When the Second World War broke out in 1939, it the beginning of a six year conflict, that led to the D-Day landings on 6th June 1944, eighty years ago this month.
It wasn’t just the lives of ordinary people that changed during the conflict. To help the war effort, the government requisitioned hundreds of country houses across the country for a myriad of purposes.
Blenheim Palace was the birthplace of Winston Churchill and the ancestral home of the Dukes of Marlborough. In 1939, the Palace became the short-lived, temporary home of Malvern College. Before being taken over by MI5 a year later, the Long Library and state rooms were used as dormitories for the boys, who were prevented from using ink for fear of any damage to the tapestries and paintings still adorning the walls. However, they were able to use the grounds and even bathed in the ornamental ponds.
Castle Howard became home to Queen Margaret’s School, Scarborough. During its tenure, a chimney fire in the south-east corner of the South Front swept westerly through the building, destroying basement rooms, principal and upper levels, and the dome, which collapsed into the Great Hall. A third of the castle was left open to the elements but, despite several priceless paintings being lost, the girls helped save many valuable items using blankets and sheets to fight the flames, alongside the firefighters.
Wentworth Woodhouse near Rotherham was used as a base for the Intelligence Corps. The grounds were destroyed during the war, when coal mines were nationalised and the estate’s land was used for open cast mining. The government decreed that coal should be mined to within a hundred yards of the house in open pits. There began a long period of decline during which the house was leased to the Local Authority and occupied as a college. It was during this period that most of its contents were dispersed.
It is a miracle that this magnificent house still exists. At the time it was mined, planning permission would not have been required to demolish a country house – owners would simply need to serve a Notice of Intent. Fortunately, in 1949, the building became home to Lady Mabel College of Physical Education, a training facility for female P.E teachers which was pivotal to the survival of the house. After several successive owners, it is now undergoing a period of reconstruction with an estimated cost of £200 million.
Goodwood House in Sussex was used as a “modern war hospital”. The wards were formed by dividing the house’s large rooms and surgery was performed in the ballroom.
The former home of Sir Francis Drake, Shardeloes, in Amersham became a 55-bed maternity home for evacuated mothers from London, where over 4,000 children were born. The building was converted in twenty four hours, including storage of the furniture, removal of the pictures and boarding up the library. The butler became the hospital’s porter.
Although they never went on to have children of their own, the de Rothschild family received 100 evacuated children from London at Waddesdon Manor, employing 29 staff to care for them. However, all did not go smoothly, and there were said to be tensions between the matrons caring for the babies and those caring for the children. The children were later moved to Rede Hall, in Horley, when the Minister for Health was forced to intervene.
Hall Barn, Beaconsfield was used as a hospital supplies unit. Under the supervision of the lady of the house, it produced 87,000 garments and surgical dressings for hospitals.
Country houses also accommodated D-Day preparations, where the large buildings supplied with electricity and sanitation (and furniture that was sometimes used to keep the fires going) could be used as camps for the gathering troops during their invasion preparations. Hundreds of country houses were requisitioned by the army, navy and air force where they provided good levels of security and seclusion, as well as plenty of space.
The furniture was not the only sacrifice made by the houses’ owners. The owner of Amport House in Hampshire left his entire wine cellar as a “patriotic gesture”. The deer remaining at Petworth House in West Sussex also proved useful in supplying meat to those occupying the camp on site, although the house itself was used as an administration centre.
Perhaps the most important house requisitioned during the war was Norfolk House, central London. The original house was demolished in 1938 and replaced with a neo-Georgian office block of the same name. It became the operations centre from which the seeds of Operation Overlord grew before Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander of the operation, moved on to Southwick House near Portsmouth and gave the final order to “go”.