Many English country houses have experienced a change of use and are no longer privately occupied.[1][2]

Country houses converted to apartments

Country houses converted to luxury hotels

Country houses used as schools or for other educational purposes

Country houses used for religious purposes

Country houses used as hospitals or residential care homes

Country houses run as museums or art galleries

Country houses used for other purposes

Other uses

The National Portrait Gallery (London) has several outstations at country houses: Montacute House is partially used to display Elizabethan and Jacobean portraits; Beningbrough Hall is used to display 18th-century portraits and Bodrhyddan Hall displays 19th-century portraits.

Knebworth House stages rock concerts in the park. Glyndebourne has an opera house attached. Port Lympne is now a zoo, several houses also have Safari parks in the grounds: Knowsley Hall (The house has never been open to the public), Longleat & Woburn Abbey. Clouds House is used as a centre for treating alcoholics and drug addicts. Moor Park is a golf club-house. Halton House is used by the Royal Air Force and Minley Manor was used by the army. Another common use of country houses is to convert them for multiple occupation, for example New Wardour Castle, Sheffield Park House & Stoneleigh Abbey whose former park Stoneleigh Park is used for exhibitions and agricultural shows. Culzean Castle, Margam Castle & Tatton Hall are at the centre of country parks. Goodwood House is a centre of both horse & motor racing. Ince Blundell Hall is now a nunnery. Toddington Manor is being convert into an art gallery and home by Damien Hirst. Many houses are now in the ownership of Local government and operated as country house museums including Ashton Court, Aston Hall being the first to be so owned from 1864, Cardiff Castle, Heaton Hall & Tredegar House. Ditchley is owned and used for conferences by the Ditchley Foundation.

See also

References

  1. "British stately homes - the problems of funding the family estate". cnn.com. 13 March 2018. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
  2. Jones, Kevin (2019-03-12). "A History of English Country Houses". This Old City. Retrieved 2023-01-17.
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