Blandings Castle

An amiable pile of a Tudor building, at the southern end of the Vale of Blandings in the county of Shropshire. The town of Market Blandings is nearby. Blandings Castle is at the centre of several novels and short stories. A detailed description, collated from the books, is on a second page.

There has been much speculation on the whereabouts of the 'real' Blandings, with many buildings having being suggested and even a book written on the subject, In Search of Blandings by Col. Norman Murphy. All good, harmless fun but before anyone takes it too seriously, there is no single Blandings.

In his notes to Sunset at Blandings, Richard Usborne reports that Wodehouse told him the skyline of Blandings came from memories of Corsham Court near Bath (where PG had once skated during school holidays). In a letter to Mr Usborne dated 14 January 1955 (published in Yours Plum), Wodehouse clearly states that Blandings is purely imaginary. He supposes that it is a composite of country houses he visited when a child and may have got the lake from Corsham Court.

PG spent his summer holidays in the late 1890s at Stableford in Shropshire, where he visited many of the local large houses. He also knew parts of the neighbouring Worcestershire; he had relatives living there and it is clear from his books. We may assume that some of the houses he visited in these counties contributed to the 'design' of Blandings many years later. Which and how is possibly where the amateur biblio-archaeologists could direct their energies, with just as much fun for them and us.

There are also theories on the origin of the name 'Blandings' including one roping in the Beatrix Potter story The Tale of of Pigling Bland although the castle was named long before the Empress arrived to grace the scene. May I suggest that PG might have been using his knowledge of Latin, in which the word 'Blandus' means 'pleasing', the combination giving 'Blandings'.