Goodrich Court

Goodrich Court
A Victorian picture of Goodrich Court, with Goodrich Castle visible to the left
Type	Castle
Location	Goodrich, Herefordshire
Coordinates	51°52′53″N 2°37′53″W / 51.8814°N 2.6314°W / 51.8814; -2.6314Coordinates: 51°52′53″N 2°37′53″W / 51.8814°N 2.6314°W / 51.8814; -2.6314
Built	1828
Demolished	1949
Architect	Edward Blore
Architectural style(s)	Gothic Revival
Location of Goodrich Court in Herefordshire

Goodrich Court, Goodrich, Herefordshire, England was a 19th-century, neo-gothic castle built by the antiquarian Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick in 1828. Designed by the architect Edward Blore, the Court is described by Pevsner as a "fantastic and enormous tower-bedecked house." The Court's situation, on a hilltop facing Goodrich Castle, so offended the poet William Wordsworth that he wished "to blow away Sir Samuel Meyrick's impertinent structure and all the possessions it contained."

Meyrick built the Court to house his very significant collection of armour and antiquities, much of which subsequently passed to the British Museum and to the Wallace Collection. In the years following its construction, Meyrick's house and its collections became a notable element of the Wye Tour.

Meyrick's son predeceased him and after Meyrick's death, the Court passed through a number of hands, housing pupils from Felsted School during the Second World War. When the school left, the building was stripped of its contents, furnishings and fixtures, and completely demolished in 1949–50. Today, apart from a small lodge and the stables, the only significant remainder is the Monmouth Gatehouse, which stands on the Monmouth to Ross-on-Wye Road.

Samuel Meyrick was an antiquarian with an interest in Welsh history who claimed, incorrectly, to be related to the Welsh prince Owain Gwynedd. Meyrick originally intended to buy and restore a genuine Marches castle as his ancestral home, but was unable to acquire one. He explored the possibility of buying Goodrich Castle after a visit in 1823; "the very thing to suit us, so exactly that it seems to have been made on purpose"; but was unable to complete negotiations. Instead he decided to build his own new castle alongside the ruined castle which he named Goodrich Court. Architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner called it a "fantastic and enormous castellated tower-bedecked house", whilst its siting, directly opposite the genuine Norman castle, a positioning which foreshadowed that of Peckforton Castle and Beeston Castle, caused William Wordsworth to condemn it as "impertinent".