Noble Ambitions

June 21, 2021
In this illuminating follow-up to The Long Weekend: Life in the English Country House, 1918–1939, University of Buckingham historian Tinniswood chronicles the “crisis” that engulfed England’s rural mansions in the middle of the 20th century, as rising taxes, decreasing land value, a shortage of domestic help, and class tensions led to the destruction, abandonment, or selling-off of hundreds of estates. Tinniswood draws memorable character sketches of financially troubled, prim-mannered peers who didn’t “want to be the one to let it go,” and recounts the wave of “reducing” (“an elegant phrase which disguised the inelegant demolition of those parts of a country house which were now surplus to requirements”) that swept the countryside in the 1950s. Unlikely saviors arrived in the 1960s and ’70s in the form of hard-partying celebrities “in search of rural grandeur” and investment opportunities. (When the Who’s Roger Daltrey developed gout in the toe he’d injured while rehabilitating his 17th-century mansion in East Sussex, he gave up drinking.) A 1974 exhibition titled The Destruction of the Country House at the Victoria and Albert Museum galvanized opposition to a proposed wealth tax and “gave birth to powerful conservation movement.” Vividly evoking the glamour and ruin of postimperial England, this winning survey is well-stocked with intriguing historical tidbits.

July 2, 2021

In this latest work (after The Long Weekend: Life in the English Country House, 1918-1939), Tinniswood (history, Univ. of Buckingham) chronicles the history of the British country house post-1945. During World War II, he writes, many country houses were requisitioned by the government and damaged; additionally, high estate taxes caused many families to struggle with upkeep of their sprawling estates. Tinniswood records the problems that estate owners faced and explores solutions, including donating the estate to a historic preservation trust, undertaking extensive renovations, and demolishing all or part of the home. Furthermore, the author explores the lavish lifestyles of some estate owners who hosted parties and sometimes became embroiled in scandal. Over the years, estates change ownership (from British aristocracy, to wealthy Americans, to businessmen, to celebrities), which Tinniswood sees as a blurring of traditional class boundaries. Other chapters are devoted to schemes for raising funds, such as charging admission, renting the estate as a film location, and establishing attractions like zoos. This book includes occasional photographs of people and places that bring the socialites and their wider circles into closer focus. Unfortunately, the lives of domestic staff are only very briefly explored here. VERDICT A gossipy look at British estate owners. Recommended for readers interested in stately homes and aristocrats.--Rebekah Kati, Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

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September 7, 2021
The English country house epitomizes so much in British social and political history. The lord of the manor house not only held sway over a grand mansion but was landlord to both tenant farmers and villagers. Prolific historian Tinniswood (The House Party, 2020) examines the fate of the English country house in the aftermath of WWII. Dislocations in the job market and attractive wages in other industries made servants hard to retain. The triumph of the Labor Party in the 1945 elections meant a sharp increase in death duties, which forced many owners to sell their now too-expensive-to-maintain mansions to new owners who often turned these edifices into schools or businesses, but many were simply demolished. The National Trust struggled to preserve the most architecturally and historically significant of these edifices. Devoted fans of Downton Abbey will appreciate that Tinniswood's history takes the fate of these country houses past the series' conclusion in the 1920s.

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