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The great Tudor hall that housed the guillotine probably used on Marie AntoinetteMarie Antoinette was executed by guillotine on October 16, 1793. Rumour has is that the exact same machine found its way to Weald Hall in Essex where it was photographed by Country Life.
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Scarborough: How the 'queen of spas' created the modern seaside townA woman’s discovery of an iron-rich spring four centuries ago launched the development of Scarborough as the original seaside resort. Kathryn Ferry tells the remarkable story of the architectural development of the North Yorkshire spa.
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This remarkable timbered home was preserved for 300 years — and then flattened by a earlLynmore Hall was inextricably linked to the fall and rise of the British monarchy, but it only took a humble earl to finish it off.
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The architectural evolution of Selwyn College, CambridgeFounded as a hostel for trainee Anglican clergy, Selwyn College became a fully fledged college within Cambridge University with a set of landmark buildings, as Jeremy Musson explains. Photographs by Will Pryce.
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The unpublished photographs of a gargantuan Victorian mansion whose bulldozed remains were dumped in its own ornamental lakeWarter Priory was once a prime example of peak Victoriana architecture and interior design — but it met a watery end.
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From Arabia to Dorset: T. E. Lawrence's 'pathetic little shoddy' sanctuary that became a remote home for a true one-offTo escape his celebrity and write, T. E. Lawrence created a sequestered home for himself: Clouds Hill, Dorset. Michael Hall finds an unlikely hideaway of tins and silver walls.
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'It contained a hippopotamus, which lived in the Billiards Room': The strange country house that gave way to a crematoriumMelanie Bryan traces the history of Muntham Court and its eccentric residents.
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'My house will rise again': The promise and its fulfilment of iconic architect Clough Williams-Ellis, and the home he and his wife loved and (almost) lostA disastrous fire in 1951 gave the architect Clough Williams-Ellis the opportunity to re-think Plas Brondanw, Gwynedd, the house that he and his wife, Amabel, loved. Kathryn Ferry admires the result. Photography by Paul Highnam.
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A lost Surrey garden infested with peacocks and influenced by Gertrude JekyllValewood Farm and gardens was described as 'straying into a Hans Christian Andersen fairy story'
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Warwick Castle is a masterpiece that's become a medieval theme park — but then again, it always has beenJohn Goodall looks at the development of Warwick Castle since the 16th century and the way in which its history has been enriched by legend. Photography by Will Pryce for Country Life.
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One of the great treasures of Highclere shows 'Nature set into marble, frozen and made eternal'A Florentine table created with pietra dura fuses art and Nature. John Goodall spoke to the Earl and Countess of Carnarvon about this unique treasure in the halls of Highclere.
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Felled by a pair of cursed shoes — the butterfly-shaped house that Lutyens builtMelanie Bryan investigates the spooky and eccentric history of Papillon Hall.
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Warwick Castle: The 700-year story of one of the world's great strongholdsJohn Goodall looks at Warwick Castle, Warwickshire, and how a combination of legend and the profits of war created one of the most celebrated and imposing of all English castles. Photographs by Will Pryce for Country Life.
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'A corner of the USA that is forever Putney': Charleston is a masterpiece of urban give and takeJohn Locke's ideas about individual liberty and public order emerged from this ideal new town in South Carolina.
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What do Rihanna and a 19th century vegetarian activist have in common? This sprawling Tudor house that American money couldn't saveMelanie Bryan traces the history of Cassiobury House — and its bohemian inhabitants.
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'A trailblazing illustration of how a historic estate can thrive': Doddington Hall's confident march into the 21st centuryJohn Goodall looks at the later history of Doddington Hall in Lincolnshire — home of Claire and James Birch — and the present initiatives that are allowing it to thrive. Photohgraphy by Paul Highnam for Country Life.
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The never-before-seen, 70-year-old photographs of Pugin's Bishop's House that Parliament destroyed to make room for a ring roadMelanie Bryan tells the tale of a Gothic Revival bishop's residence in Birmingham that lives on only in the Country Life Archive.
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Louvain-la-Neuve: What happens when you combine Cosmic Brutalism, high Modernism and the Catholic churchWhen the Catholic and French-speaking population of Leuven were forced to find a new university, they built their own in a unique, almost operatic architectural style.
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The pen is mightier than dynamite: A truly unique 20th-century building destroyed by the wrong paperworkWhat happens when you accidentally knock down the wrong Fonthill House.
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The forgotten titan of Victorian creativity who once stood alongside Pugin, Ruskin and William Morris, and the country church that hints at his legacyThe restoration of St Bartholomew’s Church in Sutton Waldron, Dorset, throws an unexpected light on Owen Jones's work on the Great Exhibition’s Crystal Palace — and the colour theories behind it. Kathryn Ferry reports; photographs by Paul Highnam for Country Life.
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'NIMBYs are heroes of our time': Simon Jenkins launches devastating attack on the state of housing in BritainThe Cotswolds are being ruined, house building targets are only helping the 'middling rich', and why NIMBYs should be celebrated, not vilified: Simon Jenkins lit up the Future Countryside conference with a scathing speech about house building and planning policy. Julie Harding was there to witness the fireworks.
