Secondary Tours – History

Harewood can be used as a context for exploring ideas and opinions, from the legacy of the slave trade, to the experience of being ‘in service’. Learn about key eras from Harewood’s history, using artworks and objects on the State Floor and the story from ‘below stairs.’

History Tours

The Georgian Country House: Taste and Society in eighteenth century Britain

Discover what life was like during Harewood’s Georgian era. Explore the tastes and trends of the period, and learn how Edwin Lascelles sought nothing but the best when building his new home, employing the finest craftsmen of the time: York-born architect John Carr, fashionable interior designer Robert Adam, England’s greatest furniture maker Thomas Chippendale and visionary landscape gardener Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown.

The Slave Trade

Find out about the history of the slave trade and its evolution in the West Indies.

Free labour was used to grow tobacco, cotton, sugar and rum. Discover how so many of Britain’s institutions, including Harewood House, were funded through these plantations.

Victorian Harewood

Find out what life was like during the Victorian era at Harewood and learn more about the 3rd Earl and Countess, who lived through this highly significant period of British history.

Discover the Lascelles family connection to Queen Victoria and see some of her objects, personal letters and archival material from the Harewood collection, which formed part of ‘Victorian Harewood’ in 2017.

Learn more about the British Empire in India through the eyes of Victoria’s Lady of the Bedchamber, Charlotte Canning, and discover what life was like for a British woman living in Calcutta.

War at Harewood

Discover how two World Wars impacted upon Harewood House.

Learn about Harewood’s contribution to the war effort and how the State Floor rooms were transformed into a convalescent hospital for recovering soldiers during both the First World War and the Second World War.