May
The 250th anniversaries of both the painter J. M. W Turner and the writer Jane Austen will be celebrated with an exhibition at Harewood House.
May 2–4 BBC Gardeners’ World Spring Fair, Beaulieu, Hampshire
May 2–October 19 Austen and Turner: A Country House Encounter, Harewood House, West Yorkshire
May 3–5 Spring Fine Food Market, Burghley, Lincolnshire
A fun fact about Doddington Hall
Still a family home today, Doddington Hall was inherited by Colonel George Jarvis in 1930 and the owners are his direct descendants. The Hall contains a rather marvellous library,
May 3–5 Hertfordshire Garden Show, Knebworth
May 4 Bluebell & Wild Garlic Sunday, Pencarrow, Cornwall
May 5 Dawn Chorus Birdwatch, Doddington Hall, Lincolnshire
May 7–11 MARS Badminton Horse Trials, Badminton, Gloucestershire (advance tickets only)
May 8 Old Time Sailors concert, Cambo estate, Fife
May 17–18 Goodwoof, Goodwood, West Sussex
May 25–26 Living Heritage Game and Country Fair, Burghley, Lincolnshire
May 24–26 The Queen’s Joust, Leeds Castle, Kent
June
Who dunnit at Picton Castle? This will likely be the question on everyone's lips when the venue hosts a Murder Mystery Evening in late June.
June 4–July 6 The Grange Festival, The Grange, Hampshire
June 5 Twelfth Night, Athelhampton House, Dorset
June 5 Jazz on the Tea Terrace, Kelmarsh Hall, Northamptonshire
June 8 LEAF Open Farm Sunday, Gaddesden estate, Hertfordshire
June 21 Murder Mystery Evening, Picton Castle, Pembrokeshire
Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire will host a photography exhibition on Jewish country houses.
Until June 22 Discovering Jewish Country Houses: Photographs by Hélène Binet, Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire
June 7–8 Homes & Gardens Fair, Boughton House, Northamptonshire
June 21–22 Painting the Walled Garden Oil Painting Workshop, Holkham Hall, Norfolk
July
Leeds Castle in Kent will play host to a concert in July which will feature a Spitfire fly-over and a fireworks display.
A fun fact about Goodwood
The race track at Goodwood was once the perimeter road of RAF Westhampnett, a Second World War airfield. It was used to train pilots during the Battle of Britain.
July 3 Old Time Sailors, Hedingham Castle, Essex
July 4–6 Paradhis Festival, Boconnoc, Cornwall
July 4–6 GWCT Scottish Game Fair, Scone Palace, Perthshire
July 10–13 Festival of Speed, Goodwood, West Sussex
July 12 Battle Proms Concert, Burghley, Lincolnshire
July 12 The Leeds Castle Concert, Leeds Castle, Kent
July 12–13 The Flower and Garden Show, Belvoir Castle, Leicestershire
July 17–20 The Wild Gardens Festival, Port Eliot, Cornwall
July 20 Cowdray Park Polo Gold Cup final, West Sussex
July 25–27 The Game Fair, Ragley Hall, Warwickshire
August
Bear Grylls probably won't be allowed to go wild in one of the bedrooms at Holkham Hall in Norfolk when he hosts his 'Gone Wild Festival' in the grounds, in August.
August 2 Battle Proms, Highclere Castle, Hampshire
August 3 Tudorly Terrible History, Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire
August 7–10 Gone Wild Festival with Bear Grylls, Holkham Hall, Norfolk
August 9–10 Motors By The Moat, Leeds Castle, Kent
August 9–10 Galloway Country Fair, Drumlanrig Castle, Dumfriesshire
Fun fact about Drumlanrig Castle
It has been used as a filming location for, not only the TV series Outlander, which starred Caitriona Balfeand, but also the the Apple TV series The Buccaneers.
August 20 Romeo and Juliet, Beaulieu, Hampshire
August 21–24 Leeds Festival, Bramham Park, West Yorkshire
August 29–31 Chatsworth Country Fair, Derbyshire
September
The Agria FEI Eventing European Championships will take place at Blenheim Palace in September.
September 4–7 Defender Burghley Horse Trials, Lincolnshire
September 12–14 Goodwood Revival, Goodwood, West Sussex
September 18–21 Agria FEI Eventing European Championships, Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire. Private country-house tours are also available.
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The Talented Monsieur Mille: The haute horologist who stopped time is celebrated in a new bookA new coffee table book by Assouline celebrates one of today’s most daring and innovative watch brands.
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Sir Michael Caine's former home on the Thames is a testament to idyllic living and good tasteAt Rectory Farm House, luxury and modern convenience blend seamlessly with rural England. Is this the house that Jaws 4 built?
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Death, taxes and Country Life on dogsA new book celebrates the many dogs that have appeared on the pages of this magazine, and chronicles our love affair with our four-legged friends.
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Clare Balding and Andrew Balding's day-by-day guide to Royal Ascot 2025Country Life caught up with Clare Balding and Andrew Balding to get their expert view as Royal Ascot 2025 gets under way.
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Arthur Parkinson: When it comes to happy hens and yellow yolks, grass is kingDon't get too focused on the colour of an egg. If you provide your hens with a happy habitat, everything else will take care of itself.
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'We started thinking: if we were going to design a bike for Aston Martin, what would it look like? And then we simply couldn’t stop': Aston's new bike has everything you could ever dream of — except a price tagThe new Aston Martin .1R bicycle, a collaboration with manufacturer J.Laverack, leaves Paul Henderson stirred rather than shaken.
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What do 32 pigeons, 38 dogs, four horses and one cat have in common? They've all been awarded a Dicken medal, and now you can have one tooPunch and Judy, two brave boxer dogs, saved the lives of British officers in Palastine. Now Judy's PDSA Dickin Medal will go under the hammer at Noonans on June 11.
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Forget catnip, it's all about catmintNepeta, the highly aromatic and pretty perennial beloved of so many country gardens, may be your feline’s favourite fix, but we should be wary of its root, warns Deborah Nicholls-Lee
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‘It's a bit like a pub, but without the requirement of being drunk’: Why we’re all hot for a countryside saunaThe sauna is the latest wellness trend — especially one immersed in Nature. Lotte Brundle dips into why the pastime has been heating up.
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'When you are blind, your physical world is only as far as your arms can reach, but with my guide dog, my world is limitless'Tubby little bundles of joy, guide-dog puppies may be irresistibly sweet, but they’ve been expertly engineered to perform life-changing duties, discovers Katy Birchall.
