Royal Progress day 5

Day 5 Coughton Court Today was a single visit to Coughton court (pronounced coat-en) the home of the Throckmorton family for over 600 years and they still live there. The family is one of the principal Catholic families in the land and have been implicated in plots against the king or Queen, indeed the Throckmorton plot was one of the plots to assassinate Elizabeth I. The family was also involved in the Gunpowder plot in 1605, still commemorated to this day in the 5th November fireworks and Bonfire night. The family has had some formidable and notable women down the centuries perhaps the most famous being Bess Throckmorton, one time favourite lady in waiting to Elizabeth I until she secretly married Sir Walter Raleigh and was banished from court. Walter was locked up in the Tower of London for a long time until King James got tired of his writing and had him executed. Now a strange tale takes place in that Bess was said to have carried Walter’s embalmed head in a silk sack around with her for the rest of her life another 21 years! Sir Walters Head can be found in the room of consequence, I kid you not! one person jumped and on seeing a head in a sack.( it's not real) Coughton has many features that are worth a mention, it is a great Tudor manor house and all the rooms have been given names like the room of hope and the room of requirements… but to my mind the best room in the house is the one where the chemise that Mary Queen of Scots wore at her execution and a bishops mantle sewn by Catherine of Aragon and her court ladies. It is a magnificent piece of work all velvet and gold with Catherine’s personal symbol of a pomegranate sewn on, it gave me palpitations the first time I saw it and it’s still exciting to see it. We finished the day with a pub crawl around Stow on the Wold the highest town on the Cotswolds, we had dinner in the Queens head and great pub that you will find on trip advisor.