Enfilade

From the conference website:

Houses of Politicians
Manchester Metropolitan University, 29–30 November 2019

As politics and the idea of politician evolved throughout the long eighteenth century—from landed aristocracy to new money and career politicians—and the empire became increasingly more complex, the building of country houses remained a constant. This symposium brings together established and early career scholars who explore the correlation between politics and the country house within this protean political environment. Case studies and dialogue sessions will discuss design and style, as well as collecting, display, patronage, networking, dissemination, and the relationship between London and the country. The symposium also involves an (optional) tour of Wentworth Woodhouse, built by the marquises of Rockingham and now the focus of a major heritage restoration initiative. Key outcomes will be a publication of scholarly essays and a Politics and Country House Toolkit intended for the professional heritage sector.

F R I D A Y ,  2 9  N O V E M B E R  2 0 1 9

Friends Meeting House, 6 Mount St, Manchester

9.00  Morning Session
Moderator: Jon Stobart (Manchester Metropolitan University)
• Joan Coutu (University of Waterloo), Introduction
• Peter Lindfield and Jon Stobart (Manchester Metropolitan University), Powerhouse or Home: Different Readings of the British Country House in Recent Symposia
• Oliver Cox (University of Oxford), Writing Political Histories
• Fiona Candlin (Birkbeck, University of London), When Is a Historic House a Museum? (and Why Might It Matter)

10.45  Break

11.00  Wentworth Woodhouse in Focus
• Dylan Spivey (PhD candidate, University of Virginia), Thomas Wentworth and Wentworth Woodhouse
• Joan Coutu (University of Waterloo), Burke’s Exemplum: The ‘Natural Family Mansion’ and Wentworth Woodhouse
• John Bonehill (University of Glasgow), Painting for Portland: George Barret and Welbeck

12.45  Coach departs for Wentworth Woodhouse; box lunch provided for eating on the coach. Tour followed by a reception at Wentworth Woodhouse.

17.30  Coach departs Wentworth Woodhouse, returning to Manchester at approximately 19.00

S A T U R D A Y ,  3 0  N O V E M B E R  2 0 1 9

Manchester Metropolitan University, Business School, All Saints Building, Manchester

8.30  The House, the Style, the Contents, the Message
Moderators: Kate Retford (Birkbeck, University of London) and Anne Bordeleau (University of Waterloo)
• Amy Lim (DPhil candidate, University of Oxford and Tate Britain), Executive or Exile? The Art and Architecture of Country Houses after the Glorious Revolution
• Juliet Learmouth (PhD candidate, Birkbeck, University of London), Holding Court at Marlborough House: The London Residence of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough
• Jon Stobart, Competing Cultures of Consumption: Politics and Taste at Shugborough
• Dale Townshend (Manchester Metropolitan University), Tory Gothic / Whig Classicism: Chiasmus, Architecture, and the Politics of Style in the Long Eighteenth Century
• Matthew Reeve (Queen’s University, Canada), Gothic Architecture and the Liberty Trope
• Peter Lindfield (Manchester Metropolitan University), A Gothic Houghton: Pelham’s Forgotten Country House

12:45  Lunch

13:30  The Empire at Home
Moderators: Dana Arnold (University of East Anglia) and Anne Bordeleau (University of Waterloo)
• Elisabeth Grass (DPhil candidate, University of Oxford and the National Trust), St. Kitts in Norfolk: The Country House Network of Crisp Molineux
• Jocelyn Anderson (University of Toronto, Mississauga), The ‘Fine House’ of a Caribbean Planter: Public Responses to the Alderman Beckford’s Fonthill
• Kieran Hazzard (University of Oxford), The Clives and India: Collecting, Display, and Colonialism
• Rowena Willard-Wright (freelance curator), William Pitt the Younger and How to Make a Political Home

16:30  Post-Graduate Students Roundtable – Sources and Reflection, Building the Toolkit
Moderator: Oliver Cox

18:00  Concluding Remarks: Reflecting on the Political House
Chaired by Jon Stobart, with Joan Coutu, Oliver Cox, and Peter Lindfield