Creating Paradise

The Building of the English Country House, 1660-1880

This work looks at the building of country houses as a whole. It investigates why owners embarked on extensive building programmes, often following a "Grand Tour".

Great and small country houses

The cost of building the great and small country houses is explored, along with their furnishing and decoration. Questions considered include: what made some build and others simply remodel?; what money was needed to embark on such a project; what was the relationship between the patron and the builder or architect?; where did materials and labour come from (accounting for the problems of transport before the railways); and what had the owners seen abroad on the Grand Tour or on the Tour of Britain which could have inspired them?

English ruling class

The country house was the most prized possession of the English ruling class. We have written about its most creative period before a remarkable transformation in the twentieth century from symbol of privilege to icon of National Heritage. In our exploration of neglected aspects of the country house story, employing the evidence of those who were involved, we hope that we have not only added to the understanding of country houses as a whole but also enabled the placing of today's much visited survivors in a wider context.