Secrets of the Manor House
Exactly 100 years ago, the world of the British Manor House was at its height. It was a world of luxury that that has provided a majestic backdrop to a range of movies and popular costume dramas to this day. But what was really going on behind these stately walls and under the servants’ stairs? “Secrets of the Manor House,” looks beyond the fiction to the truth of how life was in these ancient British houses, and how mounting financial, political and social pressures were about to bring momentous changes to both the wealthy and their servants. The program covers the background of the British titled class in Edwardian times, the realities for servants working in their estates, the concept of the entail that passed estates to the next generation, the growing influence of American wealth in British aristocracy at the beginning of the 20th century, and the impact of the first world war on the social class system evident at a British country house.
For more info: http://www.pbs.org/programs/secrets-manor-house/
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A hundred years ago, the world of the British manor house was at its height. It was a world of luxury and privilege that has provided a majestic backdrop to a range of movies and costume dramas to this day, most recently in the popular MASTERPIECE ?Downton Abbey.? But what was really going on...
Air date: 01/22/2012
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It may be more famous now than any time in its 1,300-year history as the setting of ?Downton Abbey,? but England?s Highclere Castle has its own stories to tell. In its heyday, Highclere was the social epicenter of Edwardian England. See how all the inhabitants of Highclere lived, from the...
Air date: 01/07/2013
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Find out what really went on behind the stately walls of the British manor house a century ago.
Air date: 05/17/2013
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