Great Houses of the North - Derbyshire to Newcastle (UK)
Deal number 26478678
Martin Randall Travel
21/06/2027
England
9-day tour
Departing from Derby
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Exclusive Inclusions
9 day Martin Randall Tour departing Derby
8 night hotel accommodation
Meals including breakfast daily and 6 dinners with wine, water & coffee
Visit the finest country houses and gardens in northern England, from medieval to Victorian, with an emphasis on the eighteenth century.
Travel by private coach.
The services of the lecturer and tour manager.
All admissions
All gratuities and taxes
The service service of the lecturer, tour manager and national guide.
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The country house is Englands most distinctive contribution to the worlds cultural heritage. Other countries have aristocratic residences of course, but none in such profusion, such variety, and in such a state of completion and preservation. A first-rate country house is more than a house. Clustering around are gardens, auxiliary buildings and a park, and beyond lie working farms and enterprises of all sorts. Inside, there are furnishings and works of art and gadgets and utensils and curios: in many of the houses on this tour these moveables are of a quality and a quantity which surpass the collections of all but a couple of dozen of Englands museums.
Why is England the locus classicus of the country house? Wealth is a precondition of their erection in the first place, and by and large there was a sufficiency; geography has been kind in allowing agricultural prosperity, and Britains primacy in trade and industry fed into stately piles. Relative peace and absence of foreign occupation, preference for primogeniture, a reluctance to revolt, a fruitful balance between the power of the monarch and the rights of the nobles: all these have been factors in the creation and maintenance of country house culture. Most of the houses on this tour have been in the same family for several generations.
One feature of the English country house is that it usually resides in the country; on the Continent the town often presses around the forecourt. Some of the countryside through which this tour passes has a bleak and rugged beauty the moorland of the Peak District and the uplands of Northumberland. But most is gently rolling farmland with green fields, ancient hedges, majestic trees and contented livestock, far from urban sprawl and seemingly remote in time. Many of the houses have brilliant gardens; space precludes mentioning them all below, but there is usually plenty of time for enjoying them. The leisurely pace of the tour is a distinctive feature. Time is allowed for relaxing and reflecting and exploring on ones own. Special arrangements comprise another significant feature, including out-of-hours opening and access to parts not normally seen by visitors.
Why is England the locus classicus of the country house? Wealth is a precondition of their erection in the first place, and by and large there was a sufficiency; geography has been kind in allowing agricultural prosperity, and Britains primacy in trade and industry fed into stately piles. Relative peace and absence of foreign occupation, preference for primogeniture, a reluctance to revolt, a fruitful balance between the power of the monarch and the rights of the nobles: all these have been factors in the creation and maintenance of country house culture. Most of the houses on this tour have been in the same family for several generations.
One feature of the English country house is that it usually resides in the country; on the Continent the town often presses around the forecourt. Some of the countryside through which this tour passes has a bleak and rugged beauty the moorland of the Peak District and the uplands of Northumberland. But most is gently rolling farmland with green fields, ancient hedges, majestic trees and contented livestock, far from urban sprawl and seemingly remote in time. Many of the houses have brilliant gardens; space precludes mentioning them all below, but there is usually plenty of time for enjoying them. The leisurely pace of the tour is a distinctive feature. Time is allowed for relaxing and reflecting and exploring on ones own. Special arrangements comprise another significant feature, including out-of-hours opening and access to parts not normally seen by visitors.
Itinerary
Day 1 Kedleston (Derbyshire)
The coach leaves Derby railway station at 1.45pm. One of the supreme monuments of Classical architecture and decoration in England, recreating the glories of Ancient Rome in the foothills of the Peak District, Kedleston Hall (1759 to 1765) was the creation of Sir Nathaniel Curzon and, initially, three architects, of whom Robert Adam emerged the victor. The sequence of grand rooms for entertainment and show are homogeneous and complete (with furnishings designed by Adam), an impeccable manifestation of aristocratic wealth, education and taste. Spend the first of three nights near Chatsworth.
Day 2 Chatsworth & Haddon (Derbyshire)
The home of the Duke of Devonshire, Chatsworth House was rebuilt in the 1690s with the scale and sumptuousness of a palace and further augmented in the 1820s. The steady acquisition of fine furniture, sculpture and pictures created one of the finest private art collections in the world. The most perfect English house to survive from the Middle Ages, Haddon Hall evolved from c. 1370 to the 17th century after which nearly 300 years of disuse preserved it from alteration. The gardens are exceptionally lovely.
Day 3 Hardwick & Bolsover (Derbyshire)
Hardwick Hall (1590) is the finest of all Elizabethan great houses, a highpoint of the English Renaissance, the faade famously more glass than stone. The unaltered interiors are decorated with stucco reliefs and filled with contemporary textiles and furniture. Bolsover Castle is an elaborate Jacobean folly, a splendid late-Renaissance sequence of rooms in medieval fancy dress.
Day 4 Wentworth Woodhouse (South Yorkshire) & Harewood (West Yorkshire)
Hardwick Hall (1590) is the finest of all Elizabethan great houses, a highpoint of the English Renaissance, the faade famously more glass than stone. The unaltered interiors are decorated with stucco reliefs and filled with contemporary textiles and furniture. Bolsover Castle is an elaborate Jacobean folly, a splendid late-Renaissance sequence of rooms in medieval fancy dress.
Day 5 Burton Agnes (East Yorkshire) & Castle Howard (North Yorkshire)
Burton Agnes Hall is a final flourish of the Elizabethan age, red brick and cream stone, topiary, marvellous carving and plasterwork, Impressionist and modern paintings: the perfect English house. Designed by John Vanbrugh in 1699, Castle Howard is one of the few major Baroque buildings in England and the most palatial house on the tour. Excellent works of art and park with famous temples and follies.
Day 6 Markenfield Hall (North Yorkshire)
The best surviving medieval moated manor house in England, with parts dating to c. 1290 and crenellations licensed in 1310, Markenfield Hall has charm beyond words. It is a textbook case of how a family-owned historic property can flourish, given energy, imagination and love. Some free time in York.
Day 7 Raby & Bishop Auckland (County Durham)
Within the formidable 14th-century fortifications of Raby Castle are suites of rooms of the 18th and 19th centuries. There are good paintings, furniture and Meissen animals and a deer park. One of the best preserved episcopal palaces in Europe, and home to Francisco de Zurbarns Jacob and His Twelve Sons. First of two nights in Alnwick.
Day 8 Belsay & Cragside (Northumberland)
After Sir Charles Moncks return from Greece in 1805 he built Belsay Hall in a severely Grecian style. Delightful woodland gardens lead to a medieval castle. A wonderful sequence of late-Victorian taste and technology, Cragside is a romantic Tudor-style pile (1869 to 1884) designed by Norman Shaw for William Armstrong, inventor and manufacturer.
Day 9 Alnwick (Northumberland) to Newcastle
Since 1309 the seat of the Percys, Dukes of Northumberland, Alnwick Castle externally remains a striking medieval fortress while the interiors are a lavish exercise in Victorian medievalism. There is a superb painting collection and a new 12-acre garden. The coach takes you to Newcastle railway station by 3.30pm.
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