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Plumpton Rocks, Harrogate: Heaven on earth
Recent restoration work has helped re-create a celebrated landscape garden crafted in the late 18th century around a dramatic gritstone outcrop, as John Goodall explains.
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The Chapel of Trinity College, Oxford: A return to splendour
One of Oxford’s most admired interiors has been revived, as John Goodall reports.
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Ockwells Manor, Berkshire: An insight into the splendours of grand living in 15th-century England
A delightful timber-frame house offers insights into the realities of luxurious 15th-century living and the brutal complexities of Lancastrian politics, as John Goodall explains.
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Capheaton Hall, Northumberland: The revival of a country house that narrowly avoided demolition
A house that narrowly avoided demolition after the Second World War has been gradually revived by the family that has occupied it for the past seven centuries, as John Goodall explains.
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Broomhall, Fife: A stupendous country house restored by the Earl of Elgin after 40 years of thought
The Earl of Elgin, celebrated for securing the sculpture from the Parthenon, spent 40 years toying with the reconstruction of his house, which has recently been restored for the 21st century, as John Goodall explains.
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Orthopaedic shoe-making: The bridge between architecture and podiatry
John Goodall meets Bill Bird, who, having studied architecture at the Bartlett, now makes orthopaedic shoes.
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Ghent: Belgium’s best-kept secret
John Goodall visits Ghent, a city full of unexpected delights.
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In the cathedral’s shadow: The Cathedral Close, Wells
The splendours of Wells Cathedral can easily distract from the astonishing architecture that surrounds it. In the second of two articles, John Goodall describes the remarkable history of the precinct.
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Wells Cathedral, Somerset: A symphony of architecture
In the first of two articles, John Goodall describes the architectural development of Wells and the struggle of its late-medieval clergy to win the church its now-familiar status as a cathedral.
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Cesky Krumlov Castle's exquisite theatre: The scene of princely diversion
The object of a heroic recent restoration, the 1760s theatre at Cesky Krumlov carries the modern visitor back into the Baroque world. In the second of two articles on the castle, John Goodall examines its astonishing survival.
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Cesky Krumlov: Inside one of Europe’s greatest castles
Cesky Krumlov Castle was extravagantly remodelled in the 18th-century. In the first of two articles, John Goodall considers its development and spectacular interiors.
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Thrumpton Hall, Nottinghamshire: A treasure on the Trent
A surviving collection of personal letters sheds a fascinating light on 18th-century life in this fine Jacobean house. John Goodall examines the development of the building.
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'I didn't even know what a cooper was': Hanging with master cooper
Alastair Simms is one of Britain’s few remaining traditional coopers. John Goodall caught up with him to talk about barrels, birthdays, and beer that tastes of plastic.
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The Country House Library: Why these rooms and their collections need to be taken much more seriously
A new account of the country-house library will compel us all to reassess these rooms and their collections, says John Goodall.
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Stanford Hall, Leicestershire: A vibrant estate playing an active role in the world around it
An ambitious round of restoration work is reviving an estate and country house after a challenging 20th century. John Goodall explores the history of this remarkable building.
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Mount Grace Priory, North Yorkshire: Cloistered from the world
This magnificently preserved charterhouse offers a compelling insight into late-medieval English monasticism.
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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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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.
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Clandon Park after the fire: The National Trust’s largest ever reconstruction project
Untangling the Gordian Knot.
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How to create a new build country house
Here are nine examples of recently completed new builds to delight and inspire.
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Britain's most beautiful rooms, captured by Country Life for 120 years
John Goodall explains how Country Life’s earliest photographers pioneered the art of capturing England’s most beautiful rooms.
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Thirlestane: A majestic 16th century castle being saved by heroic by 21st century efforts
John Goodall looks at the ongoing saga of sustaining Thirlestane Castle in Berwickshire through the centuries.
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Lyddington Palace: A perfectly-preserved grand interior of late-medieval England
A residence of the Bishop of Lincoln converted into an almshouse offers a unique insight into the realities of grand domestic life in England in 1500, as John Goodall explains.
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Who REALLY designed Disney's castle?
We can’t resist turning a historian’s eye on Disney’s fantastical castle.
