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70-524: Crawford was a noted bibliophile long before he became interested in philately. The family library, the "Bibliotheca Lindesiana" located at Haigh Hall in Haigh near Wigan, had its origins in the sixteenth century and became world-famous among scholars for its scope and the many bibliographies of its stock which exceeded 100,000 volumes. Not long after 1897, Crawford purchased the library of philatelic literature formed by John K. Tiffany of St. Louis, Missouri,

140-438: A clock face. The Haigh Hall Miniature Railway , a 15-inch gauge railway , was opened in 1886, and at weekends runs around a one-mile (1.6 km) circuit through the woodland. The 3.5-inch and 5-inch gauge model steam railway is operated by Wigan Model Engineering Society on a one-third of a mile (0.54 km) track. From 2002 to 2011 the park was the venue for the "Haigh Fest" music festival, which returned in 2017 after

210-463: A fortified or unfortified building, a country house, similar to an Ansitz , is usually unfortified. If fortified, it is called a castle, but not all buildings with the name "castle" are fortified (for example Highclere Castle in Hampshire ). The term stately home is subject to debate, and avoided by historians and other academics. As a description of a country house, the term was first used in

280-428: A fortunate few; it was the centre of its own world, providing employment to hundreds of people in the vicinity of its estate . In previous eras, when state benefits were unheard of, those working on an estate were among the most fortunate, receiving secured employment and rent-free accommodation. At the summit of this category of people was the indoor staff of the country house. Unlike many of their contemporaries prior to

350-529: A mixture of high architecture , often as interpreted by a local architect or surveyor, and determined by practicality as much as by the whims of architectural taste. An example of this is Brympton d'Evercy in Somerset, a house of many periods that is unified architecturally by the continuing use of the same mellow, local Ham Hill stone . The fashionable William Kent redesigned Rousham House only to have it quickly and drastically altered to provide space for

420-656: A poem by Felicia Hemans , "The Homes of England", originally published in Blackwood's Magazine in 1827. In the 20th century, the term was later popularised in a song by Noël Coward , and in modern usage it often implies a country house that is open to visitors at least some of the time. In England, the terms "country house" and "stately home" are sometimes used vaguely and interchangeably; however, many country houses such as Ascott in Buckinghamshire were deliberately designed not to be stately, and to harmonise with

490-502: A six-year gap. Citations Bibliography Country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house . This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these people, the term distinguished between town and country. However, the term also encompasses houses that were, and often still are,

560-473: Is politics; they talk politics; and they make politics, quite spontaneously. There are no written terms for distinguishing between vast country palaces and comparatively small country houses; the descriptive terms, which can include castle , manor and court , provide no firm clue and are often only used because of a historical connection with the site of such a building. Therefore, for ease or explanation, Britain's country houses can be categorised according to

630-778: The British Library following a reorganisation. In 1911, a catalogue of the library by Edward Denny Bacon was published by the Aberdeen University Press under the title Bibliotheca Lindesiana, Vol VII: A Bibliography of the Writings General, Special and Periodical Forming the Literature of Philately and in 1911 the rights to the work were assigned to the Philatelic Literature Society (PLS). The Society republished

700-544: The Leeds and Liverpool Canal , in 1799. The canal is crossed by several bridges within the park. The estate is bounded to the west by the River Douglas and to the east, the boundary is New Road. The two-storey stable block of 1865 has been converted to the golf clubhouse and information center. It is built of red brick with stone and blue and yellow brick dressings. Its tower has round-headed windows and an opening for

770-512: The 1850s, with the English economy booming, new mansions were built in one of the many revivalist architectural styles popular throughout the 19th century. The builders of these new houses were able to take advantage of the political unrest in Europe that gave rise to a large trade in architectural salvage. This new wave of country house building is exemplified by the Rothschild properties in

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840-402: The 1870s , the estates, of which country houses were the hub, provided their owners with incomes. However, the late 19th and early 20th centuries were the swansong of the traditional English country house lifestyle. Increased taxation and the effects of World War I led to the demolition of hundreds of houses ; those that remained had to adapt to survive. While a château or a Schloss can be

910-419: The 18th century with houses such as Castle Howard , Kedleston Hall and Holkham Hall . Such building reached its zenith from the late 17th century until the mid-18th century; these houses were often completely built or rebuilt in their entirety by one eminent architect in the most fashionable architectural style of the day and often have a suite of Baroque state apartments, typically in enfilade , reserved for

980-474: The 20th century, they slept in proper beds, wore well-made adequate clothes and received three proper meals a day, plus a small wage. In an era when many still died from malnutrition or lack of medicine, the long working hours were a small price to pay. As a result of the aristocratic habit of only marrying within the aristocracy, and whenever possible to a sole heiress, many owners of country houses owned several country mansions, and would visit each according to

1050-558: The British Library with shelf marks and marginalia by E.D. Bacon included and a preface by David Beech . Not all the works mentioned in these books are included in the library, as the original book was a bibliography of all known philatelic works, and not a catalogue of Crawford's library. In 1985 a major project started to microfilm the library as many of the works were found to have deteriorated with age. This has now been completed. In addition, by February 2011, about 80% of

1120-548: The Haigh Hall Golf Club. Although in the 1790s the park encompassed an area of 500 acres (200 ha), the area today is around 250 acres (100 ha). The Great Haigh Sough , a 1,120 yards (1,020 m) tunnel to drain shallow coal pits, was driven under the estate between 1653 and 1670 by Sir Roger Bradshaigh. The estate was cut through by the southern portion of the Lancaster Canal , now part of

1190-630: The Norreys, who lived there in 1193. Between 1220 and 1230, the manor was part of the Marsey fee and was sold to the Earl of Chester . The hall was home to the Bradshaighs from 1298 until 1780 when Elizabeth Dalrymple, great niece of Sir Roger Bradshaigh , inherited the estate as a result of the failure of the male line in her maternal family. Sir Roger had lived at the hall frugally from 1742. In 1745

1260-550: The arch. Another stone lodge with a hipped roof on Hall Lane west of the canal dates from around 1830. A railway bridge, with a cast iron balustrade from 1883 to 1884, over the Whelley Loop Line, which crosses the estate in a cutting, is Grade II listed as is the bridge over entrance to canal basin on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal . Parkland surrounding the hall now forms the Haigh Country Park and

1330-467: The best-known examples of the showy prodigy house , often built with the intention of attracting the monarch to visit. By the reign of Charles I , Inigo Jones and his form of Palladianism had changed the face of English domestic architecture completely, with the use of turrets and towers as an architectural reference to the earlier castles and fortified houses completely disappearing. The Palladian style, in various forms, interrupted briefly by baroque ,

1400-524: The circumstances of their creation. The great houses are the largest of the country houses; in truth palaces, built by the country's most powerful – these were designed to display their owners' power or ambitions to power. Really large unfortified or barely fortified houses began to take over from the traditional castles of the crown and magnates during the Tudor period, with vast houses such as Hampton Court Palace and Burghley House , and continued until

1470-806: The collection of manuscripts (including Chinese and Japanese printed books) from the library to Enriqueta Augustina Rylands for the John Rylands Library . The Gutenberg Bible is part of the Harry Ransom Center collection at the University of Texas at Austin . The earl's extensive collection of philatelic literature, the Crawford Library , is now part of the British Library Philatelic Collections . Formal gardens established at

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1540-491: The council and the National Lottery Heritage Fund . The five-storey hall has a square plan round a central light well and is built of brick faced with sandstone ashlar . The south-east entrance façade is symmetrical and has 11 bays, of which four project. The façade has a top cornice and parapet . At ground-floor level is a central half-glazed door and 10 tall casement windows , designed by

1610-523: The country saw the building of the first of the unfortified great houses. Henry VIII 's Dissolution of the Monasteries saw many former ecclesiastical properties granted to the King's favourites, who then converted them into private country houses. Woburn Abbey , Forde Abbey and many other mansions with abbey or priory in their name became private houses during this period. Other terms used in

1680-428: The design of the wing around the next corner. These varying "improvements", often criticised at the time, today are the qualities that make English country houses unique. Wealthy and influential people, often bored with their formal duties, go to the country in order to get out of London, the ugliest and most uncomfortable city in the world; they invented the long week-end to stay away as long as possible. Their métier

1750-492: The earl, which open from the inside and have a small upper sash. The first floor has eight tall 15-pane sash windows and above the porch, two shorter nine-pane sash windows and a central casement, while the second floor has 11 nine-pane sash windows. Over the door and adjacent windows is a Tuscan porch with paired columns at each end and columns either side of the door. The south-west garden front has seven bays with an ornamental cast-iron balcony at first-floor level. All

1820-427: The early 1970s, hundreds of country houses were demolished . Houses that survived destruction are now mostly Grade I or II listed as buildings of historic interest with restrictions on restoration and re-creation work. However such work is usually very expensive. Several houses have been restored, some over many years. For example at Copped Hall where the restoration started in 1995 continues to this day. Although

1890-550: The estate which were mined from before 1536. The Lindsays founded the Wigan Coal and Iron Company , which became the largest such company on the Lancashire Coalfield . The present hall was built between 1827 and 1840 by James Lindsay, 7th Earl of Balcarres, on the site of the ancient manor house. He designed and supervised the hall's construction whilst living in a cottage in the grounds. Hard sandstone for

1960-414: The facing was brought by canal from quarries at Parbold and dressed on site using steam-driven saws specially designed by the earl. Work started in 1827 on the north-east wing, and a year later on the south-west wing, which was completed by 1832. The entrance front replaced the 1720s brick building which was in use until the new south-east wing was started in 1836. It is possible the 18th-century building

2030-495: The first president of the American Philatelic Society, and which was thought to be the most complete formed up to that time. Tiffany's library was particularly strong on United States philatelic journals and he was calculated to have 97% of everything published on American philately by the time of his death, including dealer's price lists, society records and even stamp related music. Much of Tiffany's library

2100-482: The full-time residence for the landed gentry who dominated rural Britain until the Reform Act 1832 . Frequently, the formal business of the counties was transacted in these country houses, having functional antecedents in manor houses . With large numbers of indoor and outdoor staff, country houses were important as places of employment for many rural communities. In turn, until the agricultural depressions of

2170-409: The ground floor and sashed windows on the floors above. The interior is richly decorated, particularly the ceilings. The entrance hall has a coffered ceiling and palmette frieze and two black marble fireplaces. The stair hall is sail vaulted with a central light and the staircase has a cast-iron balustrade . The first floor library has a decorated ceiling. As the earl's collections expanded,

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2240-450: The hall and grounds to Wigan Corporation in 1947 for £18,000 and moved to the family's original home at Balcarres House in Fife . The hall is owned by Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust . In May 2016, the council entered into a partnership with Contessa Hotels and £6 million was spent to convert the hall into a hotel and spa. In 2019, however, Wigan Council took the decision to terminate

2310-638: The hall was occupied by the Jacobite Army . Another Sir Roger had married Dorothy Bradshaigh in 1731 and she was a noted correspondent of Samuel Richardson . Sir Roger died in 1770 and Dorothy died at Haigh in 1785. Elizabeth Dalrymple married Alexander Lindsay, 6th Earl of Balcarres in 1787 and Haigh Hall became the seat of the Earls of Balcarres and, after 1848, the Earls of Crawford and Balcarres, for several generations. The Bradshaigh and Lindsay fortunes were made from seams of cannel and coal under

2380-479: The home counties and Bletchley Park (rebuilt in several styles, and famous for its code-breaking role in World War II). The slow decline of the English country house coincided with the rise not just of taxation, but also of modern industry, along with the agricultural depression of the 1870s. By 1880, this had led some owners into financial shortfalls as they tried to balance maintenance of their estates with

2450-435: The household. These houses were always an alternative residence to a London house. During the 18th and 19th centuries, for the highest echelons of English society, the country house served as a place for relaxing, hunting and running the country with one's equals at the end of the week, with some houses having their own theatre where performances were staged. The country house, however, was not just an oasis of pleasure for

2520-556: The immediately preceding war then in World War I, were now paying far higher rates of tax, and agricultural incomes had dropped. Thus, the solution for many was to hold contents auctions and then demolish the house and sell its stone, fireplaces , and panelling . This is what happened to many of Britain's finest houses. Despite this slow decline, so necessary was the country house for entertaining and prestige that in 1917 Viscount Lee of Fareham donated his country house Chequers to

2590-438: The income they provided. Some relied on funds from secondary sources such as banking and trade while others, like the severely impoverished Duke of Marlborough , sought to marry American heiresses to save their country houses and lifestyles. The ultimate demise began immediately following World War I . The members of the huge staff required to maintain large houses had either left to fight and never returned, departed to work in

2660-494: The ironwork in the house was cast on the estate at the Haigh Foundry . The canted first, fifth and seventh bays are three storeys high with casements matching the ground floor of the front entrance. The north-east service wing has eight bays with three-storey canted bays at each end. There are two service entrances with round heads and fanlights with glazing bars. The rear of the house has 10 bays with casement windows to

2730-491: The landscape, while some of the great houses such as Kedleston Hall and Holkham Hall were built as "power houses" to dominate the landscape, and were most certainly intended to be "stately" and impressive. In his book Historic Houses: Conversations in Stately Homes , the author and journalist Robert Harling documents nineteen "stately homes"; these range in size from the vast Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard to

2800-613: The largest area of woodland in Greater Manchester. Within and around the Grade II listed parkland and pleasure grounds are several historic listed structures. On Wigan Lane is a pair of square ashlar lodges and a round-headed entrance arch in the Classical style probably built in 1840. The lodges are single-story with pyramidal roofs. The gateway arch has ornamental cast iron gates and a pendant lamp bracket suspended from

2870-514: The late 16th century at Balcarres in Fife. Alexander Lindsay, 8th Earl of Balcarres (1812–1880) greatly expanded the collection which included a Gutenberg Bible . His son, James Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford , in collaboration with his father, enlarged the library and continued to do so after inheriting the titles so that it became one of the largest private collections in Britain. In 1901 he sold

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2940-544: The latter two are ducal palaces, Montacute, although built by a Master of the Rolls to Queen Elizabeth I, was occupied for the next 400 years by his descendants, who were gentry without a London townhouse , rather than aristocracy. They finally ran out of funds in the early 20th century. However, the vast majority of English country houses, often owned at different times by gentlemen and peers , are an evolution of one or more styles with facades and wings in different styles in

3010-451: The lease with Contessa Hotels after the firm failed to honour its terms. In January 2023, it was announced that the hall had been granted money from the government's Levelling Up Fund . It will receive £20 million to create a "heritage destination of national significance", according to the council. The state of the hall has declined in recent years, but it is set for a £37.5 million transformation, with other funding coming from

3080-515: The library had been rebound, with and without conservation work such as deacidification and lamination . The works may be viewed in the British Library 's Rare Books & Music Reading Room . The library includes approximately 4500 volumes and is notable for containing: Haigh Hall Haigh Hall is a historic country house in Haigh , Wigan , Greater Manchester , England. Built between 1827 and 1840 for James Lindsay, 7th Earl of Balcarres , it replaced an ancient manor house and

3150-606: The library of Sigmund Friedl of Vienna. This library totalled 39 cases of books with surplus material being donated to the Royal Philatelic Society for their library. Crawford was a trustee of the British Museum and following his death on 31 January 1913, the library was donated to the British Museum by a codicil to his Will. The library was received on 17 March 1913. In 1973 it passed to

3220-410: The library took over several rooms, including the dining room, which was moved to the entrance hall. The house was heated by hot air channelled through brass grilles in the skirting boards from seven stoves in the basement. Lighting was firstly by candles, although electricity and gas were installed in the 19th century. Entrance lodges were constructed around the estate boundary and a gateway lodge

3290-655: The minuscule Ebberston Hall , and in architecture from the Jacobean Renaissance of Hatfield House to the eccentricities of Sezincote . The book's collection of stately homes also includes George IV's Brighton town palace, the Royal Pavilion . The country houses of England have evolved over the last five hundred years. Before this time, larger houses were usually fortified, reflecting the position of their owners as feudal lords , de facto overlords of their manors . The Tudor period of stability in

3360-416: The most eminent guests, the entertainment of whom was of paramount importance in establishing and maintaining the power of the owner. The common denominator of this category of English country houses is that they were designed to be lived in with a certain degree of ceremony and pomp. It was not unusual for the family to have a small suite of rooms for withdrawing in privacy away from the multitude that lived in

3430-399: The munitions factories, or filled the void left by the fighting men in other workplaces. Of those who returned after the war, many left the countryside for better-paid jobs in towns. The final blow for many country houses came following World War II ; having been requisitioned during the war, they were returned to the owners in poor repair. Many estate owners, having lost their heirs, if not in

3500-468: The names of houses to describe their origin or importance include palace , castle , court , hall , mansion , park , house , manor , and place . It was during the second half of the reign of Elizabeth I , and under her successor, James I , that the first architect-designed mansions, thought of today as epitomising the English country house, began to make their appearance. Burghley House , Longleat House , and Hatfield House are among

3570-454: The nation for the use of a prime minister who might not possess one of his or her own. Chequers still fulfills that need today as do both Chevening House and Dorneywood , donated for sole use of high-ranking ministers of the Crown. Today, many country houses have become hotels, schools, hospitals and museums, while others have survived as conserved ruins, but from the early 20th century until

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3640-401: The old hall in the early 18th century were illustrated in engravings by Knyff and Kip in 1707. A 1750 painting attributed to Joseph Highmore showed modifications to the layout including a "Gothic eye-catcher", the "Observatory" made entirely of cannel, on the hill crest to the east. Terraces, including a parterre with geometrical divisions extending outwards from the hall on the hillside to

3710-468: The owner of a "power house" or a small manor, the inhabitants of the English country house have become collectively referred to as the ruling class, because this is exactly what they did in varying degrees, whether by having high political influence and power in national government, or in the day-to-day running of their own localities or "county" in such offices as lord/deputy lieutenant , magistrates , or occasionally even clergy. The Country house mystery

3780-529: The owner's twelve children. Canons Ashby , home to poet John Dryden 's family, is another example of architectural evolution: a medieval farmhouse enlarged in the Tudor era around a courtyard, given grandiose plaster ceilings in the Stuart period , and then having Georgian façades added in the 18th century. The whole is a glorious mismatch of styles and fashions that seamlessly blend together. These could be called

3850-512: The ownership or management of some houses has been transferred to a private trust , most notably at Chatsworth , other houses have transferred art works and furnishings under the Acceptance in Lieu scheme to ownership by various national or local museums, but retained for display in the building. This enables the former owners to offset tax, the payment of which would otherwise have necessitated

3920-416: The price of $ 10,000 (about £2,000 at the time) was too high but Crawford told him to buy it at that price anyway. The library consisted of 909 bound volumes and 136 unbound as well as an extensive card index to its contents which was valuable in itself. It was delivered to Crawford in 39 boxes at his London home of 2 Cavendish Square on 28 June 1901. Phillips charged a 5% commission for the negotiations. After

3990-462: The private sale of the art works. For example, tapestries and furniture at Houghton Hall are now owned by the Victoria and Albert Museum . In addition, increasing numbers of country houses hold licences for weddings and civil ceremonies . Another source of income is to use the house as a venue for parties, a film location or a corporate entertainment venue. While many country houses are open to

4060-472: The public and derive income through that means, they remain homes, in some cases inhabited by the descendants of their original owners. The lifestyles of those living and working in a country house in the early 20th century were recreated in a BBC television programme, The Edwardian Country House , filmed at Manderston House in Scotland. Another television programme which features life in country houses

4130-638: The purchase of the Tiffany Library, Crawford employed Edward Denny Bacon as curator of the collection. Bacon worked from Cavendish Square, sorting and cataloguing the works and he was assiduous in tracking down missing philatelic periodicals with the help of Stanley Gibbons. A further addition was the library of the late Judge Heinrich Fraenkel of Berlin, a former librarian of the Berliner Philatelisten-Klub , which included strong holdings of German literature and also incorporated

4200-519: The season: Grouse shooting in Scotland , pheasant shooting and fox hunting in England. The Earl of Rosebery , for instance, had Dalmeny House in Scotland, Mentmore Towers in Buckinghamshire, and another house near Epsom just for the racing season. For many, this way of life, which began a steady decline in 1914, continued well into the 20th century, and for a few continues to this day. In

4270-444: The second category of Britain's country houses are those that belonged to the squirearchy or landed gentry . These tend either to have evolved from medieval hall houses, with rooms added as required, or were purpose-built by relatively unknown local architects. Smaller, and far greater in number than the "power houses", these were still the epicentre of their own estate, but were often the only residence of their owner. However, whether

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4340-419: The south and west, were swept away by 19th-century landscaping carried out by the 8th Earl. Today the hall has a walled garden and woodland walks in the plantations which were part of the landscaping and extensive tree planting from the mid-19th century. Pathways were laid out in the plantations to provide work during the 1860s cotton famine . The plantations are mainly beech , with some other species, and form

4410-493: The true English country house. Wilton House , one of England's grandest houses, is in a remarkably similar vein; although, while the Drydens, mere squires, at Canons Ashby employed a local architect, at Wilton the mighty Earls of Pembroke employed the finest architects of the day: first Holbein , 150 years later Inigo Jones, and then Wyatt followed by Chambers. Each employed a different style of architecture, seemingly unaware of

4480-706: The work as The Catalogue of the Philatelic Library of the Earl of Crawford, K.T. , a work which won a Large Gold medal at the Postwertzeichen Ausstellung stamp exhibition in Vienna in 1911. A supplement to the catalogue was published in 1926 by the PLS and an addenda in the March 1938 edition of The London Philatelist, both by E.D. Bacon. In 1991, a new edition of the catalogue was published by

4550-526: Was a Lindsay family home until 1947, when it was sold to Wigan Corporation. The hall is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building and is owned by Wigan Council . Haigh had a timber framed manor house from the late 12th century when Hugh le Norreys was lord of the manor . Its easily defended position was on or near the elevated site of Haigh Hall. The earliest recorded inhabitants were

4620-520: Was a popular genre of English detective fiction in the 1920s and 1930s; set in the residence of the gentry and often involving a murder in a country house temporarily isolated by a snowstorm or similar with the suspects all at a weekend house party. Following the Industrial Revolution of the 18th century, a third category of country houses was built as newly rich industrialists and bankers were eager to display their wealth and taste. By

4690-576: Was built on Wigan Lane around 1840. A stable block in red brick with yellow brick trim and Italianate tower with a pyramid roof was built north of the hall in 1865. The hall has been registered in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building since 19 November 1951. Housed on the first floor of the hall was the Lindsay family's library, the Bibliotheca Lindesiana , whose origins may go back to

4760-533: Was included in the work which he produced for the Boston Public Library in 1874 entitled The Philatelical Library . ( Free download of The Philatelical Library here. ) The Tiffany Library was acquired for Crawford by Charles J. Phillips , then managing director of Stanley Gibbons , who viewed it while travelling in America. He informed Crawford that the condition of the library was not good and

4830-564: Was refaced rather than completely rebuilt. The porch was added in 1844 in a different stone as Parbold stone was no longer available. Extensive tree planting took place on the estate to screen the house from the earl's collieries. The house was redecorated in 1873 at a cost of £80,000 for a visit of the Prince of Wales . During the First and Second World Wars , the hall was used to provide care for injured soldiers. David Lindsay, 11th Earl sold

4900-422: Was to predominate until the second half of the 18th century when, influenced by ancient Greek styles, it gradually evolved into the neoclassicism championed by such architects as Robert Adam . Some of the best known of England's country houses were the work of only one architect/designer, built in a relatively short, particular time: Montacute House , Chatsworth House , and Blenheim Palace are examples. While

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