Belton House

South Kesteven / United Kingdom

Belton House is a Grade I listed country house in the parish of Belton near Grantham in Lincolnshire, England, built between 1685 and 1688 by Sir John Brownlow, 3rd Baronet. It is surrounded by formal gardens and a series of avenues leading to follies within a larger wooded park. Belton has been described as a compilation of all that is finest of Carolean architecture, the only truly vernacular style of architecture that England had produced since the Tudor period. It is considered to be a complete example of a typical English country house.For about three centuries until 1984, Belton House was the seat successively of the Brownlow family, which had first acquired land in the area in the late 16th century, and of its heirs the Cust family . Despite his great wealth Sir John Brownlow, 3rd Baronet, chose to build a comparatively modest house rather than one of the grand Baroque palaces being built by others at the time. The contemporary, if provincial, Carolean style was the selected choice of design. The new house was fitted with the latest innovations such as sash windows for the principal rooms, and more significantly, with completely separate areas for the staff. Successive generations made changes to the interior of the house which reflected their changing social position and tastes, yet the fabric and design of the house changed little. Following World War I the Custs, like many wealthy English families, were faced with mounting financial problems and finally in 1984 they donated the house, with most of its contents, to the National Trust, which now opens Belton to the public. It is in a good state of repair and is visited by many thousands of tourists each year.

Burghley House

South Kesteven / United Kingdom

Burghley House is a grand sixteenth-century English country house near Stamford, Lincolnshire. It is a leading example of the Elizabethan prodigy house, built and still lived in by the Cecil family. The exterior largely retains its Elizabethan appearance, but most of the interiors date from remodellings before 1800. The house is open to the public on a seasonal basis and displays a circuit of grand and richly furnished state apartments. Its park was laid out by Capability Brown.The house is on the boundary of the civil parishes of Barnack and St Martin's Without in the Peterborough unitary authority of Cambridgeshire. It was formerly part of the Soke of Peterborough, an historic area that was traditionally associated with Northamptonshire. It lies 0.9 miles south of Stamford and 10 miles northwest of Peterborough city centre. The house is now run by the Burghley House Preservation Trust, which is controlled by the Cecil family.

Woolsthorpe Manor

South Kesteven / United Kingdom

Woolsthorpe Manor in Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth, near Grantham, Lincolnshire, England, is the birthplace and was the family home of Sir Isaac Newton. He was born there on 25 December 1642 . At that time it was a yeoman's farmstead, principally rearing sheep. Newton returned here in 1666 when Cambridge University closed due to the plague, and here he performed many of his most famous experiments, most notably his work on light and optics. This is also said to be the site where Newton, observing an apple fall from a tree, was inspired to formulate his law of universal gravitation.Now in the hands of the National Trust and open to the public all year round, it is presented as a typical seventeenth century yeoman's farmhouse . New areas of the house, once private, were opened up to the public in 2003, with the old rear steps being rebuilt, and the old walled kitchen garden, to the rear of the house, being restored. One of the former farmyard buildings has been equipped so that visitors can have hands-on experience of the physical principles investigated by Newton in the house. It is a Grade I listed building.