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A short walk west of Winchcombe, Sudeley Castle (April-Oct daily 11am-5pm; gardens March-Oct daily 10.30am-5.30pm; GBP6.20; gardens only GBP4.70) was once a favourite country retreat of Tudor and Stuart monarchs, though it never belonged to the royal family. It has a particularly strong connection with Catherine Parr, the sixth wife of Henry VIII, who came to live here after her marriage to Thomas Seymour, Lord of Sudeley, following the king's death. During the Civil War the house became a base for the Royalists (Charles I sought refuge here several times), then was later all but destroyed by the Parliamentarians. What remained stood empty until 1830, when the ruins were bought by the Dent family, whose work re-created an extremely handsome exterior but not the atmosphere of a fifteenth-century home. The motley collection inside includes paintings by Turner and Constable, a bed Charles I once slept in and one of Catherine Parr's teeth - her tomb is in the chapel. The real joy of Sudeley lies outside, in the Queen's Garden , with its huge yew hedges cut like masonry, and in the creeper-covered ruins of the banqueting hall; and don't miss taking in the majestic setting, with the green slopes of the escarpment behind.
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