Eastnor Castle
Ledbury, Herefordshire, HR8 1RL
Eastnor Castle, in the dramatic setting of the Malvern Hills and surrounded by a beautiful deer park, arboretum and lake - is the home of the Hervey-Bathurst family
By any standards, the Castle is a massive edifice and the construction team and materials used were on a similar scale. A workforce of 250 men working day and night were employed over the first six years of construction, and in the first eighteen months 4,000 tons of building stone, 16,000 tons of mortar and 600 tons of wood were used. The stone came from sandstone quarries in the Forest of Dean by canal to Ledbury, and from there by mule. Estate timber was used as much as possible, but the major roof trusses and beams are cast iron, a material used to save timber in the midst of the Napoleonic Wars when it was in great demand for shipbuilding. By the time the building work was finished in 1820, the Castle had cost £85,923 13s 11½d - about £8.5 million in today's terms.
James Hervey-Bathurst and his family, came to live in Eastnor in 1988, and accelerated the restoration and internal repair of the Castle. Grants from English Heritage went towards the cost of the external repairs. Since then, diversification into tourism, corporate entertaining, weddings and conferences has enabled the restoration of Eastnor to proceed apace. The Castle will always require a high level of maintenance and there is still much to be done, but the future prospects for Eastnor are possibly more encouraging now than at any time in the last 100 years.
IML Concerts are delighted to acknowledge Tourism Nova Scotia for their support and sponsorship of the Jools Holland concerts in 2010
Jools Holland & his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra
Saturday 10th July 2010 With special guests Alison Moyet, Ruby Turner & Louise Marshall Grab your friends, pack a picnic, the...more details
