As part of their summer progress to the south-west of England, on 21st August 1535 King Henry VIII and Queen Anne Boleyn visited courtier Nicholas Poyntz at his home, Acton Court, in south Gloucestershire.The progress also included a stay with the Walsh Family at Little Sodbury Manor on 23rd August.
This royal progress was not just a holiday or a break from disease-ridden London, it was an opportunity to promote the Reformation and visit the households of people seen as “pro-Reform”. Poyntz was keen to impress his royal visitors and he had added an extra wing to his home, built especially for the King and Queen modelled on rooms in Hampton Court Palace. It had been built so quickly that it didn’t even have foundations.
You can read more about this progress and the visits Anne and Henry made to Nicholas Poyntz and the Walsh family in the following articles:
- Acton Court, Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn – The Royal Progress of 1535
- 23 August 1535 – Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII Visit Little Sodbury Manor
I’ve had a lovely time reading through the archives here – it’s become my “go to” for a Tudor fix when my own research takes me elsewhere!
Action court is lovely the room where the presence chamber was turned into a buttery though and I think they knocked a fair bit down before they realised it was Tudor. It is just down the road from where I live
Wonderful to know that you have visited this part of history
I am fascinated with English history and King Henry VIII
All best wishes
Kathryn
Sorry not dumb my computer auto corrected
I have just been on Acton Court’s website, it is very interesting having plenty of photo’s of the place before and after restoration, archaeological finds, the King’s loo!! info on the history and events etc. Well worth a look. Lucky you living close by to the house Sher…
” Poyntz was keen to impress his royal visitors and he had added an extra wing to his home, built especially for the King and Queen modelled on rooms in Hampton Court Palace. It had been built so quickly that it didn’t even have foundations.”
This is another thing I have never understood – how much foreknowledge did these people get of an impending visit? Even working at breakneck speed and with questionable foundations, these new buildings would have taken quite some time to erect, especially in brick, which was very fashionable and expensive, and then decorate and furnish. I wonder how many of them were really what we today would call makeovers or extensions, rather than being completely new wings.
It must have been, as you say like one of those extreme make overs they do on TV, but without our many DIY super stores and builders merchants, even if they had a year ‘s warning it must have been done at break-neck speed, and a quick bodge job to get it done, hence missing out foundations, scary stuff. There was no booking them in to the Travel Lodge down the road then 🙂
I need weeks warning just to gear up for a couple of guests, and that’s only freshening up the spare bedroom, menus to suit 2 extra and a little light entertainment, must remember that next time how lucky I am I’ve not got royalty coming to stay, and not stress about it!!
If you were selected or there was a good chance that the king or queen was coming to make an official visit, you needed to be rich and well organized, ready to impress, a good host and hope that the royal visit not only happened, as sometimes they did not come, but it was a great success. Well over 2000 people could have been with the king and queen. A royal visit could bankrupt you. You would not only need to ‘remodel the house but hope for some favour out of it to make it pay off.
Nicholas Poyntz was our grandfather on the Norris side through Edward Norris of Salem, Massachusetts.