Calendar house

A Calendar House is a house that symbolically contains architectural elements in quantities that represent the respective numbers of days in a year, weeks in a year, months in a year and days in a week. For example, Avon Tyrrell House in Hampshire was built with 365 windows, 52 rooms, 12 chimneys, 4 wings and 7 external doors.

Examples

Examples are very rare and are more often found in European buildings of the late 16th and early 17th centuries. There is also a calendar house called Rose Hall Great House located east of Montego Bay, Jamaica, that was owned by Annie Palmer. The large country estate Mona Vale in Tasmania, Australia, built in the 1880s, is said to have been designed as a calendar house.

Notable examples in Britain include Cairness House in Aberdeenshire, Holme Eden Hall in Cumbria and possibly Knole House in Kent.

Adare Manor in County Limerick, Ireland is an example of a Calendar House, with 365 stained-glass windows and 52 chimneys. It was designed by the architects James Pain and Philip Hardwick. Much of the interior was designed by E.W. Pugin.

Castle Grad in the north-western Goricko region of Slovenia with its 365 rooms is a Central European example of a Calendar house.

Abbey-Cwm-Hir in Mid Wales is a notable example of Victorian Gothic Revival architecture - 52 rooms, 365 windows. Built in 1834 by Thomas Wilson. Now owned by Paul & Victoria Humpherston, it houses notable collections and embodies interesting interior design ideas. All 52 rooms are accessible on tours and everything can be touched.

External links

• Article on British calendar houses - on The Country Seat blog