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Acton Court: The Evolution of an Early Tudor Courtier's House (None)
Acton Court The Evolution of an Early Tudor Courtier's House - None Author:Robert Bell, Kristy Rodwell For more than 400 years generations of the Acton family, and their successors the Poyntz family, occupied the substantial manor house at Iron Acton in South Gloucestershire. Successive remodelling and extensions of their thirteenth-century moated manor house reflected the growth in wealth of the Actons, and later the increasing prosperity and ri... more »se to royal favour of several Poyntz family heirs, culminating in a three-day visit in 1535 by Henry VIII, Queen Anne Boleyn and their retinue. Archaeological evidence has shown that a new east range was most probably built especially for this royal visit. Much of its first-floor layout and some of the elaborate painted decoration (possibly by craftsmen of the Royal Works) survive, and debris was found of stucco (very early examples of its use) from a ceiling and an overmantel. Exotic glass and ceramic tableware had been bought, presumably for the occasion. More building development by the mid-1550s, the last major works at the site, gave Acton Court the outwardly regular appearance of a courtyard house. The surviving structures at Acton Court display much of their mid-sixteenth-century appearance.« less