Hinckley Times

Stay in a place fit for a king or queen

- ENDA MULLEN hinckleyti­mes@trinitymir­ror.com

JUST down the road from Hinckley, you can stay in a place which is fit for a king or a queen.

With parts dating back over 1,000 years, Astley Castle is available for holiday lets via the Landmark Trust who have overseen the dramatic renovation of the former ruin.

The good news is it won’t cost a king’s ransom but the bad news is there’s a long waiting list.

The property remains one of Warwickshi­re’s best kept secrets when it comes to enjoying a short break somewhere truly different. Astley Castle reopened in 2012 after a £2.7m restoratio­n project, which began in 2005 to mark the Landmark Trust’s 40th birth- day.

Fusing the old with the new in 2013 it won a major design award, the RIBA Stirling Prize for Architectu­re. Some of the original 13th century stonework and timbers were preserved and integrated with a modern design to create plush accommodat­ion sleeping up to eight, complete with picturesqu­e views over the Arbury Estate.

Prior to its restoratio­n the castle, which has links to three queens of England and Victorian novelist George Eliot, had been cited by English Heritage as a “high priority building at risk.”

For hundreds of years it stood as a fortified manor house but became derelict after being turned into a hotel and gutted by fire in 1978.

Grants were obtained from the Heritage Lottery Fund and English Heritage, plus many other organisati­ons and individual­s, while architects Witherford Watson Mann completed the design.

An entrance through the bare ruins of the outer walls leads into four ground-floor bedrooms.

Upstairs is one large open-plan hall, incorporat­ing a fully-equipped kitchen, with a medievalst­yle dining area and lounge. Large windows look out onto the neighbouri­ng village church and across a moat to fields and trees.

There is an outdoor dining area, with a working open fire, within part of the stone walls and there are public footpaths around the site.

A spokeswoma­n for the Landmark Trust said: “Contempora­ry living accommodat­ion has been sensitivel­y – and extraordin­arily carefully –stitched into the shell of the ancient moated castle.

“Floor-to-ceiling windows in the huge living room and kitchen look out over Astley’s former collegiate church and into beautiful internal courts formed by ruined spaces.”

So how do you get to stay there and how much does it cost?

The accommodat­ion can be booked via the Landmark Trust’s website but Astley Castle has attracted huge interest since opening as a holiday let.

The earliest you’ll be able to stay there is July 2018 and bookings for then do not open until March.

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 ??  ?? Astley Castle in Warwickshi­re. Pictures courtesy of the Landmark Trust
Astley Castle in Warwickshi­re. Pictures courtesy of the Landmark Trust

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