Our friends at BADA Friends invite us to begin another delightful series of Tea Time Talks with Nicholas Merchant. He will be enlightening us, in his usual erudite style, on English Country Houses. We begin, sadly, with their demise in the 20th century, a phenomenon highlighted decades ago in a blockbuster V&A exhibit so titled. Deprived of primogenitor sons to inherit alongside staff deceased in WW1, and also facing agricultural pressures reducing their financial intake, many families saw their proud properties shrink often to head for oblivion. Nicholas will share with us the tales of several homes lost and those that continue to struggle today seeking grants and ingenious ways to market their homes as attractions.
