From the Tudor ebullience of South Wraxall Manor to the rigour of Kinross in Scotland; the beauty of Hawksmoor's Easton Neston to the palatial Georgian sweep of Wentworth Woodhouse; the Victorian exuberance of Clandeboye to the Edwardian ingenuity at Marsh Court, the properties exemplify the changing architecture and fortunes of the nation itself.All are still lived in as family homes. But their owners have agreed to go beyond a few carefully selected highlights, and open the entirety of their homes to Dan Cruickshank. Dan has the run of each estate, roaming the corridors,... poking into attics and rummaging in cellars. No hat-box or trunk is unturned as Dan teases out each home's story - who built them, the generations who lived in them, and the families who lost them.Along the way he has uncovered tales of excess and profligacy, tragedy, comedy, power and ambition. And as these intriguing narratives take shape, Dan shows how the story of each house is indissoluble from the social and economic history of Britain. Each one is built as a wave of economic development crests, or crumbles. Each one's architecture and design is therefore expressive of the aims, strengths and frailties of those who built them, and together they plot the psychological, economic and social route map of our country's ruling class in this rich new telling of our island story. [show more]
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All six episodes of the BBC series in which historian Dan Cruickshank goes behind the scenes of some of Britain's greatest private country houses. All the properties are still occupied by the families who own them, and have never been opened up to the public. Cruikshank delves into the deepest and darkest attics, cellars and corridors of these great houses, revealing the history and architecture of the buildings and unearthing the fascinating human stories behind them.
Historian Dan Cruickshank is invited through the closed doors of six of Britain’s greatest private houses in an illuminating and surprising journey through our architectural history. These fascinating buildings remain private homes and closed to the public, but their owners have allowed Dan Cruickshank to roam the corridors, tease out each home’s story – who built them, lived in them and lost them – and uncover tales of excess and profligacy, power and ambition. From the disarming Elizabethan charm of South Wraxall Manor, the classical rigour of Kinross House in Scotland and the majesty and ingenuity of Hawksmoor’s Easton Neston, to the Palladian sweep of Wentworth Woodhouse with its 600-foot frontage, the Victorian exuberance of Clandeboye and the Edwardian ingenuity of Lutyens’ Marsh Court, the secrets of these houses reveal not only the story of our architecture, but also reflect the fortunes of the nation itself. Dan shows how the story of each house tells the social and economic history of Britain, each built on an economic crest or crash and uniquely expressive of its creator’s aims, strengths and frailties; the crystallisation of a ruling class at a moment in time.
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