Tickenhill Manor

Description

Tickenhill Manor was originally owned by the Mortimer family, but in the 15th century became crown property. Henry VII enlarged the house into a palace for his son Arthur, Prince of Wales. Later, it was a residence for the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth Tudor. The palace was built of timber and had a great court and gardens with a gatehouse, chapel and several outbuildings. (Worcestershire Historic Towns Survey)

The site of Tickenhill Palace, which stood on high ground to the south-west of the town, is occupied by an early 18th-century house of some size, with modern additions, now used as a school. The cellars may contain some remains of the original building.
The so-called manor of TICKENHILL (Tykenhull, xiv cent.; Tiknyll, Tyknell, xv cent.) is first mentioned as distinct from that of Bewdley about the middle of the 15th century, but it seems clear from the extents given in the earlier inquisitions that they were in reality the same. No evidence has been found that the courts were ever held separately or that there was more than one capital messuage, while the earliest manor-house seems to have stood on the site of the present one 'in a goodly Parke well wooded, on the very knappe of an Hill that the Towne standeth on.' In spite of this the manor did not apparently take its name from the hill until almost the end of the 14th century, when it is indifferently described as 'Beaulieu manor' and 'the manor of Tykenhull with the vill of Beaulieu.'
In the earliest extent (1304) the house is described as ruined, but in 1336 it was being repaired. There seems to be no direct evidence of the building traditionally ascribed to Richard Duke of York, though no doubt the house was put in order afresh when he came to stay there, but in the early years of his son's reign great alterations were made. A large hall, 100 ft. long, with chambers above and below, was built on the southern side of the existing house, and the Ministers' Accounts of 1472 refer to the making of new doors and windows and the 'stone tiles' that were brought for the roof. The expense of the carriage of 'greater stones' is also entered, but the house was built chiefly of timber, probably from the neighbouring forest, and plastered.
It is possible that this enlargement was made in view of the proposed removal to the Marches of the Prince of Wales's Council, which, with John Alcock, Bishop of Worcester, as president, was appointed in accordance with several precedents by Edward IV in 1473. The plan of holding it in the Marches was continued by Henry VII, who probably appointed a council for his son Arthur about 1493, when the prince was made justice there, and is said to have further enlarged Tickenhill and made it into a palace for this purpose. Prince Arthur was married by proxy to Catherine of Aragon in the chapel within the manor in 1499, and continued to live chiefly here and at Ludlow until his death in 1502. (VCH 1924)