Estate (house) - Definition and Overview

An Estate comprises the houses and outbuildings and supporting farmland and woods that surround the gardens and grounds of a very large property, such as a country house or mansion. It is an "estate" because the profits from its produce and rents are sufficient to support the household in the house at its center. Thus "the estate" may refer to all other cottages and villages in the same ownership as the mansion itself. An example of such an estate is Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire, England.

The "park" is specifically the inner part of an estate that is enclosed by walling, hedges or fencing.

"Estate", with its "stately" connotations, has been a natural candidate for inflationary usage during the 20th century, much as the "landscaping" that can be effected in a front or back yard.

Common usage in the UK sometimes applies the term in a humorous fashion to the land attached to any property, such as a back garden. Without humor, in the US, large houses on plots as small as ten acres are solemnly referred to as "estates".

See also: Estate (area) Housing estate