An Historic Partnership

Berkeley Castle began life as nothing more than a castellulum (little castle) perched on a mound during the reign of Edward the Confessor. In 1153, King Henry II granted it to Robert Fitzharding, a wealthy merchant and provost of Bristol, who built today's castle - home to the Berkeley family for almost 900 years.

In 1605, fifty miles away in the bordering county of Worcestershire, Rowland Berkeley - a descendant of the Lords of Berkeley Castle - purchased a moated Tudor manor house and passed it on to his son, Sir Robert Berkeley. Spetchley Park was used as Royalist Headquarters during the Civil War, and was burnt to the ground just before the Battle of Worcester (1651). It was rebuilt in 1811 in the Palladian style.

When Randal Mowbray Berkeley, the 8th Earl of Berkeley Castle, died in 1942, his estate passed to his cousin, Robert George Wilmot Berkeley of Spetchley Park. The rugged, Norman fortress and the exquisite Georgian manor house were finally united as one.

A Working Estate

Mr. John Berkeley is the current owner of the Castle and Spetchley Park and Gardens - both thriving visitor attractions in their own right. Yet beyond the public face is a traditional working estate operated efficiently by Berkeley's 'extended family' of tenant farmers and smallholders.

The Estates are spread over a total of 10,000 acres of arable and pasture farmland and ancient woodland, encompassing lakes, rivers and streams, and dotted with old fashioned farm yards, black and white cottages and manor houses.

The Estates boast 500 acres of historic deer park with resident herds of red and fallow deer which the Berkeley family have always treasured. The 5th Earl of Berkeley hunted his hounds from Berkeley to London's Charing Cross, and across the Castle meadow lies the Berkeley Hunt Kennels.

The Castle gardens, with their sweeping lawns, grass terraces and pretty borders are at their best in June, when Mr. Berkeley's beautiful collection of roses comes into its own, but it is the garden at Spetchley Park that steals the limelight every year. With its tumbling herbaceous borders and plant treasures from every corner of the globe, this 30 acre Victorian paradise is a sight to behold.

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