Sudeley History Timeline

1900-2000

1900

Emma Dent died and the Castle was inherited by her nephew Henry Dent Brocklehurst to whom her husband had bequeathed it when he died in 1885. The Dent-Brocklehursts have held Sudeley in unbroken succession since that time.

1914 - 1918

World War 1

John Henry (Jack) Dent-Brocklehurst a Captain in the Coldstream Guards was twice wounded in France, then transferred to the Sudan where he served in the Egyptian Army until 1920. His sister, Marjorie died while en route to visit her husband, Viscount Quenington in Cairo in 1916 and her husband was killed in battle a month later.

1927

Jack, now Major, Dent-Brocklehurst took over Sudeley from his father, who died in 1932. Crippling death duties forced the sale of much of the land on which its upkeep depended and the original 12,000 acre estate is now only a tenth of its original size.

1930

New restoration and improvements on the Eastern range were designed and carried out by the architect Walter H Godfrey.

1939-1949

World War 2

A Prisoner of War camp for Italians and Germans who worked on the land was sited in the Castle grounds.

The Castle itself became a ‘safe house’ where much of the Tate Gallery’s picture collection was protected from the London Blitz.

1949

Mark Dent-Brocklehurst inherited Sudeley on the death of his father but his mother Mrs Mary Dent-Brocklehurst continued to live in the Castle until 1969.

About this time she inherited and brought to Sudeley the internationally renowned Walter Morrison fine picture collection – a collection of Dutch and English Old Master paintings built up by James Morrison (1790-1857) the great-great-great grandfather of the present owners.

1969

Mark and his American born wife Elizabeth succeeded his mother as owners of Sudeley and decided the only hope for its survival was to open the Castle to the public. It took two years and a huge upheaval to adapt Sudeley from merely a family home to a tourist attraction.

1972

Mark Dent-Brocklehurst died and once again Sudeley was beset by more death duties and massive debts. His widow took on sole responsibility for the Castle and began a 20th century renaissance of the property.

1979

Elizabeth Dent-Brocklehurst married Lord Ashcombe and in the early 1980s they carried out a further major refurbishment in an attempt to strike a balance between a visitor attraction and what remains primarily a family home.

Lady Ashcombe and her children, Henry and Mollie Dent-Brocklehurst have now taken over the management of the visitor attraction.