Grimsthorpe Castle

Grimsthorpe Castle stands in Lincolnshire, 6.4 kilometres north-west of Bourne, on a ridge above the Lincolnshire fens. It is a grand country house, not a medieval fortress, though its towers and pavilions give it a martial air. The 3,000-acre park spreads with rolling pastures, lakes and woodlands shaped by Capability Brown in the 18th century. The house has belonged to the de Eresby family since 1516, now held by the 28th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby. Her grandmother was Nancy Astor, who died here in 1964. The earliest part is King John’s Tower, dating from the 12th century, though the name is a later attribution. The house tells the story of England through its owners and their times. Henry VIII gave it to the 11th Baron Willoughby de Eresby in 1516 along with a Spanish bride in waiting to Queen Catherine of Aragon. Their daughter Katherine married Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, who rebuilt the house in the 1540s. Elizabeth I stayed in 1566, and later Sir John Vanbrugh added a Baroque north front in 1715. The Vanbrugh Hall remains a monumental space with stone arcades and a grand staircase. Portraits by Reynolds and Van Dyck hang beside thrones used by George IV, Queen Victoria and Edward VII. Inside, the State Dining Room holds the throne used at George IV’s coronation banquet. The King James and State Drawing Rooms display European furniture and 18th-century Soho tapestries. The Chinese Drawing Room has ornate ceilings and bamboo wallpaper, while the chapel features fine 17th-century plasterwork. Outside, the park’s avenues include oaks recorded in the Domesday Book. Formal gardens lead to woodland walks and a lake framed by herbaceous borders. A Vanbrugh summerhouse overlooks the knot garden and rose enclosures, blending history with landscape.