Acton Court

A Talk by Jackie Carpenter on 8 October 2024.
Report by Stan Morrissey.

You get a message that the King will be visiting you along with his entire court. What do you do? Opening up the spare room and changing the sheets might not be enough, especially when the king is Henry VIII. Acton Court’s owner, Nicholas Poyntz, certainly thought so and proceeded to build an entire new wing. It cost him a fortune and there are no records that Henry actually stayed there.

So explained Jackie Carpenter, our speaker this month, a retired History teacher and leader of the Thornbury U3A Archaeology group, who gave us an interesting overview of Acton Court and its owners.

Acton Court, on the Latteridge-Iron Acton Road, is a substantial building, hidden behind an arched gateway. The manor, mentioned in Domesday Book, was owned by the Acton family, hence Iron Acton (though whether iron was mined there is not known), then by the Poyntz family from 1344 to 1680. Over this period the family gradually acquired influence and property by the age-old methods of clever marriages and shifting allegiances. One Poyntz married a relative of Elizabeth Woodville, wife of Edward IV, so gaining connection to the Yorkists, though later he was knighted at Bosworth by Henry Tudor. Our Nicholas ‘the Builder’ Poynz of Henry VIII’s time was another big shot, painted by Holbein and befriended by Thomas Cromwell, though it’s said he wasn’t the brightest of men.

Henry VIII, like other monarchs, made a summer progress each year, travelling around the country with his retinue to show off his power and magnificence and staying at his courtiers’ houses. Although a visit was an honour it could be ruinous. For a projected two-day visit in 1535 by Henry and his second wife, Anne Boleyn, Nicholas’s new wing was completed in six months, replete with Tudor roses, Latin texts, a frieze designed by Holbein and many expensive glass windows.

Henry’s original itinerary – mentioned in Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall — was Thornbury, Bristol and then Acton Court. But there was plague in Bristol so, although no records show it, he probably went straight from Thornbury to Acton Court; it is said that Nicholas was knighted by Henry on this visit.

Although the east wing continued to be a major part of the dwelling, by the 17th century it was starting to subside and buttresses were built to retain it. Sadly, once the Poyntz family died out, the house declined rapidly. It was used by generations of farmers, and presumably their animals. Little of the original building of Acton Court now survives but the interior rooms would have looked rather like Porch House in Thornbury, which is of a similar date.

In 1976 a new chapter began in its life. Dorothy Brown, a member of the Bristol Trust for the Preservation of Buildings, ‘discovered’ it. It seems strange that such a significant building, next to a frequented road, became lost but there are no records for the period. When it later came up for auction, Dorothy mortgaged her own house and bought it. At one point Dorothy noticed diggers in an adjacent field. Scenting trouble she applied for an emergency protection order and got the building listed in 24 hours. Eventually English Heritage took it over and it is now owned by the Rosehill Trust, but its survival is due to Dorothy.

When she acquired it, the building was in a very poor state; the east end was collapsing and walls sagging. This was the wing constructed for Henry’s visit and was found to have been set on soil with no proper foundations. So there were jerry builders even in 1535 but, to be fair, they had only six months to create it with very limited equipment. A lot of restorative work has been done and it is now stable.

During the ongoing restoration many discoveries have been made. Acton Court can boast one of only two surviving Nicolaus Kranzer sundials, dated 1520, which is now in the British Museum. The Holbein frieze was rediscovered under a coat of whitewash. In 1990, an ensuite garderobe (toilet) was found hidden in a wall, a rare Tudor survival. A recent geophysical survey in the orchard found disturbed soil, which hasn’t yet been investigated but may show the sites of outbuildings.

See the Acton Court website: for more information.