Château de la Motte-Husson

From the twelfth to fourteenth centuries, the site of the château was located within the parish of La Motte and was a fortified stronghold.[1] Henri de Husson received the land as concession from Jeanne "La Voyère d'Aron" in 1394.[2] The Husson family, seigneurs (lords) of Montgiroux around 1406, gave their name to the château de la Motte-Husson or Husson Castel.[3]

The Baglion de la Dufferie family[4] (a French branch of the Baglioni family of Perugia)[5] acquired the estate in 1600.[3] The castle was rebuilt in the enclosure of the old square moat. It consisted of a kitchen, cellar, 4 or 5 bedrooms per top, attic above, a chapel, a portal where there is a drawbridge, a bedroom on the said portal, a dovecote, on the whole, covered with slates, behind a small courtyard, ditches and moats around the courtyards, a kennel near the gate.[6] In 1824, land records show the structures, referred to as “La Motte Château”, still being intact, with the moat surrounding the fort.

The current façade is reflective of the efforts of Countess Louise-Dorothée de Baglion de la Dufferie (1826–1902), who told her husband that she wanted a grand residence built on the site of the fort.[1] The new structure would be flanked by two large towers, known as 'pepper shakers', and with a double-ramped staircase, five floors and 47 rooms[7] with separate private suites for Master and Lady, with servant quarters on the second floor and attic space. The château is surrounded by the old square moat, with a walled garden,[8] stable-block,[9] an orangery,[8] and 12 acres of parkland. The original plans and invoices for the building still exist and are on display within the château; adjusting for inflation, the original build was around £1m.

Interestingly, Countess Louise-Dorothée de Baglion de la Dufferie's main residence was near Nantes,[3] a hundred miles to the south west, and the family decided to spend winters in the milder maritime climate, with the château serving as a summer retreat for the family.[10] It had been passed down through generations of the Baglion family. Latterly, Guy de Baglion de la Dufferie had received the title to it in 1954 from Xavier Marie Octave, Count de Baglion de la Dufferie and his wife, Elisabeth Marie Joseph Marthe Charlotte Treton de Vaujuas de Langan, as a part of a dowry. At his death in 1999, it passed to his wife and children.[3] The château remained unoccupied for nearly 40 years when it was put up for sale in 2015.[11]

In 2015, the estate was sold by the Baglion de la Dufferie family to British television presenter Dick Strawbridge and his (then) partner Angela for £280,000.[7] At the time of sale, the château had had no electricity, sewerage or heating.[12] Over the past 5 years, the couple, along with their children Arthur and Dorothy (and Angela’s parents), have restored the property and the outlying buildings with the help of friends and family.[7] A television series called Escape to the Chateau on the British channel Channel Four is devoted to the renovation, reuse, and upgrading of the château into a home and family business.[1]

Legend has it that the region's last wolf was shot from a window of the Château.[13] For many years a stuffed wolf sat at the top of the staircase. It was removed before the sale of the Château, and its current location is unclear. In 2015, Angel secretly designed and ordered a new replica taxidermy-like wolf as wedding gift for her husband that would add to the character of the chateau and bring that tale to life. It has pride of place on the landing at the top of the stairs.[13]

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  Château de la Motte-Husson (c.1910)

• Châteaux of the Loire Valley
• List of castles in France

• Official website