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Country Life UK Magazine - November 19, 2025

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In this issue

Castle Howard
A heroic vision

The Budget the countryside now needs
Why size matters by Alan Titchmarsh
Art Nouveau in glass and treasured tools

Budget blues?
Julie Harding hears the hopes and fears of countryside and heritage leaders ahead of next week’s crunch Autumn Budget

The legacy
Kate Green investigates how Sir Joseph Bazalgette solved the problem of London’s Great Stink

Out and about
Guests let their hair down at our annual GENTLEMAN’S LIFE party

We need to encourage restoration

RESTORATION—the theme of this week's issue—is an inherently uplifting subject. That's not only because returning objects or buildings to use and decent appearance after a period of neglect and defacement is a physical improvement.

2 mins

Land Reform (Scotland) Bill branded 'junk law'

Unhelpful intervention: land reforms in Scotland send the wrong signals to potential investors, according to Scottish Land & Estates

2 mins

UK underprepared for animal-disease outbreak

A SEVERE animal-disease outbreak, or even concurrent ones, could have disastrous consequences for the UK because the departments that manage such scenarios are underprepared, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has found.

2 mins

Awards for blooms and innovation

AN imaginative change of income-stream focus when the Covid pandemic hit has earned Mapperton House and Gardens the inaugural Historic Houses Diversification Award.

1 mins

Lost stone fragments traced

THE Stone of Destiny's eventful history has included being present at the crowning of monarchs since the inauguration of Alexander III of Scotland in 1249; being seized by Edward I and built into the base of the Coronation Chair at Westminster Abbey; being targeted by Suffragettes; and its removal on Christmas Day 1950 by four students and Scottish nationalists who planned to return it to Scotland.

1 mins

King's garden is people's choice

THE garden at Dumfries House in Ayrshire is so enjoyed by RHS members and the general public that they voted for it in their droves in the annual RHS Partner Garden of the Year 2025 competition, leading to it being crowned the winner.

1 mins

New trail incorporates ancient gems

A NEW 50-mile circular pilgrimage route for riders on the North York Moors was launched earlier this month with a ride joined by 22 equestrians.

1 mins

Town Mouse

Autumn rituals

1 mins

Country Mouse

Right place, right time?

1 mins

Over-egging it

JANE EMILY PHILLIPS'S article about elevenses ('Go on, then...', October 29) brought back a memory from many years ago.

1 mins

Self-regulation doesn't inspire trust

IN a week when the world caved in for the BBC's establishment, one of its longest-running, most understated programmes scored a prodigious hit. Countryfile out-Clarksoned Clarkson! The episode screened last week showed how British vegetable farmers are fighting back at the devastation caused by drought and flood.

2 mins

Facing up to a global challenge

EARLIER this autumn, the World Monuments Fund (WMF) made a joint announcement with the Palace Museum of Beijing's Forbidden City, China, about the official opening of the Qianlong Garden after the completion of a conservation project there lasting two decades. Created by the Qianlong Emperor (reigned 1735-96) as a peaceful retreat within this celebrated complex, the garden incorporates 27 exquisitely finished buildings of the period.

2 mins

Budget blues?

With Chancellor Rachel Reeves's Autumn Budget looming and rumours abounding as to what might be announced, countryside and heritage organisations reveal what they are hoping to hear to fix the turmoil—and what they are dreading

9 mins

My favourite painting Charlotte Lloyd-Webber

Family of Saltimbanques by Pablo Picasso

2 mins

A labour of love

Northwold Manor, Norfolk The home of Prof Warwick Rodwell and Ms Diane Gibbs A heroic restoration project has transformed a house left neglected for more than 50 years. It has also illuminated its remarkable history, as John Goodall explains

8 mins

The legacy Sir Joseph Bazalgette and the London sewers

IN the hot summer of 1858, the dreadful stench of human effluent lying in the dry Thames riverbed overwhelmed London.

1 mins

Compounding errors

The partial demolition of the shell of a Wren church in the 1970s is not an excuse for further mistreatment by the City of London authorities

2 mins

Howards' end

The Castle Howard Mausoleum, North Yorkshire

5 mins

Slippery customers

The mysterious eel, with its ability to dive deeper than a nuclear submarine and complete a mammoth migration, is a symbol of a vanishing world and deserves to be revered

6 mins

Waxing lyrical

The gentle flicker of a naked flame dancing with the shadows cast at night has sparked creative minds through the ages

5 mins

The designer's room

Guy Goodfellow removed an internal wall to transform the sitting room of this Georgian terrace

1 mins

Born-again classics

A new generation is reinventing the ingredients of classic decoration, says Giles Kime

1 mins

A true gentleman lets his hair down

ON Bonfire Night, COUNTRY LIFE hosted a party at No 14, Savile Row, to launch this year's edition of GENTLEMAN'S LIFE.

1 mins

The beautiful south

The late arrival onto the market of three mouth- watering Hampshire houses-one fringing the heavenly Beaulieu River and two in Austen country- can help to banish those November blues

5 mins

On the short list (ed)

Owning listed properties means stepping into centuries of craftsmanship and character, plus, perhaps, a few quirks, but buyers who truly love history wouldn't have it any other way

3 mins

Past masters

Mary Keen visits Garden & Wood, the mecca for dedicated gardeners who prefer using tools made in the 1940s

4 mins

The bare truth

IT is November 1964. Mr Mackenzie, in his black waistcoat, baggy black trousers, white shirt with tie, his head topped with the battered brown trilby he always wore come rain or shine, wiped the dewdrop off the end of his nose with the back of his horny hand and proceeded to dig up the maiden apple from the short row of fruit trees in his nursery.

3 mins

Roasted guinea fowl with parsnip-and-cauliflower gratin

Food Article

2 mins

The last dance

England are taking Bazball to Australia. Will it stand up to a rigorous examination by our Antipodean cousins, or will it be another six weeks of humiliation?

6 mins

Don't be an amber gambler

There are few rules so instilled in the British psyche as those of the traffic light, says Rob Crossan, as he explores the history of this indelible marker of municipal safety

3 mins

Making a material difference

Don't consign that faded and tatty rug you inherited to the skip, warns Catriona Gray. A specialist repairer can work miracles on even the most unloved pieces

5 mins

Wilde at heart

Sèvres made the exquisite porcelain plates now belonging to collector and scarf designer Rory Hutton, but it's the wittiest of Irish playwrights that encouraged him to use them

3 mins

A glass act

Art Nouveau masters such as Louis Comfort Tiffany and Émile Gallé turned the most fragile of materials into iridescent masterpieces that shimmered like seashells or glittered like Byzantine mosaics, as Matthew Dennison discovers

5 mins

East side story

A Rajasthan tiger hunt picture and a silver kiddush cup from Khurasan with coeval inscriptions in Hebrew and Arabic starred at two sales that put the spotlight on the art of Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent

3 mins

The odd one out

A stellar Othello in which the narrative takes centre stage puts the spotlight on the theme of the outsider, which threads through many of this month's productions

4 mins

Read all Stories from Country Life UK

Country Life UK Magazine Description:

Publisher: Future

Category: Lifestyle

Language: English

Frequency: Weekly

Country Life; architecture, gardens, countryside, property, the very best of British life Published by IPC Media. Country Life, the quintessential English magazine, is undoubtedly one of the biggest and instantly recognisable brands in the UK today. It has a unique core mix of contemporary country-related editorial and top end property advertising. Editorially, the magazine comments in-depth on a wide variety of subjects, such as architecture, the arts, gardens and gardening, travel, the countryside, field-sports and wildlife. With renowned columnists and superb photography Country Life delivers the very best of British life every week.