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Hall Place, Hampshire: The fabulous house where the Duchess of Cornwall spent her idyllic childhood summers
Hall Place in West Meon, Hampshire, is currently the home of Michael and Claudia Langdon. Yet for many years it was owned by the grandparents of HRH The Duchess of Cornwall. The house, so well known to The Duchess in her childhood, was specially chosen by her for coverage in her guest-edited issue of Country Life. It is revealed in a new light by fresh documentary research, as John Goodall reports. Photographs by Paul Highnam for Country Life.
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How the Glorious Revolution changed the nature of the English country house
John Goodall looks at the English home in the aftermath of the ‘Glorious Revolution’, in the latest in his series about the development of the great house on these shores.
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Mapperton House: A Dorset masterpiece, and still the nation's finest manor house?
Fresh research reveals more about Mapperton House, Dorset, one of our most celebrated manor houses and its magnificent gardens. Timothy Connor explains more about the home of the Viscount and Viscountess Hinchingbrooke. Photographs by Paul Highnam for Country Life.
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Gustavus III: The designs of the king who dreamed he was an architect
Many monarchs of the Enlightenment showed an active interest in architecture. Inspired by a new facsimile of royal drawings from Sweden, Clive Aslet looks at the designs of Gustavus III.
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Blenheim Palace: The story of the English answer to Versailles
Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire — the seat of the Duke of Marlborough — is one of the outstanding palaces of Baroque Europe, and was planned as both a residence and national monument. John Goodall revisits this extraordinary building; photographs by Will Pryce for Country Life.
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Longstowe Hall: The superb country house that makes you feel like you've 'stepped into a 17th-century Dutch painting'
Longstowe Hall, Cambridgeshire — the home of William and Mercedes Bevan — is an Elizabethan house that was remodelled by an Edwardian industrialist who created superb interiors in the aesthetic of 17th-century Dutch art. Jeremy Musson takes a look; photographs by Will Pryce for Country Life.
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Inside Kelmscott Manor, William Morris's 'heaven on earth' in the Cotswolds
Kelmscott Manor, Oxfordshire, is a house that was beloved of William Morris, the poet, designer and founding father of the conservation movement. Today it's a property of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and has been subject to an exacting programme of repair and renovation as Jeremy Musson reports. Pictures by Paul Highnam for Country Life.
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Willards Farm: A spectacular reimagination in the spirit of Lutyens and the Arts-and-Crafts Movement
The imaginative extension of a farmhouse in the spirit of Lutyens and the Arts-and-Crafts Movement has created a delightful and humane family home, Jeremy Musson reports. hotographs by Paul Highnam.
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Georgian farmhouses: The architectural marvel of Britain’s agricultural revolution
Georgian farmhouse architecture is an easily overlooked feature of the changes that shook Britain in the 18th century. John Martin Robinson reveals the interest and importance of these buildings.
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Auckland Castle: 800 years as a bishop's palace, and now open to the people for the first time
Auckland Castle, Co Durham, has served as the palace of the Bishops of Durham for 800 years. Now, after a huge restoration programme and large-scale archaeological investigation, it has been opened to the public. John Goodall reports, with photography by Paul Highnam for Country Life.
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Radbourne Hall: Inside the halls of a 'playful, magnificent, secret and rather magical place'
An award-winning restoration project has addressed serious structural problems at Radbourne Hall, Derbyshire, the home of Sir James and Lady Chichester. This important Palladian house has been brought back to life as a modern family home, as Oliver Gerrish reports. Photographs by Paul Highnam.
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Tudor house architecture: How England's great homes evolved in the 16th century
Country Life's architecture editor John Goodall looks at the architecture of the Tudor home.
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Paddington Station: The everyday masterpiece, still a marvel 165 years on
Jack Watkins discusses Isambard Kingdom Brunel's much-revered Paddington Station, and how it has adapted with the changing times — with help from a little bear in a red hat.
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Almshouses: What they are, how they were created and why they're still relevant in the 21st century
Built for the clergy, the military, retired estate workers and, most commonly, for the poor, almshouses are as important today as they ever were, finds Clive Aslet.
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The exquisite architecture of Harrow School, and its evolution over the last 450 years
As Harrow School celebrates its 450th anniversary, John Goodall looks at its early history and principal buildings; photographs by Will Pryce for Country Life.
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The 550-year evolution of Queens' College, Cambridge
John Goodall looks at the architectural evolution of Queens’ College, Cambridge, into the late 19th century and its outstanding hall by William Morris and G. F. Bodley. Photographs by Will Pryce for Country Life.
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Queens' College, Cambridge: The seat of learning that helped set the mould for Cambridge's most beautiful colleges
John Goodall looks at the early history of Queens’ College, Cambridge, the college that helped define the tradition of academic architecture in the city. Photographs by Will Pryce for the Country Life Picture Library.
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Fulbeck House: A wonderful home 'that arrests the eye as an ideal of English country living'
Fulbeck House, Lincolnshire — the home of Claire Van Cleave — is a little-known house of about 1700 that has been the subject of tactful restoration for a period of more than 20 years. Jeremy Musson looks at its fascinating history. Photographs by Paul Highnam for Country Life.
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Living in a fortified medieval stronghold: Inside The Broad Gate, Ludlow, a 13th armoured gatehouse that became a family home
The Broad Gate in Ludlow, Shropshire — the home of Sir Keith and Lady Thomas — is a 13th-century fortification that defined medieval Ludlow has been transformed into a Georgian townhouse. John Goodall examines its remarkable story and restoration, with photographs by Paul Highnam for Country Life.
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Westminster Abbey: History, power, tourism, and its status as 'the single greatest and most eclectic museum of sculpture in the world'
Westminster Abbey has been at the heart of national life since the Middle Ages. In the second of two articles, John Goodall completes this short survey of the Abbey’s remarkable history; photographs by Will Pryce for the Country Life Picture Library.
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How M.R. James wove country house architecture into his ghost stories
In his ghost stories, M. R. James had a perceptive eye for architectural detail, as Jeremy Musson explains and Matthew Rice evokes in specially commissioned drawings.
