This month marks the 500th anniversary of the death of the man who gave us Essex’s first high-rise – Layer Marney Tower. We look back at the many chapters in this iconic home’s past and look forward to the events planned to celebrate the notable anniversary, which will see some of the UK’s foremost historians descending on the landmark building for a grand history festival Words: Emma Palmer For five centuries, Layer Marney Tower has been many things to many people (to 11 different families to be exact), but to Nick and Sheila Charrington, the famous red-brick mansion with its enchanting octagonal towers and turrets jutting out over the glorious Essex countryside, it’s the place they call home.
The couple are fortunate enough to own, live and work in one of Essex’s most majestic buildings, which also happens to be home to the tallest remaining Tudor gatehouse in the UK. The home is nestled within stunning grounds on the shores of the river Blackwater near Colchester and has become one of the county’s most popular tourist attractions and wedding venues.
Layer Marney was built to rival Hampton Court Palace in Surrey – the most impressive abode of the Tudor age. We know Henry VIII stayed within these very walls in 1522. This was around the time he was growing tired of his wife, Catherine of Aragon, but hadn’t yet met Anne Boleyn. He would have wandered around the house’s royal apartments and its winding staircases, taking in the views of the Essex countryside. Who knows what else he got up to here?
Gatehouses had been around since antiquity. Originally, they were used as a means of defence, but it was the royals and gentry of the 1500s who became obsessed with turning them into imposing entrances for decorative purposes. The bigger the better, and size mattered to our Tudor ancestors, especially Lord Henry Marney.
He was the man who began construction of the house in the 1520s. He hired the best architects he could find – possibly the King's Italian architect, Guialamo de Travizi – to create its eye-catching gatehouse, which reached a colossal 80ft high.
A close friend of King Henry VII and of Henry VIII, Lord Marney rose through the ranks at Tudor court, going from lawyer to Knight of the Bath, to Duke of York to Knight of the Garter to eventually the cream of jobs: Lord Privy Seal.
Although we know Marney was present at the wedding of Henry VIII’s brother Arthur to Catherine of Aragon (a short-lived marriage as the history books will tell us) and he seemed to well-liked at court, he doesn’t appear to have the historical gravitas of some of his contemporaries such as Thomas Boleyn or Thomas Cromwell.
We don’t tend to see him portrayed in TV dramas like The Tudors or Wolf Hall. Perhaps he preferred to stay in the shadows, which was probably a good idea as anyone who got too close to Henry normally ended up with their head on the executioner’s block.
What we do know about him is that he wanted Layer Marney to be a statement house that would reflect his personal wealth and power, as well as his relationship to the king. He spent a fortune on his des-res, using decorative terracotta crenellations and Italianate mouldings, buttresses, chimneys and gables. Black glazed bricks were intermingled with red clay bricks to form stunning patterns.
We also know that he wasn’t a modest man. He certainly believed in his own self-importance, if his death in May 1523 is anything to go by.
Sheila, who along with Nicholas took over the running of the tower from Nicholas’ parents in 1989, explains: ‘Marney died not at the tower but in his London home, which we now think is just off Cannon Street in the City of London. He felt himself so important that he organised a three-day funeral procession for his body to be brought back all the way to Layer Marney Tower.’ Transporting Lord Marney’s body from London to the Essex countryside in 1523 when there were few decent roads would have been some journey. Records relating to the funeral procession show that four orders of friars were drafted in for the operation and several churches were taken over for his body was to lay in rest overnight.
Lord Marney – like most men of his stature in Tudor times – also made sure his immortal soul was attended to in the afterlife. In his will, he requested that ‘24 poor men dressed in black gowns’ hold torches at his burial dirge and mass. It must have been an eerie sight to behold.
Sheila adds: ‘Nick and I read the transcription of the original document held at the College of Arms in London that gives the details of the procession. It is so thorough that it even names the pubs that the people in the procession slept in.’ Sheila and Nick will be replicating this grand funeral procession this month (though on a smaller scale) as part of the tower’s 500th anniversary celebrations to mark the death of Lord Marney.
The three-day event will begin on July 14 from Marney’s house near St Swithins, London Stone – the site of a former medieval church – and will include a historical talk and walking tour to see the procession records at the College of Arms, as well as the three churches where his body stopped as it made its way out of London.
Day two will follow the route of Lord Marney’s body from Stepney to Chingford, and again people are invited to take part and join the stroll. On the third day, July 16, things will get a lot more animated as walkers are invited to don Tudor costumes (dressing up as nuns, monks, farmers and gentry) to join in the final leg of the funeral parade as it makes its way from Church Street in Tiptree to Layer Marney Tower.
The ‘coffin’ will be drawn for the last three miles by six horses with Lord Marney’s effigy on top. There will be a Tudor fair at Layer Marney Tower with stalls, games and food from 11am to 5pm. The coffin will arrive around 12pm and will proceed to the church next to the tower – the place of Lord Marney’s burial.
Sheila explains: ‘It will be a modern and more modest version of the procession. I find it extraordinary that we know so much and therefore can walk in so much history. Nick and I have visited the churches that Henry Marney will have been in, walked a mere 10 miles along a similar route his body will have journeyed and regularly worship in the church he is buried in. This year’s July event offers this unique opportunity to everyone.’ Lord Marney may have left detailed instructions when it came to his funeral, but he was severely lacking in making provisions to continue his vision for Layer Marney Tower. Historians believe he entrusted the continuation of the work to his son John (his only child), but as fate would have it, John wasn’t long for the world either.
John died just two years later, leaving the original plans incomplete. What we have today, although sumptuous, is but a glimpse of what the extravagant palace would have looked like if Lord Marney had lived longer.
Still, all these centuries later, the home has expanded and evolved and is now in the capable hands of Nick and Sheila. Nick’s family had bought it in the late 1950s from a family who had spent the last 30 years living in Scotland.
Sheila, who had a career as a bookbinder before she met her husband, says. ‘We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful building. We know that we sleep in a room once slept in by Henry Marney and watch television in a room once slept in by Henry VIII. Our home has seen much – if walls could talk!’ Sheila and Nick have employed specialist researcher Susan Moore to delve deep into the history of the tower. ‘If you live in an old house, somehow you always want to know more about its past,’ Sheila says. ‘With such an important anniversary this year, Nick and I decided to commission Susan to research in places like the National Archive and Royal Palaces Library to find out as much as she can about Henry Marney.
‘Goodness me, she has added so much to the information we had known, and Henry Marney has become a richer character to us!’ The couple will be sharing that history with visitors at a special event on September 24 to 25, with their very own history festival. The event will see some of the UK’s most-respected historians delivering talks on subjects relating to the tower.
‘Anyone interested in Tudor history will have the opportunity to hear some of the finest historians talk on their specialist subject: Dr David Starkey on young Henry VIII, Tracey Borman on Tudor women, Susan Jenkins on the effigies in Westminster Abbey, as well as Susan Moore presenting the much rounder image of Henry, 1st Lord Marney. I can’t believe our luck. I just wrote to them with the hope that they may be interested in coming, and they all said yes!’ Layer Marney is constantly evolving. The outside may still have its Tudor façade, but the inside wall panelling is more Victorian and Edwardian. Today, the grand dining rooms have been fashioned out of the old storerooms and servants’ sleeping quarters. The Tukes room, which has a spectacular Tudor ceiling, is now used for events, talks, banquets and weddings.
It’s no surprise that Layer Marney has become a favourite amongst TV and film location scouts. When Antiques Roadshow was filmed here in 2011, it attracted one of the biggest crowds in the show’s history. It’s also no wonder that groups of history buffs come from all over the country to experience guided tours of the home. Meanwhile, the grounds play host to swathes of events each year, from book festivals and historical re-enactments to fayres and outdoor productions.
Although it is a private house, anyone can stay here and experience their very own slice of history. The home has two private apartments, which are rented through Airbnb, as well as glamping tents tucked in the estate’s woodland, which make for a unique stay.
As the tower looks to the past to celebrate this July, we can only wonder what the future has in store for one of Essex’s most distinguished and important buildings. No matter what happens in the next chapter for Layer Marney, you can bet it will still be standing for many more centuries to come.
Find out more about the 500th events at layermarneytower.co.uk
