| Summary: | Many books have been written over the past few decades about the many country houses which have been demolished in England since the late nineteenth century. Much of this writing, however, has been coloured by polemic and prone to exaggeration. This new book, by focusing in detail on the experience of one English county, attempts to separate myth from reality. How many Norfolk country houses really perished over the past century, and how does this compare with rates of destruction in earlier centuries - and with the number of great houses that have survived to the present? What explains the geography and chronology of destruction, and were certain kinds of houses more likely to be demolished than others? And how does the architectural importance of the "lost" houses compare with that of surviving examples? In addition, this book examines the archaeology of lost houses, for few have disappeared without any trace: it looks at the marks they have left in the modern landscape, and what these can tell us about the character of the houses themselves, and the processes of their destruction.
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