Sudeley Castle and Gardens

Sudeley Castle, in the Cotswolds, is a historically fascinating place; the gardens have specific historic features that tie them to the time of Henry VIII.  It's also one of the rare castles still lived in by the family that owns it, Lady Elizabeth Ashcombe and her children.  They have opened the castle to the public to help cover their costs, and it is a popular attraction.

One of the famous features is the Queen's Garden, a four-square rose garden with 80 rose varieties. The name recognizes the four English Queens who have visited or lived here.

A view from the air is the best way to understand the 'four-square' garden design, here to the lower right of the buildings.  Demarcated by two dark hedges south-east of the buildings. this design of four quarters around a central square is one of the oldest in gardening, stemming from early Persian gardens.

The Queen's Garden today is a Victorian replanting of an original Elizabethan rose garden, overseen by a celebrated English rosarian.

Here is part of just one-quarter of that garden.

Looking right across the central pool is the chapel, which we will visit in a moment.

One of the other well-known gardens is the Knot Garden, a design in small sharply pruned Boxwood, said to be modelled after the design in one of Queen Elizabeth I's dresses.

The garden and castle are perhaps best known as having been visited or lived in by no fewer than four English Queens.  Anne Boleyn  was the first; she visited three times when married to Henry VIII.  Later came Catherine Parr, Henry's last wife. who remarried and came to live at Sudeley after Henry died.  Lady Jane Grey was one of her attendants.  Lady Jane later became the famous 'Nine-Days-Queen' and was beheaded at the Tower of London.  Finally Queen Elizabeth I visited on three occasions.

Among those four queens, Catherine Parr was the only one buried at Sudeley, now commemorated with  a raised life-size effigy in marble.  Found in the memorial chapel (above), the tomb has become a place of pilgrimage.  Catherine Parr is the only English queen buried at a private castle.