Britain’s Estates – Once Magnificent, Now Finding a Revival
An increasingly popular and quintessentially British way to experience exceptional luxury and high-end hospitality is by spending time at one of the UK’s stately homes.
Encased in history and legend and comprising astoundingly beautiful architecture and stunningly verdant grounds, many of these estates are now open for viewing and accommodation.
Decorating Britain’s countryside landscape, these manor houses and stately homes are representative of the gentry and aristocracy of a bygone era. Once the functioning homes of the country’s most elite and privileged families, the majority of the estates that remain are now open for public use, albeit rather exclusively.
Initially constructed as far back as the mid-sixteenth century and thriving for the centuries that followed, these stately homes eventually ceased to be economically sustainable. Factors including increased taxation, agricultural depression, advancements in modern industry and the loss of family heirs in the two World Wars all contributed to the demise of these estates.
In fact, since the start of the 20th-century around 1,600 UK stately homes have been demolished. However, a re-emergence of interest within the last 50 or so years has opened up new opportunities for the ones that remain.
One of Blend Group’s favourites is the Goodwood Estate in West Sussex, an 18th-century lodge that sits on a 12,000-acre estate. Home of the Goodwood Revival motor festival and the Qatar Goodwood horseracing festival, guests are able to enjoy luxurious facilities, such as the stunning Downs Golf Course, the estate’s flight school and its pristine health club.
Other notable estates include Bedfordshire’s Luton Hoo, which was famed for hosting the Queen and Prince Philip’s honeymoon, and Cliveden House, Berkshire, the setting of the infamous Profumo scandal in the 1960’s and more recently the abode of Meghan Markle on the eve of her wedding. In Buckinghamshire, Hartwell House, a gorgeous Jacobean and Georgian home, was once leased to Louis XVIII, the exiled King of France, and acted as a training ground for British and American troops during WWII.
Please get in touch with us here for more information about these palatial wonders and to enquire into a getaway that will enable you to enjoy the sweeping staircases, invaluable art pieces and ancient furniture as if they were your own.
