The Country House Since 1945

Established in 1994, THE COURSE offers innovative and exciting lectures in Art History, Literature, Opera and Music.

‘Of all the great things that the English have invented and made part of the credit of the national character, the most perfect, the most characteristic, the only one they have mastered completely in all its details, so that it becomes a compendious illustration of their social genius and their manners, is the well-appointed, well-administered, well-filled country house.’ Henry James

Jeremy Musson has spent over twenty years visiting and studying English country houses, and in this new specially designed course, takes some different approaches to understanding how the ‘well-appointed, well-administered, well-filled country house’ was planned, designed, built and used. Above all, he brings the architectural story to life by exploring the history of people in the country house, through domestic service, evolving technology, as well as the significant social life and ritual of the English country house from the mid sixteenth century.

The Country House Since 1945

This lecture analyses the story of the country house since 1945. This has been a complex one: from decay, despondency and demolitions in the late 40s and 50s, and a rising sense of the cultural and heritage importance of the country house lead to campaigns to preserve and rescue important houses and legislation intended to help preserve historic collections in situ. The National Trust has become an admired national custodian of many important houses (from Ightham Mote to Kedleston), and many more remain as family residences of which some have also been trailblazers in the heritage world, including Chatsworth, Goodwood and Arundel Castle.