A Great Estate At Work: The Holkham Estate and its Inhabitants in the Nineteenth Century Book

Thomas William Coke, the Norfolk landlord, was a legend in his own lifetime as a man dedicated to progressive reforms in agriculture and to the improvement of the conditions of his tenants. His Holkham estate was set up as a fine example to be followed by farmers and landlords alike. This book deals with the work of both Thomas William Coke and his son, their agents and their tenants at Holkham through the nineteenth century and into the early years of the twentieth. It shows how far even the most dynamic landlord needed a progressive tenantry and how far the tenantry relied on the landlord for the provision of good farm buildings and other capital expenditure. The building work of the estate in the erection of both farms and cottages is studied in detail. The aim of the book is to show life and work on the Holkham estate both from the landlord's point of view and from that of the tenant farmer and cottager. Because the estate was among the richest in England and was by far the largest in Norfolk, it cannot be seen as typical of estate life in nineteenth-century England, but it does give us a picture of the best, and show the standards that were being aimed at by many lesser, but improving estates.