Thornbury Castle is a Tudor castle in the place of Thornbury, in

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of ...

, England, situated next to the parish church of St Mary, founded in the Norman era. Construction was begun in 1511 as a further residence for

Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham (3 February 1478 – 17 May 1521) was an English nobleman. He was the son of Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, and Katherine Woodville, and nephew of Elizabeth Woodville and King Edward IV. Thu ...

(1478-1521), of Stafford Castle in Staffordshire. It is not a true military fortress but rather an early example of a Tudor

country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peop ...

, with minimal defensive attributes. As at Richmond Palace in Surrey, the main ranges of Thornbury framed courts, of which the symmetrical entrance range, with central

gatehouse A gatehouse is a type of fortified gateway, an entry control point building, enclosing or accompanying a gateway for a town, religious house, castle, manor house, or other fortification building of importance. Gatehouses are typically the mo ...

and octagonal corner towers, survives, together with two less regular side ranges with many irregular projecting features and towers. It is now a

grade I 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 I ...

building that is operated as a hotel.

History

The site was occupied by a manor house in 930; Jasper Tudor, Duke of Bedford & Earl of Pembroke, died in the Manor House in 1495. Part of the original plans for a very grand residence were "well advanced", with a

Licence to crenellate In medieval England, Wales and the Channel Islands a licence to crenellate (or licence to fortify) granted the holder permission to fortify his property. Such licences were granted by the king, and by the rulers of the counties palatine within th ...

being granted in 1508, before the 3rd Duke of Buckingham was beheaded for

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

in 1521, by order of King

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

. Following the 3rd Duke's death Thornbury was confiscated by King

Henry VIII of England Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

, who stayed there for ten days in August 1535 with Queen

Anne Boleyn Anne Boleyn (; 1501 or 1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and of her execution by beheading for treason and other charges made her a key f ...

. In 1554 Queen Mary granted the castle and manor to Henry Stafford, 1st Baron Stafford. Following the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polici ...

, the castle fell into disrepair, but was renovated in 1824 by the Howard family.

Today

The castle is now a 26-room luxury hotel and restaurant, and a venue for weddings. Between 1966 and 1986 the castle was operated as one of the UK's top restaurants by Kenneth Bell MBE with staff including food writer

Nigel Slater Nigel Slater (born 9 April 1956) is an English food writer, journalist and broadcaster. He has written a column for ''The Observer Magazine'' for over a decade and is the principal writer for the ''Observer Food Monthly'' supplement. Prior to ...

and

MasterChef New Zealand ''MasterChef New Zealand'' is a New Zealand competitive reality television cooking show based on the original British version of ''MasterChef''. The first episode aired on 3 February 2010 at 7:30pm on TV One. Throughout its history, the show h ...

judge

Simon Gault Simon Gault is a New Zealand celebrity chef, entrepreneur, food writer and television personality, known for appearing as a celebrity chef judge on Masterchef NZ and host of Prime TV's ''Why Are We Fat''?. He was the executive chef of Nourish Gr ...

early in their culinary careers. A report in March 2022 indicated that all of the bedrooms and suites of the hotel had been refurbished. Since November 2021, the property had been a member of Relais & Châteaux.

Locomotive

There was a GWR Castle class 4-6-0 locomotive in preservation named 7027 ''Thornbury Castle''. In August 2022 the future restoration of ''Thornbury Castle'' was called into question when the Great Western Society's ''4709 Group'' bought the locomotive with the intention of donating the boiler to their project to re-create a GWR 4700 Class. Thornbury Castle's chassis and other components are to be used to recreate a GWR Star class locomotive.

Images

References

External links