England's lost grand houses
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MailOnline - England's Lost Downtons
"Death, debt, urban sprawl: there are many reasons why England has lost so many of its Downton Abbeys. A third of Britain’s historic estates, with their elegant country houses, deer parks, farms and churches with family crypts, have been demolished, diminished or turned into flats — 1,000 since World War II. The lucky ones got taken over by the National Trust. The unlucky ones had the contents ripped out and sold off and were then flattened by developers.
Historian John Martin Robinson’s new book,
Felling The Ancient Oaks, How England Lost Its Great Country Estates (Aurum, £30), examines the fate of 21 of these extinct estates, illustrated by poignant photographs of a lost world.
Primogeniture, or inheritance by the senior male heir — as seen in ITV’s Downton — may have preserved many more estates in Britain than other countries in Europe, but the scale and variety of what has vanished — to be replaced by caravan parks, office blocks and golf courses — is quite staggering. And almost universally aesthetically disastrous, as landscaped gardens and ancient oaks were felled and covered over with concrete.
Some were inherited by a foolish spendthrift — such was the scale of these places that one irresponsible heir could destroy the work of generations. Others were passed down to heirs who, understandably, couldn’t face the vast expense required for upkeep of places that needed dozens of servants to maintain them. Others still were swallowed by urban expansion.
Here are some of the unfortunate ones that didn’t make it..."
> Here are some teasers:
1. The Deepdene
2. Costessey Hall
3. Haggerston Castle
4. The Dancing Marquess of Anglesey
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