15 Facts About Country houses

Such Country houses were often owned by individuals who owned a town house.

However, the term encompasses Country houses that were, and often still are, the full-time residence for the landed gentry who ruled rural Britain until the Reform Act 1832.

Some best known of England's country houses were built by one architect at one particular time: Montacute House, Chatsworth House, and Blenheim Palace are examples.

Wilton House, one of England's grandest Country houses, is in a remarkably similar vein; although, while the Drydens, mere squires, at Canons Ashby employed a local architect, at Wilton the mighty Earls of Pembroke employed the finest architects of the day: first Holbein, 150 years later Inigo Jones, and then Wyatt followed by Chambers.

Therefore, for ease or explanation, Britain's country houses can be categorised according to the circumstances of their creation.

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Great houses are the largest of the country houses; in truth palaces, built by the country's most powerful – these were designed to display their owners' power or ambitions to power.

Such building reached its zenith from the late 17th century until the mid-18th century; these Country houses were often completely built or rebuilt in their entirety by one eminent architect in the most fashionable architectural style of the day and often have a suite of Baroque state apartments, typically in enfilade, reserved for the most eminent guests, the entertainment of whom was of paramount importance in establishing and maintaining the power of the owner.

The common denominator of this category of English country houses is that they were designed to be lived in with a certain degree of ceremony and pomp.

Country houses house was not just an oasis of pleasure for a fortunate few; it was the centre of its own world, providing employment to hundreds of people in the vicinity of its estate.

Smaller, and far greater in number than the "power Country houses", these were still the epicentre of their own estate, but were often the only residence of their owner.

Country houses house mystery was a popular genre of English detective fiction in the 1920s and 1930s; set in the residence of the gentry and often involving a murder in a country house temporarily isolated by a snowstorm or similar with the suspects all at a weekend house party.

The builders of these new Country houses were able to take advantage of the political unrest in Europe that gave rise to a large trade in architectural salvage.

Ultimate demise began immediately following World War I The members of the huge staff required to maintain large houses had either left to fight and never returned, departed to work in the munitions factories, or filled the void left by the fighting men in other workplaces.

The final blow for many country houses came following World War II; having been requisitioned during the war, they were returned to the owners in poor repair.

Today, many country houses have become hotels, schools, hospitals, museums and prisons, while others have survived as conserved ruins, but from the early 20th century until the early 1970s, hundreds of country houses were demolished.