Stately homes

Aristocratic families and successful industrialists often built themselves beautiful country houses, called stately homes. Some of the most beautiful are in Derbyshire, a hilly county in the North-West of England.

Many stately homes are open to the public to help owners pay for them. Alton Towers, owned by the Earl of Shrewsbury, was developed in the 1980s into a theme park and is now the most visited paying attraction in the whole of Britain.

Michael Vaughan-Rees, Geraldine Sweeney, Picot Cassidy: In Britain; Cornelsen Verlag, 2000, page 83