Tortworth Court is enormous, and unapologetically so. Samuel Sanders Teulon built it between 1848 and 1853 for the 2nd Earl of Ducie in an exuberant Tudor-revival style, all gables, mullions and towers, and it is listed at Grade II* for good reason. Its later life reads like a novel — naval training establishment in the war, a prison afterwards, a serious fire in 1991, and then a restoration running to around £20 million that brought it back as a hotel in 2001. What you arrive at today is a Victorian country house on 30 acres that has been thoroughly, comfortably modernised without losing its swagger.
The grounds are the surprise. The 3rd Earl began planting here in 1853 and carried on until his death in 1921, leaving an arboretum of more than 300 specimens — rare conifers, oaks, maples and rhododendrons — that stands comparison with Westonbirt just up the road. For an autumn wedding in particular, the photographs rather take care of themselves. Inside there are 201 bedrooms, so nobody has to leave early, along with a spa and pool for the morning after, and Bristol is only about 20 minutes away down the M5.
Ceremonies have several homes here. The Orangery, a glass-ceilinged conservatory dating from 1874, seats up to 100 and opens onto its own outdoor dining area; the wood-panelled Victoria Suite suits a smaller, warmer gathering; and there’s a purpose-built pagoda in the gardens looking out over the arboretum for couples who want to marry outdoors.
Where the band plays
The Westminster Suite is the room built for a party. It takes up to 280 guests, has floor-to-ceiling windows onto the grounds, and — unusually for a hotel of this size — comes with a stage, a dancefloor and its own bar already in place. That means a band isn’t improvising a performance area out of a corner of a function room; there’s a proper riser, sensible power and a clear sightline from the dancefloor. For a smaller evening, the Orangery will hold around 120 and makes a charming, slightly more intimate setting for a duo or a smaller line-up, though the glass does make it a livelier acoustic.
How the evening runs
The typical shape is a ceremony in the Orangery or at the pagoda, drinks on the terrace and through the arboretum, dinner and then dancing in the Westminster Suite, with evening numbers rising to around 250 as guests who missed the meal arrive. Evenings generally run to around midnight, which suits a two-set band well, and with a hotel’s worth of bedrooms upstairs nobody is watching the clock for a taxi. Load-in is easy — the estate is right off junction 14 of the M5, there’s free parking, and hotel staff are used to handling suppliers arriving through the afternoon.
Bands available in Gloucestershire and perfectly at home in a venue like this.
More live music in Gloucestershire.
- Gloucestershire Wedding Bands
- Gloucestershire Events Bands
- Tribute Acts in Gloucestershire
- Wedding DJs in Gloucestershire
- Corporate Entertainment in Gloucestershire
Worth reading before you book: Sound Limiters Explained. More questions answered on our England & Wales FAQs.