Thornbury Castle

Thornbury Castle is a Tudor castle in the town of Thornbury, in Gloucestershire, England, erected next to the parish church of St Mary. 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.

Text adapted from “Thornbury Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Thornbury Castle ranks #2,320 of 7,044 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #158 of the 315 mapped in England. Founded 1511, it is older than 43% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 687 atlas entries founded in the 16th century. See how England compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗