Country houses

You can read the history of England in the buildings of the past. In the Middle Ages, a great deal of the nation's wealth was in the hands of the Church. The finest buildings at the time were the cathedrals and abbeys. Also, the kings and lords were often at war, so they built massive castles, with high, thick walls and small windows.

After the Reformation, in the time of the Tudors, the Church lost a lot of its wealth. Its land passed into the hands of the gentry and nobles. Now they were the ones who built in style. Also, apart from the 1640s, civil wars came to an end. Peace came even to the borders of Scotland and Wales. So the gentry and lords built country houses, not castles.

Houses varied in size, depending on how rich the owners were. But most of them had big windows, grand doorways, and high, stylish chimneys. At first, the great hall was the main room in the house. Later, separate dining rooms and drawing rooms were built. Upstairs, most of them had a long gallery, where the lord and lady took exercise in bad weather.

The main rooms in the best houses had ornate plaster ceilings, and chimney pieces in carved wood or stone. Tapestries or oak panelling covered the walls. Later, the fashion changed to hanging paintings on the walls. Often, these were portraits of the lord and his family.

Buildings tell the story of the growth of trade as well. Merchants, as they grew richer, built bigger, finer houses in the towns. Then many of them bought land, built country houses, and moved out to their new estates.

Walter Robson: Crown, Parliament and People; Oxford University Press, 1992/2002, pages 89/91