November 2009 » book review

To Survive and Revive

The Cotswold House: Stone Houses and Interiors from the English Countryside
by Nicholas Mander
Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., New York, NY; 2009
208 pages; hardcover; 100+ b&w and color photos; $50
ISBN 978-0-8478-3180-7

Reviewed by Anne Walker

The Cotswold manor house and its lush evocative setting is easily fodder for our imagination: a romantic remnant of a bygone lifestyle in which England's gentry lived in agrarian splendor. And, since 1897, Country Life, Britain's authority on architecture and landscape, has continued to substantiate this atmospheric ideal through its cache of well developed articles and stunning photography on the subject. The Cotswold House: Stone Houses and Interiors from the English Countryside happily taps into this unrivalled archive. Exquisite illustrations – the backbone of Nicholas Mander's new book – handily serve to brush a layer of dust off the Cotswolds' ancestral homes to expose their beauty and magnificence. At the same time, the adaptability of these surviving age-old houses, many of which have grown, changed, and been redesigned and reinvented since their inceptions, is compellingly exhibited.

The government designated the Cotswolds – a 790-sq.mi. area in the heart of England – an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1966, safeguarding its unique landscape of rolling grasslands, river valleys and deep combes as well as its store of architectural gems built from the very limestone in which they are embedded. A tradition of craftsmen, well-versed in the subtleties of working in limestone, gave rise to a vernacular of houses built with dry stone wall and stone tiled roofs whose success fed off the harmonious dialogue that was created between building and setting. As Mander aptly points out, "these country houses are often ornaments to the landscape – the highlight that catches the eye."

These ornaments, the oldest begun as early as 1051, have been added onto over time and renovated, restored and reinvented through the centuries. More often than not, they are the work of any number of architects and craftsmen. The hand of many of Britain's best known architects – whether it be William Kent, James Gibbs, the brothers Wyatt, William Morris, Phillip Webb, Norman Jewson, Charles Robert Ashbee, Ernest Barnsley or Sir Edwin Lutyens – have helped to shape this enchanted landscape.

Sir Nicholas Mander, a writer for Country Life, captures the essence of the subject at hand with sympathy and enthusiasm. Not only has he been involved with the management and conversation of historic buildings in the area; since the 1970s, he has also resided at Owlpen, a Tudor manor house and garden in Gloucestershire that is featured prominently in the book. Over the years, Mander has known many of the highlighted houses intimately and his heartfelt homage to the region's spectacular limestone homes and gardens brings to life the lyrical beauty of the area. He orders the book's contents chronologically into eight chapters and recounts in detail the story of some 30 houses, starting with the handful of existing medieval castles. He goes on to discuss Cotswold and Jacobean manor houses, the Classical house, 19th-century revivals and Arts and Crafts cottages before moving on to the 20th century and beyond.

Because of his inside knowledge, Mander is able to slip in anecdotes and little-known facts to round out their history, ownership details and architectural description. And, because he has personally witnessed the changing landscape, he has seen owners adapt and reinvent them in ingenious ways as the agricultural foundation of the region has slipped underfoot. But while his descriptions are interesting and well-written, it is the striking photographs from Country Life that truly celebrate the range and architectural superiority of the Cotswold stone house.

The integrity and versatility of stone construction and the agility with which architects and craftsmen worked with the material is readily conveyed through the beautiful photography. The oldest feudal houses, such as Beverton Castle near Tetbury, begun in 1051, and Berkeley Castle (1117), are narratives of changing styles and accretion over time, while the sprawling Tudor and early Stuart manor houses were complex stylistic hybrids. During the building boom from 1660-1830, when 440 new houses were constructed, the stone house morphed into something more planned, compact and Classically inspired, as exemplified by Badminton House in Gloucestershire.

The pages of The Cotswold House also reveal entrancing revival homes, such as the dreamlike Sezincote House (1810) on the eastern edge of the Cotswolds, based on the mausoleum pavilions of the Emperor Akbar. Such grand and exotic gestures mingle with Arts and Crafts cottages like the Sapperton Group, where architects Ernest Gimson and the Barnsley brothers, who lived and worked there, found their footing. However, it is Kelmscott Manor (1570), a gabled grey stone manor house where William Morris resided, that has come to encapsulate the glory of the Cotswold stone house and the spirit of the Arts and Crafts movement. At the turn of the 20th century, the Arts and Crafts resonated deeply through the Cotswold hills as many of the region's oldest homes were carefully and scholarly restored, including Abbotswood (1867), which Sir Edwin Lutyens radically made over in 1901 in a simplified artisan Classicism.

Because there has been little new construction in the region, the Cotswold stone house, as Mander contends, has continued to adapt in ingenious ways through the modern era. Each house's unfolding story illuminates the fact that despite its age, the durability of its stone construction has allowed it to persevere and adjust to new circumstances. From farm centers and working estates, these palatial houses and princely piles have become trophy homes or hotels and schools. Some, like Chastleton House (1607), a magnificent Jacobean design, have been gloriously restored as family houses and opened to the public by the National Trust. Others, like Beverton Castle, exist as "ruinous hulks of towers and ivy-mantled walls." A happy contribution to any library, The Cotswold House compellingly conveys the resolve of these awe-inspiring structures that are as much a part of the landscape as the landscape itself. With many almost as old as the hills themselves, they have continued, as Mander lyrically recounts, to "survive and revive as they have always done."  

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