ENGLAND – Coughton Court (En)

Coughton Court is an English Tudor country house, situated between Studley and Alcester in Warwickshire and it has been home to the Throckmorton family for 600 years, one of the UK’s oldest catholic families. It stands on 25 acres of grounds containing some of the most beautiful gardens in the country. Coughton Court was gifted to the National Trust in 1946 by the Throckmorton, the family continues to live at Coughton Court, continuing six centuries of unbroken tradition.

Before visiting Coughton Court we went to have lunch in Broom Tavern Pub, a historical 16th-century public house, where Ben’s mum used to work. Situated in one of Shakespeare’s drinking haunts in the beautiful small village of Broom. I had the typical fish and chips which was delicious and Ben had a crispy pork belly with chilli sauce and rice.

Coughton Court still has many of its original features including its flamboyant sixteenth-century gate tower. It is one of the last remaining Roman Catholic houses in the country to retain its historic treasures, housing one of the very best collections of portraits and memorabilia of one family from the early Tudor times. Alongside family items on display, there are pieces such as the chemise reputedly worn by Mary Queen of Scots when she was executed and a bishop’s Cope, with intricate needlework, believed to have been worked upon by Catherine of Aragon. You can see also the letter of Edward VIII abdicating to the Throne of England. In the courtyard, the qua trefoil pool was inspired by the stone detailing on the house. Much care has been taken to create the impression of symmetry in what is, in reality, a highly asymmetric space.

Then we visited the two churches next to the Manor, one is Saint Peter’s Church and the other is the Catholic Church built for the Throckmorton family in 1855, made of regular coursed limestone, with a tile roof with crested ridge tiles and gables.

The gardens are made by a walled garden opened in 1996, comprising a series of ‘garden rooms, that provide a range of garden experiences, including the Rose Labyrinth, Early Summer Garden, Pool Garden and Hot and Cool Garden. The Walled Garden also hosts a Gentleman’s’ Walk across the lake and a recent sculpture by Rosie Musgrave, the ‘Tsunami Noni’, in the Pool Garden. This sculpture was carved from a single piece of limestone over 140 million years old. It serves as a lasting memorial to the victims of the Asian Tsunami in 2004.

We finished our visit in the coffee shop and museum of the house, as the Manor also holds a place in English history for its roles in both the Throckmorton Plot of 1583 to murder Queen Elizabeth and the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, although the Throckmorton family were themselves only indirectly implicated in the latter when some of the Gunpowder conspirators rode directly thereafter its plan failed when Guy Fawkes was apprehended.