Amberley Castle

AMBERLEY CASTLE, --What sort of setting would be absolutely idyllic for a wedding? How about a 900-year-old English castle once owned by Queen Elizabeth I? With minstrels on the ramparts, a salsa band in the dry moat, and a harpist in the Great Hall playing "Greensleeves"? With an authentic Victorian horse-drawn carriage to transport the wedding party and a helicopter on the lawn ready to whisk away the blissful couple?

Nestled among the hills and valleys of a quiet corner of West Sussex about an hour's drive south of London, Amberley Castle has been transformed into a charming country castle hotel. Owned and operated by the resident Cummings family, it offers 15 guestrooms and five suites, each with its own Jacuzzi. Yet, while becoming a comfortable hostelry, Amberley remains very much a castle, protected by a 60-foot medieval fortified wall and great oak portcullis (which is lowered at midnight).

On any given day, year-around--but especially during the warmer months--this medieval setting becomes the venue for nuptials. And the folks at Amberley Castle have it down to a fine art--providing as little or as much support and advice as guests desire. This ranges from flowers and wedding cake, to photography, dress design, and wines from one of the finest wine merchants outside of London. Plus music ranging from a string quartet to a blues, salsa, or Dixieland jazz band, spectacular professional fireworks displays, and entertainment provided by medieval jousters (participation invited).

Scenic helicopter flights over the beautiful countryside of the famous Sussex South Down can be arranged. Flights over London and the River Thames create lasting memories.

Besides attracting overnight guests, Amberley Castle has built a reputation as a destination for fine dining. For weddings, it can cater up to a maximum of 55 guests in its historic 12th-century restaurants--the Queens Room with its beautiful barrel ceiling or the Great Room with its polished wood floor, tapestries, and suits of armor. For more intimate wedding parties, the King Charles Room accommodates up to 12. Larger wedding groups opt to use a marquee set up in the castle's extensive grounds. This enables Amberley to cater for up to 250 guests.

"Although, of course, the majority of weddings held at Amberley Castle are British, we have hosted a number of American wedding parties," says proprietor Martin Cummings. "In some cases they have taken over the entire castle. To most, the appeal is the rare opportunity to hold a wedding in a setting surrounded by romantic medieval architecture and ornamental gardens and immersed in almost a full millennium of history."

Guestrooms are decorated with antiques and fine fabrics and each features a Jacuzzi whirlpool tub. Many feature four-poster beds. Other amenities include color TV, video player (with 120 videos), homemade biscuits, and fresh fruit. Five suites, all with private lounges, have been created from two 17th century buildings within the dry moat. This section is known as "The Bishopric," and the suites are each named after the five Bishops of Chichester instituted after the year 1103, when Amberley Castle was built. In fact, for most of its 900 years bishops, Royalists, dukes, and other nobles have occupied the castle. Queen Elizabeth I held the lease to the castle between 1588 and 1603. King Charles II is believed to have stayed at the castle on the night of October 14th, 1651 and again in 1683.

The village of Amberley, which lies within the shadow of the Castle, arguably is the prettiest of the Sussex Downland villages, with its ancient Norman church, thatched roofs, and country pubs. At nearby Amberley Wildbrooks nature reserve are beautiful water meadows with a stunning variety of flora and fauna, the latter including graceful Bewick Swans which fly from Siberia every year to winter at Amberley