Coughton Court

Coughton Court is a Tudor country house in Warwickshire, standing beside the main road between Studley and Alcester. Its long crenellated façade faces the road, with the Tudor Gatehouse at the centre, built after 1536 and flanked by later Gothic wings. The gatehouse has hexagonal turrets and oriel windows in the English Renaissance style. The house was rebuilt by Sir George Throckmorton, a favourite of Henry VIII, who spent much of his life improving Coughton. The estate has belonged to the Throckmorton family since 1409, acquired through marriage to the De Spinney family. The house is worth the journey for its historical importance and architectural interest. Sir George Throckmorton’s involvement in the divorce of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon made him notorious, and his recusancy influenced later rebuilding. The gatehouse contains a priest hole with two secret spaces rediscovered in 1858, and the house played a role in both the Throckmorton Plot of 1583 and the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. The family’s Catholic faith shaped the house’s history, and its ownership passed to the National Trust in 1946. Recent roof restoration preserved the fabric of the house, with work carefully planned around the resident bats. Visitors find a gatehouse with hexagonal turrets and oriel windows, flanked by Strawberry Hill Gothic wings. The courtyard, once enclosed on all four sides, now opens to the grounds. The walled formal garden, river and lake surround the house, and the gatehouse turret holds the priest hole with its rope-ladder. The house has been used as a filming location for the BBC series *Father Brown*, and its restored roof featured in *Hidden Treasures of the National Trust*. The Tabula Eliensis, a large painting from 1596, was removed for restoration during the roof works.