Course programme
Friday 24 June 2016
Please plan to arrive between 16:30 and 18:30. You can meet other course members in the bar which opens at 18:15. Tea and coffee making facilities are available in the study bedrooms.
19:00 Dinner
20:30 Introduction: The Country House and ‘Heritage’ Before and After World War I
22:00 Terrace bar open for informal discussion
Saturday 25 June 2016
07:30 Breakfast
09:00 Between the Wars. In this class we will discuss the early years of Country Life Magazine and The National Trust, exploring those aims and objectives they held in common and how their attitudes to the future of the country house developed.
10:30 Coffee
11:00 World War II and Decay and Destruction in the 1950s and 1960s focuses on a grim time for the country house, when high taxation and low levels of interest resulted in dereliction and demolition
12:30 Free
13:00 Lunch
14:00 Free
16:00 Tea
16:30 Opening to the Public. In this session we will look at how opening to the public proved to be the saviour of many houses, and the ways in which new marketing techniques were exploited at houses such as Woburn Abbey, Beaulieu and Longleat.
18:30 Dinner
20:00 Making ‘Heritage’ Pay in the 1970s and 1980s continues our exploration of the ways in which houses were displayed to the public, the role of the interior decorator, and the pioneering efforts of V&A staff to turn back the clock at Osterley and Ham House
21:30 Terrace bar open for informal discussion
Sunday 26 June 2016
07:30 Breakfast
09:00 Restore, Recreate or Reinterpret?: The 1980s and 1990s. This class will use houses such as Calke Abbey, Althorp and Houghton Hall to compare and contrast the different approaches to displaying ‘history’ and ‘heritage’ in these crucial decades.
10:30 Coffee
11:00 Into the 21st Century brings the story up to date using successes such as Tyntesfield and Dumfries House to explain why some heritage campaigns succeed and others fail.
12:30 Free
12:45 Lunch
The course will disperse after lunch.