Americans React to the Most Majestic Stately Homes in England
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Reacting To My Roots
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Join us as we dive into the stunning world of England's stately homes for the first time! In this video, we react to 10 incredible English country houses, each containing breathtaking architecture and exquisite design. These English estates are so grand and impressive that it's hard to believe they have been called 'home' by some. From the beautifully landscaped gardens to the lavishly decorated interiors, every detail of these historic stately homes is luxurious.
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👉 Original Video:
• Top 10 Best Country Ho...
Everybody in USA, wow that looks amazing... everybody in UK, imagine heating the place & cleaning those windows 🤣
And changing the clocks.
Hahahah so true
You're not wrong, big windows are a faff. You need shutters for them.
Cleaning the lights and changing the bulbs is a job on its own
And inheritance tax. 🤣🤣
Watching Americans being blown away by old stuff has become its own genre 😂
Yeah..... it's like watching baby TV at a birthday party !
Wish i had a £1 for everytime ya man says "wow" !
It's awesome
Americans: Wow! Imagine living there! British: Bloody toffs😂
I am thinking of offering guided tours around myself, with due apologies for the state of repair....
Fun Fact: Chatsworth house was fully lit with electric lightbulbs years before Eddison "invented" the lightbulb.
1597 in the UK is considered a new build 😮💨
"Hardwick Hall, more glass than wall" was a show of wealth. Glass was expensive.
And it was taxable in those days so only the super super rich could afford the window tax
@@williammackay3321 Indeed. A lot of poorer families could not afford the tax, so they bricked up some of the windows instead. This had the unfortunate effect (the law of unintended consequences) of causing rickets in the children due to the reduction in vitamin D caused by the lower levels of light in the houses.
I had a shot everytime Steve said 'Wow!'. I'm hammered :/
😂😂
Or every time they paused the video
@@matthewjamison
Yes that’s getting a bit much.👍
@budd2nd Big time. I had to fast forward constantly
Nice one, ya non grockle !!
Longleat also as a wonderful safari park
The first apparently.
Yes the monkeys are great, but be prepared to have your car rubbers and wipers dismantled, and try not to want a pee when going through the lions lol,
@@lesdonovan7911😂😂 we had both instances occur when we went, but fortunately, the monkeys were so much more interested in the car in front of us. I got through damage-free 😁
We escaped the monkeys the first time, but we saw the damage they created, so we caught the safari bus every time we went after that.
A folly is a building created to look pretty or intriguing. Often they are towers, grottoes or copies of Greek trmples. Sometimes they are designed to appear as ruins.
Aye, ms Wood, it's an outwood display of ones wealth. Ya neighbor builds one, i'll have to build a bigger one. Small willy syndrome, really.
@@blackbob3358your nobody unless you have your own hermit in a hermitage living in a folly
Just to add that by definition a folly serves no real purpose other than to look good, or show off - it is a 'waste' of resources, hence the name. Not sure if you use the word folly in the USA - but in the UK when someone decides to do something that is deemed pointless or likely to bring more trouble than it's worth we might say "that's just sheer folly" - like building a house on a marsh.
Whenever I hear the word “Folly” I think of dead man’s folly by Agatha Christie 😂
Thanks for explaining! :)
It's called a Courtyard not a patio
Hi both. If you are considering visiting the UK and plan to visit lots of these properties consider getting National Trust membership for a year this may give you free or cheap access to these properties and other perks like free parking. Visit enough properties and the membership fees will be recovered by savings. Similarly both Welsh, Scottish & Northern Ireland have similar organisations. One in Wales I would recommend is Cadw. They own/maintain most of the Welsh castles.
Yes, a cursory search finds that a family membership for two adults plus kids is £159 per year. And that Harewood house alone is £18 for an adult and £10 for a child. So that's near 30% of the annual membership alone. Definitely if they're going to stay a few weeks and go to 4 or 5 such places, it's more than worth it. 😊
Check out Waddesdon Manor which is a National Trust property built by the Rothschild's it is truly amazing
The National Trust covers England Wales & Northern Ireland, Scotland has its own trust, National trust for Scotland, but they both have agreements to allow members to visit each other.
Some English Heritage properties are owned by the National Trust and you can visit them for free, Stonehenge is one.
Harewood isn’t part of the National Trust and queens aunt lived there
@@peterbrown1012 English Heritage is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that it uses these properties to "bring the story of England to life for over 10 million people each year". They are not connected to the National Trust. Again you can obtain anual membership which gives entry to larger properties such as Stonehenge where you get a complete visitor experience but many of the properties are free to enter sites. English Heritage has Guardianship over its properties and has to undertake their care and upkeep for the Nation. For example the Iron Bridge in Shropshire, JFK Memorial at Runnymead and the Cenataph in London are all completely free very oftern volunteers will be on site to explain the history of the site.
We have a saying in uk "every man's house is his castle".
"home"
LOL. Lindsay, your "little patio" is a courtyard and is probably big enough to contain your house and garage and probably your neighbour's house too. I had to giggle. In total, Longleat House stands at 3,486 m2, more than 40 times the size of an average home in Britain. Apart from the mansion, it has an enormous estate that's used as gardens and a safari park.
The main reason for the courtyard design is to allow more natural daylight in to the living spaces. Many old building have 'light wells' even if they don't have the full courtyard.
That definitely makes sense! We love lots of natural light
5:10 worth bearing in mind those wall tapestries are very faded as they are originals so the room when built would have sparkled with all the gold and silver thread woven into them
They are in crazy good shape considering they are original 🤯
It's very common in these kind of buildings, if they have original tapestries, carpets or wall coverings, to have the curtains drawn and the lights turned down low in order to protect the fragile fabric from the light and help to preserve it.
Castles, wouldn't have windows, they wouldn't do too well against cannons!
😂
Many only retain the castle name due to familial connections or former actual fortified castles/houses on the site that were demolished :)
A lot of the big stately homes get passed down through the family. The upkeep is really big, so that is how they've often become open to public. Some of the big buildings also end up being given to the "National Trust", who oversea many old buildings and parklands. They do a pass you can get which allows free access to them all across the country.
Guys, don’t forget that there are many master stonemasons today. As there has too be people who can do the restoration work. From the stone, the paintings, the ceiling paintings to the stain glass windows. 👍🇬🇧🇺🇸❤️
Yes the crafts still passed down but need to get many more to make sure we have the craftmen we have always had
My grandfather was one when he wasn’t busy being a farmer. He made this glorious water pond with curved stone steps up to the top. Haven’t seen it since childhood, cause they sold it when I was a kid.
my father served in the army and was a bantam weight boxing champion ,the then son of the lord of bath admired my dad and as he was very much a hippy type he would invite all of us 2 parents 5 children to come over .i recall running through the halls playing hide and seek with his father the lord of bath such a lovely man .
Do you mean the Marquess of Bath? he was known as a bit of an excentric and died a few years ago.
That would be Viscount Alexander Thynne ? I spoke to him on the telephone when I worked in Medical Benefits (Overseas Group, DSS) He had incurred some medical expenses whilst camping and painting on the French Riviera, he didn't get a lackey to do it, he did everything himself & even rang to thank me when I had sorted it for him, what a lovely, lovely man he was xx
@@kathchandler4919 I don't remember his name, but yes he always wore bright hippie clothes, and painted a full room and ceiling at his home in his own style, it looked really good.
@@mosthaunted2 very clever man , you're so lucky you met him personally x
@@kathchandler4919 No no never met him, this is from watching a documentary.
The excessive amount of windows on Harwick hall was purely to show wealth because at the time of it's construction people were taxed on the amount of windows your home had. The idea being the more windows you had the bigger your property the more you could afford to pay in tax. This resulted in a lot of smaller homes bricking up windows to lower the amount of tax they paid.
The first window tax in the UK did not occur until 1696 (source: www.parliament.uk), over 100 years after Hardwick Hall was built, so did not apply in this case.
Pretty sure it was windows you could see out of as well, so "tit glass" as me and my friends called it was used to allow light in without having to pay as much tax.
I’ve been to Chatsworth, Hardwick, castle Howard , Wentworth Woodhouse my personal favourite is Chatsworth House it’s absolutely beautiful with its 25,000 acres owned by the Duke of Devonshire.
4:55 that's a rhyming couplet to describe the house: "Hardwick hall, more glass than wall".
A poem was wirren about Bess of Hardwick as well:
"Four times the nuptial bed she warm’d,
And ev’ry time so well perform’d,
That when death spoiled each husband’s billing,
He left the widow every shilling…."
Hi guys I’m a silent watcher.
I actually live 5 mins from the no1 slot wentworth woodhouse.
I’m there most weeks looking around walking in the gardens it truly is a magnificent place. Much work to be done but what a joy to watch it coming to life.
If you ever visit this way it would be a pleasure to take a show you all. Just give me a shout and I will be your tour guide. Keep the reactions coming x
Thanks so much Suzie! Really appreciate your support and the offer :)
I have been lucky enough to visit all but one of these houses. I love all of them, but it's lovely to see them through fresh eyes.
At Hardwick Hall, the ES stands for Elizabeth Shrewsbury. Her granddaughter Arbell Stuart was a potential heir to Elizabeth I as Queen of England. On display at the house are examples of the needlework of Mary, Queen of Scots. Elizabeth Shrewsbury's husband was one of Mary's gaolers.
A folly is a building that is meant to be more decorative than practical. They had many uses: viewing tower, cottage, dairy, banqueting room, tea room, or just a decorative ruin.
Chatswoth is my favourite
It’s easily my favourite day trip 😁
The first house, Harewood House, was the family home to Mary, Princess Royal, who was a member of the British royal family. She was the only daughter of King George V and Queen Mary, the sister of Kings Edward VIII and George VI, and aunt of Elizabeth II, she married Henry Lascelles, 6th Earl of Harewood and moved there after her marriage
David Harewood, actor, is a descendant of slaves owned by the Harewood family. That's where the money came from to build houses like this! There is a portrait of him in the house I think
@@user-wu7om7li7y That's where the money came from to build some of these houses.
Thanks for the background, Julia! These types of videos can't usually go into too much detail so it's nice to learn more :)
@@reactingtomyrootsI live 4 miles away it’s still owned by the royals and you can go around the house and grounds for a small fee
@@reactingtomyrootsHave you both been to England? I'd love to see you do some videos of the places you visit when you do come over to England. Highly recommend Hampton Court Palace which is where the Tudors lived and King Henry VIII and his wives 👑 lots of TH-cam videos on it and highly recommended Tower of London and Blicking Hall which is childhood home of Anne Boleyn who was married to the king and eventually had her head chopped off. Also recommend Muncaster Castle and Sudeley Castle in the Cotswolds and Powderham Castle in Devon. You'll love these places.
There are a few things that can help define castles:
1. They are primarily built as a defensive fortress to house the individual who controls the surrounding area along with their army: houses are built as a family home (housing family, a large entourage of servants but not armed) and vast rooms to host/entertain others including royals.
2. Castles will have outer walls without windows but simple arrow slits so the army can fire at approaching enemy crossing outer ground defences like moats and marshes etc: houses have grand windows so that the occupants can see across the vast landscaped decorative gardens and make the interiors well lit (castles are not well lit).
3. Approaches to castles are defended (narrow entrance, portcullis and moats etc): approaches to country houses have grand “avenues” that set the scene for guests arriving in their carriages and allow visitors drive right up to a grand fancy entrance.
4. Most spaces in castles are unfinished stone walls with only the “apartments” where the lord and guests stayed being finished with panelling and tapestries etc.: country homes had much more interior finishing.
5. Castles will often had a number of buildings ‘inside’ the curtain wall as well as space for tents etc.: country homes are really a single connected building (although various wings are built/added at various times).
I’m sure there are other features but these should give you some idea of differences.
This was the nation’s gift after Marlborough win the battle of Blenheim. It was not Churchill’s childhood home; it belonged to his uncle and his mother was at a party there when she suddenly gave birth to Churchill.
Guys, back in the 70 early 80's, we used to holiday in a stately home, , we were not rich just working class, but the home was open to the public for 6 weeks during the summer, its used for the same these days, and for weddings, it was called wortley hall in england, it worth a look,
Fun fact: Blenheim Palace corridors, when all the doors (7 doors ?) are closed in one of the corridors you can see from the first one through to the last through the keyholes.
I’m lucky enough to live within an hours drive of most of these houses and have visited them often. The tapestries in Hardwick Hall are all genuine Elizabethan and are priceless. My favourite house is Chatsworth it is simple magnificent the interior is unforgettable. Chatsworth used to have gold leaf on the some of the outside walls to reflect the Sun and show off its magnificent. A folly is a building built to look old and are usually ornamental but have no purpose. They were built to impress.
Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire is an architecturally significant country house from the Elizabethan era, a leading example of the Elizabethan prodigy house. Built between 1590 and 1597 for Bess of Hardwick, it was designed by the architect Robert Smythson, an exponent of the Renaissance style.
Hi guys. My apologies for so many posts, but you asked questions, so it was nice to be able to answer some of them. One last thing to mention. The shots of Chatsworth House in Derbyshire (country seat of the Dukes of Devonshire). What they don't show you is a close-up of the windows on some facades of the main house. Each one is gilded (on the outside), using 24 carat gold leaf ! (some 1,500 sheets of gold leaf were used). They glitter in the sunlight. The windows had originally been gilded centuries ago, but it was during a more recent £33 million pound restoration programme by the current Duke that they were restored to how they were supposed to look. Interestingly, gilding them means that maintenance is reduced since the gold protects the wooden frames for far longer than paint.
You’re right, if you look at the narrow end of the house from the fountain in the lake when the sun is shining it almost looks like the whole house is built from gold 🙂
You can easily attack a house not a castle
Hi steve and Lindsey as much as I love you two I wish you would wait untill the person who is trying too tell you the history of the house finishes before you start interrupting talking I know its exciting but just sit back and enjoy
I do worry they miss so much information
They missed the fact that Harewood,Castle Howard and Wentworth are all in Yorkshire.
I literally just posted that I think they miss so much information because they talk over the video!
I totally agree, it drives me nuts. They talk over the narration asking exactly what he’s trying to tell them about, if they just shut up and listen. There is time to talk once you’ve paused the video not while it’s still talking to you!
I think you can tell that their constant chatter over the video, is really starting to get on my nerves.
I think this video has been the worst case. At one point I thought why bother with a video, you may as well just look at photos if you are not interested in any of the information. I was so happy at the beginning when Steve let Lyndsey introduce herself then by the end I just felt frustrated.
And to think all those years ago they never had the technology and equipment like today but they produced these buildings love watching you both sandra from England
Large courtyards at the front of a house were a great place for carriages to gather for balls. The ones in the middle of houses were mostly to provide natural light.
The thing at Lyme Hall on the hill is a hunting lodge (called the cage), where they had a brew & hob nobs whilst out deer hunting,
My uncle was head gardener at Harewood House in the 50s. Lord Harewood was cousin to the late queen. Uncle Geoffrey became a garden designer later, working on public gardens at Roundhay in Leeds and Hyde Park in London.
The houses shown all belong to titled people and, originally, the monarch would descend on such homes with dozens of servants and guards. The owner of some went broke because Elizabeth the First or her dad, Henry the Eighth, expected to be kept in unimaginable luxury in their favourite places and with no expense sppared by the owner. Such houses had dozens of servants, if not hundreds. The financial upkeep of them, plus death duties over many generations means owners now are usually forced to live in an apartment and open the rest of the house to the public to make money.
A castle is , or was, fortified and had private armies garrisoned there as well as the family they defended. They were to do with war and defence, rather than luxurious living. A country, or stately, house is literally just a huge house that is home to an extended family plus servants who lived in.
Personally, I prefer our tiny, peasant's cottage.....less housework, food arrives on the dining table without going cold after being carried a quarter mile from the kitchen and the heating bill is (almost) affordable😂😂. I have enough trouble remembering where I left my glasses in our six rooms, a hundred or so rooms would defeat me totally!
I remember when I was a apprentice builder. We worked on a big grand house, that belong previously to a duke. It was an absolutely amazing property. It had large windows around 20ft sq. There was also a marble staircase, with thick wrought iron railings, decorated on top in dark mahogany wood. The workmanship was very impressive and top quality.
Burghley House is gorgeous and totally worth a visit. If the Germans had successfully invaded Britain Herman Goerring had said he wanted to have Burghley.
There's a video by Emma Spears which looks at the various cottages and public buildings from various areas and centuries and rebuilt at St Fagan's, the Welsh National Folk Museum (Amgueddfa Werin Cymru). There are buildings one may visit, which were first built anywhere from 1500s to the 1950s.
I was offended (not really lol) when the cottages had my old kitchen, I didn't even notice til my kids pointed it out .😂😂
Love watching Americans looking at our lovely architecture, I guess this is the beauty of living in such an old country. 😊
If you ever visit the UK, take out the membership for the National Trust and English Heritage. A lot of stately homes and properties are owned by these Trusts so entry will most likely be free, you will be surprised by the gardens and land.
13:08 that tower is a "folly" - they were built solely as display buildings in gardens and on estates as conversation pieces or architectural wonders, and to demonstrate the wealth of the builder since they could afford to construct purposeless buildings.
That tower is the Cage, which is only open to the public on certain days of the year. Apparently it was used as a holding prison for poachers awaiting trial at one point in the 17th century.
@@richardandjuliegare5960 The cage was also used as a hunting lodge. Gentleman would retire to it with everything they needed a few days deer hunting, food, brandy, a couple of serving girls. Servants would stand on top and try and direct the hunters to where the deer were.
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill is buried in the local St Martin's churchyard in the village of Bladon a short distance from Blenheim Palace where he was born.
That 'box' that you both mentioned at 2m50 is actually an example of Chinoiserie (Chino denoting China), very popular with the rich nearly 200 years ago, they are black laquer & inlaid with intricate gold designs, in fact there are 2 examples of these in the main salon of Highclere Castle, I know because I sat right beside one at a close friend's daughter had her wedding there a few years ago...oh my goodness, I'd love you to see the photos !
Great Video Guys, Yes agree Americans say OMG that looks WOW etc, and in UK you think of the heating bills where is the nearest bus stop.🍎
We both love windows 🤣🤣
You two are ace ❤
My wife and I went to Castle Howard just before Christmas for the "Christmas in Neverland" event - Multiple rooms had been converted to be themed to Peter Pan stories and there was a huge Christmas tree right in the middle of the house. It was stunning!
I live 10 minutes away from Harewood House. It is beautiful and the grounds are spectacular ❤ well worth a visit.
Chatsworth House is not too far away from where i live . It was a regular Sunday outing when i was kid . It is magnificent and the garden are beautiful with so many different things to explore . Just the drive to the house would amaze you with the Peak District scenery . You may even bump into the Duke or his family 🙂 .
I have to agree. Derbyshire is truly the best county in England, there's a surprise around almost every corner, stunning scenery and buildings, and great industrial history too.
Simply unbeatable.
(I might be a little bit biased as it's my home county too)
A castle is fortified, generally in a natural position of power (atop a hill or on an outcrop) to be able to see any potential enemies coming. It will have a defensive curtain wall and/or the likes of a drawbridge so that ultimately in the case of a siege it can be secured so that the enemy will have difficulty in getting in. Along with either the ability to sustain the occupants for a prolonged period of time or be very close to what may be a requirement (such as fresh water) that can be tapped into, ideally without having to leave the compound.
There are also fortified houses such as Stokesay Castle near Ludlow in Shropshire, which is essentially a typical house for a wealthy family of that time but has a fortified wall around the perimeter. Palaces and stately homes are not strategically placed and are not built to be defendable against an army. They are built to be aesthetically pleasing, whilst displaying wealth and power to make guest feel intimidated…especially if they aren’t of the same social standing as the owner. Hence the many windows in some and follies in other which are both displays of wealth one due to how expensive windows were during the Elizabethan era, the follies to show how they could waste their money on unnecessary structures just to make the gardens and horizons more interesting…which I think was possibly most fashionable during the Georgian era. The long driveways and expansive courtyards are also about intimidation. The person coming to the home will have to travel for some time to get to the main entrance the whole time knowing they are being watched and everything about them judged.
I live less than 10 minutes from Burghley(pronounced bur lee) House.
Yes, it does have a central courtyard and the gold entrance you can see is actually gates.
It has been used for many films/tv series over the years.
You should look at the interiors of some of these Houses, they are truly incredible.
The House is open to the public from March to November.
I come from rotherham in South Yorkshire, where Wentworth Woodhouse is, and i have been to chatsworth House it is spectacular to think how small England is. We have lots of greenery and fantastic houses and castles 😊🇬🇧
Grew up near Chatsworth, even had a job for a while in the private household for the previous Duke and Duchess. Loved it. The house is almost as big below ground you can see above!
Some of the larger castles (such as at Windsor or Kenilworth, for example) were gradually adapted and "modified" by their owners during the late 1300s and through the 1400s to become more comfortable "stately" homes; but by the 1500s the desire by the owners to have more extensive rooms and more elaborate features meant that the older castles were just not suitable any more; so instead "purpose-built" stately houses - like Hardwick or Longleat - began to replace the older structures.
I could see The Cage at Lyme from the back garden of my childhood home; my mum and dad spent a lot of money and time planting beautiful rose bushes in the front garden, and in the late spring of the first year they were expected to flower, some red deer escaped from the Park Grounds and ate the lot - and of neighbouring gardens too. Although owned by the National Trust, Stockport Borough Council 'looked after' it back then. They offered neither compensation nor apologies. We were used to sheep from the moors, and the little roe deer, and fenced against those, but no-one expected stags!
Yes, the interiors are original.
Or have been restored. Some tapestries on the walls of some of these places have been brought back to life at great time and cost. Beautiful though.
Interestingly, most new uk homes are not self-built, like these, but built by a few large house building companies. This is very different to the US and most of Europe where self builds are much more common. One problem is these companies can control supply to keep prices higher which is far from ideal. Sometimes people blame the planning system but that’s not the whole problem.
A castle is tactically defensive yet strategically aggressive. Get one in some "troubled" lands, and the locals are going to have a hard time getting rid of it. Meanwhile, you can sally out of it to attack locals, and then retreat back when the going gets tough. Big trouble: castles can be starved-out over long periods if surrounded (but there are some workarounds for that).
Eventually obsoleted by cannons, which can knock down the defensive walls / fortifications.
🇬🇧 A ' Folly' , apparently, is an expensive ornamental building, serving no practical purpose.
These are usually found in the Parklands of large , historic houses in the UK. Purely decorative, and placed so as to be viewed from afar.
As in , ' an act of folly '.
I live in Leeds, Yorkshire and feel very lucky to live near quite a few of these places, there's great Abbey ruins at Kirkstall too if you're interested in that history. Thanks for the great commentary, sending all the positive stuff!!! ❤
I’ve been to Blenheim Palace many times, and it’s nothing short of spectacular! At Christmas they do the most incredible illuminations light displays in the grounds, they decorate the state rooms for Christmas (which you can walk through) and they have a stunning Christmas market in the palace forecourt. One of my favourite Christmas activities!!
All buildings are only a couple of rooms wide.
It's for light.
Even the Pentegon is built like that.
*Bradford* the world's first *UNESCO City of Film* and UK's fourth *City of Culture,* doesn't have any massive country houses, however we have many small and medium country houses and halls such as: *East Riddlesden Hall,* the *Bronte Parsonage Museum* (home of the Bronte sisters), *Cliffe Castle Museum, Ilkley Manor House, Bingley St Ives Mansion House, Heathcote* (private home), *Royds Hall* (private home), *Little Horton Hall* (and surrounding properties) and the 938 year old *Bolling Hall.*
There's also other grand buildings such as: *St George's Hall* (the oldest concert hall in Europe), *Cartwright Hall* (and the rest of Lister Park), the *Midland Hotel,* the *Wool Exchange, Paper Hall, Victoria Hall, Ilkley Town Hall,* and *Bradford City Hall* (one of the most used filming locations in the city).
Many many former factories and mills in the former *Wool Capital of the World* such as *Lister Mills, Milligan and Forbes Warehouse, Salts Mill* (the largest building in the world in 1853) and *Dalton Mills* (which had a second building burnt down by arsonists in 2022). Both Salts Mill and Dalton Mills are regularly used for filming.
Plus many areas which are attractions by themselves such as: the village of *Esholt* (home of *Emmerdale* from 1976-1997), the village of *Haworth* (where the Brontes were raised), the 5 mile long heritage *Keighley and Worth Valley Railway* line (constantly used for filming), *Shipley Glen Tramway* (a 400 metre heritage funicular tramline), *Cow and Calf Rocks* (and the rest of Ilkley Moor), *Three Rise Locks* and *Five Rise Locks* (two sets of canal locks in Bingley), *St Ives Estate, Penistone Hill Country Park, Lister Park, Roberts Park, Peel Park, Holden Park, Undercliffe Cemetery* (a Victorian cemetery for the rich which is used for filming a lot), the mini heritage neighbourhood of *Little Germany* (constantly used for filming), and the village of *Saltaire* which is a *UNESCO World Heritage Site* (which is also used for filming a lot).
I live a 10 minute drive from Chatsworth House and it is truly spectacular, a few years ago i went on one of the tours for the staff, which was incredible, as we were shown round areas of the house not open to the general public. Which was amazing, especially being able to go out on to the roof on part of the house, it was a beautiful summers evening and the view out over the surrounding Park was something i will never forget. I even met the previous Duchess of Devonshire, Deborah, who was one of the famous Mitford sisters, on several occasions as she came to do book signing sessions at the local bookshop where i worked and I usually had the honour of meeting her when she arrived and looking after her while she was with us signing books and chatting with the customers. As much as i do love Chatsworth, my favourite house has to be Hardwick House the home of Bess of Hardwick. It isn't as grand as Chatsworth but its magnificent and it feels much more like a home than Chatsworth does, plus you can really feel the presence of Bess in the house, she must have been a truly formidable woman during the time she lived. She married 3 very wealthy men, had 8 children with the first husband, outlived all her husband's amassing huge wealth and position and even hoped to get her granddaughter Arbella on the English throne. Bess was in her mid 80's when she passed away. The ES on the roof of Hardwick stands for Elizabeth Shrewsbury, Countess of Shrewsbury but she was better known as Bess of Hardwick.
I studied horticulture at Arkham Bryan College at York and we helped restore the parterre garden at Harewood House and planted a lot of the Box hedging scrolls as part of our practical work experience, the place is amazing !
Downtown Abbeys real name is Highclere Castle. The name Downton Abbey was the name of the series they held there. It is amazing inside and the grounds are beautiful for a picnic beneath the centuries old trees.
The tower on the hill at Lyme Park is a hunting lodge known as "The Cage". It was used for entertaining guests who attended hunting events in the grounds and surrounding moorland.
There are so many nice 'lesser' country houses, manor houses and farmhouses, rectorys across Britain. Sometimes parts of these grand buildings are converted into flats/apartments that you can buy or lease. I grew up on the doorstep of Dartington Hall in south Devon, and it was a thriving community with it's hall and gardens, schools, art college, cinema, pub, cafe, swimming pools and back in the day it maintained several local industrys also, like the sawmills and tweed mill, furniture and glassware. The hall and gardens have long been open to the public, so i spent many good times attending all manner of activities on the estate if not just drinking with my friends and kicking a ball around in the gardens.
365 rooms! One for each day of the year! Wow.
Drayton House was recently used (for the first time on tv) for the movie 'Saltburn'. It's stunning.
Got invited to tea with the Earl and Countess of Rosebery many years ago in their home - Dalmeny House. We all sat in their rather battered tiny kitchen, drinking tea from old chipped mugs.
I think at 19:35 Lindsey is trying to remember the word 'Cupola' to describe the rounded roof section. Oh, by the way, in UK terms thid is not a particularly old building, 5-600 years is relatively recent.....😆
Hardwick Hall may look a little odd to us, but remember this is one of the first grand houses, it is very early. It is known as "Hardwick Hall, more glass than wall" because of it's really unusual design. The ES on top is for Elizabeth Countess of Shrewsbury (Bess of Hardwick), who built it, she was not scared of showing off!
Yep, Vikki, that's the bottom line. Mines bigger than yours etc...
There used to be a window tax so houses might have loads of windows to show off how much money an owner had or .. in contrast, owners bricked them up to avoid taxes ..
At 12:30 Steve asks about the tower behind Lime Hall, that is a folly called "The Cage" built to entertain guests and give them a great view of the estate.
I'm very fond of a book called '1000 Best Parish Churches', by Simon Jenkins, a former Editor of The Times newspaper. There is a companion volume, called something like '1000 Best Historic Houses', which if you come over, would be one of the best ways of finding out where these houses are.
Many of them are still owned by the original families, but even they have to open their doors to the public sometimes to be able to afford the upkeep. The National Trust and English Heritage ( or Historic Scotland or Cadw for Wales ) offer yearly memberships which cut down considerably the cost of visiting the properties they own. Visiting these houses is one of the great joys of the UK.
Some of these great families owning these properties are notoriously eccentric! I've read of the owner of Wilton House in Wiltshire, a youngish man, Earl of somewhere, and his slight difficulty when he was dating a girl. At some stage he would have to take her back to his place, which is one of these glorious mansions, which would be a bit daunting for his sweetheart...
From about the 1160s the English King's controlled the building of castles; even now you would have to obtain the "licence to crenellate" ( make battlements), which is rarely given. In the 1650s many castles were 'slighted' to make sure they were incapable of being held against the Government; reliable cannon had made most of them obsolete anyway.
So the English nobility started to build stately homes rather than castles.
I worked at Chatsworth house as a gardener for 18 years. It was my dream job, but was forced to retire from it in 2013 due to a bad injury I had. Its a wonderful place and I miss it greatly. This was a great watch. 👍
Lyme Park is next to my hometown of Stockport. The "tower" you are looking at is called Lyme cage. The Cage at Lyme Park was originally built around 1580 as a hunting lodge where the ladies of the estate could watch the hunt. At night, it was used as a banqueting hall. It overlooks the nearby moors and 1,300 acres of park land. In later years, it was used as a game keeper's residence and as a jail for poachers.
With Castle Howard which I visited last year, that during the 1940’s there was a huge fire and that not all the rooms/ areas have been totally restored. There are still areas where they are just beginning to workout architecturally, what it should look like and how to restore. There isn’t even plaster on the walls yet.
The E and the S stand for Elizabeth (Bess)Shrewsbury. One of Bess's husband's was Earl of Shrewsbury.
Steve and Lynsey government buildings were based on the Great houses and vice versa and we're also built by the same architects at one point Britain was probably the wealthiest country on the planet so the wealth was available to create the houses usually to impress the reigning Monarch into visiting it gave the owners even more gravitas this was the internet of it's day xx Steve I love your incredulity about how they built these huge homes without modern tools they did it because building does not actually require modern tools how on earth did people create the pyramids they did so because they could apply themselves to their particular skill as we cannot today with all the distractions around and the internet xx
These are "stately homes", not castles.
Castles are mainly built for defense and to deter potential enemies from attacking you, whereas stately home were built for very rich people to show off their wealth and entertain other very wealthy people. The earliest ones did have defensive duties to protect the owners but were not intended to fight battles and didn't usually have cannons and battlements and barracks for fighting men.
Stately homes are not usually built in strategic positions like castles are, and are surrounded by parkland and farmland owned by the estate.
You'll find the majority of stately homes were built from the late 17th century onwards when Britain began to create an empire and very wealthy merchants started to appear and these were often expanded over the centuries as the families wealth grew.
The country was more stable in this era than medieval times (despite the civil war, William of Orange and Catholic attempts to regain the throne ) and was not run by Barons who settled disputes by force as it was earlier in history.
Glass was extremely expensive in the past and the further back you go the harder it was to manufacture and the smaller the panes of glass that could be produced. So older buildings had windows made up of much smaller panes of glass. For the same reason windows were built very large in these houses in order to impress people and was a major way to show off your wealth, along with lavish interior decor and imported items from around the world.
Castles were also intended to be a shelter for the local population in times of war!
I grew up in one of castle Howard’s villages, they missed saying that in the clip for castle Howard that it has villages and their houses where built from the stone from some of the original buildings on the land. And my dad works at castle Howard. Iam very proud and privileged to of grown up next to this beautiful home
i have watched a few of your videos now, and never seen you so passionate about anything. you 2 are GREAT! ❤
Most of these grand houses were built in the same period, awesome buildings, it’s lovely that you can visit these and see how people lived in a bygone era. Castles are so much older and more for protecting a family or kingdom of sorts.
Hi Guys, as I watch this I have just been through the estates at Chatsworth. Blessed really to live very close by in the Peak District. Other interesting facts include the highest natural gravity fed fountain in the land and we have one of your Kennedy family buried in the church yard at Ednesdor ,a tied village within the estate grounds. I believe JFK visited his relatives grave very shortly before his assassination the same year. Regards Eric
Chatsworth has fairly recently covered all the window frames in gold leaf as it lasts longer than paint!!!!!
My Dad was a professional folk musician. There's a stately home in Southwest England called "Halsway Manor" that is held in ownership by a trust and is used for folk music conventions. I have wonderful childhood memories of marvelling at the some of the original interior and exploring the acres of grounds and woodland.
In my hometown there's an Elizabethan castle from the 1500s that straddles the line between stately home and castle. We also have an older Norman castle near to it. During the English Civil War the decision was made to make a stand in the older castle due to it being more heavily fortified with a moat.
I live in a beautiful little village in the English countryside and my home is what's called a Tudor half timbered cottage, it was built 500 years ago and in the village it's known as the 'new house'. It's got all the original panelling, a walk in inglenook fireplace and wooden spiral staircase, and of course the resident ghost -who is often heard but rarely seen. If you ever come to England you are more than welcome to pop in for a visit.
We tend to forget how amazing our stately homes are - there are lots of them around the country, and visiting them is just something you do (if you are interested in history or architecture)
Totally appropriate comment for Hardwick Hall "Oh- look at all the windows!"
The saying "Hardwick Hall - more glass than wall!" is a well known and well quoted phrase.
Having so much glass in a house of this period was a surefire way to impress, as glass windows were REALLY expensive! If you notice, the windows on the Ground floor are not as big as those on floors above, because all the pricinpal rooms were on the upper floors (then of course, the servants rooms in the roof again have smaller windows)
The tapestries will be originals - they look all beige and grey these days, but riginally would have been brightly coloured.
A 'folly' is a small architectural feature built on an estate by the owner, to enhance the view from their house, or to create locations for walks or picnics with a view. Often they are in the shape of Greek or Roman temples, but can be anything. They are not really buildings that have an actual use - no-one would live there, for instance, they are usually just a shell.
Huge houses like these usually have open courtyards in the middle- or else the rooms in the centre would have no windows.
As Lindsay's definition of a castle read, it is a defendable fortress. The sorts of houses seen in this video are 'Stately Homes' which were built to show off wealth and power, but not expecting to be attacked. Highclere Castle (Downton Abbey) is oddly named, because it is very definitely a Stately Home, and not a Castle at all! There may have been an Anglo Saxon castle on this site- but the house that we see today has absolutely nothing of that left.
Highclere Castle is one of the most homely (in the English sense of the word!) and welcoming castles I have ever visited - honestly, the way it has been designed makes you feel as though you could just unpack in one of the bedrooms, sink into a sofa and have a glorious time. It feels like a proper home, even though it is extremely grand.
Castle Howard was nearly destroyed by a huge fire in the fifties, and the family to their credit has restored virtually all of the damaged rooms.
@Steve "Spires" are pointed towers, typically seen on Churches. The tall structure on the top of the building you ask if it was a spire I think would be called a "turret". And "follies", these are ornamental buildings rather than for practical reason. Great reaction video
Newsflash! Steve and Lindsay love Windows and Doors! Steve's favorite word is Wow! You two are wonderful. Love your videos. This was fun, looking at all those grand houses. Peace
We've been to four of these; Chatsworth House, Castle Howard, Lyme Park, and most recently, Blenheim Palace.
We like old buildings! 🙂❤
We live 10 minutes from Blenheim Palace, have to say it is one of the most beautiful places to visit
Hardwick Hall has incredible history .This is the second house you viewed .Mary Queen of Scots was kept here for many years as Bess of Hardwick was great friends with Elizabeth the 1st .Don't forget this is a Tudor home and is quite ancient .When you visit is has an intense feeling to it .Also the tapestry which line all the walls in the home and the Tudor furniture is original .
In old buildings with no artificial lighting other than candles and oil lamps you needed lots of natural light so nearly every room had to have windows. This meant that you can't build too deep. You need wings and ranges with spaces in-between to allow natural light into the rooms. Thus, a building which might give the impression of being a solid and massive square edifice is going to have empty spaces when seen from above so as to allow light to enter as many rooms as possible.
The "ES" cypher atop Hardwick Hall stands for: "Elizabeth Shrewsbury" whose maiden name was Hardwick.
Elizabeth Hardwick became Elizabeth Cavendish when she married Sir William Cavendish on 20 August 1547, thus becoming "Lady Cavendish". Much older than Elizabeth, Sir William died only ten years later, in 1557. Nonetheless, Elizabeth and Sir William managed to have eight children, only two of which died in infancy.
Six years after buying a property near Chatsworth in Derbyshire in 1553, Elizabeth persuaded her husband to begin construction in 1559 of a house thereon, which was not completed until the 1560s, some years after Cavendish's death.
It was also in 1559, two years after Sir William Cavendish died, that Elizabeth married again, this time to Sir William St Loe, making Elizabeth now "Lady St Loe". In 1565, just seven years after he married Elizabeth, Sir William St Loe died unexpectedly, having paid off all Elizabeth's debts from her first marriage (to Cavendish).
This left Elizabeth extremely wealthy, with an income of £60,000 per year in 1565 - equivalent to US$25 million per year in today. Elizabeth and St Loe had no children of their own, but she now found herself step-mother to two of St Loe's daughters from his previous marriage.
In 1568, three years after St Loe's death, Elizabeth then married George Talbot 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, becoming Elizabeth Talbot Countess of Shrewsbury, as a result. The couple lived in the early version of Chatsworth House, surrounded by Chatsworth's extensive grounds.
Unfortunately, 1568 was also the same year that Mary Queen of Scots was driven out of Scotland by her own advisors and fled to England. At first incarcerated in Carlisle Castle, Queen Mary was moved nextt to Bolton Castle, before being assigned to the custody of the 6th Earl of Shrewsbury in 1569 and subject to house arrest in Tutbury Castle, where Mary remained for 15 years until 1584.
The Earl of Shrewsbury died in 1590, leaving his wife Elizabeth as the Dowager Countess of Shrewsbury and even further enriched, being by then the owner inter alia of the following: -
- large estates near the village of Tormarton (Gloucestershire)
- Chew Magna (a stately home in Somerset)
- Sutton Court (another stately home in Somerset)
- Chatsworth House (Derbyshire)
But the Shrewsbury's stately home of Chatsworth - where Elizabeth and the 6th Earl had been living - now passed to Elizabeth's eldest son, Sir Henry Cavendish.
So, in 1590, the Dowager Countess Elizabeth decided to build her own stately home and began the construction of the magnificent Hardwick Hall (so called after her own maiden name) in the same county of Derbyshire as Chatsworth. She emblazoned the roofline of Hardwick Hall with the cypher 'ES', to denote that although the stately home was named after the family of her birth, she remained faithful to her identity as the widow of the late 6th Earl of Shrewsbury.
In an era when "Bess" was a common diminutive for women christened "Elizabeth" - contemporary Queen Elizabeth I was (and still is) known as: "Good Queen Bess", for example - the Dowager Countess Elizabeth of Shrewsbury is renowned to history simply as: "Bess of Hardwick".
On another note: in 1591, within a year of inheriting Chatsworth House, Sir Henry sold it to his younger brother, William Cavendish, who was subsequently created the 1st Earl of Devonshire on 7 August 1618 by King James VI (Scotland) & I (England).
William's great grandson (the 4th Earl of Devonshire and also named William) was subsequently created the 1st Duke of Devonshire in 1694 by King William III & his wife the co-regnant Queen Mary II.
It was William Cavendish, the 1st Duke of Devonshire who then turned Chatsworth House into the magnificent stately home that it is now and made Chatsworth the county seat of the Dukes of Devonshire, which it remains to this very day. Thus, it is now called home by Peregrine Andrew Morney "Stoker" Cavendish KCVO CBE, the 12th Duke of Devonshire.
It might also be noted that the 12th Duke of Devonshire is also the 12th Marquess of Hartington; the 7th Earl of Burlington; the 15th Earl of Devonshire; the 15th Baron Cavendish of Hardwick; and the 7th Baron Cavendish of Keighley.
Introductions at parties must take all evening.