Calke Abbey

Climate change casts a cloud over nation's stately piles

by Andrew Johnson on May 12, 2009

They have withstood centuries of war and decay and the fluctuating fortunes of their once super-wealthy owners, but now Britain's stately homes face a potentially more destructive force: climate change.

The National Trust says at least seven historic stately homes – some up to 600 years old – have been damaged by climate-change-related incidents, such as flooding, over the past five years, with repair costs running into millions of pounds.

These include 300-year-old Calke Abbey in Derbyshire, The Vyne, a 16th-century house in Hampshire, and Coughton Court, a Tudor stately home in Warwickshire, which were all damaged by flooding in 2007.

Last year heavy rainfall caused extensive damage to Cragside, a unique Victorian manor house in Northumberland built in 1870. It was the first building in the world to use hydroelectricity, and all the house's power comes from a turbine fed by a nearby stream.

Last year's heavy rainfall...Read More >>