Tortworth Court is a Victorian mansion in South Gloucestershire built in Tudor style between 1848 and 1853 by Lord Ducie. Its architect was Samuel Sanders Teulon. During World War II the Grade II listed mansion became a naval training base for coding and signals, under the name of HMS Cabbala, and a mast was erected in the high reception hall. By the 1990s it had become derelict, and suffered a large fire in 1991, but was afterwards restored in its original style and extended at a reputed cost of £25 million, and reopened in June 2001 as a high quality hotel operated by Four Pillars Hotels.
Tortworth Court is especially notable for its extensive arboretum developed by Henry Ducie between 1853 and 1921, and specialising in rhododendrons, conifers, oaks and maples. This surrounded the property and continues to be maintained and supported, though it is now divided between the hotel grounds, the grounds of Leyhill Open Prison (it is accessible by a public footpath), and private land still owned and farmed by the Ducie family.[1] Rivalling at the time the collection of George Holford, it still, despite the ravages of time, contains more than 300 specimens including unusual and rare species, and many fine specimen trees.
Tortworth Court also gave its name to Saint class steam locomotive No. 2955 operated by the Great Western Railway.