The Upper Class

• Badminton horse trials, horse racing at Royal Ascot, rowing at Henley, sailing at Cowes and polo matches were a must for upper class families
• The first world war contributed to the decline of the landed elite in two key ways
• WW1 took a disproportionately heavy toll on their lives, 12.9% of men in the army died, 19% of all peers and their songs, and 20.7% of Old Etonians
• The upper class largely served as officers, who were expected to lead from the front, had a higher mortality rate
• The cost of the war prompted a huge increase in income tax and death duties
• Estates worth over £2 million were subject to 40% duty and tax on incomes over £2500 rose from 2% in 1914 to 57% in 1925
• Death duties were increased in 1929, 1946 and 1949 and were not reduced until 1979
• Wartime restrictions on raising rents and the reduction in available labour due to conscription made running country estates far harder to pay for
• Changes after WW1 contributed to the gentry selling off almost a quarter of all land in England between 1918 and 1920
• Only the largest landowners were able to maintain their vast estates
• Of the 124 aristocratic families who owned over 10,000 acres in 1910, 65% still had over 1000 in 1979
• The 1979 Royal Commission on the Distribution of Income and Wealth found that a quarter of all farmland in England was owned by just 1200 landowners
• The increased willingness of the gentry to work for a living rather than receive rent and the ability of wealthy businessmen to purchase trappings of aristocratic life led to emergence of new upper class based on wealth
• The House of Lords no longer functioned as a bastion of aristocratic power
• The Parliament Act of 1911 meant that Lords could only delay rather than block legislation
• The rise of satire and greater social mobility after the Second World War undermined deference in the 1960s and 70s
• This social mobility was made possible because there was a rise in middle-class jobs and educational opportunities improved with the implementation of the 1944 Education Act
• By 1958, over half of university students came from state schools
• Real wages for all workers improved in the 1950s when the growth of affordable consumer goods and cars blurred class boundaries
• While establishment figures bore the brunt of the satire boom of the 1960s, the landed elites retained widespread affection by losing political power and opening their homes to the people
• A significant number of country houses, whose upkeep became unaffordable after 1918, were bought by or donated to the National Trust
• The 1937 Country Houses Scheme allowed families to live in their stately homes rent-free for two generations if they transferred ownership to the National Trust and opened the house to the public for at least 60 days per year
• The scheme also enabled owners of stately homes to avoid paying hefty death duties when passing property on within the family
• Popular admiration of country estate style and refinement, reinforced by television series such as Brideshead Revisited (1981) and Upstairs Downstairs (1971) led millions to pay entry fees and helped preserve the landed elite
• The country house lifestyle remains the ultimate goal for most rich Britons and in this way, the old upper class continues to exercise cultural, if not political, influence