Tortworth Court is a Victorian mansion in Tortworth near Thornbury, South Gloucestershire. England. It was built in Tudor style for the 2nd Earl of Ducie. It is a Grade II* listed building. [1]
The mansion was built, in Tudor style, for the 2nd Earl of Ducie [2] between 1848 and 1853. Its architect was Samuel Sanders Teulon. [1]
During World War II 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. Tortworth Court was then used as a training school for prison officers. [3]
The property was designated a Grade II* listed by English Heritage on 9 July 1991. [2] By the 1990s, however, it had become derelict, and suffered a large fire in 1991. [2] It was thereafter restored to its original style and extended at a reputed cost of £20 million. [4] [5] In June 2001 it reopened as a hotel operated by Principal Hotel Company and is now operated by De Vere.
Tortworth Court is especially notable for its extensive arboretum 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. [6] The collection has fine examples of rhododendron, conifer, oak and maple. [7] 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 by Tortworth Forest Centre CIC, and private land still owned and farmed by the Ducie family. [8] Rivalling at the time the collection of George Holford at nearby Westonbirt Arboretum, it still contains, despite the ravages of time, more than 300 specimens, including unusual and rare species and many fine specimen trees. [9] [10]
Tortworth Court gave its name to Saint class steam locomotive No. 2955 operated by the Great Western Railway. [11]
Earl of Ducie is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1837 for Thomas Reynolds Moreton, 4th Baron Ducie.
Falfield is a village, located near the northern border of the South Gloucestershire district of Gloucestershire, England on the southern edge of the Berkeley Vale, to the east of the River Severn and just falling into the boundary of the Cotswolds. It is the last parish on the northern boundary of South Gloucestershire. The area has a Wotton-under-Edge (GL12) post code and so is often incorrectly listed as being in the Stroud district of Gloucestershire. Falfield is one of the longest villages in England, alongside local village Cromhall.
Westonbirt, The National Arboretum is an arboretum in Gloucestershire, England, about 3 miles (5 km) southwest of the town of Tetbury. Managed by Forestry England, it is perhaps the most important and widely known arboretum in the United Kingdom.
Thornbury Castle is a Tudor castle in the place of Thornbury, in Gloucestershire, 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 (1478-1521), of Stafford Castle in Staffordshire. It is not a true military fortress but rather an early example of a Tudor country house, 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 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 building that is operated as a hotel.
Whitfield is a hamlet in South Gloucestershire, England.
Cromhall is a village in South Gloucestershire, England. It is located between Bagstone and Charfield on the B4058, and also borders Leyhill. The parish population taken at the 2011 census was 1,231.
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.
Westonbirt House is a country house in Gloucestershire, England, about 3 miles (5 km) southwest of the town of Tetbury. It belonged to the Holford family from 1665 until 1926. The first house on the site was an Elizabethan manor house. The Holfords replaced it first with a Georgian house, and then Robert Stayner Holford, who inherited Westonbirt in 1839, replaced that house between 1863 and 1870 with the present mansion which was designed by Lewis Vulliamy. He also remodelled the gardens, diverted the main road and relocated the villagers.
Woodchester Mansion is an unfinished, Gothic revival mansion house in Nympsfield, Gloucestershire, England. It is on the site of an earlier house known as Spring Park. The mansion is a Grade I listed building.
The Field Elm cultivar Ulmus minor 'Plotii', commonly known as Lock Elm or Lock's Elm, Plot's Elm or Plot Elm, and first classified as Ulmus sativaMill. var. Lockii and later as Ulmus plotii by Druce in 1907-11, is endemic mainly to the East Midlands of England, notably around the River Witham in Lincolnshire, in the Trent Valley around Newark-on-Trent, and around the village of Laxton, Northamptonshire. Ronald Melville suggested that the tree's distribution may be related to river valley systems, in particular those of the Trent, Witham, Welland, and Nene. Two further populations existed in Gloucestershire. It has been described as Britain's rarest native elm, and recorded by The Wildlife Trust as a nationally scarce species.
Henry John Reynolds-Moreton, 3rd Earl of Ducie, styled Lord Moreton between 1840 and 1853, was a British courtier and Liberal Party politician. He notably served as Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard from 1859 to 1866, and Lord Warden of the Stannaries from 1888 to 1908.
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.
Henry George Francis Reynolds-Moreton, 2nd Earl of Ducie, styled the Hon. Henry Reynolds-Moreton from 1808 to 1837 and the Lord Moreton from 1837 to 1840, was a British Whig politician, agriculturalist and cattle breeder.
Henry Haughton Reynolds-Moreton, Lord Moreton DL, was a British Liberal Party politician.
Fretherne Court was a handsome residential sporting mansion with picturesque grounds and deer park estate of some 676 acres, situated in the Severn Vale between the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal and the River Severn, in Fretherne, Gloucestershire. It was owned by the Darell family who were Baronets of Richmond Hill.
Berkeley Basil Moreton, 4th Earl of Ducie, was a British peer and a politician and pastoralist in Australia. He was a Member of both the Queensland Legislative Assembly and the Queensland Legislative Council.
Thomas Reynolds-Moreton, 1st Earl of Ducie was the first Earl of Ducie.
Lasborough Park is a Grade II listed country house in Newington Bagpath/Lasborough, Tetbury, Gloucestershire, England. The estate includes a medieval manor, a house, and parkland. The original medieval manor, Lasborough Farm, dates to the 11th century, and included terraced gardens. A manor house is record in the 14th century. The manor was surrounded by woodland and a deer park. Lasborough House and its pleasure grounds was built in 1794.
The Tortworth Chestnut is an ancient sweet chestnut tree in Tortworth, South Gloucestershire. The exact age of the tree is unknown, but various sources provide estimates. Two accounts in 1664 and 1712 record the tree growing in, respectively, the 12th and 13th century, dating it at over 800 years old. The tree was known as "the Old Chestnut of Tortworth" in 1150, suggesting it is over 1,000 years old. More romantically, a legend recounts that the tree sprang from a nut planted in 800 AD during the reign of King Egbert.
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