At a Northamptonshire Record Society lecture in 1947, Sir Gyles Isham of Lamport Hall posed the question whether country houses were ‘useless anachronisms’. At that time the future certainly seemed bleak. A wave of demolitions had begun. Subsequent commentators have added weight to the argument that it was all but over for the country house and the traditional landed estate.
The evidence in this book gives a very different picture. Researching the fortunes of Northamptonshire’s 100 principal houses and estates since 1880, the author demonstrates that the picture of decline and fall is open to challenge.The real story is the remarkable survival of the country house.
Illustrated with a gallery of over 120 pictures of country houses inside and out and in a variety of conditions, the book closely explores topics that include changes in ownership, the survival of associated landed estates and the impact of casualties in World War One. There are separate indexes to the House & Estates and to the Surnames of owners, residents & 'worthies' as well as a map showing the distribution of the properties across Northamptonshire. The extensive bibliography is a rich mine for readers who want to delve deeper.
As at 2017, 87% of the county's principal houses of 1880 were still standing, 56% being used as single dwellings. If the story in Northamptonshire is broadly typical of the national picture this book will change the way that many people interpret the fortunes of the country house and landed estates in the twentieth century.