Tortworth Court is a Victorian

mansion A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word '' manse'' originally defined a property l ...

Tortworth Tortworth is a small village and civil parish, near Thornbury in Gloucestershire, England. It has a population of 147 as of 2011. It lies on the B4509 road, which crosses the M5 motorway to the west of Tortworth. History In the Domesday Book o ...

near Thornbury,

South Gloucestershire South Gloucestershire is a unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, South West England. Towns in the area include Yate, Chipping Sodbury, Thornbury, Filton, Patchway and Bradley Stoke, the latter three forming part ...

. England. It was built in Tudor style for the 2nd Earl of Ducie. It is a Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

The mansion was built, in Tudor style, for the 2nd Earl of Ducie between 1848 and 1853. Its architect was

Samuel Sanders Teulon Samuel Sanders Teulon (2 March 1812 – 2 May 1873) was an English Gothic Revival architect, noted for his use of polychrome brickwork and the complex planning of his buildings. Family Teulon was born in 1812 in Greenwich, Kent, the son of a ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

the mansion became a naval training base for coding and signals, under the name of HMS Cabbala, and a mast was erected in the high reception hall. After the war, the buildings constructed for the hospital and, for a time the house itself, became

HM Prison Leyhill HM Prison Leyhill is a Category D men's prison, located in the parish of Tortworth in Gloucestershire, England. Leyhill Prison is operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. History Leyhill Prison was originally a United States military hospital ...

. Tortworth Court was then used as a training school for prison officers. The property was designated a

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

on 9 July 1991. By the 1990s, however, it had become derelict, and suffered a large fire in 1991. It was thereafter restored to its original style and extended at a reputed cost of £20 million. In June 2001 it reopened as a hotel operated by Principal Hotel Company and is now operated by De Vere.

Arboretum

Tortworth Court is especially notable for its extensive

arboretum An arboretum (plural: arboreta) in a general sense is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, man ...

developed by the 3rd Earl of Ducie, who began planting upon inheriting the property from his father in 1853 and continued until his death in 1921. The collection has fine examples of

rhododendron ''Rhododendron'' (; from Ancient Greek ''rhódon'' "rose" and ''déndron'' "tree") is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are nati ...

conifer Conifers are a group of conifer cone, cone-bearing Spermatophyte, seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the phylum, division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single ...

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

and

maple ''Acer'' () is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. The genus is placed in the family Sapindaceae.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008 nd more or less continuously updated since http ...

. The arboretum once surrounded the property and continues to be maintained and supported. Accessible by a public footpath, it is now divided between the hotel grounds, the grounds of Leyhill Prison, the Dell which is privately owned and managed as a community woodland b
Tortworth Forest Centre CIC
and private land still owned and farmed by the Ducie family. Rivalling at the time the collection of George Holford at nearby

Westonbirt Arboretum Westonbirt, The National Arboretum is an arboretum in Gloucestershire, England, about southwest of the town of Tetbury. Managed by Forestry England, it is perhaps the most important and widely known arboretum in the United Kingdom. Planted ...

, it still contains, despite the ravages of time, more than 300 specimens, including unusual and rare species and many fine specimen trees. Tortworth Court gave its name to Saint class steam locomotive No. 2955 operated by the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

References

External links

De Vere Tortworth Estate

Tortworth Forest Centre CIC
{{coord, 51.63080, N, 2.43862, W, source:placeopedia, display=title Country houses in Gloucestershire Arboreta in England Botanical gardens in England Gardens in Gloucestershire Hotels in Gloucestershire Country house hotels