At the start of the 1950’s the aristocracy in Britain had a problem. It was a very big problem as it involved the massive house their ancestors had built when Britain had a creditable Empire. The money from slave trading, sugar importing (which required slaves to harvest it originally) or Mill was not bringing in the old pennies like it had done before. There was the small matter of the slave trade ending, imports being disrupted by the second world war and those nasty Labour people giving workers more rights for decent pay and conditions. Added to that the spiralling cost of the Stately home was more than one family could keep up with. The servants and workers wanted a proper wage now and Those architraves were not going to restore themselves and the gold leaf was not about to stop peeling off bannister rails. What to do?
The one answer was to just let the place fall into disuse and move slowly into areas of the property, like say the west wing, that were still habitable and could be maintained. Another was to move horror, of horrors into a servant’s cottage in the grounds and watch the whole lot rot. Finally, you could sell it. Maybe look for Houses for sale Cheltenham or some other rural town. http://www.completepropertygroup.co.uk/property-sales/ could help with that.
Naturally there was uproar. Well there was uproar in the Conservative party and the more well to do members of society who, although they did not have a Stately home would have rather liked one. They certainly were not going to go for some run-down dump that meant they were going to have to spend their own time and more importantly their own money on. So, began the grumblings and articles that there was a terrible issue facing the county, as opposed to facing the people who owned the stately home. Writers and commentators began bemoaning the loss of these cultural icons, these examples of our great and noble “heritage”.
Campaign were starting to save this Hall or that Grange. “This is our nations past etc”. The National Trust were keen to step in. A non-Governmental charity they soon found that they were taking things with far too much ease. For example, the beautiful moated property at Ightham Mote was sold at a cheap price by the resident who could no longer afford it. The Trust were delighted, only to find that it needed years and years and millions of pounds to get it to a state where it could be fully visited and appreciate, plus maintained. Government set up funds and tax payers money was used to subsides homes just when the country need affordable and better housing.
The myth of a heritage, that our heritage is stately homes, when only 3 percent of the populace lived in one is absurd.
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