News from Athelhampton House & Gardens.

The focal point when looking at the stained glass at Athelhampton House and Gardens is often the ape. He is eye-catching, after all, and in some ways mysterious. Visitors exploring this historic Tudor house and gardens in Dorset are often drawn to the heraldic details and centuries of history found throughout the house. We will never know whether the Martyn family, who he belonged to as a heraldic crest, owned a pet ape, or whether he is merely symbolic. And the motto is argu

At Athelhampton House & Gardens, visitors can explore more than 20 historic rooms filled with original Tudor features. Among the most striking are the stained glass windows, which bring colour, craftsmanship and centuries of family history vividly to life. Glass is integral to Athelhampton's history, and not just because of the windows that can still be seen today. Stained glass in the oriel window at Athelhampton Stained glass manufacture in England dates back to at least th

For all that many people think of the Tudors (and, indeed, many of our ancestors in other periods) as being dirty or unhygienic, in reality, they placed a great deal of importance on cleanliness and washing. One piece of evidence for this lives in the silver safe at Athelhampton - one of more than 20 historic rooms open to the public. The pottery aquamanile, depicting a knight on horseback, used for washing hands before dinner This strange looking piece of pottery, showing an

Giving birth was one of the most dangerous things a woman could do in Medieval and Renaissance England: it was the leading cause of death for women, with as many as 1 in 40 women dying in childbirth. So what might a woman living in this Dorset Tudor Manor of Athelhampton do to try to stay safe at this time? Preparations for giving birth started early, with the lying-in period beginning up to six weeks before the prospective mother gave birth. The Marriage Chamber at Athelhamp

As you explore over 20 rooms at Athelhampton, there’s the chance to step into the world of one of England’s most enduring melodies, with the Greensleeves Project Exhibition. Associated with all manner of things, from Henry VIII to ice cream vans, there’s the chance at Athelhampton to discover the truth behind this evocative piece of Tudor music. The words and gifts of the rejected lover are brought to life here, with the exquisitely reconstructed Tudor clothing created by ski

At Athelhampton, the Marriage Chamber has been quietly enhanced. One of more than twenty rooms open to the public, it now welcomes an early seventeenth century Flemish tapestry, newly rehung after many years on the minstrels’ gallery in the Great Hall. The tapestry itself seems to show a pastoral setting, with a scene of a man returning from the hunt. The Tudor bedroom brings together layers of history. Rich Tudor panelling, A fifteenth century Italian Savonarola chair, an

An exciting day at Athelhampton… In the early morning, before the house stirred and long before our visitors arrived, the medieval Great Hall echoed with industry. Three orange clad figures appeared, and piece by piece, a modern metal structure was erected, in sharp contrast with the ancient beams sheltering the hall. After careful planning and the necessary permissions, we are beginning a project that gently reverses a change made some three hundred years ago, allowing the h

The great Tudor door at Athelhampton has watched centuries of light and weather pass across its threshold. It was with this Dorset Tudor house when it was first built, and continues to watch as the house has evolved over the years, with its fortunes rising and falling. Golden sunlight beaming through the front door of the Tudor Great Hall Today, after a day of hard rain, the clouds lifted and the low sun spilled into the hall, turning oak and stone to gold. A moment like this

Come and experience the sights, sounds and smells of 16th century life this October half-term with us at Athelhampton House. Tickets for Tudor Week 2025 at Athelhampton are still available for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday! Photo by Dorset Morri'arty History is brought to life, inside and outside our walls, as you step back in time to 1580. Meet the Martyn family of Athelhampton, as specialist living historians recreate life as it was in Elizabeth I’s reign. Photo by Jane Te

It’s one week to go until Tudor Week 2025 at Athelhampton! Photo by Dorset Morri'arty Step back in time this autumn half term and experience life as it was more than four centuries ago. Over forty Tudor re-enactors will be living and working throughout the house, bringing to life the sights, sounds, and scents of 1580. Photo by Dorset Morri'arty See the cooks at work in the kitchens, the maids tending to their chores, musicians in the Great Hall, and Sir Nicholas Martyn, mast

Visit Athelhampton this autumn, and you’ll see pears ripening in the gardens, and glowing too in the stained glass of the Great Hall. The pears appear in the arms of Elizabeth Kelway, who around 1530 married Robert Martyn of Athelhampton. Her family’s coat of arms shows four golden pears and a pair of grozing irons, the delicate tools once used by glaziers to shape stained glass. It bears a very strong resemblance to that of the Worshipful Company of Glaziers and Painters of

One of Dorset’s most beautiful Tudor manor houses, Athelhampton has stood in its peaceful valley for over five centuries. Its walls hold many secrets, from grand feasts in the Great Hall to family squabbles, all observed quietly by the servants who kept the household running. The names of the servants rarely survive: only those of a few trusted male servants show up in wills and court cases, but it's possible to piece together a little of what their lives might have looked li

In Athelhampton’s Library, sunlight glows through this jewel of ancient stained glass. It’s a complicated shield, and often in tours, we talk about the shield next to this one instead! This shield belongs to the Zouche family of Harringworth, quartered with the arms of Cantilupe, Braose, and Clare — dynasties whose power stretched across medieval England. The Zouches were influential enough to give their name to Ashby de la Zouche in Leicestershire, where their castle once do

At Athelhampton we remember that 540 years ago today it was the Battle of Bosworth. On 22 August 1485, King Richard III was slain, and lost his throne to Henry Tudor, who would become King Henry VII. Among those caught in the turmoil was Thomas Martyn of Athelhampton. Injured at Bosworth, he died soon after. His son William Martyn inherited the estate, and under the new Tudor King he became Sheriff of Dorset and a Royal commissioner. The great oak front door with its ancient

A bright rose growing in a quiet corner of our gardens today served as a reminder of a some medieval history at Athelhampton. Medieval land ownership was complicated. After 1066, the Crown claimed all land and granted it out in layers. The Crown was the top layer, and by the 1100s, places like Christchurch Priory (the middle layer), held manors from the Crown to fund their work, while families like the Martins of Athelhampton, held the manor beneath that. The Martins held Ath

When you visit Athelhampton you will see that many of the walls of the Tudor House have pretty clumps of white, lavender and pink flowers of Erigeron, though we like to use its old English name, Fleabane. Hundreds of pink and white Erigeron flower heads dancing in the breeze 500 years ago the Tudor families at Athelhampton would have utilsed bouquets of dried fleabane which could be hung in a room or placed in a chest or coffer to deter fleas, flies and gnats. In times of a h

When you stand outside Athelhampton House, it often feels as though there are many pairs of eyes watching your every move. The house is adorned with many figures, faces and animals all carved from local Portesham stone. The monstrous faces of the gargoyles and grotesques were thought to keep evil spirits and demons away, and many of the animals are the heraldic symbols of the families who lived here in Tudor times. Next time you visit, take a moment to admire the detail in th

As good luck would have it, the rain stayed away from Athelhampton for almost all of this evening’s outdoor performance of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night by The Lord Chamberlain’s Men. Just a tiny shower right at the end! With the poor weather forecast, the gardening team were consulted about the potential rain. As they are keen weather-watchers, they correctly predicted that it would be dry this evening until 9pm! For more outdoor theatre at Athelhampton, you can come and see t

The Silver Safe at Athelhampton has just reopened after a week of renovations. It is the smallest of the 20 historic rooms open to the public. Athelhampton was purchased in 1660 by Sir Robert Long, (treasurer to Queen Henrietta Maria) he was a wealthy landowner and had many estates in Dorset, London, Wiltshire and Yorkshire. In the 1750s his descendants spent time at all their various estates. This may have been when this room was added, enabling valuable silverware to be lo

Athelhampton is a beautiful stately home - one of the finest country houses in Dorset - but it was hardly the place for royalty in the 16th Century. Royal progresses, where the monarch essentially went "on tour" around the country, were huge affairs, involving hundreds if not thousands of people. Athelhampton, while a big house by modern standards, wasn't ever big enough to host the royal court. Sir William Martyn, who built some of the earliest parts of Athelhampton, escorte