History of English Country Houses

Evolution of the British Country House

Victorian Architecture

The Victorian period drew on a range of earlier influences for its architectural buildings. Regency neo-classical ideas and the Gothic revival still prevailed into the mid-nineteenth century. But as the century continued, then some of the grander architectural designs of previous periods began to come back into fashion, in keeping with the times.
Elizabethan and Jacobean influences combined with a celebration of 'Old England', and the Gothic styles of architects like Scott and Pugin. The use of traditional building styles and local materials was advocated by the Arts & Crafts Movement (between 1860-1910) which included designers who favoured a return to handcraft, rather than machine-made mass produced goods.

Country estate and land owndership still retained its power of social standing and influence and remained profitable until the late nineteenth century, for agricultural purposes. Many landowners also increased their wealth during the Victorian period and used this to rebuild or extend their houses. Many country houses contain annexes and additions from this period, such as specialised servants quarters, which incorporated the latest technological developments.
The influence of social morality in Victorian times also appeared in architecture, with separate wings for unmarried male and female lodgers as well as for servants.

Another style was the Queen Anne Revival, which saw the building of large red-brick houses that were inspired from the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. At the end of the nineteenth century, the much-admired architect Edward Lutyens began his early country house designs based on the older manor houses of Surrey. He built homes for wealthy industrialists and his later designs were to return to the splendour of Georgian times.

The bewildering array of architectural styles and fashions of the Victorian era are well illustrated in Castell Coch, near Cardiff. Built in the 1870s by the eccentric William Burges, the castle is a thirteenth century reconstruction complete with portcullis, and an interior combining Victorian romanticism, Moorish designs and classical mythology.

Another example is Lake Country House, a featured hotel in mid-Wales. The house was begun in 1840, yet remodelled in 1900. The half-timbering is mock-Tudor, but the verandas and French windows give it a colonial air.