The A-Z of Tudor Places: Acton Court

[Music] hi I'm Sarah and I'm the tutor travel guide and welcome to the tutor travel guides eh-2-zed of tutor places and today we're going to be exploring Acton court in Gloucestershire accent court is an exquisite example of courtiers house from the early Tudor period now I'll say more about that in a moment but probably the thing that makes Acton courts stand out from the crowd is the fact that even today the house is in its raw state and this makes it one of the most authentic Tudor properties in England now the manor house for those of you who like a bit of geography is located in the village of iron Acton and that is in the Vale of Berkeley about 15 kilometres northeast of Bristol which is one of the major cities in the southwest of England roll back time during the Tudor period Acton court was owned by the points family the original manor was constructed in 13th century and the manorial complex contained three ranges of buildings which were all squeezed into the confines of a moat which entirely surrounded the property the person we so most associate with Acton court today is Nicholas Points now he was alive during the reign of King Henry the eighth his grandfather had added to the property he'd been a man of some substance and had served successfully under Henry the seventh but it was Nicholas who as a young man was ambitious well-connected and successful and at the time of his inheritance was closely connected to Henry the eighth's First Minister Thomas Cromwell he was also a personal friend of Richard Cromwell and Richard rich do hiss now all the available evidence suggests that in 1535 in anticipation of a visit by the king and queen and Nicholas Points undertook an extensive building campaign and that lasted until his death in 1556 but as no building records survived the actual precise date of this redevelopment project is based on archaeological and not historical evidence that includes such things as predating of tree-ring samples which have been taken from the roof Timbers of the house and they gave a felling day of 1535 and this of course ties in precisely with the royal visit to act and court scheduled for Saturday the 21st to Monday the 23rd of August now to accommodate the King and Queen points had an entire eastern medieval kitchen range demolished and instead he built an accommodation block that was a bit for royalty including many features which were considered the dagger for the time the near tragedy of Acton Court is that it was only in the 1970s that his true historical significance came to light by that time it was a wreck it was close to collapse but thankfully for us a whole ton of conservation work has been done since and although we have lost some of point C's original redevelopment work the one range that survives the most important range to survive is that east range built to accommodate Henry and Anne so a little bit of context for you in 1535 Henry the 8th Anne Boleyn were undergoing a three and a half month long summer progress we took them through greats ways of Oxfordshire Berkshire Gloucestershire Hampshire will check cetera and about midway through the progress they came to action courts and of course they were accommodated in this fabulous East range now unfortunately the layout of the original ground-floor chambers has been lost since for many years and court was leased out to tennis tenant farmers and it was used as a farmhouse however it is likely that amberlynn was lodged here on the ground floor beneath the king's lodgings as has been the case at Thornbury castle where the couple had just come from fashionable in its day however the first floor suite remains largely untouched and that consists of three great chambers we have a presence chamber first with a huge Oriole window initially sited directly a crops opposite the king's throne and can appear estate beyond that there would have been a pretty chamber or dining chamber which would have been used privately by the king for dining and entertaining and then beyond that his bedchamber which also contained this large window which overlooked the formal gardens and we even have Henry's original garderobe or toilet it is incredible to look upon it and think that the king of England wants sat there on the laboratory extraordinary so the wow factor of accent court in my opinion is its raw authenticity that takes your breath away because it is unencumbered by later alterations and developments by those pesky Georgians and Victorians it's been stripped of internal furniture and so your imagination can really run wild and you do get this wonderful sense of flow of public to private chambers but the feature the outstanding feature of the house is an utterly exceptional painted frieze which runs around the upper wall of the middle of the privy chamber that is contemporary to the building of the east and was certainly created to impress the royal guests it's completed an antique work and his thoughts who have been executed by a painter of considerable talent possibly a French or Italian origin and if you are ever lucky enough to visit on the ground floor you might want to search out for a little bit of Tudor graffiti scratched into windowsill and tasted 1589 Oh amazing now I like to give these properties my own Tudor Rose rating out of five for historical importance I would give act in court for for its sheer wow factor another for Tudor roses it's all fantasy tea has to be 5 the thing that possibly let's act in court down is its accessibility where I only give it one star unfortunately acts in court is only open for very specific and limited dates throughout the year but if you get chance to visit then I highly recommend it perhaps you might pop along to the act and court website at wwlp.com and check out when it is next due to open you will love it so I hope you've enjoyed our brief eight minute exploration of Acts and course I'm Sarah the Tudor travel guide and I look forward to coming back very shortly with our next property pot of our a to said of Tudor places until then all that remains for me to say of course is happy time traveling [Music]

Channel: The Tudor Travel Guide

Views: 7,948

Rating: 4.9239545 out of 5

Keywords: acton court, henry viii, anne boleyn, henry viii wives, henry viii and his six wives, King Henry VIII, King Henry VIII of England, King Henry, Queen Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII documentary, Tudor, The Tudors, Tudor history, Tudor manor house, Gloucestershire, Places to visit, tudor history

Id: HxA25YS47CM

Length: 9min 2sec (542 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 01 2020