Tortworth Court is a Victorian

Victorian architecture

The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...

 mansion

Mansion

A mansion is a very large dwelling house. U.S. real estate brokers define a mansion as a dwelling of over . A traditional European mansion was defined as a house which contained a ballroom and tens of bedrooms...

 in South Gloucestershire

South Gloucestershire

South Gloucestershire is a unitary district in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, in South West England.-History:The district was created in 1996, when the county of Avon was abolished, by the merger of former area of the districts of Kingswood and Northavon...

 built in Tudor

Tudor style architecture

The Tudor architectural style is the final development of medieval architecture during the Tudor period and even beyond, for conservative college patrons...

 style between 1848 and 1853 by Lord Ducie. Its architect was Samuel Sanders Teulon

Samuel Sanders Teulon

Samuel Sanders Teulon was a notable 19th century English Gothic Revival architect.-Family:Teulon was born in Greenwich in south-east London, the son of a cabinet-maker from a French Huguenot family. His younger brother William Milford Teulon also became an architect...

. During World War II the Grade II listed mansion became a naval training base for coding and signals, under the name of HMS Cabbala, and a mast was erected in the high reception hall. By the 1990s it had become derelict, and suffered a large fire in 1991, but was afterwards restored in its original style and extended at a reputed cost of £25 million, and reopened in June 2001 as a high quality hotel operated by Four Pillars Hotels.

Tortworth Court is especially notable for its extensive arboretum

Arboretum

An arboretum in a narrow sense is a collection of trees only. Related collections include a fruticetum , and a viticetum, a collection of vines. More commonly, today, an arboretum is a botanical garden containing living collections of woody plants intended at least partly for scientific study...

 developed by Henry Ducie between 1853 and 1921, and specialising in rhododendrons, conifers, oaks and maples. This surrounded the property and continues to be maintained and supported, though it is now divided between the hotel grounds, the grounds of Leyhill Open Prison (it is accessible by a public footpath), and private land still owned and farmed by the Ducie family. Rivalling at the time the collection of George Holford

Westonbirt Arboretum

Westonbirt, The National Arboretum is managed by the Forestry Commission. Westonbirt Arboretum is located near the historic market town of Tetbury in Gloucestershire, England, and is perhaps the most important and widely known arboretum in the United Kingdom.Planted in the heyday of Victorian plant...

, it still, despite the ravages of time, contains more than 300 specimens including unusual and rare species

Rare species

A rare species is a group of organisms that are very uncommon or scarce. This designation may be applied to either a plant or animal taxon, and may be distinct from the term "endangered" or "threatened species" but not "extinct"....

, and many fine specimen trees.

Tortworth Court also gave its name to Saint class

GWR 2900 Class

The Great Western Railway 2900 or Saint Class were a class of 4-6-0 steam locomotives for passenger train work. Number 2925 Saint Martin was later rebuilt as the prototype Hall Class locomotive, and renumbered 4900.-Prototypes:...

 steam locomotive No. 2955 operated by the Great Western Railway

Great Western Railway

The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...

.