Historic Houses Association
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Historic Houses Association
Historic Houses (formerly, and still for legal purposes, known as the Historic Houses Association or HHA) is a not-for-profit organisation that represents more than 1,650 privately owned historic country houses, castles and gardens throughout the United Kingdom. History The association originated as the Historic Houses Committee of the British Tourist Authority, and was independently established in 1973 to help owners maintain and conserve significant homes in the interests of the nation's heritage. In 1974, the HHA participated in a campaign in response to the publication of a governmental green paper on a proposed wealth tax. The campaign, which also involved the National Trust and the predecessor of The Arts Society, drew public attention to the problems such a tax could cause for historic buildings and national art collections. The tax was not implemented, and the HHA subsequently continued to lobby for tax exemptions for heritage sites and to promote private ownership of hi ...
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Castle Howard And Garden
A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified house, fortified residence of a lord or noble. This is distinct from a palace, which is not fortified; from a fortress, which was not always a residence for royalty or nobility; from a ''pleasance'' which was a walled-in residence for nobility, but not adequately fortified; and from a fortified settlement, which was a public defence – though there are many similarities among these types of construction. Use of the term has varied over time and has also been applied to structures such as hill forts and 19th-20th century homes built to resemble castles. Over the approximately 900 years when genuine castles were built, they took on a great many forms with many different features, although s ...
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Broughton Castle
Broughton Castle is a medieval fortified manor house in the village of Broughton, which is about two miles south-west of Banbury in Oxfordshire, England, on the B4035 road (). It is the home of the Fiennes (in full Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes) family, Barons Saye and Sele. The castle sits on an artificial island in pastureland and is surrounded by a wide moat. Across the small bridge lies the parish church of St Mary the Virgin, surrounded by its historic cemetery. A Grade I listed building, it opens to the public over the summer. History Romano-British period In 2021, Time Team excavated a Roman villa on the site, recently discovered by metal detectorist and amateur archaeologist, Keith Westcott. Previously, a lead-lined sarcophagus containing the burial of a wealthy Romano-British woman was discovered and partly investigated in the 1960s. Geophysical surveys indicated a large winged or courtyard ''villa rustica'' comparable with that nearby at North Leigh. Limited excavati ...
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Auckland Castle
Auckland Castle, which is also known as Auckland Palace and to people that live locally as the Bishop's Castle or Bishop's Palace, is located in the town of Bishop Auckland in County Durham, England. In 1832, this castle replaced Durham Castle as the official residence of the Bishops of Durham. It is now a tourist attraction, but still houses the Bishop's offices; the Castle is a Grade I listed building. History The history of Auckland Castle goes back to the 12th century. Previously a deer park, Bishop Hugh Pudsey established a manor house on the site in around 1183. Because it was near to his hunting estate, a successor, Bishop Bek, relocated his main residence from Durham Castle to Auckland and he later converted the manor house into a castle. In this process, he added the great hall, the chapel and the defensive walls. In 1603 after the Union of the Crowns, Tobias Matthew invited Anne of Denmark, Prince Henry, and Princess Elizabeth to stay at Auckland on their journey fr ...
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Auckland Castle Crop
Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region—the area governed by Auckland Council—which includes outlying rural areas and the islands of the Hauraki Gulf, and which has a total population of . While European New Zealanders, Europeans continue to make up the plurality of Auckland's population, the city became multicultural and cosmopolitan in the late-20th century, with Asians accounting for 31% of the city's population in 2018. Auckland has the fourth largest foreign-born population in the world, with 39% of its residents born overseas. With its large population of Pasifika New Zealanders, the city is also home to the biggest ethnic Polynesian population in the world. The Māori-language name for Auckland is ', meaning "Tāmaki desire ...
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Woburn Abbey
Woburn Abbey (), occupying the east of the village of Woburn, Bedfordshire, England, is a country house, the family seat of the Duke of Bedford. Although it is still a family home to the current duke, it is open on specified days to visitors, along with the diverse estate surrounding it, including the historic landscape gardens and deer park (by Humphry Repton), as well as more recently added attractions including Woburn Safari Park, a miniature railway and a garden/visitor centre. Pre-20th century Woburn Abbey, comprising Woburn Park and its buildings, was set out and founded as a Cistercian abbey in 1145. Taken from its monastic residents by Henry VIII and given to John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford, in 1547, it became the seat of the Russell family and the Dukes of Bedford, who demolished the original abbey building and built their house on the monastic site, although the name ''Abbey'' was retained. The Abbey was largely rebuilt starting in 1744 by the architects Henry Fl ...
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Syon House
Syon House is the west London residence of the Duke of Northumberland. A Grade I listed building, it lies within the 200-acre (80 hectare) Syon Park, in the London Borough of Hounslow. The family's traditional central London residence had been Northumberland House, now demolished. The eclectic interior of Syon House was designed by the architect Robert Adam in the 1760s. History Syon House derives its name from Syon Abbey, a medieval monastery of the Bridgettine Order, founded in 1415 on a nearby site by King Henry V. The abbey moved to the site now occupied by Syon House in 1431. It was one of the wealthiest nunneries in the country and a local legend recites that the monks of Sheen had a ley tunnel running to the nunnery at Syon.Westwood, Jennifer (1985), ''Albion. A Guide to Legendary Britain.'' Pub. Grafton Books, London. . p. 126. In 1539, the abbey was closed by royal agents during the Dissolution of the Monasteries and the monastic community was expelled. On the ...
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Powderham Castle
Powderham Castle is a fortified manor house situated within the parish and former manor of Powderham, within the former hundred of Exminster, Devon, about south of the city of Exeter and mile (0.4 km) north-east of the village of Kenton, where the main public entrance gates are located. It is a Grade I listed building. The park and gardens are Grade II* listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. It is situated on flat, formerly marshy ground on the west bank of the River Exe estuary where it is joined by its tributary the River Kenn. On the opposite side of the Exe is the small village of Lympstone. Starting with a structure built sometime after 1390, the present castle was expanded and altered extensively in the 18th and 19th centuries. The castle remains the seat of the Courtenay family, Earls of Devon. Origin of the name The manor of Powderham is named from the ancient Dutch word polder, and means "the hamlet of the reclaimed marsh-land". ...
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Longleat
Longleat is an English stately home and the seat of the Marquesses of Bath. A leading and early example of the Elizabethan prodigy house, it is adjacent to the village of Horningsham and near the towns of Warminster and Westbury in Wiltshire, and Frome in Somerset. The Grade I listed house is set in of parkland landscaped by Capability Brown, with of let farmland and of woodland, which includes a Center Parcs holiday village. It was the first stately home to open to the public, and the Longleat estate has the first safari park outside Africa and other attractions including a hedge maze. The house was built by Sir John Thynne and designed mainly by Robert Smythson, after Longleat Priory was destroyed by fire in 1567. It took 12 years to complete and is widely regarded as one of the finest examples of Elizabethan architecture in Britain. It continues to be the seat of the Thynn family, who have held the title of Marquess of Bath since 1789; the eighth and present Marquess is ...
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Knebworth House
Knebworth House is an English country house in the parish of Knebworth in Hertfordshire, England. It is a Grade II* listed building. Its gardens are also listed Grade II* on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. In its surrounding park is the medieval St. Mary's Church and the Lytton family mausoleum. It was the seat of the Earl of Lytton (also Viscount Knebworth), and now the house of the family of the Baron Cobbold of Knebworth. The grounds are home to the Knebworth Festival, a recurring open-air rock and pop concert held since 1974, and until 2014 was home to another hard rock festival, Sonisphere. History The home of the Lytton family since 1490, when Thomas Bourchier sold the reversion of the manor to Sir Robert Lytton, Knebworth House was originally a red-brick Late Gothic manor house, built round a central court as an open square. In 1813-16 the house was reduced to its west wing, which was remodelled in a Tudor Gothic style by John Biagio Rebecca for Mrs Bulw ...
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Holkham Hall
Holkham Hall ( or ) is an 18th-century English country house, country house near the village of Holkham, Norfolk, England, constructed in the Neo-Palladian style for the Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester (fifth creation), 1st Earl of Leicester,The Earldom of Leicester has been, to date, created seven times. Thomas Coke, the builder of Holkham, was the 1st Earl of the fifth creation. His grand nephew Thomas Coke was the 1st Earl of the seventh creation. by the architect William Kent, aided by Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, Lord Burlington. Holkham Hall is one of England's finest examples of the Palladian revival style of architecture, and the severity of its design is closer to Palladio's ideals than many of the other numerous Palladian style houses of the period. The Holkham Estate was built up by Sir Edward Coke, the founder of his family's fortune. He bought Neales manor in 1609, though never lived there, and made many other purchases of land in Norfolk to endow to hi ...
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Hever Castle
Hever Castle ( ) is located in the village of Hever, Kent, near Edenbridge, south-east of London, England. It began as a country house, built in the 13th century. From 1462 to 1539, it was the seat of the Boleyn (originally 'Bullen') family. Anne Boleyn, the second queen consort of King Henry VIII of England, spent her early youth there after her father, Thomas Boleyn, inherited it in 1505. The castle passed to him upon the death of his father, Sir William Boleyn. It later came into the possession of King Henry VIII's fourth wife, Anne of Cleves. The Grade I listed castle, now owned by the Guthrie family's Broadland Properties. History There have been three main periods in the construction of this historic castle. The oldest part of the castle dates to 1270 and consisted of the gatehouse and a walled bailey. It was then owned by James Fiennes, 1st Baron Saye and Sele. The second period was when the castle, then in need of repair, was converted into a manor in 1462 by Geo ...
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Drumlanrig Castle
Drumlanrig Castle is situated on the Queensberry Estate in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. The category A listed castle is the Dumfriesshire home of the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch and Queensberry. It is open to the public at set times. Construction The 'Pink Palace' of Drumlanrig, constructed between 1679 and 1689 from distinctive pink sandstone, is an example of late 17th-century Renaissance architecture. The first Duke of Queensberry, William Douglas, had the castle built on the site of an ancient Douglas stronghold overlooking the Nith Valley. The castle has 120 rooms, 17 turrets and four towers. In 1984, aerial photography revealed the outline of a substantial Roman fort some 350 yards to the southeast of Drumlanrig Castle. The fort was partially excavated in 2004 by the ''Time Team'' television programme. Art collection The castle is home to part of the Buccleuch art collection which includes Rembrandt’s '' An Old Woman Reading'', and Leonardo da Vinci's ''Madonna ...
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