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description= Explore the architectural history of the UK s country houses and stately homes;
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ting costs of preserving and upgrading an ageing estate what had once seemed an almost inexhaustible supply of magnificent accommodation increasingly revealed itself as an increasing liability many of the houses that had given the movement its distinctive character now stood at the centre of a difficult question whether an organisation created to provide affordable access to the countryside could also afford to remain the custodian of some of its grandest buildings longlands hall yorkshire aka yha haworth opening in 1976 but sold and now an independent hostel image from a private collection the yha reached a peak in 1950 of 303 hostels in 2023 it was reported that the yha was looking to rationalise their network further with the disposal of 20 yha sites plus 13 affiliated network properties this included the 89 bed longlands hall aka yha haworth a large victorian gothic house built in 1884 for mill owner edwin robinson merrall which the yha had acquired in the 1970s opening in 1976 another example was castleton hall derbyshire located in castleton a surprisingly assertive georgian house its severe limestone walls transformed by a swaggering baroque frontage of giant pilasters heavy pediments and boldly cut stonework the substantial doorway monumental window surrounds and emphatic classical detailing lend an almost palatial character to what is essentially a yorkshire country house it s use as a hostel was strongly in the tradition of how the yha once operated but following a review it was sold in 2015 however as an example that the country house tradition was not totally lost the gap in the network was replaced by losehill hall situated just outside castleton although the yha network is much reduced down to 73 directly owned locations over 810 000 guests stayed in yha accommodation in 2024 25 despite smaller group and solo traveller preferences increasingly rejecting the dormitory accommodation larger properties help meet social impact objectives such as enabling groups of young people to experience the countryside this means properties such as ilam hall have remained but the latest network strategy has continued to shrink coverage with other older locations such as trafford hall chester being more at risk due to their higher running and maintenance costs conclusion in these years the country house became for a time neither a symbol of aristocratic continuity nor an object of heritage reverence but something far more prosaic it was a place to sleep after a long day s walking to brew tea in cavernous kitchens designed for battalions of servants to dry sodden boots beneath ceilings once intended to impress drawing rooms became dormitories servants corridors echoed with laughter rather than whispers the architectural language of hierarchy was not erased but it was translated into something more democratic and in many cases more affectionate this mass occupation gave generations of young explorers a means to explore the world and broaden their horizons on such powerful memories the role of the houses was both central but also ancillary admiring these houses was not the purpose of their visit but the parts they played created a powerful backdrop to these formative phases of their lives with such strong associations it is perhaps little surprise that the walkers of the early to mid twentieth century may have been a fertile ground on which to plant the seeds of heritage preservation the fruits of this germination may well have contributed to the wider preservation of the country house as a national institution not only those available to the public but as a cultural touchstone which can still be felt today castleton hall derbyshire this hostel replaced derwent hall and was open from 1937 until 2012 and is now a private residence this house is the genesis for this article having walked past it in 2021 and wondered about the history and discovering it had once been a youth hostel image taken by matthew beckett acknowledgements i am deeply indebted to duncan simpson former yha head of corporate affairs and house warden for his excellent book open to all and his wonderfully helpful website simply hostels both are a wealth of resources on his experiences working for the yha and the history of the organisation his website also hosts an invaluable archive of hostel profiles written by john martin yha s volunteer archivist select bibliography open to all how youth hostels changed the world duncan simpson 2020 self published landscape and englishness david matless 2016 reaktion books youth hostel story oliver coburn 1950 national council of social service other resouces list of current independent and former youth hostels in england share this share on x opens in new window x email a link to a friend opens in new window email share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on tumblr opens in new window tumblr share on linkedin opens in new window linkedin share on reddit opens in new window reddit share on pinterest opens in new window pinterest print opens in new window print like loading news architecture buildings at risk castleton hall conservation country house derbyshire derwent hall duncan simpson england hartington hall heritage ilam hall landscape maeshafn mansion hotels national trust oliver coburn reuse the rucksack wales wandervogel wilderhope manor yha youth hostel youth hostel association a gilded cage country houses as prisons december 21 2025 december 20 2025 matthew beckett the country seat 2 comments country houses have been slightly glibly described as prisons usually due to the restrictive social conventions which stifled the freedom of the occupants however country houses have occasionally been repurposed as true custodial institutions serving as prisons youth detention centres approved schools prisoner of war pow camps from the 18th century to the present this role is one which has been often overlooked in the history of the country house hewell grange staffordshire aka hm prison hewell grange 1946 2019 image cushman wakefield a fictional prison if one wished it was always possible to cast the country house as a prison of sorts the restrictions placed on everyone who lived in one whether as the lord or the lowliest servant was a web of both explicit and implicit rules although they could in theory walk out of any unlocked door the reality was that they were trapped bound to the building fiction has long played on this idea weaving physical incarceration with its psychological equivalent there are the self imposed emotional bonds which confine the jilted miss havisham to her decaying satis house in charles dickens great expectations 1861 or the fear which entraps the governess at bly house in the turn of the screw 1898 by henry james in rebecca by daphne du maurier 1938 manderley the grand estate in cornwall becomes a place of psychological imprisonment for the unnamed narrator haunted by the lingering presence of her husband s first wife rebecca the narrator feels trapped by the oppressive atmosphere of the house and the expectations imposed upon her more recently in sarah waters the little stranger the decaying georgian mansion of hundreds hall played by newby hall yorkshire in the film becomes a symbol of entrapment for its inhabitants as their financial decline echoes that of their place in society leaving them isolated newby hall north yorkshire represented the fictional hundreds hall in the 2018 adaptation of sarah waters the little stranger beyond these intangible confines the house as a cell was perhaps most famously portrayed with bertha mason mr rochester s wife confined as the mad woman in the attic of thornfield hall in charlotte brontë s jane eyre 1847 royal confinement beyond fiction the country house has at times of need served in reality as a place of confinement pressed into service as a working prison when circumstance demanded on 16 may 1568 mary queen of scots fled to england seeking refuge from political turmoil in scotland after the battle of langside and spent her first night at workington hall cumbria mary had come to england in the hope of gaining support from the catholic nobility and of appealing to her cousin queen elizabeth i for political assistance in regaining her scottish throne however because both women were descended from henry vii mary possessed a strong claim to the english crown this made her presence in england a direct threat to elizabeth particularly as mary was a catholic alternative to elizabeth s protestant rule although mary was technically a guest she was heavily guarded and this effectively marked the beginning of her nearly 19 year imprisonment before her execution mary was moved around regularly to thwart plots to free her from castles to eventually the country houses of george talbot the 6th earl of shrewsbury b 1522 d 1590 the earl of shrewsbury famously married to bess of hardwick played a pivotal role in the confinement of mary having been appointed her custodian by the queen throughout various periods he held mary at his family s houses including wingfield manor hardwick hall chatsworth house and sheffield manor all situated within a 15 mile radius in derbyshire mary was finally moved to fotheringhay castle northamptonshire arriving on 25 september 1586 she was put on trial in october and then executed in the great hall on 8 february 1587 her long confinement within such grand yet guarded houses stands as a stark reminder of how the architecture of luxury could so easily become the architecture of captivity a prisoner of war in wartime country houses have been pressed into service in a wide variety of roles with prisoner of war camps among the least glamorous stepping beyond the more obviously martial associations of castles one of the earliest and most notorious examples was at sissinghurst in kent during the seven years war 1756 1763 the house by this time had been allowed to fall in to a significant state of disrepair by the then owners the baker family the government rented the property and adapted it to hold around 3 000 french naval prisoners during which time it was further mistreated with the inmates destroying panelling fireplaces the chapel furniture and leaving the garden a wasteland in 2008 a newly identified watercolour emerged that provides the most complete known view of the elizabethan house during this period when it was a prison and includes the chilling depiction of a double murder sissinghurst castle with the killing of a group of french prisoners english school circa 1761 ink and dye on laid paper national trust images john hammond 2016 on 9 july 1761 whilst guarded by local poorly trained armed militia three prisoners who had escaped were being brought back to the camp their arrival caused a group of prisoners to rush to the fence out of curiosity one of the militia a hot head called john bramston shouted that they were to come no closer or he would fire he loaded his musket with three balls and fired at the group one ball struck the wall the other two each hitting a prisoner one by the name of baslier baillie was wounded shown top left being helped by two friends but another sebastien billet was killed instantly bramston was unrepentant the picture is thought to have been painted by a frenchman to record the crime but in doing so also left a powerful visual record of a now much altered house and its time as a prison world war ii during the twentieth century several distinguished country houses were temporarily repurposed to serve the needs of war their refined architecture providing an incongruous backdrop to confinement at huntercombe hall in oxfordshire the late victorian mansion with its commanding stone façade and landscaped setting was requisitioned during the second world war as a secure detention site most notably for high ranking german prisoners including rudolf hess whose isolation lent the house an unlikely role in wartime diplomacy and intelligence in north london trent park a neo palladian villa by sir william chambers was adapted as a special interrogation centre where senior german officers were held in conditions of deceptive comfort while their conversations were secretly recorded its grand rooms thus becoming instruments of psychological warfare entrance front of trent park enfield north london image national army museum ref nam 1993 10 163 1 similarly mytchett place surrey during 1941 42 this victorian mansion was fortified and codenamed camp z serving as a one man prison wired for surveillance for the detention of deputy führer rudolf hess further north the huntroyde hall estate in lancashire long the seat of the starkie family was similarly turned over to military purposes its once private parkland accommodating prisoners and personnel within hastily erected compounds as with sissinghurst the mistreatment during the harsh use as a prison was a significant factor in its later demolition earlier in the first world war the partly medieval badsey manor house in worcestershire was similarly employed to house prisoners of war marking a utilitarian phase in its long domestic history the changing attitude to the role of prisons the use of country estates and their houses was partly one of necessity in wartime but in the post war period also reflected a change in attitudes towards a more therapeutic approach towards incarceration from the 19th century focus on harsh conditions and hard labour as a deterrent why country houses they offered several advantages privacy away from cities escapes less dangerous to public space for agriculture and workshops important for training prisoners in trades and an existing infrastructure of accommodations and kitchens also symbolically placing prisoners in a less oppressive environment was meant to encourage self respect and responsibility a deliberate contrast to the austere walled prison askham grange s homely appearance was cited as beneficial for women the open prison concept drew heavily on alexander paterson who joined the prison commission in 1922 he argued that imprisonment should actively shape behaviour for the better with inmates encouraged to develop through structured physical and mental activity in the 1940s there had been a steady increase in the total number of people convicted of indictable offences during a house of lords debate on penal reform in november 1946 the lord chancellor lord jowitt lamented the tendency towards increasing crime before wwii stating that i take the five years 1934 1938 the number of young persons found guilty of indictable offences moved up from 10 000 odd in 1934 to 14 000 odd in 1938 that is males females from 1 300 odd in 1934 to 1 600 odd in 1938 when we have the figures of 14 000 young men and 1 600 young women going up to the sort of figures we have to day 1947 for the total number of persons 78 000 in 1938 moving up in 1945 to 116 000 it is quite obvious that we have here a very real problem source hansard column 442 the noble l...
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