with the gradual introduction and increase of taxes on income and further tax on inherited wealth, death duties. After the initial opening of Longleat, the Dukes of Marlborough, Devonshire and Bedford threw open the doors of Blenheim Palace, Chatsworth House and what remained of Woburn Abbey. In the early 19th century, Jane Austen records such a trip in chapter 43 of Pride and Prejudice, where Elizabeth and her aunt and uncle are given a guided tour of Mr Darcy's Pemberley by the housekeeper. In fact, the buying of land in earlier times, before the reforms of 1885, to expand political territory had had a detrimental effect on country houses too. Most are by unknown or little known architects. The demolitions were not confined to England, but spread throughout Britain. On the eve of ‘The Destruction of the Country House’ exhibition, an aspiring writer traced the social and economic reasons for the decline of the English country house and described the dangers that threatened those remaining. There were, however, reasons other than public indifference. By 1884 Estate Duty taxed property of any manner bequeathed at death, but even when the Liberal government in 1894 reformed and tidied the complicated system at 8% on properties valued at over one million pounds, they were not punitive to a social class able to live comfortably off inherited wealth far below that sum. The catalyst for the 1913 Act had been the threat to Tattersall Castle, Lincolnshire. Much later during the 1950s, the 9th Duke moved to Wiltshire making. [1]. Thus the national power of the landed aristocrats and gentry was slowly diminished. While these agreements did not divest the owner of the title to the property, they imposed on the civil authority an obligation to maintain and preserve for the nation. Sep 14, 2012 - Destruction of country houses in 20th-century Britain - Wikipedia Only the orangery wings – to the left of the photograph – remain, and they are today Grade I listed. The number of demolitions was small prior to World War I but had become considerable by 1955, when one house was demolished every five days. Many considered passing their houses to the National Trust and subsequently received a visit from the Trust's representative, the diarist James Lees-Milne. It was saved by being transformed into a school. [49] This was the political climate in which many families abandoned the houses their families had owned for generations. The destruction of country houses in 20th-century Britain was a phenomenon brought about by a change in social conditions during which a large number of country houses of varying architectural merit were demolished by their owners. Occasionally an aristocrat of the first rank did find himself in dire financial troubles. [21] Not all were so fortunate or seemingly eligible. The demolitions were not confined to England, but spread throughout Britain. Thus, following the cessation of hostilities, the trickle of demolitions which had begun in the earlier part of the century, now became a torrent of destruction. Sixteen years earlier the Duke of Bedford had reduced Woburn Abbey to half its original size, destroying façades and interiors by both Henry Flitcroft and Henry Holland. The British nobility had been demolishing their country houses since the 15th century, when comfort replaced fortification as an essential need. Two years before the beginning of World War I, on 4 May 1912, the British magazine Country Life carried a seemingly unremarkable advertisement: the roofing balustrade and urns from the roof of Trentham Hall could be purchased for £200. Had it included them, much that was destroyed before World War II could have been saved. The ‘Destruction of the Country House‘ laid bare the scale and depth of the losses the UK had suffered, showing how four centuries of architectural tradition and achievement in country houses had been severely damaged by the depredations of the 20th-Century. Former buildings and structures in the United Kingdom, British country houses destroyed in the 20th century, Ancient Monument and Amendment Acts of 1882, Royal Commission of Ancient and Historical Monuments, Destruction of the Country House exhibition, National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, Category:British country houses destroyed in the 20th century, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/3578853/Country-houses-the-lost-legacy.html, "Past Exhibitions: SAVE Britain’s Heritage 1975–2005: 30 Years of Campaigning", http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/architecture/past/save/index.html, http://www.stowe.co.uk/about-stowe/history-of-the-school, "Biography of Henry Francis Hope Pelham-Clinton-Hope", http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/manuscriptsandspecialcollections/collectionsindepth/family/newcastle/biographies/biographyofhenryfrancishopepelham-clinton-hope,8thduke%281866-1941%29.aspx, http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/history/taxhis1.htm, http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/history/taxhis2.htm, http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/history/taxhis4.htm, "Outer House, Court of Session (A1497/02)", http://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/opinions/A1497.html, "Town and Country Planning Act 1932 (section 17)", http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1932/48/section/17/enacted, "Saving Britain's Past Episode 3: The Country House", http://www.open2.net/savingbritainspast/country_house.html, http://www.knebworthhouse.com/rock/rockconcerts.htm, http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/caring/listing/listed-buildings/, "The National Archives; Series reference IR 26", http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/displaycataloguedetails.asp?CATID=8056&CATLN=3&FullDetails=False&j=1, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-the-marquess-of-bath-1530471.html. "[47][48] Meanwhile plans by the socialist government to wrest the house from its owner, the Earl Fitzwilliam, and convert the architecturally important house for "homeless industrial families" were only abandoned at the eleventh hour when Earl Fitzwilliam, through the auspices of his socialist sister, agreed to its conversion to a college—a lesser fate. Deborah Devonshire in "Wait for me", p. 147, records that before the 1950s all monies gained from admittance to Chatsworth were donated to a local hospital. During the 19th century this began to change, until by the mid-20th century they had no power and were suffering heavy taxation. This Act compelled owners to seek and wait for permission to demolish a building, rather than merely notify the local authority. The destruction of country houses in 20th-century Britain was a phenomenon brought about by a change in social conditions during which a large number of country houses of varying architectural merit were demolished. Find out more by reading the article in full. [20] These smaller, but often aesthetically pleasing houses belonged to the gentry rather the aristocracy; in these cases the owners, little more than gentlemen farmers, often razed the ancestral home to save costs and thankfully moved into a smaller but more comfortable farmhouse or purpose-built new house on the estate. In 1946, in what has been described as "an act of sheer class-war vindictiveness", Britain's Labour Government insisted on the destruction, by open cast mining, of the park and formal gardens of Wentworth Woodhouse, Britain's largest country house. Males paying an annual rental of £10, or holding land valued at £10 or over, were now eligible to vote. It proved to be a temporary solution; his heirs, the 3rd and final Duke of Buckingham and his heirs, the Earls Temple, inherited huge financial problems until finally in 1922 anything left that was moveable, both internal and external, was auctioned off and the house sold, narrowly escaping demolition. They are not, in fact, a phenomenon peculiar to the 20th century, as they had first been introduced in 1796. The Country Life advertisement, however, was to prove a hint of things to come. [52], The final and perhaps most important factor which secured Britain's heritage was a change in public opinion. 208 boreholes were placed around the building, using 136 lb of plastic explosive, and 75 lb of amatol. [25] An American millionaire wished to purchase the uninhabited castle, and ship it to the USA in its entirety. When Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited, portraying life in the English country house, was published in 1945, its first few chapters offered a glimpse of an exclusive and enviable world, a world of beautiful country houses with magnificent contents, privileged occupants, a profusion of servants and great wealth. The 1944 Town and Country Planning Act, with the end of World War II in sight, was chiefly concerned with the redevelopment of bomb sites, but contained one crucial clause which concerned historic buildings: it charged local authorities to draw up a list of all buildings of architectural importance in their area, and, most significantly, for the first time the catalogue was to include inhabited private residences. [18] The second choice was to sell part of the landed estate, especially if had been purchased in order to expand political territory. Sep 10, 2018 - Trentham Hall from Morriss Seats of Noblemen and Gentlemen (1880) The most interesting pages on Wikipedia. [12] Increasing taxation and a shortage of staff were already ensuring that the old way of life had ended. The "big house" was the bedrock of rural society. The final blow, the reform of the House of Lords in 1911, proved to be the beginning of the end for the country house lifestyle which had been enjoyed in a similar way for generations of the upper classes. More than 1,000 country houses were demolished in the last century, resulting in the permanent loss of irreplaceable historic buildings, gardens and art collections. A vacant site was attractive to property developers, who would pay a premium for an empty site that could be rebuilt upon and filled with numerous small houses and bungalows, which would return a quick profit. Thus, despite money being no problem for its owner, Trentham Hall was completely obliterated from its park, which the Duke retained and then opened to the public. [10] As far as general opinion was concerned, England's great houses came and they went; so long as their numbers remained, continuing to provide local employment, the public were not largely concerned. The other factor was the reorganization of constituency boundaries, and a candidate who for years had been returned unopposed suddenly found part of his electorate was from an area outside of his influence. Others, such as Knebworth House, became venues for pop and rock festivals. See list, Worsley pp. The destruction of country houses in 20th-century Britain was a phenomenon brought about by a change in social conditions during which a large number of country houses of varying architectural merit were demolished. Leonard Jacks, The Great Houses of Nottinghamshire. [19] Thus it became a favoured option to select the most conveniently sited (whether for privacy or sporting reasons), easily managed, or of greatest sentimental value; fill it with the choicest art works from the other properties; and then demolish the less favoured. The Minister of Fuel and Power, Manny Shinwell, insisted, as 300 year-old oaks were uprooted, that "the park be mined right up to the mansion's door. In the years immediately after the war, the law was powerless — even had it wished to — to stop the demolition of a private house no matter how architecturally important. By the end of the century, even some of the “new” country houses by Lutyens had been demolished. Included in the destruction were works by Robert Adam, including Balbardie House and the monumental Hamilton Palace. 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