Top 11 Mansions in the UK - Britain's Best Estates

One thing Britain is known for is its many fine mansions and estates. Over the last century, their history has been a bad one as families have been forced to sell or donate them to the National Trust. Many were even demolished. Despite this, there are still many beautiful and stately homes to visit in the UK - the kind of architecture you think of when you imagine Britain.

From houses featured in movies and TV shows to those that have played an important role in history - here's our list of the 11 most stately homes in the UK. We've pulled the most stunning images from Flickr, where we can find them, as well as trivia about each home on ***, along with the location and links to each home.

Keep this post in mind if the focus is only on England's top mansions and estates, we plan to do a post for Scotland and Wales in the future.

Castle Howard

This palace is best known as the location for the classic British TV series Brideshead Revisited, as well as the more recent movie adaptation.

*** Trivia:

Castle Howard is a stately home in North Yorkshire, England, 15 miles (24 km) north of York. It is one of the grandest private homes in England, built mostly between 1699 and 1712 to the design of Sir John Vanbrugh for the 3rd Earl of Carlisle. It is not a real castle: the term is often used for English country houses, built after the era of castle building (c. 1500) and not intended for military use.

Castle Howard has been part of the Howard family home for over 300 years. Television viewers and moviegoers are familiar with the novel Brideshead, which was adapted from Granada Television's 1981 Revisiting Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead and the 2008 two-hour theatrical remake. Today it is part of the English Heritage Group's treasure trove.

Where : North Yorkshire

The view from the Channel Islands : Read about the history of Castle Howard in detail here.

: Castle Howard

Blenheim Palace

Built by the victorious first Duke of Marlborough, Blenheim Palace is now best known as the birthplace of Winston Churchill, who was born there in 1874.

*** Trivia:

Blenheim Palace is a huge and monumental country house in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England. It is the only non-Anglican country house in England to hold the title of palace. The palace is one of the largest houses in the United Kingdom and was built between 1705 and 1724.In 1987, UNESCO recognized the palace as a World Heritage Site.

It was originally built as a gift from a grateful nation to John Churchill in return for a French and Bavarian military victory at the Battle of Blenheim. However, it soon became the subject of political infighting, which led to Marlborough's exile, the decline of the Duchess's power, and irreparable damage to the reputation of the architect, Sir John Vanbrugh.

Designed in the rare, ephemeral, English Baroque style, the palace's architectural connoisseurship is classified today by the fact that it was used as a family home, mausoleum and national monument in the 1720s. The palace is also the birthplace and ancestral home of the famous Sir Winston Churchill.

The construction of the palace was a minefield of political intrigue for Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough. After the palace was built, it became the home of the Churchill family for the next 300 years, during which time the various members of the family underwent a variety of changes inside, in the park and in the gardens.At the end of the 19th century, an American marriage saved the palace and the Churchill family from destruction. As a result, the exterior of the Palace remains well restored and intact.

Location: Oxfordshire

Anglophile view: read the history of Blenheim m Palace in detail here.

British cultural background: 10 interesting facts and figures about Blenheim Palace.

: Blenheim Palace Official

Longlea

Longlea is now mostly known for its safari park, reputed to be the first outside of Africa.

*** Trivia:

Longlea is an English country house, currently the seat of the Marquis of Bath, adjacent to the village of Honensham, near the towns of Warminster in Wiltshire and Frome in Somerset. It is known for its Elizabethan country house, maze, landscaped park and hunting park. The house is set on over 900 acres (364 ha) of 8,000 acres (32.37 km2) of forest and farmland with views provided by Capabiliy Brown. It was the first stately home open to the public and the first game park outside of Africa.

The house was built by Sir John Tyne and designed largely by Robert Smythson, after the original abbey was destroyed by fire in 1567. It took 12 years to complete and is widely regarded as one of the finest examples of Elizabethan architecture in England. Longleat is currently occupied by 7 Alexandrettian, Marquis of Bath, a direct descendant of the builder.

Location : Wiltshire/Somerset

UK National Geographic Location : Read more about the history of Longleat here.

: Official Longskin

Chatsworth

Image via ***

This is the seat of the Duke of Devonshire, and has been home to the Cavendish family since Bess of Hardwick settled in Chatsworth in 1549. You'll see it in Darcy's house in the 2005 movie adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.

*** Trivia:

Social change and taxation began to affect the Devon way of life at the beginning of the 20th century.On the death of the 8th Duke in 1908, a death tax of more than half a million pounds was due. It was a small fee compared to what it would be forty-two years later, but the estate was already burdened with debts accrued from the sixth Duke's profligacy, the seventh Duke's failed Barrow business venture in the midst of the Boom, and the depression in British agriculture from the 1870s onwards was palpable.In 1912, the family sold the Huntington Library in California 25 William Caxton Caxton printed books and 1,347 volumes of plays from the 6th Duke's collection, including four Shakespeare folios and 39 Shakespeare quartets. Tens of thousands of acres of land in Somerset, Sussex and Derbyshire were also sold during and immediately following World War I. In 1920 the family's Devonshire House in London was sold to developers and demolished. Devonshire House was built on 3 acres (12,000 m2) of land. Much of the Devonshire House was moved to Chatsworth, and a much smaller house at 2 Carlton Gardens, near the shopping center, was acquired. The large greenhouse in Chatsworth Gardens was dismantled because it required ten men to run it and a lot of coal to heat it, and all the plants died in the war because there was no coal available for non-essential uses. To further reduce running costs, there was also talk of removing the 6th Duke's north wing, which was then considered to have no aesthetic or historical value, but nothing came of it. Chiswick Villa, on the western outskirts of London, is the famous Palladian villa, which Devon inherited on the marriage of the 4th Duke to Lord Burlington's daughter, and which was sold to Brentford Council in 1929.

Nonetheless, life at Chatsworth was business as usual. The household was run by an auditor-general and the household staff remained, albeit more in the country than in the city. The Chatsworth staff at this time consisted of a butler, under whom were the groom, the valet, three servants, a butler, the Duchess's maid, eleven housemaids, two sewing maids, a cook, two kitchen maids, a vegetable maid, two or three pantry maids, two still-room maids, a dairymaid, six laundry maids, and du Chess's secretary. These thirty-eight or thirty-nine people lived in the house. The day-to-day staff consisted of odd-jobs, upholsterers, cutlery servers, two scrubwomen, laundry porter, steam boiler man, coal man, two room attendants who were porters, two night firemen, night porters, two window cleaners, and a team of carpenters, plumbers and electricians. The workmen look after the maintenance of the house and other property on the estate. There were also grooms, drivers and gamekeepers. The number of garden staff ranged between 80 under the 6th Duke and about 20 at the beginning of the 21st century. There was also a librarian named Francis Thompson, who wrote the first book-length account of Chatsworth since the Sixth Duke's Manual.

Most of Britain's country houses were used for institutional purposes during the Second World War. Some of those used as barracks were badly damaged, but the 10th Duke, considering that schoolgirls were better tenants than soldiers, arranged for Chatsworth to be occupied by Penrhos College, a girls' public school in Colwyn Bay, Wales. The school was later amalgamated with Lydal School to become Lydal Penrhos a co-educational private school. The house was packed up in 11 days and 300 girls and their teachers moved in for six years. The entire house was used, including the rooms of the state *** that were turned into dormitories. The breath of sleeping girls condensed, causing fungus to grow behind some of the photos. The house was not very comfortable for so many people and there was a shortage of hot water, but there were compensations such as ice skating on the canal pond. The girls grew vegetables in the garden as a contribution to the war effort.In 1944, John F. Kennedy's sister, Kathleen Kennedy, married William Cavendish, Marquess of Haddington, the eldest son of the 10th Duke of Devonshire. However, he was killed in action in Belgium later in 1944 and Katharine died in a plane crash in 1948. His brother Andrew became the 11th Duke in 1950. He married Deborah Mitford, a Mitford girl, sister of Nancy Mitford, Diana Mitford, Pamela Mitford, Uniy Miford and Jessica Miford

Location:Derbyshire

Photos of Angloopia: detailed history of Chatsworth here! .

Angloopia's visit: read about our visit to Chatsworth here.

Angloopia's photo tour: see nearly 50 photos of Chatsworth and beyond.

: Chatsworth's official

Lyme Park

Also played Darcy's home in the 1995 BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.

*** Trivia:

Lyme Park is a large estate south of Disley, Cheshire, England (grid reference SJ964823). It consists of a mansion surrounded by formal gardens in the Deer Park in the Peak District National Park. The house is the largest in Cheshire and is a Grade I listed building.

The manor house was granted to Sir Thomas Danyes in 1346 and transferred by marriage to Lyme Council in 1388. It remained in the ownership of the Lerch family until it was given to the National Trust in 1946. The house dates from the second half of the 16th century.It was modified in the 1720s by Giacomo Leoni, who retained some Elizabethan features and added others, notably the courtyard and the southern mountains. Lemi's work is difficult to categorize because it contains elements of both Palladian and Baroque styles. Lewis Wyatt made further modifications in the 19th century, particularly to the interior. The formal gardens were created and developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The house, gardens and park were used as a filming location and were open to the public. The Lime Caxton Mass is on display in the library.

Location : Cheshire

Filming in the Isle of Anglia : Read more about the history of Lyme Park.

: Lime Park official

Hardwick Hall

Hardwick Hall in England is the second home of the Duchess of Devonshire and is a favorite luxury residence. Derbyshire

*** Trivia:

Hardwick Hall is one of the most important Elizabethan country houses in England. Along with architect Robert Smythson's other work at Longleat House and Walton Hall, Hardwick Hall was one of the earliest British interpretations of the Renaissance architectural style, which became popular at a time when people no longer felt the need to fortify their homes.

Hardwick Hall sits on a hilltop between Chesterfield and Mansfield, overlooking the Derbyshire countryside. The house was designed by Robert Smythson in the late 16th century for the ancestors of the Besses of Hardwick, Countess of Shrewsbury and the Duke of Devonshire, and belonged to the family until it was handed over to HM Treasury in lieu of inheritance tax in 1956. The Treasury transferred the house to the National Trust in 1959. As it was the second home of the Duke of Devonshire, whose principal country residence was near Chatsworth, little has changed over the centuries, and indeed its antique ambience has been consciously preserved since the early 19th century.

Hardwick is a glaring statement of the wealth and power of Bess of Hardwick, the richest woman in England after Elizabeth I. She was the first woman to live in Chatsworth. This is one of the earliest houses in England, with the Great Hall built on an axis running through the center of the house rather than at right angles to the entrance. Each of the three main floors is taller than the one below, and a huge, winding stone staircase leads to a set of state rooms on the second floor, which includes one of the largest galleries of any house in England, and a slightly altered, tapestry-hung great room with spectacular stucco carvings of banded hunting scenes. In the 16th century, the windows were exceptionally large and numerous, and in an age when glass was a luxury, they were a powerful testament to wealth, leading to the phrase: "Hardwick Hall, more glass than walls" (or, in another version, "more windows than walls") . There is an abundance of fine tapestries and furniture from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. A remarkable feature of the house is that much of the present furniture and other items are listed in an inventory dated 1601.

Hardwick Hall contains a large collection of embroidery, mostly from the late sixteenth century, many of which are listed in a 1601 catalog. Some of the knitwear on display in the house bears Bess's floral charge 'ES', probably made by Bess herself.

Hardwick is open to the public. It has a good garden, including herbaceous borders, a vegetable and herb garden, and an orchard. The extensive grounds also include Hardwick Old Hall, a slightly earlier house used as guest and service accommodation after the new hall was built. The Old Hall is now in ruins. It is owned by English Heritage on behalf of the National Trust and is also open to the public.

Location: Devon

English summary: Read more about the history of Hardwick Hall here.

: Official Hardwick Hall

Alnwick Castle

Alnwick Castle is best known as the filming location inside the Harry Potter movies. It is also known for the Poison Garden, a garden specializing in dangerous plants.

*** Trivia:

Yves de Vissy, Baron of Alnwick, built the first part of the castle in 1096. It was built to defend the northern border of England against Scottish invasion and border imperialism. It was besieged by William the Lion in 1172 and again in 1174, and the King of Scotland and William were captured outside the walls at the Battle of Alnwick.Henry de Percy, 1st Baron Percy, bought it from Anony Bek, Bishop of Durham, in 1309, and since then the Percy family, the Earls, and later the Duke of Northumberland, have all owned it. The first Lord Percy of Alnwick restored the Castle Abbot's Tower, the Middle Gate and the Captor's Tower surviving from this period. 1404-1405 saw a Percy revolt against Henry IV, who besieged and captured the Castle.

During the Wars of the Roses it remained in the occupation of King Ed *** until it surrendered in mid-September 1461 after the Battle of Totton. Sir William Terbois recaptured him in the winter in late July 1462, and surrendered to Hastings, Sir John Howard, and Sir Ralph Grey of Houghton. Gray was appointed captain, but surrendered after a heavy siege in the early fall. King Ed *** responded positively, and in November, when the Earl of Warwick arrived, Queen Margaret and her French adviser Pierre de Bruycker were obliged to travel by ship to Scotland for help. They organized a relief force of mostly Scots, led by George Douglas, the 4th Earl of Angus, and de Bourtz, which set out on 22 November. Warwick's army, commanded by the experienced Earl of Kent and the recently pardoned Lord Scales, prevented news from reaching the starving garrison. As a result the nearby castles of Bamburgh and Dunstanburgh soon came to an agreement to surrender. But Hungerford and Whittingham controlled Alnwick until January 5, 1463, when De Breeze and Angus arrived and Warwick was forced to retreat.

The Lancastrians missed a good opportunity to bring Warwick into the fight, and instead were content to retire, leaving behind a token force that surrendered the next day.

Alnwick fell into Lancastrian hands for the third time in May 1463, after being betrayed by Grey of Houghton, who had deceived the commander, Sir John Astley, at Totton. Astley is imprisoned and Hungerford resumes command.

After Montagu's victories at Hedgeley Moor and Hexham in 1464, Warwick arrived at Alnwick on June 23 and surrendered the following day.

The 6th Earl of Northumberland refurbished it in the 16th century, and in the second half of the 18th century Robert Adam made many alterations. The interiors were mainly decorated in the Strawberry Hill (disambiguation required) Gothic style, which is not at all typical of his work, which is usually neo-classical. However, in the 19th century in Algernon, the 4th Duke of Norhumberland (De of Norhumberland) replaced most of this building with a less ornate design by Anhony Salvin. Officially, a great deal of Adam's work survives, but little or none remains in the main rooms shown to the public, which were redecorated in lavish Italianate style by Luigi Canina in the Victorian era.

Location:Northumbria

Angloopia's view:Read about the history of AlnwickHere is a detailed description of the castle.

Angloopia facts: 10 interesting facts about Alnwick Castle.

: Official Alnwick Castle

Somerleyton Hall

Most famous for its beautiful gardens.

*** Trivia:

In 1240, a manor house, Sir Peter Fitzsbert's Hall, was built on the site of Somerleyton, and his daughters married into the Jerome family. The male line of the Fitzsberts ended and the Jerons held the estate until John Wentworth bought it in 1604. He transformed Somerleyton Hall into a typical East Anglian Tudor Jacobean mansion. It then passed to the Garney family. The next owner was Admiral Sir Thomas Allin, a native of Lowestoft, who fought at the Battle of Lowestoft (1665) and the Battle of Solebay in 1672. Eventually the male line of the family disappeared.

Somerleyton Hall and Park was bought in 1843 by Sir Samuel Morton Peto, who undertook a major rebuilding over the next seven years. Paintings were designed specifically for the house and the gardens and grounds were completely redesigned. Peto employed Prince Albert's favorite architect, John Thomas, and in 1863 Somerleyton Hall was sold to Sir Francis Crossley of Halifax, West Yorkshire, who, like Peto, was a philanthropist, manufacturer, and Member of Parliament. Sir Francis' son Savile was created Baron Somerleyton in 1916. The house is now in the hands of the current Lord Somerleyton and is occupied by the family He built a mansion in Highclere for his only daughter Margaret. Her second son, Robert Sawyer Herbert, inherited Highclere and began collecting paintings and building a garden temple. His nephew and heir Henry Herbert was created Baron of Portchester and 1st Earl of Carnarvon by King George III

. In those years the house was a square classical mansion, but after Sir Charles Barry built the Houses of Parliament, he renovated and rebuilt the Third Earl from 1839 to 1842. It is in the 'High Elizabethan' style and faces the Bathstone.

The term 'High Elizabethan' refers to English architecture of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, when traditional Tudor architecture was being challenged by the influence of the incoming Italian Renaissance. There was a huge Renaissance movement in the 19th century, of which Sir Charles Barry was a great exponent.

Barry was inspired by Italian Renaissance architecture to become an architect, and he was very good at the Renaissance-based style that became known in the 19th century as Italianate architecture. His work in Clifden is considered one of his finest. At Highclere, however, he worked in the English Renaissance Revival style, but added many Italianate motifs to it. This is particularly evident in the towers, which are slimmer and more elaborate than the other great English Renaissance Revival Mentmore towers built in the same era. This strong Italian influence has led to the castle being fairly fairly fairly described as Italianate.

The facade is adorned with side-strip designs and flying buttresses typical of Renaissance architecture. This castle embodies the Renaissance theme. Curiously, the Great Hall, like Mentmore, is modeled after the central courtyard of the Italian Renaissance, with its arcades and loggias. However, in an attempt to resemble the English Assembly Halls of the Middle Ages, Barry introduced the Gothic style into the Italianate effect, and this influence is evident in the points rather than the curves of the arches. This mixture of styles is particularly common at this period, and is not to be found in a truly Elizabethan house.

, although the northern, eastern and southern fa?ades were completed by the death of the third Earl in 1849 and Sir Charles Barry in 1852, the interior and the west quarter (designated as servants' quarters) were still far from being finished. The 4th Earl turned to Thomas Allom, an architect who worked with Barry, to oversee work on the interior of the castle, which was completed in 1878.

The first Earl, who rebuilt his park between 1774 and 1777 to the designs of Capabiliy Brown, was in the process of resettling the village (the remains of the church of 1689 are located in the south-west corner of the castle). The famous 18th century seed collector, Bishop Stephen Pocock, was a friend of his and brought cedar of Lebanon seeds from his trip to Lebanon. These beautiful trees can be seen in the garden today. The estate is filled with all sorts of goofy and eye catching things. To the east of the house is the Temple, a curious building built before 1743, consisting of Corinthian columns from the Devonshire house in Piccadilly. The "Gates of Paradise" is a striking 18-meter-high structure on Seaton Hill, thought to have been designed and built by the 9th Earl of Pembroke in 1731. It soon fell. The event was witnessed and recorded by a Rev. Mills, who recorded that "we had not been there half an hour before, when we saw it cleave from Ye foundations, and fall with such a rattling noise as was but heard three or four miles [5 or 6 kilometers] distant."

Location : Hampshire (thought it had a Berkshire address)

: Highclere Casle Official

English Language Learning : Read the history of Highclere Castle in detail here.

Facts for English Language Learning: Highclere Castle

10 Interesting Facts and Figures for English Language Learning: Read about our visit to Highclere Castle here.

Do you have a favorite English dangling home? Tell us all about it in the comments!"

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