Holt Castle is a

country house image:Blenheim - Blenheim Palace - 20210417125239.jpg, 300px, Blenheim Palace - Oxfordshire 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 Townhou ...

in Holt,

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It is a

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

History

The

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

records the manor of Holt as being in the possession

Urse d'Abetot Urse d'Abetot (–1108) was a Norman who followed King William I to England, and became Sheriff of Worcestershire and a royal official under him and Kings William II and Henry I. He was a native of Normandy and moved to England shortly after t ...

, a

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 9th and 10th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norma ...

knight who came to England as an important follower of

William the Conqueror William the Conqueror (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), sometimes called William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England (as William I), reigning from 1066 until his death. A descendant of Rollo, he was D ...

and was made

Sheriff of Worcester This is a list of sheriffs and since 1998 high sheriffs of Worcestershire. The Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of th ...

in around 1069. D'Abetot constructed a castle at Holt in around 1086. Nothing of this early castle remains. The oldest portion of the present building is the main central tower, dating from the

14th century The 14th century lasted from 1 January 1301 (represented by the Roman numerals MCCCI) to 31 December 1400 (MCD). It is estimated that the century witnessed the death of more than 45 million lives from political and natural disasters in both Euro ...

. This was likely built by

John Beauchamp, 1st Baron Beauchamp of Kidderminster Sir John de Beauchamp, 1st Baron Beauchamp of Kidderminster (1339–12 May 1388) of Holt Castle, Worcestershire, Holt Castle in Worcestershire was an administrator and landowner. Origins He was the son of Richard de Beauchamp, of Holt (d. 1327), ...

who was executed for treason in 1388. In the very early 17th century, Henry Jetto is recorded as living as a servant at the castle, the first known instance of a black man resident in Worcestershire. Jetto's

will and testament A will and testament is a legal document that expresses a person's (testator) wishes as to how their property (estate (law), estate) is to be distributed after their death and as to which person (executor) is to manage the property until its fi ...

is the earliest such document authored by an African in the United Kingdom. Further developments to the castle occurred in the 16th, 18th and 19th centuries, at which point it had passed into the ownership of the Ward family, Earls of Dudley, whose principal residence was the nearby

Witley Court Witley Court, in Great Witley, Worcestershire, England, is a ruined Italianate architecture, Italianate mansion. Built for the Baron Foley, Foleys in the seventeenth century on the site of a former manor house, it was enormously expanded in the ...

. By the 20th century, the castle had been sold, and in the 21st it remains a private residence, that has served as a wedding and events venue.

Architecture and description

The castle's central tower is square, of four storeys, with a

castellated A battlement, in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at intervals t ...

parapet. It is roughly 16 ft. by 14 ft. in diameter, with walls to a thickness of four ft. at the base. The main building material is local

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

rubble Rubble is broken stone, of irregular size, shape and texture; undressed especially as a filling-in. Rubble naturally found in the soil is known also as 'brash' (compare cornbrash)."Rubble" def. 2., "Brash n. 2. def. 1. ''Oxford English Dictionar ...

. To the east, stands a large

great hall A great hall is the main room of a royal palace, castle or a large manor house or hall house in the Middle Ages. It continued to be built in the country houses of the 16th and early 17th centuries, although by then the family used the great cha ...

of the 16th century, although with some earlier elements. In the 19th century, a joined service wing was added to the north. Terraced gardens to the east of the house overlook the

River Severn The River Severn (, ), at long, is the longest river in Great Britain. It is also the river with the most voluminous flow of water by far in all of England and Wales, with an average flow rate of at Apperley, Gloucestershire. It rises in t ...

, and date from the 18th century, although it is possible they replicate an earlier layout. Holt Castle is a

. Two sections of walling, one of

Medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

date, and the other of the 18th century, and a

game larder A game larder, also sometimes known as a deer or venison larder, deer, venison or game house, game pantry or game store, is a small domestic outbuilding where the carcasses of Game (hunting), game, including deer, game birds, hares and rabbits, ar ...

, are listed at Grade II.

Gallery

Holt Castle - geograph.org.uk - 2865834.jpg, The entrance front Holt-Castle-Old-1.jpg, A 19th-century view of the castle Holt-Castle-Old-2.jpg, The castle in the early 20th century

Footnotes

References

Sources

* * * * *

External links

{{Commons category Grade I listed buildings in Worcestershire Country houses in Worcestershire Grade I listed houses