Chastleton House
Nestled in the Cotswolds near Moreton-in-Marsh, Chastleton House is a remarkably intact Jacobean manor house completed in 1612. Built by wealthy wool merchant Walter Jones, the house remained in the ownership of the same family for nearly four hundred years until it was acquired by the National Trust in 1991. Unusually, the Trust chose to conserve rather than restore the property, preserving its authentic, time-worn atmosphere. The estate holds fascinating historical claims to fame. Following the Battle of Worcester in 1651, Royalist captain Arthur Jones fled back to Chastleton with Parliamentary forces in hot pursuit. His clever wife, Sarah, hid him in a secret room behind a bedroom panel, then drugged the pursuing officers' wine with laudanum, allowing her husband to escape in the dead of night. Chastleton is also celebrated as the birthplace of modern croquet, as local resident Walter Whitmore-Jones codified the standardized rules of the sport on the front lawn in 1865. Inside, visitors explore atmospheric rooms preserved exactly as they decayed over centuries. The Great Hall forms the grand centerpiece, featuring carved oak paneling, a massive stone fireplace, and original Jacobean furniture.
Chastleton United Kingdom
You will find it at Chastleton House, Chastleton, near Moreton-in-Marsh, Oxfordshire GL56 0SU, tucked away in a quiet hamlet on the edge of the Cotswolds. It is about four miles northeast of Moreton-in-Marsh and six miles from Stow-on-the-Wold on the A436. The house was built between 1607 and 1612 for Walter Jones and has been owned by the National Trust since 1991. It feels wonderfully untouched, with no electricity in many rooms and the family belongings just as they left them. Because it sits right on the Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and Warwickshire borders you have got loads around you. The pretty Cotswold towns of Moreton-in-Marsh, Stow-on-the-Wold and Chipping Norton are all minutes away with their antique shops and old market squares. For more history you are spoilt. Upton House and Gardens, Broughton Castle and Blenheim Palace in Woodstock are all within a short drive. You also have Warwick Castle, Compton Verney Art Gallery and Park, and Sulgrave Manor nearby. And if you want castles and museums in a city, Oxford with its castle and prison, Ashmolean Museum and Bodleian Library is about an hour away, perfect to combine with a peaceful morning at Chastleton.