The Gardens, Thornbury Castle
This week’s Tudor Time Traveller location is the Privy and Goodly Garden at Thornbury Castle in South Gloucestershire.
I was lucky enough to stay overnight in the Duke’s Bedchamber at Thornbury Castle last year. This is the exact bedchamber used by Henry VIII during his stay at the castle in the summer of 1535. He and Anne Boleyn spent 10 days at the castle and were visited by the Mayor of Bristol and a deputation of the city’s leading burgesses. A Brief History of the Manor and Castle of Thornbury states that during the visit Henry was presented with “tenne fat oxen and fortie shepe towards his hospitality” (pg. 12).
It is difficult to describe how I felt knowing that I was sleeping in the exact octagonal bedchamber that once housed a slumbering Henry! Climbing the original circular stone staircase that leads to the bedchamber, the same staircase that Henry and Anne would have ascended when retiring for the night, felt unbelievable.
My entire stay felt like time travel. Walking the grounds where Kings and Queens had walked before, warming myself by the roaring fires, exploring the ancient ruins and losing myself in the ancient yew-hedged gardens.
The castle owners claim that these are the earliest Tudor gardens in England! It is easy to lose yourself here and imagine Anne and her ladies-in-waiting enjoying the peace and privacy of the gardens.
Described by King Henry’s commissioners as ‘a proper garden’ around three sides of which ran ‘a goodly Gallery conveying above and beneath from the principal lodgings both to the Chapel and Parish Church, the outer part of the said gallery being of stone embattled and the inner part of timber covered with slate” (Brief History of the Manor of Thornbury, pg. 7). Although the gallery has long disappeared, the embattled walls to the south and west of the gardens remain along with the windows where kings, queens and courtiers would have paused to enjoy the view of the Privy and Goodly garden.
To the east of this garden, also surrounded by high-embattled walls, is another garden described by Henry’s commissioners as “a goodly gardeyn to walke ynee.”
One of the great things about staying at Thornbury Castle is that you can wander the corridors and grounds of this 500- year-old castle almost uninterrupted. I left Thornbury vowing to return and I aim to keep that promise.
References A Brief History of the Manor and Castle of Thornbury: With a Guide to the Grounds, 1989.
I enjoyed this post Nat, having been lucky enough to be there with you. You’re right, it was hard to take in that we were stepping where they stepped. And those ruins … there was something so eerie and magical about them. I felt like a child in an Enid Blyton novel, having stumbled upon some grand adventure. What an exquisite place.
The ruins were truly magical! Perhaps they were eerie because Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham’s grand building plans were halted by the executioner’s axe in 1521. Executed for treason on Tower Hill, his uneasy spirit might still reside at his dream home and be upset at not having realised the full majestic design intended for Thornbury. Just a thought… Henry seems to have decided the Duke’s fate even before the trial was complete. Sounds familiar doesn’t it…
Thanks for the memories of Thornbury. I spent 2 nights there in 2000 during my first visit to England, but I was in the Duke’s Jewel Tower on the upper floor (which still had a lovely view of the grounds though). I had a chance to stay in the Duke’s bedchamber, but as it was late on my final night there, it didn’t seem worth packing my bags, then unpacking, then packing them again the next morning when I left — now I’m sort of sorry I didn’t, but I can’t imagine what restless spirits might have greeted me! It was a beautiful castle, and I had such a wonderful time walking into Thornbury, strolling the grounds, and imagining myself back in Tudor times as I took evening walks in the gardens (and thought I saw something moving out of the corner of my eye LOL but can’t really say what it was. *g*). I haven’t been back since then, but my hope is that when I retire in a few years, and have more time to travel, I can spend more than two nights at a place that became a second home to me!