Beverston Castle

Beverston Castle stands beside the church in Beverston, a village on the A4135 about 2 miles (3km) west of Tetbury. Maurice de Gaunt built it as a fortified manor house in about 1225, and the Berkeleys made it a castle; what survives, its towers, chapel and gatehouse, is listed Grade I and is part of a private house.

History

Beverston was important before there was a stone castle. The Parks and Gardens record says Earl Godwin occupied an Anglo-Saxon castle here in 1051, probably built of timber.

Gaunts and Berkeleys

In about 1225 Maurice de Gaunt built the stone house whose west range still stands, and in about 1350 to 1360 Thomas, third Lord Berkeley, enlarged it with a new gatehouse, a portcullis and a drawbridge over the moat, and a tower holding a chapel. The listing describes a rectangular courtyard with drum towers at the corners inside a moat, of which only the west and south sides remain. The Berkeleys sold Beverston in 1597.

The Civil War and after

Sir Michael Hicks bought the castle in 1612, and the Hicks family added a house along the south side. In 1644 Parliament's forces under Colonel Edward Massey, the governor of Gloucester, besieged it twice and took it, and it was badly damaged. After a fire in about 1691 the house was remodelled, and in the eighteenth century a bridge was built over the moat and a little gazebo on the terrace. The Hicks family sold the estate in 1842 to R S Holford of Westonbirt.

The garden

In 1939 Vice-Admiral Arthur Strutt and Mrs Strutt bought Beverston, and Mrs Strutt made much of the present garden across the moat: lawns, a herbaceous border and a walled kitchen garden. Major and Mrs Lawrence Rook, owners from 1959 to 2018, carried it on.

What to look for

From the lane and the churchyard you can see the gatehouse, which now stands on its own with the groove for its portcullis still in the arch, and the towers of the west range. The listing describes what lies within:

• The thirteenth-century west range, with a four-bay vaulted undercroft and a great chamber above
• The embattled south-west tower, with Thomas Berkeley's chapel on its first floor: a vault with carved bosses, carved seats for the priests, and the remains of an east window whose tracery matches the east window of St Mary's church next door
• The square north-west tower of the fifteenth century, with a fireplace and a latrine on each upper floor
• The seventeenth-century house of the Hickses along the south side, and the gazebo and the bridge over the moat

Visiting

Beverston Castle is private and lived in, so look from the lane and from the churchyard of St Mary's, which gives the best view of the gatehouse and towers. The Parks and Gardens record says the gardens open occasionally under the National Garden Scheme; check the scheme's website for any dates.

Getting there

Beverston is on the A4135 between Tetbury and Dursley, about 2 miles west of Tetbury. There is no public car park; park considerately by the church. None of our walks passes the castle.

Nearby

St Mary's Church is next door, with the Berkeleys' work in its chapel and east window. Calcot Manor, a hotel with a restaurant, is about 2.5km away by road, and Tetbury, with St Mary's and its Market House, is a few minutes' drive east. The Holfords, who bought the castle in 1842, have their monuments at St Catherine's, Westonbirt. Our story on the country houses and castles of the Cotswolds has more like it.