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For centuries the British country house, ostensibly the basis of the landed gentry's wealth and power, has led a double life, providing the setting for some of the most unsettling fiction in British history. With their many empty corridors, secret backstairs, shut up attic rooms and dark corners, plus antiquated heirlooms and isolated locations, it’s no surprise that country houses have become a cornerstone of gothic film and fiction.
As any lover of gothic fiction knows, the key to a truly frightening read is found in its location. English country houses are often large, sprawling affairs, separated from the communities close to them. Once the strongholds of feudal lords, as we progressed towards modernity country houses were reinvented, providing opportunities for hunting, hosting, and relaxation before being shut up so their owner could return to the various diversions of London. As a result, the country house was not just a symbol of wealth, taste, and respectability, it was also an isolated labyrinth of empty rooms – the perfect setting for a gothic horror story.
Gothic fiction, with its predilection for fearful, mysterious atmospheres and supernatural goings-on, began to take off in the 18th century, coinciding with the wider Romantic movement in art and literature. The settings for such novels were varied: the 18th-century pioneers of the gothic novel (such as Horace Walpole and Ann Radcliffe) preferred crumbling medieval castles, while other examples (especially late 19th-century novels such as Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Dracula) favoured an urban setting. But for the Victorians, obsessed with respectability (and what secrets might lie behind it), the country house was an obvious place to dwell on. The respectable Victorian house with its servants, impressive staircases and new gas lamps became a focus of scrutiny. What darkness lay behind that veneer of gentility? In an age where every man’s home was his castle, kept quiet and comfortable by the woman of the house – the ‘angel of the hearth’ – what did it mean when that darkness was located within the house itself?
It is also worth noting that many writers of gothic fiction have been women. From Ann Radcliffe to Charlotte Bronte, Angela Carter to Daphne Du Maurier, Britain has a great literary tradition of female gothic writers, all with a preoccupation with the domestic sphere. Consider the gothic country house from a Victorian woman’s perspective. It is both a refuge and a cage, a world that she is expected to inhabit and yet never owns. In the role of the ‘household general,’ according to Mrs Beaton, it is the woman’s responsibility to create order out of the chaos of a home, to ensure comfort, convenience, and safety. By setting a gothic story in a large country house, with its many rooms, small army of servants and grand expectations, the writer is not just using the nature of the house as a place in which to get lost, be stalked, or suddenly discover a mystery. They may be reinforcing the frightening idea that, try as you might, you have no real control at all.
Another interesting reason for the efficacy of the country house as a gothic setting is its suitability as a metaphor for the human mind. In this way, rooms become memories, dark dealings within them become our own frightening desires, and it is no surprise that many gothic novels set in country houses, (Rebecca, The Turn of the Screw, The Woman in White), feature the fear or very real occurrence of madness. Indeed, the use of the country house often reinforces a sense of the uncanny, where a place or person that should be familiar quickly becomes threatening and unrecognisable. Through this, we see both Victorian and modern anxieties about our own minds. Just as Stevenson’s use of the gothic city acted as an allegory for the external corruption of a soul, so the gothic country house provides a clear metaphor for our own inner darkness.
The country houses which have featured in our favourite gothic stories
Charlotte Brontë visited North Lees Hall in 1845 while staying with a friend in the nearby village of Hathersage, and with its unique architecture, it became the inspiration for Mr Rochester's house Thornfield in Jane Eyre. Thornfield is described in the book thus: “three storeys high; a gentleman’s manor house; battlements round the top gave it a picturesque look.” A glance at North Lees Hall and you can easily see what Brontë meant. The isolated grade II* listed Tower House dates from 1594 and is prettily situated along a bridle path frequented by sheep. Owned by the Peak District National Park Authority, the house is currently rented out, but you can still walk along the footpath to take a look at it from the outside.
Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black has become a cultural phenomenon, impossible to miss for any gothic fiction fan. In the novel, Eel Marsh House is the main setting, haunted by the violent and dangerous ghost of Alice Drablow with horrifying consequences. When the film was made (with Daniel Radcliffe as the star), the 17th-century Cotterstock Hall near Northamptonshire was used as the location. The house is privately owned, and last came up for sale in 2019 for £900,000. Those interested in the film may also enjoy visiting Osea Island in Essex, which was used as the location for the Nine Lives Causeway, and is now a privately owned island featuring a stable of lovely holiday cottages available for rent – just be aware that the causeway cuts you off from the mainland when the tide is high.
Henry James' The Turn of the Screw is one of the most famous ghost stories in all of literature, in which a governess moves to a remote country house to care for two children who may or may not be possessed. Inspiration for Bly Manor in the story came from Hinton Ampner, a country house in Hampshire where the owners were said to be plagued by visitations from ghostly servants. James heard about Hinton Ampner, which was denounced by one of its owners as an unfit residence for any human being, from the Archbishop of Canterbury. The house, which largely burned down in the 1960s and was rebuilt by its owner, is now owned by the National Trust, and is open to visitors all year round.
Wilkie Collins' Victorian classic The Woman in White is set in two sinister country houses, starting at the fictional Limmeridge Hall in Cumbria. Collins is said to have based Limmeridge on the grand 18th-century Ewanrigg Hall, a house he had visited with Charles Dickens. Ewanrigg owes its gothic reputation to more than literary connections. Just before Collins began to write The Woman in White in 1860, the owner of the house had died and his widow had been committed to an asylum in Gateshead. Ewanrigg fell into disrepair and became the subject of local ghost stories, with tales of spirits haunting its corridors. The building has since been gutted by fire, and very little remains.
Daphne du Maurier’s Manderley, the scene of her most famous novel Rebecca, was inspired by two country houses. The exterior was based on Menabilly House in Cornwall, an estate which du Maurier would eventually rent from the Rashleigh family (who have owned the house since the 16th century) five years after Rebecca’s release. The interior, meanwhile, was inspired by Milton Hall in Cambridgeshire. Du Maurier’s haunting description of Manderley’s wild and overgrown drive reflects the dilapidated state into which Menabilly had fallen into when she first came across it in 1926. The house is still privately owned and not open to visitors, but you can explore Menabilly beach and the surrounds, including the popular Rashleigh Bath, a seawater tidal pool cut into the rocks at Polridmouth.
Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights is largely based around two country houses, Wuthering Heights itself and Thrushcross Grange, the home of the wealthy Linton family. The inspiration for the latter is widely thought to be Ponden Hall in the village of Stanbury, although there are questions surrounding the attribution, since Ponden Hall is much smaller in scale than the description of Thrushcross suggests. Located close to the Brontës' home in Haworth, the Hall was said to boast an extensive library which the Bronte children would have had access to as regular visitors. In 2014 the hall became a bed and breakfast, but since it went up for sale in 2020 its status is unclear. There is, however, an AirBnB listing for its annexe, which Brontë fans will surely enjoy.
Louise Davidson’s debut novel The Fortunes of Olivia Richmond is published in paperback on 17th October, just in time for Halloween. Available from all good bookshops at £8.99.
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