Grand tour

History lives on at these fine country houses in the North of England

Family affairs

The comings and goings of various generations and owners make these houses all the more fascinating

Interiors

Louise Bradley transformed the rear of her Chelsea home with a calming, pared-back garden room

In the hat of the moment

The hat was once as essential for leaving the house as a pair of trousers, but the sight of a dapper gent sporting one is now all too rare

Taking the rough with the smooth

With the initiative to rescue sheep and the daring to question its master, the rough collie not only lives up to its heroic reputation, but is always right

Thoroughly good eggs

Tom Parker Bowles meets the mother-and-daughter connoisseurs who supply ethically farmed caviar to the Crown

The romance of the rose

Generations have sought that unattainable mystical creature, the perfect rose: shapely, dark red and sweetly scented. What is it about this flower that holds us so in thrall,

A Georgian reinvention

The ingenious integration of the polite and service rooms of a handsome 1790s villa has created a modern family home, as Jeremy Musson discovers

Let's stick together

COMMUNITY-OWNED businesses are on the up, says the Plunkett Foundation-a national charity that helps these types of initiatives. Of particular note are community pubs, which increased by 10% in 2022, against a backdrop of widespread closures; some 8,000 pubs, amounting to 15%, closed between 2012 and 2022.

Park that thought

LAST month, opposition to the proposed creation of new national parks in Scotland brought some 110 farmers, crofters and other stakeholders to the Isle of Skye for a summit chaired by Alasdair Macnab, vice-president of NFU Scotland.

Surf and turf

The jaguar is the jewel in Belize’s conservation efforts, but they’re notoriously elusive, discovers Nigel Tisdall, on a journey to find them from rainforest to reef

On the strait and narrow

Istanbul's Bosphorus Strait is one of the world's most evocative and significant waterways in a constant state of flux, says Catherine Fairweather, who journeys upriver to find out what's occurring on the European and too-often-overlooked Asian banks

Get down on your knees

The gardens at Thenford House, home of Lord and Lady Heseltine James Alexander-Sinclair joins snowdrop lovers wandering through more than 900 varieties of Galanthus, perhaps the largest collection in the country

The tale of two towers

England and France competed fiercely for bragging rights in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but no version of France's féted Eiffel Tower ever came to fruition. Not for lack of trying, however, says Martin Fone

In with the new

Thomas Cundy I changed the face of Mayfair with the refronting programme he launched as chief surveyor of the Grosvenor estate, but much of his work was lost in subsequent renovation, as Carla Passino discovers

Home truths

Cash-paying downsizers will have to compete with families hoping to upsize for these three charming homes under 2 million

How to light a period house

Careful planning is the secret to illuminating historic spaces, says lighting designer Sally Stephenson of Owl Lighting

Irruption of the waxwings

Once thought to have presaged the First World War, these exquisite European songbirds are a blessing to our shores, says Mark Cocker

Windows on the world

The desire to chart the world around us is an impulse as old as time and some map-makers' efforts have an astonishing longevity, reveals Matthew Dennison

A castle of curiosities

Chillingham Castle, Northumberland The home of Sir Humphry Wakefield Bt and the Hon Lady Wakefield A castle saved from the brink of ruin is now a memorable home. John Goodall reports

The money's in the honey

PEOPLE in Britain are eating less bread. Last year, sales were down by more than 4% and prices went up by more than 16%. That’s bad news for the bakers, but it is also very bad news for those who produce jam and other spreads. Cutting down on toast means customers cut down on jam and marmalade, which have lost nearly 5% of their market share. For soft-fruit growers, this is a serious blow, exacerbated by the huge increase in their costs.

A river runs through it

The meandering waterwaysif Britain—in this case the Lyvennet, Eden, North Tyne and Taf—have seen it all, from glamping pods and rewilding to medieval village takeovers

My favourite painting Ashley Campbell

Charlotte Mullins comments on Iris

Spin when you're winning

It might be the January blues, but James Fisher is not feeling confident for England’s chances in India

Seed drill

I STILL find it magical that seeds carry all the information needed to become a full-grown productive plant. Our task is to ensure that this nugget of potential falls into the right place at the right time in the right way.

Wall to wall abundance

The Walled Garden at Whithurst Park, West Sussex The home of Richard Taylor and Rick Englert Growing your own is one thing, says Tiffany Daneff, but building your own walled kitchen garden from scratch is a quite remarkable achievement

The sweet spot

A house under £1.5 million usually offers good, family-sized proportions, while avoiding a jump to 12% Stamp Duty

All bark and some bite

A vital source of food, a pharmacy and a haven for wildlife, a tree’s living skin is a surprisingly sophisticated surface, says John Lewis-Stempel

It's the little things

AS well as Lindisfarne Castle, COUNTRY LIFE’s former offices on Tavistock Street, London WC2, and numerous country houses in the Home Counties, Sir Edwin Lutyens is known for designing a miniature, four-storey Palladian villa given by the nation to Queen Mary in 1924. This year, the Royal Collection Trust celebrates the 100th anniversary of Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House with a reimagined display at Windsor Castle, which opened last week.

Wildly out of whack

THE Government is far behind in its goal to halt Nature’s decline and ensure 30% of land and sea is protected by 2030, finds the latest damning report from the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP).