Many English country house

English country house

The English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a London house. This allowed to them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these people, the term distinguished between town and country...

s have experienced a change of use and are no longer privately occupied.

English Country Homes that have become Luxury Hotels

• Cliveden
  Cliveden
  Cliveden is an Italianate mansion and estate at Taplow, Buckinghamshire, England. Set on banks above the River Thames, its grounds slope down to the river. The site has been home to an Earl, two Dukes, a Prince of Wales and the Viscounts Astor....
  
  
• Coworth House
  Coworth House
  Coworth House is a late 18th century country house situated at Sunningdale, near Ascot, in the English county of Berkshire. In 2008, it's interiors were gutted and rebuilt to facilitate the house's new use as an hotel...
  
  
• Hartwell House
• Peckforton Castle
  Peckforton Castle
  Peckforton Castle is a country house built in the style of a medieval castle. It stands in woodland at the north end of Peckforton Hills northwest of the village of Peckforton, Cheshire, England. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building...
  
  
• Taymouth Castle
  Taymouth Castle
  Taymouth Castle is situated just north-east of the village of Kenmore, Perth and Kinross in the Highlands of Scotland.It stands on the site of the much older Balloch Castle , which was demolished to be rebuilt on a much larger scale in the early 19th century by the Campbells of Breadalbane.It was...
  
  

English Country Homes used as schools or other educational uses

• Ashridge House
  Ashridge Business School
  Ashridge Business School is an independent, non-profit making organisation, near Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire, England. Its activities include open and tailored executive education programmes, MBA, MSc and Diploma qualifications, organisation consulting, applied research and online learning....
  
  
• Bramshill House
  Bramshill House
  Bramshill House is a Jacobean mansion standing on of land in the civil parish of Bramshill in northeast Hampshire in England. It has been the location of the Police Staff College since 1960.-History:...
  
  
• Dartington Hall
  Dartington Hall
  The Dartington Hall Trust, near Totnes, Devon, United Kingdom is a charity specialising in the arts, social justice and sustainability.The Trust currently runs 16 charitable programmes, including The Dartington International Summer School and Schumacher Environmental College...
  
  
• Harlaxton Manor
  Harlaxton Manor
  Harlaxton Manor, built in 1837, is a manor house in Harlaxton, Lincolnshire, England. Its architecture, which combines elements of Jacobean and Elizabethan styles with symmetrical Baroque massing, renders the mansion unique among surviving Jacobethan manors....
  
  
• Heslington Hall
• Prior Park
  Prior Park College
  Prior Park College is a Roman Catholic co-educational independent school for both day and boarding pupils.It is situated on a hill overlooking the city of Bath, in Somerset, in south-west England...
  
  
• Scarisbrick Hall
  Scarisbrick Hall
  Scarisbrick Hall is a country house situated just to the south-east of the village of Scarisbrick in Lancashire, England.-History:Scarisbrick Hall was the ancestral home of the Scarisbrick family and dates back to the time of King Stephen . The Scarisbrick family lived on the site from 1238 until...
  
  
• Stowe House
  Stowe House
  Stowe House is a Grade I listed country house located in Stowe, Buckinghamshire, England. It is the home of Stowe School, an independent school. The gardens , a significant example of the English Landscape Garden style, along with part of the Park, passed into the ownership of The National Trust...
  
  
• Tring Park
  Tring Park
  Tring Park is a large country house near Tring, Hertfordshire.The Manor of Tring is first mentioned in the Domesday Book where it is referred to as "Treunge" and was owned by Eustace III, Count of Boulogne, a countryman of William the Conqueror...
  
  
• Westonbirt House
  Westonbirt House
  Westonbirt House is a country house in Gloucestershire, England. It belonged to the Holford family from 1665 until 1926. The first house on the site was an Elizabethan manor house...
  
  

Other uses of English Country Homes

• Hewell Grange
  Hewell (HM Prison)
  This article is about Hewell Prison. For information regarding the Hewell Grange country house and estate, see Hewell GrangeHM Prison Hewell is a multiple security category men's prison, located in the village of Tardebigge in Worcestershire, England...
  
  , open prison
• Compton Verney
  Compton Verney
  Compton Verney is a manor and parish in the county of Warwickshire, England.Compton Verney House is an 18th century country mansion which has been converted into an art gallery....
  
  , art gallery
• Cusworth Hall
  Cusworth Hall
  Cusworth Hall is an 18th century Grade I listed country house in Cusworth, near Doncaster, South Yorkshire in the north of England. Set in the landscaped parklands of Cusworth Park, Cusworth Hall is a good example of a Georgian country house.- Introduction :...
  
  , The museum of South Yorkshire Life
• Duff House
  Duff House
  Duff House is a Georgian house in Banff, Scotland.Within the Deveron Valley lies Duff House, designed by William Adam, built between 1735 and 1740, and widely thought to be one of Britain's finest Georgian houses. Duff House was built for William Duff of Braco, who became Earl Fife in 1759.The...
  
  , outstation of the National Gallery of Scotland
  National Gallery of Scotland
  The National Gallery of Scotland, in Edinburgh, is the national art gallery of Scotland. An elaborate neoclassical edifice, it stands on The Mound, between the two sections of Edinburgh's Princes Street Gardens...
  
  
• Paxton House, outstations of the National Gallery of Scotland
  National Gallery of Scotland
  The National Gallery of Scotland, in Edinburgh, is the national art gallery of Scotland. An elaborate neoclassical edifice, it stands on The Mound, between the two sections of Edinburgh's Princes Street Gardens...
  
  
• Temple Newsam House
  Temple Newsam
  Temple Newsam is a Tudor-Jacobean house with grounds landscaped by Capability Brown, in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...
  
  , a museum of the decorative arts
• St Fagans Castle, St Fagans National History Museum
  St Fagans National History Museum
  St Fagans National History Museum , commonly referred to as St Fagans after the village where it is located, is an open-air museum in Cardiff chronicling the historical lifestyle, culture and architecture of the Welsh people...
  
  
• Wollaton Hall
  Wollaton Hall
  Wollaton Hall is a country house standing on a small but prominent hill in Wollaton, Nottingham, England. Wollaton Park is the area of parkland that the stately house stands in. The house itself is a natural history museum, with other museums in the out-buildings...
  
  , natural history museum.
• Alton Towers
  Alton Towers
  Alton Towers is a theme park and resort located in Staffordshire, England. It attracts around 2.7 million visitors per year making it the most visited theme park in the United Kingdom. Alton Towers is also the 9th most visited theme park in Europe...
  
  , amusement park.
• Drayton Manor
  Drayton Manor
  Drayton Manor, one of Britain's lost houses, was a British stately home at Drayton Bassett, in the District of Lichfield, Staffordshire, England....
  
  , Drayton Manor Theme Park
  Drayton Manor Theme Park
  Drayton Manor Theme Park is a theme park, resort & zoo in the grounds of the former Drayton Manor, near Tamworth in Staffordshire, England.Drayton Manor is best known because it is a theme park and zoo which attracts around 1.4 million people a year. The attraction has a wide selection of rides set...
  
   amusement park
• Donington Hall
  Donington Hall
  Donington Hall is a house and residual estate in Castle Donington, North West Leicestershire, located close to the city of Derby. The Hall serves as the headquarters for airline BMI....
  
  , Office

Other uses

The National Portrait Gallery (London) has several outstations at country houses: Montacute House

Montacute House

Montacute House is a late Elizabethan country house situated in the South Somerset village of Montacute. This house is a textbook example of English architecture during a period that was moving from the medieval Gothic to the Renaissance Classical; this has resulted in Montacute being regarded as...

 is partially used to display Elizabethan and Jacobean portraits; Beningbrough Hall

Beningbrough Hall

Beningbrough Hall is a large Georgian mansion near the village of Beningbrough, North Yorkshire, England overlooking the River Ouse. It boasts one of Britain's finest baroque interiors and an attractive walled garden, as well as being home to over 100 portraits on loan from the National Portrait...

 is used to display 18th-century portraits and Bodrhyddan Hall displays 19th-century portraits.

Knebworth House

Knebworth House

Knebworth House is a country house in the civil parish of Knebworth in Hertfordshire, England.-History and description:The home of the Lytton family since 1490, when Thomas Bourchier sold the reversion of the manor to Sir Robert Lytton, Knebworth House was originally a genuine red-brick Late Gothic...

 stages rock concerts in the park. Glyndebourne

Glyndebourne

Glyndebourne is a country house, thought to be about six hundred years old, located near Lewes in East Sussex, England. It is also the site of an opera house which, with the exception of its closing during the Second World War, for a few immediate post-war years, and in 1993 during the...

 has an opera house

Opera house

An opera house is a theatre building used for opera performances that consists of a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and set building...

 attached. Port Lympne is now a zoo, several houses also have Safari park

Safari park

A safari park, sometimes known as a wildlife park, is a zoo-like commercial tourist attraction where visitors can drive in their own vehicles or ride in vehicles provided by the facility to observe freely roaming animals...

s in the grounds: Knowsley Hall

Knowsley Hall

Knowsley Hall is a stately home near Liverpool within the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley, in Merseyside, England. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building, and is the ancestral home of the Stanley family, the Earls of Derby. The hall is surrounded by of...

 (The house has never been open to the public), Longleat

Longleat

Longleat is an English stately home, currently the seat of the Marquesses of Bath, adjacent to the village of Horningsham and near the towns of Warminster in Wiltshire and Frome in Somerset. It is noted for its Elizabethan country house, maze, landscaped parkland and safari park. The house is set...

 & Woburn Abbey

Woburn Abbey

Woburn Abbey , near Woburn, Bedfordshire, England, is a country house, the seat of the Duke of Bedford and the location of the Woburn Safari Park.- Pre-20th century :...

. Clouds House

Clouds House

Clouds House is a Grade II listed building located near the village of East Knoyle in rural Wiltshire. Designed in the 19th century by Philip Webb for Percy and Madeline Wyndham, Clouds was Webb’s grandest design following on from Red House in Bexleyheath for the artist and close friend William...

 is used as a centre for treating alcoholics and drug addicts. Moor Park

Moor Park (house)

Moor Park is a Grade I listed Palladian mansion set within several hundred acres of parkland in Hertfordshire, England. It is called Moor Park Mansion because it is in the old park of the Manor of More. The original house was built in 1678–9 for James, Duke of Monmouth, and inherited by his...

 is a golf club-house. Halton House

Halton House

thumb|right|300px|Halton House, BuckinghamshireHalton House is a country house situated in the Chiltern Hills above the village of Halton in Buckinghamshire, England. It was built for Alfred de Rothschild between 1880 and 1883...

 is used by the Royal Air Force and Minley Manor

Minley Manor

Minley Manor is a Grade 2 listed country manor house, built in the French style by Henry Clutton in the 1860s with further additions in the 1880s. The Manor is situated 2 miles north of junction 4A of the M3 between Farnborough and Yateley in Hampshire, England and is situated in 38 hectares of...

 is used by the army. Another common use of country houses is to convert them for multiple occupation

Country house conversion to apartments

Country house conversion to apartments is the process whereby a large country houses, which was originally built to accommodate one wealthy family, is subdivided into separate apartments Country house conversion to apartments is the process whereby a large country houses, which was originally built...

, for example New Wardour Castle

New Wardour Castle

New Wardour Castle is an English country house at Wardour, near Tisbury in Wiltshire, built for the Arundell family. The house is of a Palladian style, designed by the architect James Paine with additional pieces from Giacomo Quarenghi, who was a principal architect of the Imperial Russian capital...

, Sheffield Park House

Sheffield Park Garden

Sheffield Park Garden is an informal landscape garden five miles east of Haywards Heath, in East Sussex, England. It was originally laid out in the 18th century by Capability Brown, and further developed in the early years of the 20th century by its owner, Arthur G. Soames. It is now owned by the...

 & Stoneleigh Abbey

Stoneleigh Abbey

Stoneleigh Abbey is a large country mansion situated to the southwest of the village of Stoneleigh, Warwickshire, England. It is a Grade I listed building.The Abbey was founded by the Cistercians in 1154...

 whose former park Stoneleigh Park

Stoneleigh Park

Stoneleigh Events is located south west of the village of Stoneleigh, Warwickshire, in the West Midlands of England.The site covers about , of which is maintained...

 is used for exhibitions and agricultural shows. Culzean Castle

Culzean Castle

Culzean Castle is a castle near Maybole, Carrick, on the Ayrshire coast of Scotland. It is the former home of the Marquess of Ailsa but is now owned by the National Trust for Scotland...

, Margam Castle

Margam Castle

Margam Castle is a large mansion house built in Margam, Port Talbot, Wales, for the Talbot family. It was built on a site which had been occupied for some 4000 years and from the 11th century was an abbey. The "castle" is actually a comfortable Victorian era country house, one of many "mock" or...

 & Tatton Hall

Tatton Hall

Tatton Hall is a country house in Tatton Park near Knutsford, Cheshire, England . It has been designated as a Grade I listed building which is owned by the National Trust and administered in conjunction with Cheshire East Council.-History:...

 are at the centre of country parks. Goodwood House

Goodwood House

Goodwood House is a country house in West Sussex in southern England. It is the seat of the Dukes of Richmond. Several architects have contributed to the design of the house, including James Wyatt. It was the intention to build the house to a unique octagonal layout, but only three of the eight...

 is a centre of both horse & motor racing. Ince Blundell Hall

Ince Blundell

Ince Blundell is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton on Merseyside, England but historically in Lancashire. It is situated to the north of Liverpool on the A565 road and to the east of the village of Hightown...

 is now a nunnery. Toddington Manor

Toddington Manor

Toddington Manor is a 19th century country house in the English county of Gloucestershire, near the village of Toddington. It is in the gothic style and was designed by Charles Hanbury-Tracy, 1st Baron Sudeley for himself and built between 1819 and 1840...

 is being convert into an art gallery and home by Damien Hirst

Damien Hirst

Damien Steven Hirst is an English artist, entrepreneur and art collector. He is the most prominent member of the group known as the Young British Artists , who dominated the art scene in Britain during the 1990s. He is internationally renowned, and is reportedly Britain's richest living artist,...

. Many houses are now in the ownership of Local government

Local government

Local government refers collectively to administrative authorities over areas that are smaller than a state.The term is used to contrast with offices at nation-state level, which are referred to as the central government, national government, or federal government...

 and operated as country house museums including Ashton Court

Ashton Court

Ashton Court is a mansion house and estate to the west of Bristol in England. Although the estate lies mainly in North Somerset, it is owned by the City of Bristol. The estate has been a venue for a variety of leisure activities, including the now-defunct Ashton Court festival, Bristol...

, Aston Hall

Aston Hall

Aston Hall is a municipally owned Jacobean-style mansion in Aston, Birmingham, England. Washington Irving used it as the model for Bracebridge Hall in his stories in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon.-History:...

 being the first to be so owned from 1864, Cardiff Castle

Cardiff Castle

Cardiff Castle is a medieval castle and Victorian architecture Gothic revival mansion, transformed from a Norman keep erected over a Roman fort in the Castle Quarter of Cardiff, the capital of Wales. The Castle is a Grade I Listed Building.-The Roman fort:...

, Heaton Hall

Heaton Park

Heaton Park, covering an area variously reported as , 247 hectares, , over and is the biggest park in Greater Manchester, England and one of the biggest municipal parks in Europe. The park comprises the grounds of a Grade I listed, neoclassical 18th century country house, Heaton Hall...

 & Tredegar House

Tredegar House

Tredegar House in Newport, set in the 90 acre Tredegar Park, is one of the best examples of a 17th century Charles II country house mansion in the United Kingdom.-History of the Building:...

. Ditchley

Ditchley

Ditchley is a country house and estate about northeast of Charlbury in Oxfordshire.-Archaeology:There are remains of a Roman villa on the Ditchley Park estate at Watts Wells, less than southeast of the house...

 is owned and used for conferences by the Ditchley Foundation

Ditchley Foundation

The Ditchley Foundation is a British organisation based at Ditchley House near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, which aims to promote international relations, especially Anglo-American relations, through a programme of around fifteen annual conferences on matters of international interest...

.