As the filming for the eagerly anticipated Downton Abbey movie gets underway we are reminded of the enduring appeal and desirability of the English stately home. Not that we really need reminding: such is their allure you can barely switch on the TV without seeing Mary Berry cooking in one or Location, Location, Location’s Phil Spencer taking a ‘grand tour’ of the best of them. Even The Great British Bake Off is shot in the grounds of magnificent Welford Park in Berkshire.

The English stately home developed and evolved from medieval fortified castles and the most prolific period of country house building took place in the 18th century. Britain’s magnificent stately homes were not just built as homes but as power symbols, perhaps to impress and entertain, or even in some cases, for defence.

These houses were extravagantly decorated with tapestries, art and ornate furniture and as time went on and owners strove to out-do one another with opulence and grandeur, a number of architectural styles went in and out of fashion.

Stately homes were not only a reflection of the families who owned them, who were usually the country’s leading noblemen, they were the focus of entire communities and formed a vital part of the local economy. These homes provided jobs for the villagers and labourers, offered crops from the land and supported livestock to feed the nation.

By the end of the 19th century hostility towards the aristocracy, and by extension their homes, saw the popularity of England’s statelies fall into decline.

However, they received renewed interest from the late 1940s onwards when some of the country’s finest examples began to open to the public, though as author Peter Mandler points out In The Fall and Rise of the Stately Home, it wasn’t until the 1970s and 1980s that the stately home came to be seen as emblematic of the country’s past. Then along came Downton Abbey and our love for England’s stately home was well and truly sealed.

If you'd like to live in a stately home of your own, the following examples are among the finest currently on the market.

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