During the Agricultural Revolution, the landowners of Britain constructed an enormous range of picturesque or classical buildings on their farms, inspired by Enlightenment ideals. These model farms, a phenomenan unique to Britain, are a significant yet largely undiscovered aspect of our heritage. This book is richly illustrated with interior and exterior photographs, most of them specially commissioned, as well as plans, paintings and historic photographs. It examines the architecture and landscape context of the farmsteads themselves and considers the motives of the people who built them,...

Thomas William Coke ("Coke of Norfolk") (1754-1842) is best known as one of the main promoters of the improved farming of the "Agricultural Revolution." He was also a county MP for over forty years between 1776 and 1832; and the owner of one of the finest palladian mansions in Britain, and by far, the largest estate in Norfolk at Holkham Hall. A friend of Charles James Fox, he moved in the highest Whig social circles and lavishly entertained distinguished friends from both political and academic fields who came to Holkham for its splendid library, works of art and antiquities as well as the...

-Rare and beautiful Norfolk-, as described by the artist John Sell Cotman in 1841, with its rich wildlife habitats, historic buildings, diverse landscapes and archaeological sites, has long been a focus of interest for both naturalists and antiquarians. It has also been at the forefront of the modern conservation movement. The Norfolk Archaeological Trust, still the only local trust of its kind, was founded in 1923; the Norfolk Naturalist Trust, (later the Norfolk Wildlife Trust), founded in 1926, was the first county wildlife trust; while Blickling Hall was the first property to be accepted...