Eastnor Castle, Eastnor,

Herefordshire Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouths ...

, is a 19th-century mock castle. Eastnor was built for John Cocks, 1st Earl Somers, who employed Robert Smirke, later the main architect of the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

. The castle was built between 1811 and 1820. Major schemes of interior decoration were carried out by

A.W.N. Pugin Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin ( ; 1 March 181214 September 1852) was an English architect, designer, artist and critic with French and, ultimately, Swiss origins. He is principally remembered for his pioneering role in the Gothic Revival st ...

in 1849–1850. Eastnor remains a private home, and is currently the residence of James Hervey-Bathurst, the grandson of

Arthur Somers-Cocks, 6th Baron Somers Arthur Herbert Tennyson Somers-Cocks, 6th Baron Somers, (20 March 1887 – 14 July 1944), was a British Army officer who was the 16th Governor of Victoria, from 1926 to 1931 and Administrator of Australia in 1930-31. He had a long involvement w ...

. It is a

Grade I 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 ...

. The surrounding gardens and parkland are designated Grade II*. The castle is open to tours by the public on certain months of the year; it is also a wedding venue.

History

The estate was established in the late 16th century when the Cocks family purchased land in the area. Subsequent marriages into the Somers and Nash families helped provide the wealth and substance necessary to build the present imposing building, designed to look like one of the medieval

castles A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified ...

guarding the

Welsh borders The Welsh Marches ( cy, Y Mers) is an imprecisely defined area along the border between England and Wales in the United Kingdom. The precise meaning of the term has varied at different periods. The English term Welsh March (in Medieval Latin ...

. The castle was built to the designs of Robert Smirke in 1812–20.

made some internal alterations - including the decoration of the Gothic Drawing Room - in 1849–50, and George E Fox made more changes in the 1860s. It is constructed of

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

stonework, with a lead and slate roof concealed behind an embattled parapet. Cast-iron was used for the roof trusses and floor beams. It was constructed at a cost of £85,000, the equivalent of approximately £26 million to £28 million at 2007 prices. The castle was criticised by

Charles Locke Eastlake Charles Locke Eastlake (11 March 1836 – 20 November 1906) was a British architect and furniture designer. His uncle, Sir Charles Lock Eastlake PRA (born in 1793), was a Keeper of the National Gallery, from 1843 to 1847, and from 1855 its f ...

later in the 19th century:

It is a massive and gloomy-looking building, flanked by watch-towers, and enclosing a keep. To preserve the character at which it aimed, the windows were made exceedingly small and narrow. This must have resulted in much inconvenience within...The building in question might have made a tolerable fort before the invention of gunpowder, but as a residence it was a picturesque mistake.

Recent history

The castle still has an operating flour mill, "one of the oldest in the county", built in the 18th century as Clencher's. In the 21st century, the water supply was "reinstated and the machinery overhauled so it is now workable". As of 2020, the family occupied only a small part of the castle, " smaller rooms, and we mostly live in the kitchen, which was enlarged in 1992", according to James Hervey-Bathurst. He had inherited the property from his mother, the Hon Mrs Elizabeth Hervey-Bathurst, in 1988. The castle's business was affected for some time in 2020 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

but by mid-July 2020, restrictions were easing. The ironwork bridge over the weir, first installed in 1828, was reopened after restoration in 2021.

Media appearances and events

Front entrance to Eastnor Castle - geograph

The car manufacturer,

Land Rover Land Rover is a British brand of predominantly four-wheel drive, off-road capable vehicles, owned by multinational car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), since 2008 a subsidiary of India's Tata Motors. JLR currently builds Land Rove ...

, uses the Eastnor estate as a venue for potential customers to drive their vehicles; a fee is charged for those participating in the ''Landrover Experience''. The castle has been used as a set location for films, television programmes and music videos including; '' One More Time'', starring

Peter Lawford Peter Sydney Ernest Lawford ( Aylen; 7 September 1923 – 24 December 1984) was an English-American actor.Obituary '' Variety'', 26 December 1984. He was a member of the " Rat Pack" and the brother-in-law of US president John F. Kennedy and se ...

and

Sammy Davis, Jr Samuel George Davis Jr. (December 8, 1925 – May 16, 1990) was an American singer, dancer, actor, comedian, film producer and television director. At age three, Davis began his career in vaudeville with his father Sammy Davis Sr. and the ...

Slade Slade are an English rock band formed in Wolverhampton in 1966. They rose to prominence during the glam rock era in the early 1970s, achieving 17 consecutive top 20 hits and six number ones on the UK Singles Chart. The ''British Hit Singles ...

's video "

Run Runaway "Run Runaway" is a song by the British rock band Slade, released in 1984 as the third single from the band's eleventh studio album '' The Amazing Kamikaze Syndrome'', and the lead single from the album's US counterpart '' Keep Your Hands Off My P ...

", the 1986 film adaptation of

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

's ''

The Canterville Ghost "The Canterville Ghost" is a humorous short story by Oscar Wilde. It was the first of Wilde's stories to be published, appearing in two parts in '' The Court and Society Review'', 23 February and 2 March 1887. The story is about an American fa ...

'', the BBC TV adaptation of

Little Lord Fauntleroy ''Little Lord Fauntleroy'' is a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It was published as a serial in ''St. Nicholas Magazine'' from November 1885 to October 1886, then as a book by Scribner's (the publisher of ''St. Nicholas'') in 1886. The ill ...

in 1995, the American reality competition television program, ''

The Amazing Race ''The Amazing Race'' is an adventure reality game show franchise in which teams of two people race around the world in competition with other teams. The ''Race'' is split into legs, with teams tasked to deduce clues, navigate themselves in fore ...

'', ITV's 2015 adaptation of ''

Doctor Thorne ''Doctor Thorne'' by Anthony Trollope (Chapman and Hall, London, 1858) is the third novel in the ''Chronicles of Barsetshire'' series, between '' Barchester Towers'' and '' Framley Parsonage''. The idea of the plot was suggested to Trollope b ...

'', and two episodes of HBO's ''

Succession Succession is the act or process of following in order or sequence. Governance and politics *Order of succession, in politics, the ascension to power by one ruler, official, or monarch after the death, resignation, or removal from office of ...

''. Details of the castle's construction were revealed in episode 6 of the 2004 BBC TV series ''

Fred Dibnah Frederick Travis Dibnah, (29 April 1938 – 6 November 2004) was an English steeplejack and television personality, with a keen interest in mechanical engineering, who described himself as a "backstreet mechanic". When Dibnah ...

's Made in Britain.'' Many other films and TV episodes have done filming of some scenes at the castle. The castle was featured on an episode of "An American Aristocrat's Guide to Great Estates" on the

Smithsonian Channel The Smithsonian Channel is an American pay television channel owned by Paramount Global through its media networks division under MTV Entertainment Group. It offers video content inspired by the Smithsonian Institution's museums, research facili ...

and

Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, also known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming and rental service of Amazon offered as a standalone service or as part of Amazon's Prime subscription. The service pr ...

. It first aired in 2020.

Citations

Sources

* *

External links

{{commons category, Eastnor Castle
Eastnor Castle
- Wedding venue and corporate entertainment centre.
Photos of Eastnor at Flickr
Castles in Herefordshire Country houses in Herefordshire Gardens in Herefordshire Gothic Revival architecture in Herefordshire Houses completed in 1820 Grade I listed buildings in Herefordshire Mock castles in England Historic house museums in Herefordshire