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Stefan Pitman: Making great country houses cost less to heat than a suburban semi
The trailblazing architect Stefan Pitman — founder of SPASE — joins the Country Life Podcast.
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Country-house treasures: The family with 1,000 years of history in their home, and the documents to prove it
Country houses up and down the land are renowned for their great treasures. Here we take a look at some less-well known items in their collection that hold a deeper meaning to their owners.
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The Henry VII-era house that was dismantled piece by piece and shipped to the USA
Agecroft Hall, near Manchester, didn't meet the same miserable end as some of Britain's other country homes. Instead, it was shipped to the USA and repurposed as a museum.
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The great house that is 'one of the most compelling products of Britain’s 18th-century love affair with Antiquity'
John Goodall looks at the sources of inspiration behind the design for the magnificently idiosyncratic West Wycombe Park in Buckinghamshire.
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'This gaff stops you from being depressed. It’s absolutely beautiful, man' — A closer look at this year's RIBA Stirling Prize winner
The winner of this year's Royal Institute of British Architects’s Stirling Prize has been revealed. Lotte Brundle takes a closer look at the winner, as well as the other projects shortlisted for the nation's top architecture award, and the people behind them.
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West Wycombe Park: The neo-classical mansion of the man smeared as a convenor of orgies, satanic rites, and a leading light of the notorious Hellfire Club
Tim Richardson offers a surprising perspective on West Wycombe Park, Buckinghamshire, that's one of the most celebrated landscapes of late-18th-century England. Photographs by Paul Highnam.
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Say goodbye to the traditional ski shop and hello to the 'boot room of the future' — as reimagined by Norman Foster
The British architect has completed the first phase of a major transformation at the Kulm Hotel in St Moritz.
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The unfortunate case of the Tudor estate that was bombed, torn apart for firewood and then buried underneath a golf course
Few houses have suffered a fate as protracted and violent as Belhus in Essex.
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A derelict school turned into a gorgeous home with 'an interior of harmony and visual éclat'
Capel House in Badminton, Gloucestershire — the home of Gerald Harford and Jane MacEwen — is a fine 18th-century estate building with a remarkable history has been converted into a stylish home, as John Martin Robinson discovers. Photographs by Paul Highnam for Country Life.
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What have the Romans ever done for us? They made the Cotswolds Britain's beating heart
The confident and aggressive Romans brought savagery, great taste and efficiency to the Cotswolds, crowning Cirencester Britain’s second city
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The proposed National Gallery extension is a ray of light in a stormy sector
The announcement of a new wing for one of the nation's top art galleries 'is a transformative initiative undertaken through private philanthropy to clear and universal benefit. What is there not to celebrate?'
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Marble Hill: The house built for a secret lover of the Prince of Wales, with a little help from one of Britain's greatest ever poets
A major programme of restoration at Marble Hill has transformed both the house and grounds. Jeremy Musson admires what has been achieved by English Heritage at this outstanding property in Richmond-upon-Thames. Photography by Paul Highnam for Country Life.
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Sold, singed and sunk: The sorry tale of Normanton Hall
Few English country houses suffered more than Normanton Hall.
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Fit for a queen: The story of Queen Victoria's state bed at Arundel Castle
A state bed commissioned to receive Queen Victoria at Arundel Castle has just undergone a transformative restoration, as Annabel Westman explains. Photographs by Paul Highnam for Country Life.
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'It is so full of turrets and lofty buildings, spires and towers, it looks not like a town but a city': The glamour of Glamis Castle, from Macbeth to the Queen Mother
John Goodall looks at the eventful later history of Glamis Castle, one of the most celebrated of Scottish castles, and its association with Elizabeth, the late Queen Mother.
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Affordable, sustainable, rural: How a group of volunteers embarrassed the government and built some of the best new homes in the country
Hazelmead has won almost every RIBA award going. The development on the outskirts of Bridport might be a springboard for a rural housing revolution, much like the Arts-and-Crafts movement more than a century ago.
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Glamis Castle: From one Earl and his dog to the resurrection of one of Scotland's great buildings
John Goodall explores the development of the medieval Glamis Castle in Angus — seat of the Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne — and its spectacular transformation into one of the landmark buildings of Scottish architecture. Photography by Paul Highnam.
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‘Its loss became a cautionary tale, and a rallying cry for architectural conservation’: The rise and fall and renewed interest in Ireland’s remarkable country houses
Lesley Bond traces a brief history of Ireland’s country houses and questions whether you can ever separate the house from the history it represents.
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Allerton Castle: The great country house that blends Hampton Court, Highclere and the Palace of Westminster
A disastrous fire in 2005 prompted the rebirth of Allerton Castle, North Yorkshire, an outstanding Victorian house with a deep and remarkable history. Photographs by Paul Highnam.
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In our built heritage, is the truth stranger than fiction?
Athena considers how our historic buildings are presented in an age of film and television.
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Art Deco: The striking design style that embraced it all
Art Deco, with its exuberant passion for geometry, luxury and shiny chrome, cocooned troubled times in a layer of glitz. A century after the style gained its name, Gavin Plumley surveys one of the 20th century’s most all-encompassing movements.
