Having seen so many houses destroyed was sad, but I see castle and manor houses in England and France abandoned. Why aren’t the items left in them sold off? Why must they just collapse under ruin and dust?
In most cases, by far, the valuable elements are most certainly sold off. The question though begs, what happened to historical architectural relics bought for US houses that themselves were later demolished, after the art was sold off?
It's not *that* uncommon for new living relatives of the original owners to be found. Being abandoned is better than the state claiming them for their own, demolishing them and building new box houses.
Thankfully, my Mother's family's ancient Crocker lands and country home, Lyneham in Devon,(near Yealhampton) was finally acquired by the Devon National Trust. The present house was built in the early 1600s. The family was prominent during the Middle Ages. The ancient record says they were small landholders in Devon long before Duke William arrived in 1066.
These homes are such a large part of British history and the British Empire, efforts should be made to keep as many as possible. I have seen some that were left to ruin. Very interesting to see but not as interesting as seeing one intact open to the public. These homes are also a large tourist draw for Britian.
Simple answer. Inheritance tax and Labour Governments who either loathed the bygone symbols of upper class or, perhaps worse, cold indifference. Culminating under the Callaghan government when country houses and cottages orneé were being torn down at the rate of 10 per month.
A house in London is NOT a Country House. A country House sits on a large estate in the Country, hence the name. They may have been as large as country houses (Spencer House overlooking Green Park is a good example)M but most of the great houses of London have been demolished. I have been to Blenheim Palace twice, Chatsworth House twice, Clandon Park (sadly now a burned shell), Hatchlands, Kedleston Hall, Calke Abbey (a snapshot of the country house in decay left as is) and Osterley Park. Blenheim is HUGE, and near Oxford so a handy day trip. Nothing compares to Chatsworth. But, if you are only visiting for a short time, I recommend Syon House and Osterley Park, both far enough from London to still reatain huge estates, giving them the feel of country houses, but reachable by train or subway!
Love the writing and narration. Keep it up. I am glad at least some of these houses are in good shape now. Here in Czechia, many houses and palaces of the old nobility and the 19th century industrial magnates fell into disrepair after WWII following their nationalisation instigated by the ruling Communist party. Many of them were repurposed as educational, social or healthcare facilites, others were not so lucky. The wave of modernism was apparently as brutal and unsentimental here as it was in Britain. Following the 1989 revolution, many of these were returned to their previous owners, renovated and repurposed again as hotels or private residences of the nouveau riche.
I often daydream of finding an old mansions and exploring the attics. As a child I got into a beautiful old church. The interior was untouched. The pews, chairs, statuary and salvage in there was amazing. Days later the place was demolished. Smashed and carried away as rubble. They needed the plot for? A car park.
These houses were built in the 300 year reign of the British Empire when massive amounts of wealth was flowing into Britain and money was no object....but by the start of the 20th century the world and society was rapidly changing and the writing was on the wall = it's very sad that most of these country houses are gone forever now.
What happened to this properties was appalling and should have been stopped,Imberhorne Manor in East Grinstead was destroyed to make way for housing development even though residents of the growing housing estate around it wanted to save the building as a community facility.
As an old British man I have been fortunate enough to visit many of the best known old houses and estates as well as church and abbey ruins. It is heart warming to see the resurgence of interest and optimism surrounding the clever vitalisation of what large mansions we have left. Long may that vitality thrive.
Great summary of a detiled and complex subject, augmented with a fine script and professional production values. While it is indeed upsetting that much of our architectural heritage was deliberately demolished (from the numble bastle to gransiose mansions), the commitment today to both preserve and restore these treasures is something to be grateful for. Of course (as always) the challenge is cost.
It would be interesting to know how the owners got the money for these buildings. The UK’s farming went down but they probably also lost money in the decolonization process. If the people in India and the small farmers didn’t make the money anymore to build these buildings it is over.
What you don't see is all the gorgeous London homes and buildings that are being destroyed by keeping only the facade, but GUTTING and modernizing the interiors. Hideous loss to history!
It is interesting how much smaller and probably just as lovely the wealthy merchant houses were in the 16th and 17th century. Whether timber framed, brick or stone they are not only so much cheaper and much less sprawling, they also don’t have the connotations of ostentation and Colonisation.
Oh, how I love your purple prose! Your narrator’s rhapsodic intonations stir my soul. LOL! However, I’m bewildered by the topic: you seem to use ‘London’ interchangeably with country house. There were stunning mansions within London that have disappeared. And there are hundreds of country estates that became victims of Britain’s changing economics. So which topic is the subject of this video? At first, I thought you were using ‘London’ to represent government. But then you sum up with “Have you visited one of London’s lovely COUNTRY HOUSES . . . ??” Perhaps a follow up could be focused on the many mansions that used to reign over the capital, only to face the same fate as their country cousins.
The narration is utter tripe. There were no and are no country houses in London. The great country houses are, not surprisingly, in the country. Houses such as Chesterfield House were the London houses of whatever family owned them.
Chesterfield House was by no means a country house. It was a purpose-built city house for a powerful family in need of representative, social and political footing in town for the London Season. I going to look up Belmont house, because the illustrations bore no resemblance to the work of Adam or the later style called Regency.
There still remains a complete country estate and mansion within the bounds of London. It's close by Chingford but I can't remember it's name (it's not well known and may still be a private residence.
One cannot bemoan the past. The houses were demolished 100 years ago. Hertfordshire, Surrey and Derbyshire are nowhere near London. Now London has vast mansions, knocked out basements for foreign oligarchs.
The owners of many country houses struggled to keep them going after World War I, when a large number of young men who worked on their estates signed up to fight, never to return (as did many of the 'officer class', some of whom were the heirs to family titles). Additionally, as noted here, repeated increases in inheritance tax (death duties) between 1940 and 1949 meant that large parts of estates has to be liquidated when the owner died, depriving their family of, for example, farming and investment income that had been used, in part, to pay household staff and to maintain large, ageing properties. In many cases, the only solution was either to demolish entire wings of a country house (e.g., Bowood House and Woburn Abbey) or, indeed, to raze the complete structure and sell off the surrounding land. The London houses of the aristocracy were similarly affected 'though, in these instances, the value of the land on which the properties stood, combined with their prime locations, made the decision to sell off the houses for demolition and redevelopment of the plots a relatively straightforward option for cash-poor aristocratic families.
I know you have to try to make these videos interesting, but come on. Anyone who appreciates British history understands why. They cost money that the house owners couldn't afford. They didn't have the money their ancestors had. Then WW1 took men, and yes, class had entered the picture. If, in fact "London" had pulled these houses down. The owners of the property now lived in London, and since they could not afford these houses, THEY not the government pulled them down........
Think of ALL the American Mansions ..& country estates That have been destroyed ....It probably tops any European number that have been destroyed....... just my opinion
Many of these structures were built by the Tartarians. Obvious these homes were built by a people of those area. Stones so close you couldn’t place a ti paper between the stones. In America these wonderful structures were destroyed. Like the story of Mrs. O Leary’s cow knocking over a Lamp and starting a fire destroying acres of unbelievable structures . These structures had their own electric power. We have been lied to in America and maybe you have been lied to as well.
Many of these old large houses and in France, chateaux are crumbling, need a massive amount of money to restore and take up a lot of land which could be used for more modest housing and mixed use buildings. The world population is growing and these people will need to be housed. Furthermore, we need to address the idea of homelessness across the world. It will become unconscionable that anyone should not have a home to live in as a right. Many creatures across the world will make shelters or burrows to live in, even if it is mainly during the breeding season. We should also be able to have this right.
Yes, the fertility rate is too low. Real white west-europeans are decreasing in numbers and with them the culture fades away. The culture already got beaten up with modernization. In the future the world population will decrease significantly.
@@dragonmartijn Among white Western European nations, the pop. growth remains low. The non-European immigrant population in Europe’s pop. growth is much higher.
When director of the Victoria & Albert museum , Sir Roy Strong curated an exhibition called The destruction of the country house. So sad to see great buildings lost forever.
Read the book called (NO VOICE FROM THE HALL) intriguing account of 2 chaps that toured the length and breadth of Britain documenting the family history and architectural merits about these irreplaceable gems before they were demolished… this carnage happened in Sydney and Victorian gems like Melbourne and Ireland
Similar situations happened in New York City. The Vanderbilt Mansion on Ninth Street is no more. But the Levine apartment in the Garment Tenement district still remains. I recommend visiting the Tenement Museum for anyone visiting the Big Apple. See how the other half lived . The stories of these immigrant families are quite inspiring.
It also happened here in Sweden in the 1960s and 1970s. Though here everything happened in the cities, and - ironically, since Sweden presumably is such an egalitarian nation - it was in principle never something that happened to the property that (had) belonged to really rich people, but it was beautiful public buildings and picturesque houses, where the middle class and the poor lived. I don't think foreigners understand how totally hypocritical Sweden really is.
The demolition of these beautiful buildings is an insult to the working men who stood back and marvelled at what they had built. All of that toil for nothing.
I do not know from where you got the idea that Robert Adam designed "Belmont". I did a thorough search and there is NO record whatsoever of a house named like that designed by Robert Adam. Secondly; why Sir William Chambers, a brilliant and successful architect, would have commissioned another architect to design his home?
Now that we have robotics, 3d printing and all sorts of other cost cutting devices, wouldn't it be possible to reconstruct a few of them? Nonesuch would be an interesting project, the land hasn't been built over. They would make useful concert venues and Art galleries, ..and wouldn't most people prefer to live in part of a beautiful ornate palace than some nondescript council estate?
For many people Surrey used to be considered London. In Love in a Cold Climate, when Linda Radley is going to marry the son of the Governor of the Bank of England, the groom's family, the Kroesigs, visit the Radley estate near Oxford. Sir Lester talked knowledgeably about flowers and the bride's mother says, 'What a lot you London people know about gardening.' Kroesig tells her that he only works in London but he lives in Surrey. She replied, 'Ah yes, we consider it to be the same.'
I see alot of people hating jealous......Yeah you see this house your family's owned for 300 year's..well now we going to tax hello out of you .....never mind that you employed, fed and housed as well as educated and employed an entire town of people...pay uo
@@martynnotman3467 A fair share, maybe, but at times the tax rate on higher incomes in the UK was 98%. The rates and taxes on these houses ridiculously high, simply because governments wanted to punish people who were anything but working class. They forgot the employment these houses and people gave, and the benefits to their local communities.
@@martynnotman3467I really think a lot of the money came from the colonies, but apparently many of the house owners were just big farmers. That money dried up.
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COMMENT: Have you visited one of London’s lovely country houses still in tact - and what are your opinions on these structures?
I’ve visited quite a few lovely country houses but they are all out in the English countryside, not in London (which is a major city)
Ive visited a few in London---some still exist. Spencer House of Princess's Diana is wonderful, a Palace right in the heart of the city.
Having seen so many houses destroyed was sad, but I see castle and manor houses in England and France abandoned. Why aren’t the items left in them sold off? Why must they just collapse under ruin and dust?
In most cases, by far, the valuable elements are most certainly sold off. The question though begs, what happened to historical architectural relics bought for US houses that themselves were later demolished, after the art was sold off?
It's not *that* uncommon for new living relatives of the original owners to be found. Being abandoned is better than the state claiming them for their own, demolishing them and building new box houses.
Thankfully, my Mother's family's ancient Crocker lands and country home, Lyneham in Devon,(near Yealhampton) was finally acquired by the Devon National Trust. The present house was built in the early 1600s. The family was prominent during the Middle Ages. The ancient record says they were small landholders in Devon long before Duke William arrived in 1066.
These homes are such a large part of British history and the British Empire, efforts should be made to keep as many as possible. I have seen some that were left to ruin. Very interesting to see but not as interesting as seeing one intact open to the public. These homes are also a large tourist draw for Britian.
Simple answer. Inheritance tax and Labour Governments who either loathed the bygone symbols of upper class or, perhaps worse, cold indifference. Culminating under the Callaghan government when country houses and cottages orneé were being torn down at the rate of 10 per month.
Only 10 per month? That's rather modest and explains why there are still far too many such houses.
@@mypointofview1111 A strange comment.
A house in London is NOT a Country House. A country House sits on a large estate in the Country, hence the name. They may have been as large as country houses (Spencer House overlooking Green Park is a good example)M but most of the great houses of London have been demolished. I have been to Blenheim Palace twice, Chatsworth House twice, Clandon Park (sadly now a burned shell), Hatchlands, Kedleston Hall, Calke Abbey (a snapshot of the country house in decay left as is) and Osterley Park. Blenheim is HUGE, and near Oxford so a handy day trip. Nothing compares to Chatsworth. But, if you are only visiting for a short time, I recommend Syon House and Osterley Park, both far enough from London to still reatain huge estates, giving them the feel of country houses, but reachable by train or subway!
Love the writing and narration. Keep it up. I am glad at least some of these houses are in good shape now. Here in Czechia, many houses and palaces of the old nobility and the 19th century industrial magnates fell into disrepair after WWII following their nationalisation instigated by the ruling Communist party. Many of them were repurposed as educational, social or healthcare facilites, others were not so lucky. The wave of modernism was apparently as brutal and unsentimental here as it was in Britain. Following the 1989 revolution, many of these were returned to their previous owners, renovated and repurposed again as hotels or private residences of the nouveau riche.
I often daydream of finding an old mansions and exploring the attics. As a child I got into a beautiful old church. The interior was untouched. The pews, chairs, statuary and salvage in there was amazing. Days later the place was demolished. Smashed and carried away as rubble. They needed the plot for? A car park.
These houses were built in the 300 year reign of the British Empire when massive amounts of wealth was flowing into Britain and money was no object....but by the start of the 20th century the world and society was rapidly changing and the writing was on the wall = it's very sad that most of these country houses are gone forever now.
What happened to this properties was appalling and should have been stopped,Imberhorne Manor in East Grinstead was destroyed to make way for housing development even though residents of the growing housing estate around it wanted to save the building as a community facility.
Jealousy by the commie left is obvious!
As an old British man I have been fortunate enough to visit many of the best known old houses and estates as well as church and abbey ruins. It is heart warming to see the resurgence of interest and optimism surrounding the clever vitalisation of what large mansions we have left. Long may that vitality thrive.
RUclips:THORSTEN SCHULTE zeigt die Beweise.
Great summary of a detiled and complex subject, augmented with a fine script and professional production values. While it is indeed upsetting that much of our architectural heritage was deliberately demolished (from the numble bastle to gransiose mansions), the commitment today to both preserve and restore these treasures is something to be grateful for.
Of course (as always) the challenge is cost.
It would be interesting to know how the owners got the money for these buildings. The UK’s farming went down but they probably also lost money in the decolonization process. If the people in India and the small farmers didn’t make the money anymore to build these buildings it is over.
What you don't see is all the gorgeous London homes and buildings that are being destroyed by keeping only the facade, but GUTTING and modernizing the interiors. Hideous loss to history!
It is interesting how much smaller and probably just as lovely the wealthy merchant houses were in the 16th and 17th century. Whether timber framed, brick or stone they are not only so much cheaper and much less sprawling, they also don’t have the connotations of ostentation and Colonisation.
I smell a whiff of fashionable political correctness in this commentary....
Oh, how I love your purple prose! Your narrator’s rhapsodic intonations stir my soul. LOL! However, I’m bewildered by the topic: you seem to use ‘London’ interchangeably with country house. There were stunning mansions within London that have disappeared. And there are hundreds of country estates that became victims of Britain’s changing economics. So which topic is the subject of this video? At first, I thought you were using ‘London’ to represent government. But then you sum up with “Have you visited one of London’s lovely COUNTRY HOUSES . . . ??” Perhaps a follow up could be focused on the many mansions that used to reign over the capital, only to face the same fate as their country cousins.
The narration is utter tripe. There were no and are no country houses in London. The great country houses are, not surprisingly, in the country. Houses such as Chesterfield House were the London houses of whatever family owned them.
Chesterfield House was by no means a country house. It was a purpose-built city house for a powerful family in need of representative, social and political footing in town for the London Season. I going to look up Belmont house, because the illustrations bore no resemblance to the work of Adam or the later style called Regency.
😮
Pls do a part 2 of historical estates in Europe that were demolished
There still remains a complete country estate and mansion within the bounds of London. It's close by Chingford but I can't remember it's name (it's not well known and may still be a private residence.
If this is about London, why show Chatsworth, Harewood, Castle Howard, etc? These are not near London.
According to American geography it isn’t that far away 😂
One cannot bemoan the past. The houses were demolished 100 years ago. Hertfordshire, Surrey and Derbyshire are nowhere near London. Now London has vast mansions, knocked out basements for foreign oligarchs.
The owners of many country houses struggled to keep them going after World War I, when a large number of young men who worked on their estates signed up to fight, never to return (as did many of the 'officer class', some of whom were the heirs to family titles). Additionally, as noted here, repeated increases in inheritance tax (death duties) between 1940 and 1949 meant that large parts of estates has to be liquidated when the owner died, depriving their family of, for example, farming and investment income that had been used, in part, to pay household staff and to maintain large, ageing properties. In many cases, the only solution was either to demolish entire wings of a country house (e.g., Bowood House and Woburn Abbey) or, indeed, to raze the complete structure and sell off the surrounding land.
The London houses of the aristocracy were similarly affected 'though, in these instances, the value of the land on which the properties stood, combined with their prime locations, made the decision to sell off the houses for demolition and redevelopment of the plots a relatively straightforward option for cash-poor aristocratic families.
Death duties ? Not just London many large houses have been lost .
I know you have to try to make these videos interesting, but come on. Anyone who appreciates British history understands why. They cost money that the house owners couldn't afford. They didn't have the money their ancestors had. Then WW1 took men, and yes, class had entered the picture. If, in fact "London" had pulled these houses down. The owners of the property now lived in London, and since they could not afford these houses, THEY not the government pulled them down........
And a large cause of the lack of funds was London's death and wealth taxes.
Think of ALL the American Mansions ..& country estates That have been destroyed ....It probably tops any European number that have been destroyed....... just my opinion
The 8th Duke of Homeless.
😂
Didn't they build very well with just horse & cart 🤔
Greed and madness for control change a country that was great.
Many of these structures were built by the Tartarians. Obvious these homes were built by a people of those area. Stones so close you couldn’t place a ti paper between the stones. In America these wonderful structures were destroyed. Like the story of Mrs. O Leary’s cow knocking over a Lamp and starting a fire destroying acres of unbelievable structures . These structures had their own electric power. We have been lied to in America and maybe you have been lied to as well.
You have been viewing the same astute researchers as I. Good to read your comment.
If it lacks Atlantis and aliens, I’m not buying it.
useless reduntant social-historical ramblings dont make up for names, places and figures...
Traducir al español por favor, gracias
Many of these old large houses and in France, chateaux are crumbling, need a massive amount of money to restore and take up a lot of land which could be used for more modest housing and mixed use buildings. The world population is growing and these people will need to be housed. Furthermore, we need to address the idea of homelessness across the world. It will become unconscionable that anyone should not have a home to live in as a right. Many creatures across the world will make shelters or burrows to live in, even if it is mainly during the breeding season. We should also be able to have this right.
the indigenous populations of europe (and uk) have not grown since 1950s.
Yes, the fertility rate is too low. Real white west-europeans are decreasing in numbers and with them the culture fades away. The culture already got beaten up with modernization. In the future the world population will decrease significantly.
@@dragonmartijn Among white Western European nations, the pop. growth remains low. The non-European immigrant population in Europe’s pop. growth is much higher.
❤
The narrator doesn’t have the right pronunciation of words to match the subject.
Is a very GREAT shame destroy the art and history
Quite true.
When director of the Victoria & Albert museum , Sir Roy Strong curated an exhibition called The destruction of the country house. So sad to see great buildings lost forever.
Read the book called (NO VOICE FROM THE HALL) intriguing account of 2 chaps that toured the length and breadth of Britain documenting the family history and architectural merits about these irreplaceable gems before they were demolished… this carnage happened in Sydney and Victorian gems like Melbourne and Ireland
Your history & your culture....destroy them & you destroy yourself...
Similar situations happened in New York City. The Vanderbilt Mansion on Ninth Street is no more. But the Levine apartment in the Garment Tenement district still remains. I recommend visiting the Tenement Museum for anyone visiting the Big Apple. See how the other half lived . The stories of these immigrant families are quite inspiring.
It also happened here in Sweden in the 1960s and 1970s. Though here everything happened in the cities, and - ironically, since Sweden presumably is such an egalitarian nation - it was in principle never something that happened to the property that (had) belonged to really rich people, but it was beautiful public buildings and picturesque houses, where the middle class and the poor lived. I don't think foreigners understand how totally hypocritical Sweden really is.
They were destroyed because they harvested free energy.
You mention Chesterfield house and Belvedere House being in the heart of London this is an oxymoron how can they be country houses in inner London?
I was meant to live in such splendor. What am I doing in a modest one bedroom apartment in Oakland California.
When we die we go to an even smaller closet 😅.
I feel the same,just the upkeep would kill us!
You're probably too honest.
Aiming to make my place resemble Buckingham Palace - just not quite there - shortage of fund's possibly.
So tragic !! Beyond tears.......
I always thought that large mansions in an urban setting were called "suburban villas" instead of Country houses.
They were country houses before urban development swallowed up the countryside surrounding them.
The demolition of these beautiful buildings is an insult to the working men who stood back and marvelled at what they had built. All of that toil for nothing.
how did the ROYAL FAMILY escape the TAXMAN ? At last count I think they have 18 castles. Did they loose any ?
Of course. At one time the Sovereign had 60 residences.
The Royals don't pay tax😂
I do not know from where you got the idea that Robert Adam designed "Belmont". I did a thorough search and there is NO record whatsoever of a house named like that designed by Robert Adam. Secondly; why Sir William Chambers, a brilliant and successful architect, would have commissioned another architect to design his home?
Now that we have robotics, 3d printing and all sorts of other cost cutting devices, wouldn't it be possible to reconstruct a few of them? Nonesuch would be an interesting project, the land hasn't been built over. They would make useful concert venues and Art galleries, ..and wouldn't most people prefer to live in part of a beautiful ornate palace than some nondescript council estate?
Thank you for sharing this! Incredible!!
I read that J. Paul Getty aquired Sutton Place in Surrey back in 1959. Don't know how close that is London.
For many people Surrey used to be considered London. In Love in a Cold Climate, when Linda Radley is going to marry the son of the Governor of the Bank of England, the groom's family, the Kroesigs, visit the Radley estate near Oxford. Sir Lester talked knowledgeably about flowers and the bride's mother says, 'What a lot you London people know about gardening.' Kroesig tells her that he only works in London but he lives in Surrey. She replied, 'Ah yes, we consider it to be the same.'
Of course it’s been destroyed, it may offend our Palestinian leaders!!
Pity the narration doesn't match the images.
I see alot of people hating jealous......Yeah you see this house your family's owned for 300 year's..well now we going to tax hello out of you .....never mind that you employed, fed and housed as well as educated and employed an entire town of people...pay uo
😢
I dont think asking people to pay their fair share is at all unfair. The rich had been getting away with a lower real terms tax rate for centurys.
@@martynnotman3467 A fair share, maybe, but at times the tax rate on higher incomes in the UK was 98%. The rates and taxes on these houses ridiculously high, simply because governments wanted to punish people who were anything but working class. They forgot the employment these houses and people gave, and the benefits to their local communities.
@@martynnotman3467I really think a lot of the money came from the colonies, but apparently many of the house owners were just big farmers. That money dried up.
@@dragonmartijn a part of it did, the majority came from industry and exploiting the miners, weavers, steelmakers here.