Ashby St Legers: A spectacular house where the Gunpowder Plot was hatched
A house associated with the Gunpowder Plot was splendidly enlarged by Lutyens and is now enjoying a new lease of life as a modern family home.
The most haunted houses that you can visit in England and Wales
County houses, castles and palaces almost always have stories of ghosts who have appeared over the years. We picked out 10 of the spookiest that you can visit.
Cobthorne: A home that stands out for its grace, even in the beautiful town of Oundle
This striking town house in Oundle serves as home to the head of the town's famous school – and is testimony to the zealous ambition and colourful career of its builder, an opportunist soldier and Parliamentarian in Cromwellian times.
Château de Lassay: The castle of Bluebeard’s widow
This magnificent French castle has a remarkably colourful history. Its present owners have made heroic strides in restoring its fabric and are determined to preserve it for the future.
Kedleston Hall: A National Trust gem restored to its extraordinary former glory
It's 30 years since the National Trust raised the money to buy Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire. The work done since then is nothing short of staggering
Torosay Castle: The Hebridean shooting lodge that stayed in one family for 150 years
Mary Miers tells the story of a Victorian shooting lodge owned by the same family for 147 years – with photographs by Simon Jauncey taken by Country Life shortly before the house and its contents were sold.
Upton House: A beautiful 1750 creation by Halfpenny, updated in a manner he’d have loved
Upton House, just outside Tetbury, is a beautiful Georgian house that has been brilliantly extended in a manner which is so sympathetic as to be scarcely noticeable.
Chitcombe House, Dorset: A modern Classical creation
An award-winning country house was completed in 2014 by Dorset-based architect Stuart Martin. We explored the themes of this clever and compact design in the Classical tradition.
Powderham: The Devonshire castle that’s been in the same family for 600 years
An ancestral West Country home that has passed through the hands of one family for the past 600 years has, since the 18th century, developed a dazzling succession of interiors.
Great Chalfield Manor: The magic of the Middle Ages
The serene beauty of this magnificent 15th-century manor house belies a complex and eventful history.
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A 17th century farmhouse in Surrey with one of Britain's oldest squash courtsFords Farm is on the market for the first time in over half a century.
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'You have to work hand in hand with the author — like a dancer has to work with the music': Illustrating Homer's epic poemsArtist Clive Hicks-Jenkins, faced with the colossal challenge of illustrating Homer's 'The Iliad' and 'The Odyssey', eschewed grandstand views of monumental battles, looking instead for what he calls the little cracks in the paving stones.
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Nuthall Temple: The Palladian masterpiece that was blown up to make way for the M1Every Monday, Melanie Bryan, delves into the hidden depths of Country Life's extraordinary archive to bring you a long-forgotten story, photograph or advert.
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Everingham Park: The revival of a lost vision of Georgian gloryBuilt between 1758 and 1764, Everingham Park, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, was brilliantly reinvented in the 1960s. It also possesses an opulent chapel, a triumphalist product of Catholic Emancipation. John Goodall reports on this Georgian house, home of Philip and Helen Guest. Photography by Paul Highnam for the Country Life Picture Library.
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Sir Denys Lasdun: The brains behind the building branded 'a clever way of building a nuclear power station in the middle of London’ by The KingJohn Betjeman admired Sir Denys Lasdun’s work, but The King disliked it, and opinion remains divided to this day. Either way, the man who viewed ‘buildings as landscape’ has left an indelible mark on London.
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Thomas Cook: The travel agent who changed the world, and the house his descendants live in to this daySennowe Park in Norfolk is the home of Charles and Virginia Temple-Richards, the descendants of trailblazing travel agent Thomas Cook. Oliver Gerrish looks at the travel business that funded and informed the renovation of this extraordinary Edwardian country house.
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Eight of the UK's most impressive private libraries, as seen in the pages of Country LifeEvery Monday, Melanie Bryan, delves into the hidden depths of Country Life's extraordinary archive to bring you a long-forgotten story, photograph or advert.
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One of 'the most magnificent and perfectly preserved of Britain’s great Edwardian country houses', built for the heir to Thomas Cook's vast fortuneJohn Goodall looks at the creation of Sennowe Park in Norfolk — home of Charles and Virginia Temple-Richards — and charts its transformation at the hands of a local architect from a Georgian lodge to a luxurious Edwardian home.
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Opinion: If we want to keep our architectural heritage, why do we tax those who repair it?It beggars belief that the state lists buildings in order to protect them — and then doesn’t contribute to their upkeep, says Country Life columnist Agromenes.
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The country home with an intriguing connection to the Titanic, doomed for demolitionEvery Monday, Melanie Bryan, delves into the hidden depths of Country Life's extraordinary archive to bring you a long-forgotten story, photograph or advert.
