(Friday September 29, 2025)
And it’s our…last day!!! We couldn’t believe how fast the trip flew by, even though we were in England for two weeks! And I for one was not ready to go home. I wanted Baker B to pack up Phillip and his toys and come join us. Sadly that did not happen and we had to make the most of our last England day instead. We’d wanted to go to one of the castles - there are several in the Cotswolds - and settled on Sudeley Castle since it was not too far from Chedworth. Just half an hour or so north and a mostly A-roads drive.
It was a great choice as Sudeley Castle is gorgeous, with ruins and gardens and lots of interesting exhibits. Building started on it in 1443, and during the War of the Roses it was seized by Edward IV who later gave it to his brother Richard III. After Richard died at the Battle of Bosworth it passed on to the Tudors. Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn visited in 1535, and his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr, died there, having married the current owner Thomas Seymour (who was the brother of Henry VIII’s third wife Jane which is not at all confusing) after Henry’s death. She’s buried in the castle’s church, making it the only privately owned castle in the world to have a Queen of England buried on the grounds. The castle itself fell into ruin in the mid 1600s and stayed that way for 200 years. Oddly, and a little creepily, over the next two centuries her tomb was mutilated and the location of her burial spot was lost. It was found again in 1792 by vandals, and eventually her remains were put in a new tomb in the restored chapel. Sadly there was something going on at the chapel the day we were there - they have weddings and other festivities at the castle - so we didn’t get to see Catherine Parr’s tomb.
What we DID see in one of the exhibition areas…
Her hair encased in glass! And….
Her tooth! Up there on the top. The other two things were less unsettling mementos.
But that was later in the day. We got to take a 45 minute guided tour first for five extra pounds, which was well worth it. It was mostly the grounds around the main part of the castle and a little bit of the extensive gardens. After that we went through the part of the castle that’s open to the public on our own, which was quite a lot. It’s currently owned by Lady Elizabeth Ashcombe, an American who married the man who most recently inherited it in 1962, then when he died in 1972 she stayed on to manage it, apparently to everyone’s astonishment. After that she married Camilla the Current Queen’s uncle in 1979 and they kept the castle going. She’s still keeping it going.
All that to say, it was quite a wide ranging bunch of exhibits! And really interesting.
On the way to the main part of the castle:
One of the recent family members was very active in elephant preservation before he died, and there were quite a lot of pretend elephants on the grounds.
This is the banqueting hall that Richard III added, which fell into ruin.
The main part of the castle, part of which is occupied by the current owners.
The chapel where Catherine Parr is entombed, which we didn’t get to tour.
A small bit of the massive gardens.
There was some drama from the distant past in this stairwell and sadly I have completely forgotten what it was. Clearly it didn’t end well for one of the participants, though. There were several reportedly haunted stairwells where people had fallen/been pushed/been attacked/died.
Henry and the Six Wives, with Catherine Parr out front.
I have forgotten who this is now, but MAYBE Catherine Parr? A whole lot of people lived here, but she is the most famous.
Random odds and ends from random eras.
And the gorgeous view from the palace courtyard.
As you can probably tell, it was getting quite rainy at this point. It had drizzled off and on all day, and was starting to really set in. We had to go back to the Airbnb and pack, sadly, so decided we’d better call it a day despite having seen way less than there was to see, even though we’d been there hours at that point.
Going back it absolutely poured rain, to the point it felt like we were driving through lakes. And hailed great big hunks of hail, and was just generally not a fun drive. At least I had lots of experience by then! Once back at the Airbnb we got our stuff packed since we were planning to leave at 6 the next morning for our 12:30 flight. We’d intended to get dinner at The Stump, a pub/restaurant just a few miles from us on the Fosse Highway. Our host had told us the first day that we better make reservations if we went there, and for some reason we just ignored that advice. Of course it was packed and they couldn’t tell us how long we’d be waiting. So…it was one last trip to Bourton-on-the-Water for us! And we still had a little trouble finding a place to eat there without reservations. I don’t know if that’s a covid/understaffed thing as I think I said earlier, but it happened a number of times and I’m not sure why we never did just make reservations. We finally ended up at The Willow, which was kind of pricey but was good. At least mine was good - breaded shrimp scampi - although Kim’s was definitely NOT good, being chicken that was seriously undercooked. She sent it back and just got an order of chips, and I shared my too-big plate of shrimp scampi. I didn’t take a picture of the food, but of course got one of the beers, featuring my Fullers.
And then it really WAS farewell to Bourton-on-the-Water at last, as we went home to the Chedworth Airbnb one final time and got ready to leave at the crack of dawn the next morning. I’ll do one more entry just to wrap it all up, waaaahhhhhhh!!!!
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