English Heritage Symposium And Study Day

The PGECR Country House Group was set up in 2022 to help postgrad students and early career researchers looking at the British country house network with one another, share their research, and find out more about relevant events, talks, conferences, and new books. We had our first conference in March 2024, and some feedback was that as well the opportunity to give papers, people also wanted career advice, and to have the chance to make links with heritage orgs with a view to working in historical houses after graduating.

English Heritage kindly agreed to a collaboration in order to achieve this (their historian team leader, Andrew Hann, has been a member of the group since it began!), and the team at Marble Hill, a Georgian manor in Twickenham, were amazing in helping to set up a study day and symposium for our group, which would help us become better acquainted with one of English Heritage’s houses, and find out what people in different curatorial and research roles do there.

On what turned out to be a stunning autumnal day, group members arrived at Marble Hill in Twickenham for a 9am welcome from Megan Leyland, senior properties historian, Emily Burns, curator of collections and interiors for English Heritage’s west London properties, and Emily Burns, a landscape advisor. It was brilliant to have three people in very different roles, and to find out how they all worked together on the recent lottery-funded restoration of Marble Hill. This was so useful for everyone who is considering working in historic houses, and finding out the routes into these roles.

We divided into two groups and had two tours, one led by Emily Burns that focused on the art and collections of the house; why things had been arranged the way they were, and how decisions are made about purchasing for the collection and displaying it to audiences. The other tour was led by Megan and Emily Parker, and examined the history of the house, the decisions about interpretation for visitors, and the restoration in the gardens as well as the house. We were all surprised at how much research and development went into everything, right down to the tiny picture tiles on the interpretation table (above). We also learnt about the work with historical conservation experts on paint and wood analysis, and working with historical architects on transforming some of the space.

Emily Parker took us around the gardens and explained that her input includes historical research on the physical appearance of the land around the house in the 1720s, and how it would have been used by the household and guests, using archival evidence (some which she showed us, above), and also by researching similar gardens of the eighteenth century. We were so lucky to have such beautiful weather, which made walking round the grounds a delight.

We were also incredibly fortunate to have the whole house to ourselves all day, including the coach house cafe space where we had lunch together. We were all talking about how insightful and eye-opening the tours had been, and how much we would love to get paid to do historical research, manage collections, and curate exhibitions in country houses. Sigh….

Bethan Scorey  - New Research on Welsh Country Houses 

Including a symposium in the afternoon gave group members the chance to present their research to their peers, and to have this on their CVs. Most of the six speakers were near the end of their projects, so it was good to hear them reflect on what they had learnt about working with specific country houses. It’s also a good opportunity for them to practice answering questions from an audience about their research, and for the group to be able to compare their own country house research with the methods and sources being discussed. It was a really fun and informal atmosphere, despite being in the very grand ‘Great Room’ of the house, built in 1724 for Henrietta Howard to host salons with the most distinguished politicians, poets, and writers of the age.

Ben Anderson - Mapping influences and exchanges at Ormesby Hall, Middlesbrough

Aylssa Myers - The Eighteenth-Century Suburban Villa: working with no-longer existing and altered spaces

Rachel Daley - Library catalogues, lucky guesses and animating the Tatton Park Library

Fiona Crouch - It takes a village to do a PhD

Libby Horsfield - What is This?’: Working in the Prints & Drawings Archive at Audley End

We concluded the day with a roundtable where everyone had the opportunity to raise points about working with country houses, and put questions to the experts. We were lucky to be joined by Andrew Hann, who told us more about how he ended up managing the historians at English Heritage, and the sorts of collaborative projects he’s involved in. The whole English Heritage team were so helpful on offering advice for things group members could be doing now whilst still studying in order to gain experience in country houses and actually use our research and expertise. This included pitching low-budget ideas for temporary exhibitions and installations, which Andrew said didn’t have to be complicated, they could just involve poetry reading, for example. What they want is ways to make connections with local communities, ways to explore marginalised histories (or re-examine established ones), and ways to gain press coverage.

This opportunity to collaborate with English Heritage was so valuable, a huge insight into routes into historic house careers and the types of roles that exist. It’s fantastic that English Heritage would like to work on a similar day at one of their more northern houses, which we are currently organising, giving more group members the chance to have this experience. A huge thank you to Andrew, Megan, the two Emilys, and the staff at Marble Hill who welcomed us and looked after us, and put together these amazing tours for us. Thank you to all the group members who came and gave their input, especially the presenters.