Warwickshire Country Houses

Warwickshire Country Houses
Author: Geoffrey Tyack
Publisher:
Total Pages: 326
Release: 1994
Genre: Architecture
ISBN:

Warwickshire boasts some of England's finest country houses, ranging in date from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. This book gives a comprehensive history of 53 of the main houses in the historic county, such as the medieval castle of Warwick and ancient manor houses such as Baddesley Clinton. The often complex histories of these houses are related in detail, with information about the families who built and lived in them, and about the architects, craftsmen and gardeners who created them. There are also accounts in gazetteer format of 100 of the lesser-known houses. General editor: Nicholas Kingsley

Consumption and the Country House

Consumption and the Country House
Author: Jon Stobart
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 317
Release: 2016-05-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 0191039691

This study explores the consumption practices of the landed aristocracy of Georgian England. Focussing on three families and drawing on detailed analysis of account books, receipted bills, household inventories, diaries and correspondence, Consumption and the Country House charts the spending patterns of this elite group during the so-called consumer revolution of the eighteenth century. Generally examined through the lens of middling families, homes and motivations, this book explores the ways in which the aristocracy were engaged in this wider transformation of English society. Analysis centres on the goods that the aristocracy purchased, both luxurious and mundane; the extent to which they pursued fashionable modes and goods; the role that family and friends played in shaping notions of taste; the influence of gender on taste and refinement; the geographical reach of provisioning and the networks that lay behind this consumer activity, and the way this all contributed to the construction of the country house. The country house thus emerges as much more than a repository of luxury and splendour; it lay at the heart of complex networks of exchange, sociability, demand, and supply. Exploring these processes and relationships serves to reanimate the country house, making it an active site of consumption rather than simply an expression of power and taste, and drawing it into the mainstream of consumption histories. At the same time, the landed aristocracy are shown to be rounded consumers, driven by values of thrift and restraint as much as extravagant desires, and valuing the old as well as the new, not least as markers of their pedigree and heritance.

English Country Houses and Landed Estates

English Country Houses and Landed Estates
Author: Heather Clemenson
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2021-12-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000393895

Originally published in 1982, and based on extensive research in estates’ archives, this book outlines the changing fate of the 500 largest estates in England over the centuries. It examines estates in their heyday and looks at their changing role as they declined in the twentieth century, showing how some estates have survived and describing the differing uses to which country houses have been put.

Country houses and the British Empire, 1700–1930

Country houses and the British Empire, 1700–1930
Author: Stephanie Barczewski
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2017-02-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1526117533

Country houses and the British empire, 1700–1930 assesses the economic and cultural links between country houses and the Empire between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries. Using sources from over fifty British and Irish archives, it enables readers to better understand the impact of the empire upon the British metropolis by showing both the geographical variations and its different cultural manifestations. Barczewski offers a rare scholarly analysis of the history of country houses that goes beyond an architectural or biographical study, and recognises their importance as the physical embodiments of imperial wealth and reflectors of imperial cultural influences. In so doing, she restores them to their true place of centrality in British culture over the last three centuries, and provides fresh insights into the role of the Empire in the British metropolis.

Comfort in the Eighteenth-Century Country House

Comfort in the Eighteenth-Century Country House
Author: Jon Stobart
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2021-09-21
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000438740

Country houses were grand statements of power and status, but they were also places where people lived. This book traces the changes in layout, the new technologies, and the innovations in furniture that made them more convenient and comfortable. It argues that these material changes were just one aspect of comfort in the country house: feeling comfortable was just as important as being comfortable. Achieving this involved the comfort and solace to be found in daily routines, religious faith and, above all, relationships with family and friends. Such emotional comforts, and the attachment to things and places that embodied and memorialized them, made country houses into homes.

The Country Houses of Shropshire

The Country Houses of Shropshire
Author: Gareth Williams
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Total Pages: 761
Release: 2021
Genre: Architecture and society
ISBN: 1783275391

A gazetteer of the many fine Shropshire country houses, which covers the architecture, the owners' family history, and the social and economic circumstances that affected them.