Tag Archives: Country Life Magazine

Tours: English Writer Evelyn Waugh’s ‘Combe Florey House’ In Somerset

In the depths of Somerset, near the Quantock Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Exmoor National Park, you’ll find Combe Florey House

It’s a regal 18th century Elizabethan manor house, composed of red ashlar sandstone (in the style of renowned architect James Gibbs) that has some of the most spectacular views over the surrounding luscious green countryside we’ve come across.

A manor house has been on the site for many centuries, but the previous building was destroyed in the Civil War, and the present 17th century house was extensively remodelled by William Frauncies in 1730. The property was sold to the Perring family in 1799 and sold again in 1896 to the Batchelor family before being purchased by the writer Evelyn Waugh as his family home in 1956.

Read more

Scenic Drives: The Snake Pass, Peak District, UK

Snake Pass slithers across the Pennines between the market town of Glossop and Ladybower Reservoir’s Y-shaped valley. This route, one of Britain’s most scenic drives, opened by George VI in 1945.

Snake Pass over the Pennines, Derbyshire, England, Europe

Architecture: Restored Georgian Buildings (UK)

Architecture: The Archer Pavillion – Wrest Park, UK

The Archer Pavilion in Wrest Park, Bedfordshire — a place in the care of English Heritage — is one of the most spectacular garden buildings of the English Baroque. Both the pavilion and Thomas Archer, the architect that designed it, are ripe for reappraisal, says Helen Lawrence-Beaton. Photographs by Paul Highnam for Country Life.