Fancy living like a king? Now’s your chance – the Tudor country house where Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn honeymooned has gone on sale for £8.5m.
Thornbury Castle is on the edge of the Cotswolds, and was built during Henry’s reign by Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham. Stafford was executed for high treason in 1521 and his country estate was seized by the king, who stayed there with Boleyn for 10 days in August 1535 as part of his honeymoon tour.
The Staffords eventually reclaimed the Tudor country house after the death of Mary I, but the Gloucester property was unoccupied for more than 200 years and fell into serious disrepair before being renovated in the 1850s.
Between 1966 and 1986 it was one of the UK’s top restaurants, run by Kenneth Bell. Today, the Tudor country house is a 28-room hotel and events space, and is seeking a new pair of hands to take it forward.
‘The sympathetic Tudor interiors have ensured the hotel remains popular with guests and we expect significant interest while marketing the asset,’ said Martin Rogers, head of UK hotel transactions at Savills, which is handling the sale.
Included with the hotel are its extensive Tudor gardens and vineyards, with two licensed spaces for outdoor wedding ceremonies.
Read next: Siena’s medieval Locanda dell’Amorosa Hotel is looking for a new owner