Studley was a anglo-saxon settlement mentioned in the Doomsday book servey (1086), where an old castle was built on a site near the present St Mary's church. Thought to have been a 17th century building it was ruinous when Francis Lyttleton-Holyoake purchased the adjoining land in the 1833 and built the present building at a cost of £120,000.
At the time he enclosed some common land where upon a villager uttered the curse that 'whoever owned Studley Castle' should die without owning one acre land. The new owner did die in penury and so did the subsequent owner from 1863, Thomas Walker who was made bankrupt in 1890.
The land changed hands several times until 1903 when The Countess of Warwick brought it for her young ladies where it later became known as Studley College.
During the First World War the building was a Horticultural college and 3 year diploma courses were introduced in 1924 which ran until 1947 for poultry and dairy work, bee keeping, fruit preservation & carpentry.
Plans were made to extend student accommodation as there was a full compliment of 60 students and on the 22nd May 1936 the Earl of Plymouth laid the foundation stone for the South Wing. This comprised of 5 science laboratories on the ground floor and 3 higher floors of single study bedrooms, 50 in all. This building cost £20,000 to build.
Two year's later on the 30th June 1938 HRH The Duchess of Gloucester opened the South Wing. Unfortunately, Lady Warwick was prevented from attending by illness and died later that year.
The South Wing bedrooms were first occupied in September 1937 and by the summer term of 1939 all rooms were filled.
Some restoration of the stone work of the main building was carried out in 1961/1962 and its use was more widely extended to include seminars and outside courses.
In 1969 the college was closed as money needed for its expansion program was not raised.
The Castle was then owned by MG Rover for its training purposes until the company dissolved.
In 2004 it was purchased by Mr Kassam of the Firoka Group as a hotel & conference centre.
