Images: Thornbury castle south range showing stacked privy lodgings with oriole windows; southeast view showing tower and inner gatehouse (unfinished); detail showing chimneystack from south range with carved brickwork; main house block from inner court; northwest wing ruins; plan from 2017 castle hotel leaflet (photos: C.A. Stanford)
Acquired: 1521
Edward Stafford, third Duke of Buckingham, began this splendid new showpiece in 1511. The elegant rows of oriel windows and the then-fashionably arranged “stacked” lodgings (with apartments for the duke and duchess on subsequent floors in the same wings) made Thornbury a showpiece for the duke’s ambitions. However, the castle’s architectural grandeur, adoption of defensive features and grandiose heraldry may have helped fuel suspicion about Stafford’s loyalty to the Tudor regime. In 1521, he was executed and his properties came to the Crown via attainder. The castle’s main residential block was largely complete at that date though the castle remained unfinished at his death, with the outer ranges of lodgings only partially built. Nevertheless, Henry used it as a “progress house” when he traveled through the countryside.
Today the property has been restored and converted into a high-end hotel.