A monument in the park at Holkham Hall in Norfolk pays tribute to Thomas William Coke (1754–1842), agricultural improver and first earl of Leicester (of second creation). The foundation stone for the column was erected in 1845, three years after the earl's death, to mark his achievements as landowner, farmer, and steward of the family estates. The monument stands on an incline that overlooks the mansion. An imaginary line of symmetry would run, north to south, from the middle of the monument through the centre of the house before continuing beyond to connect with an obelisk built more than a century earlier, the towering grandeur of which the Coke monument replicates.

Four decorated panels make up the base of the monument and relate to Coke's life and work. The first features a scene of farm hands attending to sheep, indicating the importance of livestock to the Holkham estate. The second shows cattle, each of a substantial size and proportion. A third panel depicts the earl himself seated at a table, consulting maps and documents alongside his estate managers and agents. The final panel is a dedication to the earl inscribed in bronze, which recalls “a life devoted to the welfare of his friends, neighbours and tenants”. The inscription goes on to note for posterity that Coke “pre-eminently combined public services with private worth”, and that the loss of such a “father, friend and landlord” was felt keenly in the worlds of politics, the arts, and agriculture.

Farming, livestock, and land management were the principal sources of the wealth that financed the building of the Palladian-style mansion at Holkham. A visit to the estate today, more than two centuries on from Coke of Norfolk's time, makes clear that its income is now derived from a variety of wholly different sources. On a blazing hot summer's day in 2022, the grass in the park turned yellow by the effects of an ongoing heatwave, the estate is alive with all sorts of activity. Crowds of visitors arrive in a steady stream of cars, which rapidly fill the parking spaces nearest to the house. Soon there will be so many cars that vehicles must be directed towards another section of the park roped off for the purpose.

By the early 1990s, country houses were in a better position than they had been a decade or so previously, but their future remained far from secure. This chapter returns to the pivotal question of how houses have been rescued and restored over the last half century, and the changing contexts within which this has happened, particularly in the last few decades.

The fate of Pitchford Hall in Shropshire, a half-timbered house held by the Colthurst family for nearly five hundred years, was a reminder of how wider political and economic events could have implications for heritage. The family was hugely invested in Lloyds of London, which suffered catastrophic losses in the aftermath of the Piper Alpha oil rig disaster of 1988. The losses forced the family to sell Pitchford and its contents, but not before they offered it and seventy-six acres of grounds ‘to the nation’ for just under two million pounds. The house was arguably of some significance: it had been selected as one of the residences to which the royal family might be taken in the event of evacuation during the war. The National Trust expressed an interest, but that year had already offered to take on Chastleton in Oxfordshire with support from the National Heritage Memorial Fund. The Conservative heritage minister, David Mellor, rejected the idea that Pitchford might be saved by direct government intervention, which led to the arrival of Christie's auctioneers in September 1992.

As with Mentmore fifteen years earlier, the government had passed up on a bargain. Those who came to watch the auction get underway in the marquee could see the quality and significance of the collection. The sales catalogue featured paintings by Hoppner, Reynolds, and Cornelius Jonson, as well as furniture, silver, ceramics, glassware, and books. Rowena Colthurst, the daughter of the owners, was studying at Bristol University at the time. She later described the loss of Pitchford as “like a bereavement”. Her husband James recalled people “sitting in a tent bidding for paintings by Reynolds, or the lumpy bed that Queen Victoria had slept in … And then a porter would just carry them to the front of the house to be put in vans and cars and driven away. It was surreal.”

BETWEEN 2001 and 2011, the governing Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD), under the party and national presidencies of Levy Mwanawasa (2002–2008) and Rupiah Banda (2009–2011), and the opposition Patriotic Front (PF) led by Michael Sata dominated Zambian politics. Mwanawasa was sworn in as president on 2 January 2002 after a narrow win against Anderson Mazoka of the opposition United Party for National Development (UPND). He polled 28.69 per cent of the total vote, defeating Mazoka, who obtained 27.76 per cent, and nine other presidential candidates, including Sata who gained only 3 per cent. Of the total 150 seats in parliament, the MMD won 69, followed by the UPND (49), United National Independence Party (UNIP) (13), Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) (12), and Heritage Party (HP) (4). Like Ben Mwila's Zambia Republican Party (ZRP), Sata's PF obtained only one seat. This tally is striking since, five years later in the 2006 general elections, Sata only lost to Mwanawasa, who polled 42.98 per cent, by a 13.61 per cent margin. The PF captured forty-three seats in parliament and rose to become the largest parliamentary opposition, dislodging the UPND.

After President Mwanawasa died in office, a presidential by-election was held in October 2008, and despite having insufficient time and financial resources to mount a credible and effective campaign, Sata lost narrowly by 2 per cent to the MMD candidate, Banda, who gained 40 per cent of the total vote. In September 2011, during the country's general and presidential elections, Sata, making a fourth try for the presidency, secured the seat with 42.24 per cent of the total ballot, defeating the incumbent Banda, who got 35.63 per cent. In this election, Sata's PF did strikingly well, winning sixty seats in parliament, the most of any rival political party. Although parties do tend to be younger in Africa than in many other parts of the world, the PF's rise from 3 to 42 per cent of the popular vote over a ten-year-period is unusual. It is this remarkable rise of an opposition party and a leader's efforts to build it that I explore in this and the next chapter. The present chapter examines Sata's rise from 2001 to 2006. The subsequent period, 2006 to 2011, is covered in the following chapter.

IN HIS BIOGRAPHY OF Havergal Brian, tellingly entitled Ordeal by Music, Reginald Nettel rehearses the frustrations of a working-class hopeful moving to London from rural Staffordshire. First he wrote sunnily to Bantock: ‘I am asking “B. and H.” to send copies of the songs and scores to all the critics of the London Press. After they have been out three days I intend to make appointments with the lot.’ He tried Parry, Vaughan Williams, Elgar and others: but only three of the critics replied, and not a single review – let alone a performance – resulted. Humiliated, furious, and convinced that London publishers were only interested in ‘church pot-boilers’, he abandoned the quest after a few months and headed back north.

It's an affecting tale, though not quite the whole story. Despite lacking London connections, Brian had previously enjoyed some success, with performances by Wood and Beecham – he had even been generously bankrolled by a wealthy Staffordshire businessman. A series of personal crises precipitated his renewed assault on London, but he also failed miserably to capitalise on his early breaks.

Brian's career encapsulates many of the themes of this chapter: the vicissitudes experienced by the aspiring composer, particularly a working-class provincial with no London base; and the crucial roles played by forward-looking conductors, rich sponsors – and grasping publishers. Above all, it raises the question of the capital. Was London the solution – or part of the problem?

❧ A national musical culture

Current views of British music of the period tend to lean towards one of two opposing poles. From one perspective, it was a triumphant celebration of victory over adversity (the English Musical Renaissance, the Royal College of Music, Elgar and Edwardian imperialism, Wood and the Proms, the rise of Beecham). Alternatively, it represents a sorry rollcall of social oppression and dismal philistinism, as reflected in the railings of the disaffected and in the bitter and forlorn campaigns for government funding, in response to years of neglect.

Reality, as usual, was more nuanced. New British voices were never truly restricted to those few prominent venues – such as the Proms – which partial histories tend to overemphasise.

With the death of Baldwin in November 1190, the building works at Lambeth stalled. It seemed that no grand new church would be erected. The monks had removed the archbishop's obedientiaries from their positions in the convent and replaced them with their own men, including the replacement of Prior Osbert with Subprior Geoffrey – one of the staunchest and most active defenders of the monastery's rights. The pope had issued mandates, ordering the demolition of all the buildings at Hackington and the confirmation of all his predecessors’ mandates which were favourable to the convent. The monks, it appeared, had achieved victory. Yet the dispute was not just about the building of a church. It was about the monks’ rights vis-a-vis their archbishop. The convent's abilities to appoint their own officers and manage their estates were wrapped up in the controversy over the new church. For the monks only the first stage of the conflict had ended; they now had to fight for their right to elect the new archbishop.

On 10 October 1191, Walter de Coutances, archbishop of Rouen and the king's justiciar, summoned the monks to London for 22 October, to elect a new archbishop. If a free election had been held, the monks would have chosen the bishop of Ely, William Longchamp. William had several points in his favour. As bishop, he was the head of a monastic cathedral chapter and, more importantly, one he was on good terms with. There is no sign that there was any friction between the bishop and his chapter. The monks for example did not object to William installing his brother as prior of the community in 1190. Similarly, upon his death in 1197, the Winchester chronicler felt able to describe Longchamp as the ‘father of monks’. In 1191, Longchamp was also the most powerful man in the realm. As chancellor and justiciar, Longchamp was entrusted with the care of the realm while King Richard was on crusade. Similarly, at the king's request, the pope had made Longchamp papal legate in 1190. Being favoured by both king and pope would certainly have been beneficial to the monks in ensuring the protection of the rights and status of Canterbury. It could also have been a big risk if the archbishop chose to pursue projects opposed by the monks as Baldwin had.