83-514: Valence House Museum is the only surviving of the five manor houses of Dagenham . The timber-framed museum building, partially surrounded by a moat , is situated in Valence Park off Becontree Avenue, in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham , London , England . The building has been used as a manor house, a family home, a town hall, the headquarters of the library service and now houses
166-630: A coup de main perpetrated by an armed band, many of which roamed the countryside during the troubled times of the Hundred Years War and the French wars of religion ; but these fortified manor houses could not have withstood a lengthy siege undertaken by a regular army equipped with (siege) engines or heavy artillery. The German equivalent of a manor house is a Gutshaus (or Gut , Gutshof , Rittergut , Landgut or Bauerngut ). Also Herrenhaus and Domäne are common terms. Schloss (pl. Schlösser)
249-464: A moat with a drawbridge , and were equipped with gatehouses and watchtowers , but not, as for castles, with a keep , large towers or lofty curtain walls designed to withstand a siege. The primary feature of the manor house was its great hall , to which subsidiary apartments were added as the lessening of feudal warfare permitted more peaceful domestic life. By the beginning of the 16th century, manor houses as well as small castles began to acquire
332-711: A ridderhofstad ( Utrecht ), a stins or state ( Friesland ), or a havezate ( Drente , Overijssel and Gelderland ). Some of these buildings were fortified. A number of castles associated with the nobility are found in the country. In Dutch, a building like this was called a kasteel , a slot , a burcht or (in Groningen ) a borg . During the Dutch Golden Age in the 17th century, merchants and regents looking for ways to spend their wealth bought country estates and built grand new homes, often just for summer use. Some purchased existing manor houses and castles from
415-530: A certain locality over several generations (see List of political families in the United Kingdom ). Owning land was a prerequisite for suffrage (the civil right to vote) in county constituencies until the Reform Act 1832 ; until then, Parliament was largely in the hands of the landowning class. The gentry ranked above the agricultural sector's middle class: the larger tenant farmers , who rented land from
498-480: A countryside house closer to the urban core. Initially, "quinta" (fifth) designated the 1/5 part of the production that the lessee (called "quintero") paid to the lessor (owner of the land), but lately the term was applied to the whole property. This term is also very common in the former Spanish colonies. Alqueria in Al-Andalus made reference to small rural communities that were located near cities ( medinas ). Since
581-465: A diminutive of cohors , meaning ' courtyard '. They are often isolated structures associated with a large family farming or livestock operation in the vast and empty adjoining lands. It would usually include a large house, together with accessory buildings such as workers' quarters, sheds to house livestock, granaries, oil mills , barns and often a wall enclosing a courtyard. The master of the cortijo or "señorito" would usually live with his family in
664-456: A few days later a plaque was unveiled to mark the funding. The refurbishment included a new purpose-built archive and local studies centre. An exhibition opened showing restored items from the Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation collection at Valence House Museum on 14 March 2018. The exhibition was inspired by local man Alan Friswell who worked with Ray Harryhausen on the creature's restorations. It
747-730: A few of which are still held within the original families. Unlike in Europe, the United States did not create a native architectural style common to manor houses. A typical architectural style used for American manor-style homes in the mid-Atlantic region is Georgian architecture although a homegrown variant of Georgian did emerge in the late 1700s called Federal architecture . Other styles borrowed from Europe include Châteauesque with Biltmore Estate being an example, Tudor Revival architecture see Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park , and Neoclassical architecture with Monticello being
830-590: A latrine. In addition to having both lower and upper halls, many French manor houses also had partly fortified gateways, watchtowers, and enclosing walls that were fitted with arrow or gun loops for added protection. Some larger 16th-century manors, such as the Château de Kerjean in Finistère , Brittany, were even outfitted with ditches and fore-works that included gun platforms for cannons. These defensive arrangements allowed maisons-fortes and rural manors to be safe from
913-580: A museum. The museum contains permanent exhibitions on history and life in Barking and Dagenham, including displays from the 1945 Becontree Estate . It hosts regular special events for the public and school parties. Valence House Museum, archives and local studies library closed on 22 December 2007 for a period of extensive refurbishment, partly funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund . It reopened in June 2010 and
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#1732854818314996-469: A pattern in many families that while the eldest son would inherit the estate and enter politics, the second son would join the army, the third son go into law, and the fourth son join the church. A newly rich man who wished his family to join the gentry (and they nearly all did so wish), was expected not only to buy a country house and estate, but often also to sever financial ties with the business which had made him wealthy in order to cleanse his family of
1079-586: A prominent example. In the Antebellum South , many plantation houses were built in Greek Revival architecture style. Virginia House is a former 16th-entury English manor house blending three romantic English Tudor designs. In 1925, it was relocated to Richmond, Virginia from main sections dating from the 1620 remodeling of a priory in Warwickshire, England and reconstructed on a hillside overlooking
1162-755: A result, this limited the development of a feudal or manorial land-owning system to just a few regions such as Tidewater and Piedmont Virginia, the Carolina Low Country , the Mississippi Delta , and the Hudson River Valley in the early years of the republic. Today, relics of early manorial life in the early United States are found in a few places such as the Eastern Shore of Maryland with examples such as Wye Hall and Hope House (Easton, Maryland) , Virginia at Monticello and Westover Plantation ,
1245-410: A store of food in the form of venison . Within these licensed parks deer could not be hunted by royalty (with its huge travelling entourage which needed to be fed and entertained), nor by neighbouring land-owners nor by any other persons. Before around 1600, larger houses were usually fortified, generally for true defensive purposes but increasingly, as the kingdom became internally more peaceable after
1328-528: A two-story building, while the accessory structures were for the labourers and their families —also known as "cortijeros" . Before the founding of the United States, colonial powers such as Britain, France and the Netherlands made land grants to favored individuals in the original colonies that evolved into large agricultural estates that resembled the manors familiar to Europeans. Founding fathers such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were
1411-430: A word indicating high birth, high status, or gentleness. The term gradually came to be used for the lower ranks of the aristocracy , which along with the peerage had previously been considered part of the nobility . In the 16th and 17th centuries, writers referred to the peerage as the nobilitas major ( Latin for "greater nobility") and the gentry as the nobilitas minor (Latin for "minor nobility"). Eventually,
1494-500: Is a term used in the Portuguese language -speaking world, which is applied variously to manors homes or to estates as a whole. Casa solariega is the catch-all name for manor houses in Spain. They were the places where heads of noble families resided. Those houses receive a different name depending on the geographical region of Spain where they are located, the noble rank of the owner family,
1577-593: Is another German word for a building similar to manor house, stately home , château or palace . Other terms used in German are Burg ( castle ), Festung ( fort /fortress) and Palais / Palast ( palace ). German language uses terms like Schloss or Gutshaus for places that functioned as the administrative center of a manor. Gut(shaus) implies a smaller ensemble of buildings within a more agricultural setting, usually owned by lower-ranking landed gentry whereas Schloss describes more representative and larger places. During
1660-446: Is often today used as a modern catch-all suffix for an old house on an estate , true manor or not. In France, the terms château or manoir are often used synonymously to describe a French manor house; maison-forte is the appellation for a strongly fortified house , which may include two sets of enclosing walls, drawbridges , and a ground-floor hall or salle basse that was used to receive peasants and commoners. The term manoir
1743-423: Is one step down from the gentry, but above, say, a husbandman . So while yeoman farmers owned enough land to support a comfortable lifestyle, they nevertheless farmed it themselves and were excluded from the "landed gentry" because they worked for a living, and were thus "in trade" as it was termed. Apart from a few "honourable" professions connected with the governing elite (the clergy of the established church ,
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#17328548183141826-480: Is synonymous with peer . However, this popular usage of nobility omits the distinction between titled and untitled nobility. The titled nobility in Britain are the peers of the realm, whereas the untitled nobility comprise those here described as gentry. David Cannadine wrote that the gentry's lack of titles "did not matter, for it was obvious to contemporaries that the landed gentry were all for practical purposes
1909-470: Is today loosely (though erroneously) applied to various English country houses , mostly at the smaller end of the spectrum, sometimes dating from the Late Middle Ages , which currently or formerly house the landed gentry . Manor houses were sometimes fortified , albeit not as fortified as castles, but this was often more for show than for defence. They existed in most European countries where feudalism
1992-525: Is used historically only in Normandy and in Brittany . The salle basse was also the location of the manorial court, with the steward or seigneur's seating location often marked by the presence of a crédence de justice or wall-cupboard (shelves built into the stone walls to hold documents and books associated with administration of the demesne or droit de justice ). The salle haute or upper-hall, reserved for
2075-579: The Church Commissioners . In the latter part of the 16th century the owner and tenant of Valence House was Timothy Lucye, who married in 1584 Susanna, daughter of Henry Fanshawe, of Jenkyns, an adjoining manor. He was the brother of Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlecote , Warwickshire. In 1921, the London County Council (LCC) purchased the building and land to develop the Becontree estate. The house
2158-947: The James River in Windsor Farms . Virginia House is now owned and operated by the Virginia Historical Society . The almost eight acres of gardens and grounds on which Virginia House rests were designed by Charles Gillette . The house has been preserved and is largely as it was when the Weddells lived there. Virginia House is on the National Register of Historic Places listings in Richmond, Virginia . [REDACTED] The dictionary definition of manor house at Wiktionary [REDACTED] Media related to Manor houses at Wikimedia Commons Landed gentry The landed gentry , or
2241-607: The Napoleonic Code in France, under which such practices are illegal, greatly upset this tradition in the North. Although the Basques in the north chose to be "creative" with the new laws, it overall resulted in the breakup and ultimate financial ruin of many baserris. In practice the tradition of not breaking up baserris meant that the remaining children had to marry into another baserri, stay on
2324-470: The Utrecht Hill Ridge (Utrechtse Heuvelrug) and the area around Arnhem . Today there is a tendency to group these grand buildings together in the category of "castles". There are many castles and buitenplaatsen in all twelve provinces. A larger-than-average home is today called a villa or a herenhuis, but despite the grand name this is not the same as a manor house. The architectural form of
2407-699: The Wars of the Roses , as a form of status symbol, reflecting the position of their owners as having been worthy to receive royal licence to crenellate . The Tudor period (16th century) of stability in England saw the building of the first of the unfortified great houses , for example Sutton Place in Surrey, circa 1521. The Dissolution of the Monasteries under King Henry VIII resulted in many former monastical properties being sold to
2490-548: The estate replacing the manor. Manor houses were often built in close proximity to the village for ease, as they served not just as a home for the lord of the manor, but as a centre of administration for those who lived or travelled within the bounds of the manor. In some instances they needed to be able to hold meetings of the Manorial court . Nearly every large medieval manor house had its own deer-park adjoining, imparked (i.e. enclosed) by royal licence, which served primarily as
2573-572: The gentry (sometimes collectively known as the squirearchy ), is a largely historical British social class of landowners who could live entirely from rental income , or at least had a country estate . It is the British element of the wider European class of gentry . While part of the British aristocracy , and usually armigers , the gentry ranked below the British peerage (or "titled nobility" ) in social status. Nevertheless, their economic base in land
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2656-472: The "Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage, and Companionage". As well as listing genealogical information, these books often also included details of the right of a given family to a coat of arms . They were comparable to the Almanach de Gotha in continental Europe. In the 1830s, one peerage publisher, John Burke , expanded his market and his readership by publishing a similar volume for people without titles, which
2739-476: The "taint of trade", depending somewhat on what that business was. However, during the 18th and 19th centuries, as the new rich of the Industrial Revolution became more and more numerous and politically powerful, this expectation was gradually relaxed. Persons who are closely related to peers are also more correctly described as gentry than as nobility, since the latter term, in the modern British Isles,
2822-550: The 15th century it makes reference to a farmhouse, with an agricultural farm , typical of Levante and the southeastern Spanish , mainly in Granada and Valencia . A pazo is a type of grand old house found in Galicia . A pazo is usually located in the countryside and the former residence of an important nobleman or other important individual. They were of crucial importance to the rural and monastic communities around them. The pazo
2905-405: The 17th century, the gentry was divided into four ranks: In a historiographical survey, Peter Coss describes a number of approaches to deciding who was gentry. One is to view the gentry as those recognised legally as possessing gentility. However, Coss finds this method unsatisfactory because it "seems certain that gentility was widely felt and articulated within society long before legislation
2988-561: The 18th century, some of these manor houses became local centers of culture where the local gentry, sometimes inspired by what they had experienced during their grand tour , was mimicking the lifestyle of the higher nobility, creating lavish parks, art collections or showed an interest in science and research. There are many historical manor houses throughout the Netherlands . Some have been converted into museums, hotels, conference centres, etc. Some are located on estates and in parks. Many of
3071-553: The Borough Archives and Local Studies Library in a new building. The building was Grade II* listed in 1954. Manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor . The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system ; within its great hall were usually held the lord's manorial courts , communal meals with manorial tenants and great banquets. The term
3154-644: The Hudson River Valley of New York at Clermont State Historic Site or along the Mississippi such as Lansdowne (Natchez, Mississippi) . Over time, these large estates were usually subdivided as they became economically unsustainable and are now a fraction of their historical extent. In the southern states, the demise of plantation slavery after the Civil War gave rise to a sharecropping agricultural economy that had similarities to European serfdom and lasted into
3237-574: The King's favourites, who then converted them into private country houses, examples being Woburn Abbey , Forde Abbey , Nostell Priory and many other mansions with the suffix Abbey or Priory to their name. During the second half of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603) and under her successor King James I (1603–1625) the first mansions designed by architects not by mere masons or builders, began to make their appearance. Such houses as Burghley House , Longleat House , and Hatfield House are among
3320-734: The Polish manor house ( Polish : dwór or dworek ) evolved around the late Polish Renaissance period and continued until the Second World War, which, together with the communist takeover of Poland, spelled the end of the nobility in Poland . A 1944 decree nationalized most mansions as property of the nobles, but few were adapted to other purposes. Many slowly fell into ruin over the next few decades. Poland inherited many German-style manor houses ( Gutshäuser ) after parts of eastern Germany were taken over by Poland after World War II . In Portugal , it
3403-481: The United States that includes a manor-type house is Gardiners Island , a private island that has been in the same family since the 17th century and contains a Georgian architecture house. Today, some historically and architecturally significant manor houses in the United States are museums. However, many still function as private residences, including many of the colonial-era manor houses found in Maryland and Virginia
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3486-720: The alcázars were built between the 8th and 15th centuries. Many cities in Spain have its alcázar. Palaces built in the Moorish style after the expulsion of the Moors from Spain are often referred to as alcazars as well. Hacienda is landed estates of significant size located in the south of Spain ( Andalusia ). They were also very common in the former Spanish colonies . Some haciendas were plantations , mines or factories . Many haciendas combined these productive activities. They were developed as profit-making, economic enterprises linked to regional or international markets. The owner of an hacienda
3569-628: The best known of this period and seem today to epitomise the English country house . During the 16th century many lords of manors moved their residences from their ancient manor houses often situated next to the parish church and near or in the village and built a new manor house within the walls of their ancient deer-parks adjoining. This gave them more privacy and space. While suffixes given to manor houses in recent centuries have little substantive meaning, and many have changed over time, in previous centuries manor names had specific connotations. The usage
3652-523: The character and amenities of the residences of country gentlemen, and many defensive elements were dispensed with, for example Sutton Place in Surrey , c. 1521 . A late 16th-century transformation produced many of the smaller Renaissance châteaux of France and the numerous country mansions of the Elizabethan and Jacobean styles in England. These would eventually evolve into country houses with
3735-405: The core unit of traditional Basque society, as the ancestral home of a family . Traditionally, the household is administered by the etxekoandre (lady of the house) and the etxekojaun (master of the house), each with distinctly defined rights, roles and responsibilities. When the couple reaches a certain age upon which they wish to retire, the baserri is formally handed over to a child. Unusually,
3818-692: The country in the summer because of the putrid canals and diseases in the city. A few still exist, especially along the river Vecht , the river Amstel , the Spaarne in Kennemerland , the river Vliet and in Wassenaar . Some are located near former lakes (now polders ) like the Wijkermeer, Watergraafsmeer and the Beemster . In the 19th century, with improvements in water management, new regions came into fashion, such as
3901-461: The earlier houses are the legacy of the feudal heerlijkheid system. The Dutch had a manorial system centred on the local lord's demesne . In Middle Dutch this was called the vroonhof or vroenhoeve , a word derived from the Proto-Germanic word fraujaz , meaning "lord". This was also called a hof and the lord's house a hofstede . Other terms were used, including landhuis (or just huis ),
3984-791: The early 20th century. The Biltmore Estate in North Carolina (which is still owned by descendants of the original builder, a member of the Vanderbilt family ) is a more modern, though unsuccessful, attempt at building a small manorial society near Asheville, North Carolina. Most manor-style homes built since the Civil War were merely country retreats for wealthy industrialists in the late 19th and early 20th century and had little agricultural, administrative or political function. Examples of these homes include Castle Hill (Ipswich, Massachusetts) , Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site and Hearst Castle . A rare example of hereditary estate ownership in
4067-433: The end of the 19th century, together with the introduction in the 20th century of increasingly heavy levels of taxation on inherited wealth, put an end to agricultural land as the primary source of wealth for the upper classes. Many estates were sold or broken up, and this trend was accelerated by the introduction of protection for agricultural tenancies, encouraging outright sales, from the mid-20th century. So devastating
4150-539: The equivalent of continental nobles, with their hereditary estates, their leisured lifestyle, their social pre-eminence, and their armorial bearings". British armigerous families who hold no title of nobility are represented, together with those who hold titles through the College of Arms , by the Commission and Association for Armigerous Families of Great Britain at CILANE . Through grants of arms, new families are admitted into
4233-546: The estate are commemorated in the road names surrounding the park. The name of the house derives from 14th-century tenants, Agnes de Valence and her brother Aylmer, Earl of Pembroke , who came from a wealthy family in the French province of Valence, the family moving here when their uncle became king . The estate passed into the ownership of the Dean and Chapter of Windsor in 1475, and remained in their ownership until 1867, when it passed to
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#17328548183144316-627: The expression Landed Gentry as a description of the untitled upper classes in England (although the book also included families in Wales, Scotland and Ireland, where, however, social structures were rather different). Burke's Landed Gentry continued to appear at regular intervals throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. A review of the 1952 edition in Time noted: Landed Gentry used to limit itself to owners of domains that could properly be called "stately" (i.e. more than 500 acres or 200 hectares). Now it has lowered
4399-522: The family baserri as unmarried employees or make their own way in the world ( Iglesia o mar o casa real , "Church or sea or royal house"). A cortijo is a type of traditional rural habitat in the Southern half of Spain , including all of Andalusia and parts of Extremadura and Castile-La Mancha . Cortijos may have their origins in ancient Roman villas , for the word is derived from the Latin cohorticulum ,
4482-486: The gentry had three main characteristics: (1) landownership, (2) a nobility or gentility (shared with the peerage) that distinguished them from the rest of the population, and (3) a territorial-based collective identity and power over the larger population. From the late 16th-century, the gentry emerged as the class most closely involved in politics, the military and law. It provided the bulk of Members of Parliament , with many gentry families maintaining political control in
4565-468: The gentry provided a high proportion of the clergy , military officers , and lawyers . Successful burghers often used their accumulated wealth to buy country estates, with the aim of establishing themselves as landed gentry. The decline of the gentry largely began with the 1870s agricultural depression ; however, there are still many hereditary gentry in the UK. The book series Burke's Landed Gentry records
4648-663: The hill which housed the Imperial residences in Rome. Palacio Real is the same as Palacio, but historically used (either now or in the past) by the Spanish royal family . Palacio arzobispal is the same as Palacio, but historically used by the ecclesiastic authorities (mainly bishops or archbishops). Alcázar is a type of Moorish castle or fortified palace in Spain (and also Portugal ) built during Muslim rule, although some founded by Christians. Mostly of
4731-406: The inheritances of daughters and younger sons were in cash or stocks, and relatively small. Typically the gentry farmed some of their land through employed managers, but leased most of it to tenant farmers . They also exploited timber and minerals (such as coal), and owned mills and other sources of income. Many heads of families also had careers in politics or the military, and the younger sons of
4814-486: The landowners, and yeoman farmers, who were defined as "a person qualified by possessing free land of forty shillings annual [feudal] value, and who can serve on juries and vote for a Knight of the Shire . He is sometimes described as a small landowner, a farmer of the middle classes." Anthony Richard Wagner , Richmond Herald wrote that "a Yeoman would not normally have less than 100 acres" (40 hectares) and in social status
4897-458: The names of members of this class. The designation landed gentry originally referred exclusively to members of the upper class who were both landlords and commoners (in the British sense)—that is, they did not hold peerages . But by the late 19th century, the term was also applied to peers, such as the Duke of Westminster , who lived on landed estates. The term gentry derives from gentrice ,
4980-542: The nation and preserved as monuments to the lifestyles of their former owners (who sometimes remained in part of the house as lessees or tenants) by the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty . The National Trust, which had originally concentrated on open landscapes rather than buildings, accelerated its country house acquisition programme during and after the Second World War , partly because of
5063-524: The nobility. Some country houses were built on top of the ruins of earlier castles that had been destroyed during the Dutch Revolt . The owners, aspiring to noble status, adopted the name of the earlier castle. These country houses or stately homes (called buitenplaats or buitenhuis in Dutch) were located close to the city in picturesque areas with a clean water source. Wealthy families sent their children to
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#17328548183145146-429: The officer corps of the British Armed Forces , the diplomatic and civil services , the bar or the judiciary ), such occupation was considered demeaning by the upper classes, particularly by the 19th century, when the earlier mercantile endeavours of younger sons were increasingly discontinued. Younger sons, who could not expect to inherit the family estate, were instead urged into professions of state service. It became
5229-488: The owners of large agricultural estates granted by colonial rulers and built large manor houses from which these estates were managed (e.g., Mount Vernon , Monticello ). American agricultural estates, however, often relied on slaves rather than tenant farmers or serfs which were common in Europe at the time. The owners of American agricultural estates did not have noble titles and there was no legally recognized political structure based on an aristocratic, land-owning class. As
5312-415: The parents were by tradition free to choose any child, male or female, firstborn or later born, to assume the role of etxekoandre or etxekojaun to ensure the child most suitable to the role would inherit the ancestral home. The baserri under traditional law (the fueros ) cannot be divided or inherited by more than one person. This is still the case in the Southern Basque Country but the introduction of
5395-492: The property qualification to 200 acres (0.81 km ) for all British families whose pedigrees have been "notable" for three generations. Even so, almost half of the 5,000 families listed in the new volume are in there because their forefathers were: they themselves have no land left. Their estates are mere street addresses, like that of the Molineux-Montgomeries, formerly of Garboldisham Old Hall, now of No. 14 Malton Avenue, Haworth. The Great Depression of British Agriculture at
5478-476: The seigneur and where he received his high-ranking guests, was often accessible by an external spiral staircase. It was commonly "open" up to the roof trusses, as in similar English homes. This larger and more finely decorated hall was usually located above the ground-floor hall. The seigneur and his family's private chambres were often located off of the upper first-floor hall, and invariably had their own fireplace (with finely decorated chimney-piece) and frequently
5561-437: The size of the house and/or the use that the family gave to them. In Spain many old manor houses, palaces, castles and grand homes have been converted into a Parador hotel. A Palacio is a sumptuously decorated grand residence, especially a royal residence or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word itself is derived from the Latin name Palātium, for Palatine Hill,
5644-628: The terms nobility and gentry came to refer to completely separate classes. The gentry were aristocratic landowners who were not peers. According to historian G. E. Mingay , the gentry were landowners whose wealth "made possible a certain kind of education, a standard of comfort, and a degree of leisure and a common interest in ways of spending it". Leisure distinguished gentry from businessmen who gained their wealth through work. The gentry, did not enterprise or marketeer but were known most for working in management of estates; their income came largely from rents paid by tenant farmers living these estates. By
5727-417: The untitled nobility regularly, thus making the gentry a class that remains open both legally and practically. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the names and families of those with titles (specifically peers and baronets , less often including those with the non-hereditary title of knight ) were often listed in books or manuals known as "Peerages", "Baronetages", or combinations of these categories, such as
5810-407: The vacated manor house to be cleaned, especially important in the days of the cess-pit , and repaired. Thus such non-resident lords needed to appoint a steward or seneschal to act as their deputy in such matters and to preside at the manorial courts of his different manorial properties. The day-to-day administration was carried out by a resident official in authority at each manor, who in England
5893-472: The widespread destruction of country houses in the 20th century by owners who could no longer afford to maintain them. Those who retained their property usually had to supplement their incomes from sources other than the land, sometimes by opening their properties to the public. In the 21st century, the term "landed gentry" is still used, as the landowning class still exists, but it increasingly refers more to historic than to current landed wealth or property in
5976-548: Was a traditional architectural structure associated with a community and social network. It usually consisted of a main building surrounded by gardens, a dovecote and outbuildings such as a small chapels for religious celebrations. The word pazo is derived from the Latin palatiu(m) ("palace"). The Baserri , called "Caserio" in Spanish, is the typical manor house of the Basque Provinces and Navarre . A baserri represents
6059-596: Was called A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland, enjoying territorial possessions or high official rank , popularly known as Burke's Commoners . Burke's Commoners was published in four volumes from 1833 to 1838. Subsequent editions were re-titled A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry; or, Commons of Great Britain and Ireland or Burke's Landed Gentry. The popularity of Burke's Landed Gentry gave currency to
6142-423: Was called a bailiff , or reeve . Although not typically built with strong fortifications as were castles , many manor-houses were fortified , which required a royal licence to crenellate . They were often enclosed within walls or ditches which often also included agricultural buildings. Arranged for defence against roaming bands of robbers and thieves, in days long before police, they were often surrounded by
6225-495: Was funded Barking and Dagenham London Borough Council . The surrounding park of 27.82 acres (0.11 km), has been created from the former Valence House estate, and was purchased by Dagenham Urban District Council from the London County Council in 1926. The park hosts one of the Great Trees of London , a Holm oak. A house was first established on this site in the 13th century, owned by Robert Dynes in 1280. Later tenants of
6308-436: Was in place to tell us so". Other historians define gentry by land ownership and income level, but there is still the problem of whether this should include professionals and town dwellers. Rosemary Horrox argues that an urban gentry existed in the 15th century. For some historians of early modern England, the gentry included families with coats of arms , but Coss notes that not all gentry were armigerous . Coss proposes that
6391-487: Was often similar, and some of the landed gentry were wealthier than some peers. Many gentry were close relatives of peers, and it was not uncommon for gentry to marry into peerage. With or without noble title, owning rural land estates often brought with it the legal rights of the feudal lordship of the manor , and the less formal name or title of squire , in Scotland laird . Generally lands passed by primogeniture , while
6474-503: Was present. The lord of the manor may have held several properties within a county or, for example in the case of a feudal baron , spread across a kingdom, which he occupied only on occasional visits. Even so, the business of the manor was directed and controlled by regular manorial courts, which appointed manorial officials such as the bailiff , granted copyhold leases to tenants, resolved disputes between manorial tenants and administered justice in general. A large and suitable building
6557-489: Was quite common during the 17th to early 20th centuries for the aristocracy to have country homes. These homes, known as solares ( paços , when the manor was a certain stature or size; quintas , when the manor included a sum of land), were found particularly in the northern, usually richer, Portugal, in the Beira , Minho , and Trás-os-Montes provinces. Many have been converted into a type of hotel called pousada . Quinta
6640-407: Was required within the manor for such purpose, generally in the form of a great hall , and a solar might be attached to form accommodation for the lord. The produce of a small manor might be insufficient to feed a lord and his large family for a full year, and thus he would spend only a few months at each manor and move on to another where stores had been laid up. This also gave the opportunity for
6723-447: Was termed an hacendado or patrón . The work force on haciendas varied, depending on the type of hacienda and where it was located. Casona is old manor houses in León , Asturias and Cantabria ( Spain ) following the so-called " casa montañesa architecture". Most of them were built in the 17th and 18th centuries. Typologically they are halfway between rustic houses and palaces Quinta is
6806-464: Was this for the ranks formerly identified as being of the landed gentry that Burke's Landed Gentry began, in the 20th century, to include families historically in this category who had ceased to own their ancestral lands. The focus of those who remained in this class shifted from the lands or estates themselves, to the stately home or " family seat " which was in many cases retained without the surrounding lands. Many of these buildings were purchased for
6889-510: Was used as the LCC headquarters during construction. The Dagenham Urban District Council acquired the premises. During 1928 and 1929 they extended to building for use as offices and the council chamber. Valence House served as the town hall until 1937, when the Dagenham Civic Centre was completed. The house became the library headquarters of the borough. The house is now a museum, and houses
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