castle's past, and showing off the historical artefacts and pieces of artwork in the collection. The castle opens to the public seasonally and sections are used as a hotel, but it also remains a family home, with Elizabeth, Lady Ashcombe often called the "chatelaine of Sudeley". As of 2019, one of the tours of the castle included a visit to the "family's private apartments available daily from Spring to the end of October. Sudeley has also been used as a wedding venue for some years. Several celebrity weddings have taken place at the castle, from Elizabeth Hurley's wedding in 2007, to Felicity Jones's wedding to Charles Guard in 2018. In September 2019, thieves stole items from the castle's royal exhibition, including "rare keepsakes made from gold and precious stones and presented by King Edward VII to his last mistress". Because of restrictions necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the castle was closed for some months; certain parts re-opened for a time during 2020. As of early March 2021, the Sudeley Castle & Gardens website was indicating that "exhibitions are closed until 2021. Reopening dates and information will be announced as soon as possible". Gardens and parkland Sudeley Castle sits at the heart of a 1,200-acre estate that lies nestled among the Cotswold valleys. The estate itself is made up of a mix of open pasture fields and woodland, and is crisscrossed by a number of public footpaths, most notably, the Cotswold Way, a long-distance footpath. These footpaths have connected Sudeley with other historic towns and monuments, such as Hailes Abbey, Broadway, Belas Knap and Stanway House. The castle gardens cover some 15 acres and are available for the public to visit during the castle's open season.The garden is split into ten separate gardens, the centrepiece being the Queens' Garden. The Queens' Garden is the Victorian replanting of an original Elizabethan parterre garden that had been discovered in the same location, the large yew hedges surrounding it date back to 1860. Celebrated rosarian Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall is responsible for the current rose display in the Queens' Garden, which is now home to over eighty different varieties of rose. Another garden at Sudeley is The Knot Garden, made up of more than 1,200 box hedges, its intricate design drew inspiration from the pattern of the dress worn by Queen Elizabeth I in "The Allegory of the Tudor Succession", a painting that hangs in the