HMS Berkeley Castle (K387) HMS Berkeley Castle (K387) HMS "Berkeley Castle" was a Castle-class corvette of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. She was named after Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire. The Castle-class corvettes were an improved and enlarged derivative of the earlier Flower-class corvettes, which was intended to be built by shipyards that could not build the larger and more capable frigates. The greater length of the Castles gave made them better seaboats than the Flowers, which were not originally designed for ocean escort work. Large numbers (96 in total) were ordered in late 1942 and early 1943 from shipyards in the United Kingdom and
Sudeley Castle to the public. It took two years to convert the home into a tourist attraction, but Mark died in 1972, leaving a large amount of both debts and death duties. Lady Ashcombe married Baron Ashcombe, and the couple made major renovations. Lady Ashcombe and her children have since taken over the management of the castle as a visitor attraction. BBC Four featured an investigation into the castle on 27 June 2007 titled "Crisis At The Castle". This detailed the turmoil associated with managing the castle within three sets of owners and their families. Closing the castle to the general public