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Books

What most imperilled country houses in the 20th century was taxes and death duties, not requisition

A review of Requisitioned: The British Country House in the Second World War by John Martin Robinson

26 April 2014

9:00 AM

26 April 2014

9:00 AM

Requisitioned: The British Country House in the Second World War John Martin Robinson

Aurum Press, pp.288, £25, ISBN: 9781781310953

Servicemen used paintings as dartboards.   Schoolchildren dismantled banisters and paneling for firewood. Architects from the Ministry of Works acted like pocket Stalins. Sarcophagi were dumped in gardens beside beheaded statues. And overhead, Luftwaffe Dorniers droned with menace. Such hazards ravaged requisitioned country houses during the last war. Yet nothing imperilled them more, in the 20th century, than super-taxes and the rattle of death duties.

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