More Essex...

Last Saturday we didn't just 'do' Copford, we went to Layer Marney as well. The Marney family lived here for centuries, and under Henry VIII his servant Henry Lord Marney did so well for himself that around 1520 he began to put up a house that would have rivalled Cardinal Wolsey's Hampton Court. He started with the gatehouse which you see in the pictures. It is far taller than those St James' Palace or Hampton Court or any of the Cambridge colleges. Then in 1523 he died. This was something of a setback.

His son, John, second Lord Marney carried on with the work. Then he too died, two years later. The family line seems to have died out. The work on the grand design stopped, and all that was ever built by subsequent owners were some modest wings on either side.

Pevsner says that the main courtyard of the house was meant to be built to the south of the gatehouse, (the photos are taken from the south) which would mean that we are looking at the inside of the gatehouse. This is unlikely, for two reasons. First, the ground falls quite steeply to the south (I was standing at the bottom of a hill to take the pictures). This would make for a courtyard on a slope, not a good idea. It is hard to tell, but I suspect that the ground on the north side of the tower is flatter and more suitable for building on.

Second, the tower looks south over an estuary (the Blackwater?). It would look very impressive from the south if the rest of the courtyard were behind it. Not so impressive if it were hidden by a south wing. Unless that too were going to have its own gatehouse.

The church was rebuilt at around the same time as the tower. It is off the pictures to the left, in other words southwest of the house and down the hill a bit.



There is a large and rather faded picture of St Christopher on one
wall, and the Marney Chapel, containing the tombs of various
Marneys. Impressive in a cold sort of way.






The best touch is this soulful little lion acting as a footrest to one
of the family.