Chastleton House (National Trust)

Chastleton House (National Trust) A beautiful Jacobean mansion hidden in the rolling Cotswold countryside and on the borders of 3 counties: Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and Warwickshire.

We have a beautiful garden and stunning house along with a well stocked secondhand bookshop. A rare gem of a Jacobean country house, Chastleton House was built between 1607 and 1612 by a prosperous wool merchant as an impressive statement of wealth and power. Owned by the same increasingly impoverished family until 1991, the house remained essentially unchanged for nearly 400 years as the interior

s and contents gradually succumbed to the ravages of time. With virtually no intrusion from the 21st century, this fascinating place exudes an informal and timeless atmosphere in a gloriously unspoilt setting. There is no shop or tea-room, so you can truly believe you have stepped back in time.

The Best Garden at Chastleton House, so-called because it can be viewed from the ‘best’ rooms in the house! 😍Over the pa...
18/06/2026

The Best Garden at Chastleton House, so-called because it can be viewed from the ‘best’ rooms in the house! 😍

Over the past few years, this area of the garden has been maturing after a huge transformation. It's designed to come into its own in the summer months and stays in bloom right through until autumn, meaning that the next few months are one of the best times to visit.

Chastleton House is open Wednesdays-Sundays from 1pm. Plan your visit here: https://rebrand.ly/ChastletonHouse

📸: Hugh Mothersole/National Trust Images

Have you ever wondered what it's like to see like a bee?! 🐝When flying quickly, bees see in black and white but as they ...
10/06/2026

Have you ever wondered what it's like to see like a bee?! 🐝

When flying quickly, bees see in black and white but as they slow down, they start to see things in colour.

While humans can see all the colours of the rainbow, with a spectrum that spans from red to purple, bees see from yellow to purple right through to ultraviolet - but they can't see red at all. This means they experience the world very differently.

Bees have two compound eyes with around 5,000 light-guiding tubes inside. The information from these tubes gets merged by their brains into one single image that is very limited in detail.

In this blurry world, bees don't rely on their eyesight so much as scent, and then use plants' ultraviolet patterns - which may look like bullseyes, arrows or stripes - to find the pollen and nectar they're looking for.

At Chastleton House, we've just launched our new 'bee focals', special, handheld lenses that you can use to explore the gardens and 'see' like a bee!

Try them out on your next visit to Chastleton House and Gardens, open Wednesdays-Sundays from 1pm. Plan your visit here: https://rebrand.ly/ChastletonHouse

📸: Rosy Sutton

The White Parlour offers a sense that its previous owners have just popped out, maybe out to the garden or to another ro...
07/06/2026

The White Parlour offers a sense that its previous owners have just popped out, maybe out to the garden or to another room in the house.

Its pale walls have definitely made it a favourite among its female inhabitants. In the late 19th century, Maud Richardson hung William Morris curtains at the windows and filled the room with her personal knick-knacks, while both Irene Whitmore-Jones and Barbara Clutton-Brock used the space as a personal sitting room.

See it for yourself on a visit to Chastleton House, open Wednesdays-Sundays from 1pm. Plan your visit here: https://rebrand.ly/ChastletonHouse

📸: James Dobson/National Trust Images See less

So far it's proving to be an amazing year for lupins in the garden at Chastleton. 💛Open Wednesdays-Sunday from 1pm. Plan...
04/06/2026

So far it's proving to be an amazing year for lupins in the garden at Chastleton. 💛

Open Wednesdays-Sunday from 1pm. Plan your visit here: https://rebrand.ly/ChastletonHouse

📸: Rosy Sutton

This week is Volunteers's Week - whether it's welcoming visitors, sharing Chastleton's stories, looking after the garden...
02/06/2026

This week is Volunteers's Week - whether it's welcoming visitors, sharing Chastleton's stories, looking after the garden, house or collections, or any of the many other tasks our brilliant volunteers do, we couldn't do it without them! Thank you!

How's this for a before and after?! 🧼 Recently, the house staff and volunteer team from Chastleton House went to clean t...
28/05/2026

How's this for a before and after?! 🧼 Recently, the house staff and volunteer team from Chastleton House went to clean the 18th-20th century stone statues along the Petro Water Garden at Buscot Park.

With just a denture brush and water to gently remove the dirt, it's a slow - but rewarding - process!

📸: Beverley Turner/National Trust Images

Lately we've been seeing lots of yellow come through in the Best Garden, which is a nod to Chastleton's former owner, Al...
26/05/2026

Lately we've been seeing lots of yellow come through in the Best Garden, which is a nod to Chastleton's former owner, Alan Clutton-Brock. 💛

Alan was a professor at the Slade School of Art and started many of his paintings with an ochre-coloured wash, which gave them a warm undertone.

Every year, this is replicated in the Best Garden with the acid green of giant euphorbias and wallflowers, followed by alliums and bearded irises, peonies and roses, giant scabious and June-flowering deutzia.

See for yourself on a visit to Chastleton House and Garden, open Wednesdays-Sundays from 1pm. Plan your visit here: https://rebrand.ly/ChastletonHouse

📸: Rosy Sutton

Happy ! Here's Odo testing out the croquet steps. 😍Chastleton House and Garden is open Wednesdays-Sundays from 1pm. Pla...
23/05/2026

Happy ! Here's Odo testing out the croquet steps. 😍

Chastleton House and Garden is open Wednesdays-Sundays from 1pm. Plan your visit here: https://rebrand.ly/ChastletonHouse

📸: Rosy Sutton

We never get tired of this view. 😍 The Long Gallery at Chastleton House is the longest surviving, 17th century barrel-va...
21/05/2026

We never get tired of this view. 😍 The Long Gallery at Chastleton House is the longest surviving, 17th century barrel-vaulted ceiling in England.

It fills the entire 72 feet (22 metres) of the north front of the house and provides incredible views over the Best Garden, vegetable and flower gardens, and the croquet lawns.

Beyond, the views extend across four counties – Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire - but we think the view inside is pretty great, too.

In 1612, the space would have been very much a status symbol, used to display ancestral portraits and for the occasional indoor stroll.

More recently, it was used for parties! In the 1960s, Alan and Barbara Clutton-Brock, the last private owners of Chastleton, would host brilliant parties here. Guests included the poet Stevie Smith who, writing to Barbara to thank her for a party, mentioned how much she enjoyed dancing the twist for the first time.

Plan your visit here: https://rebrand.ly/ChastletonHouse

📸: National Trust Images

Good news from the garden! 💞 A few weeks ago, a visitor noticed a hedgehog out in our garden looking unwell. Because hed...
17/05/2026

Good news from the garden! 💞 A few weeks ago, a visitor noticed a hedgehog out in our garden looking unwell. Because hedgehogs are nocturnal, it is unusual to see them out in the daytime - in fact, it can often indicate that something is wrong. This hedgehog seemed lethargic, wobbly on his feet and didn’t move away or curl into a protective ball when humans approached.

We booked him into a stay at Vale Wildlife Hospital & Rehabilitation Centre, which treats over 8,000 wildlife casualties each year, and we're pleased to say he has now fully recovered and returned home to Chastleton - but he wasn't alone!

Mr Hedgehog has decided to bring a girlfriend back to Chastleton with him, and they're now making a new home together in our Wilderness garden.

Many thanks to Vale Wildlife Hospital & Rehabilitation Centre for taking such wonderful care of our hedgehog so he could return safely home to us.

And you never know, maybe some hoglets will follow soon…

📸: Beverley Turner

Address

Chastleton House, Chastleton
Moreton In Marsh
GL560SU

Opening Hours

Monday 11am - 3pm
Tuesday 11am - 3pm
Wednesday 11am - 3pm
Thursday 11am - 3pm
Friday 11am - 3pm
Saturday 11am - 3pm
Sunday 11am - 3pm

Telephone

01608 674981

Website

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