FEATURE
HALF-CENTURY OF SUPPORT FOR
HISTORIC HOUSES
Derbyshire has more than its share of historic houses – and three of them are in an association that has just celebrated its 50th anniversary. Barrie Farnsworth reports.
T
HREE stately homes in Derbyshire – Renishaw, Haddon and Eyam Halls – are members of an association of around 1,400 stately home owners, called when it was set up just over 50 years ago as the Historic Houses Association. People think of the Seventies as a period dominated, politically, by trades unions. Few recall that, late in 1973, the unlikeliest group imaginable – many of them titled aristocrats living in some of Britain’s grandest country seats – formed an industry body of their own. Their aim was to share technical expertise and to campaign for a new settlement regarding the beloved but costly ‘white elephants’ of the UK’s mansions and manor houses, castles, and gardens. For the previous forty years or so, an average of one historically important ‘great house’ every week had been lost to fire, neglect, or, sometimes, deliberate demolition by owners who could see no future use for these huge 26 Reflections February 2024
expressions of past glories and had no means to pay for their upkeep. Some foresighted experts and owners, however, believed that a different future was possible. The Gowers Report on Houses of National Importance, published by a Labour government in 1950, concluded that the only way hundreds of endangered stately homes would ever see the next century was to use tax breaks to incentivise owners to continue living in them – and encouraging those owners to make them pay by opening them as tourist attractions. Lord Montagu of Beaulieu was foremost among those making a go of that approach in practice. Almost a hundred houses were open to the public by 1952, so the idea wasn’t unheard of, but his creation of a motor museum to draw in larger crowds was novel. “I would rather keep my home and surrender my privacy than the other way around,” he said at the time. In March 1952, invitations went out to stately home owners to establish
Above: The Great Chamber at Haddon Hall. Top: The origins of Haddon Hall date from the 11th century, with additions between the 13th and 17th centuries. It is the home of Lord (brother of the Duke of Rutland) and Lady Edward Manners. The hall and gardens are normally open from April until the end of October – check out haddonhall.co.uk for details. some of industry association. However, reported The Sunday Chronicle, ‘the Earl of Leicester declined with thanks; the 11th Duke of Devonshire wanted no To advertise call 01246 550488