Exploring Westhorpe Hall, Home of Mary Tudor (Queen of France) and Charles Brandon

As part of the research for my book Brandon - Tudor Knight, I decided to travel to Suffolk to see what I could uncover about his manor house at Westhorpe. Their manor house features prominently in my new book, as well as in my previous book, Mary - Tudor Princess. Although, like many Tudor houses, it was demolished in the mid eighteenth century, I was keen to see what I could learn from the site and its location in the Suffolk landscape.

Westhorpe became the main residence for the Brandon family up to the time of Mary's death. Charles Brandon had been made Duke of Suffolk by King Henry VIII and built Westhorpe using Mary's French dower income. He used the moated site of the former de la Pole property, although the new building was on a grander scale. 

When Mary died her French income ceased and Brandon found himself back in debt to the Crown. He soon remarried, to his young ward, the wealthy heiress Catherine Willoughby, and his Suffolk manor and house were taken over by royal trustees in 1535.

An inventory of the property taken three year later in 1538 records a moated house of brick decorated with terracotta panels, built round an open courtyard 126 feet square. The main range of the house on  the eastern side was approached from the west over the moat by an arched bridge, the lower parts of which survive to this day:

Brandon's Tudor Bridge, with an algal bloom over the moat (due to the heatwave)

The 1538 inventory describes a central brick gatehouse with battlements and turrets three storeys high, flanked by three rooms, terminating in corner towers, and that:

'All the wyndowes of the said place be at this present well glassed, and all the walls of the same of bricke and imbateled, leyed over with playster cheker wise white and blake, and all the houses covered with tyle, the gatehowsse and the towers covered with leade'.

A feature of the house was an internal corridor with windows overlooking a large central   courtyard. On the south side were four main rooms, linking at the east end with the service rooms at the lower end of the Hall. The east range contained the Hall, measuring some seventy feet long, with mullioned bay windows onto the courtyard, with service rooms and five other rooms over which was the Brandon's Great Chamber, with large bay windows to the east and west.

(Drawing by Sue Holden based on archaeological evidence)

A dining chamber overlooked a garden to the east, which is thought to have been designed in the French style, like those Mary would have known in the royal palaces of Paris. A tower and private chapel (where Mary lay in state from 25 June until 21 July, 1533) formed the north eastern corner.

The buildings now on the eastern edge of the moat are on the site of the Tudor kitchens, boiling house, pastry house, scalding house and wet and dry larders. When the house was being demolished in the late 1760s, Westhorpe was visited by the antiquarian Thomas Martin of Palgrave, who wrote:

'I went to see the dismal ruins of Westhorpe Hall, formerly the seat of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. The workmen are now pulling it down as fast as may be, in a very careless and injudicious manner. The coping bricks, battlements and many other ornamental pieces, are made of earth, and burnt hard, as fresh as when first built. They might, with care, have been taken down whole, but all the fine chimnies, and ornaments were pulled down with ropes, and crushed to pieces in a most shameful manner. There was a monstrous figure of Hercules sitting cross legged with his club, and a lion beside him, but all shattered in pieces. The painted glass is likely to share the same fate. The timber is fresh and sound, and the building, which was very lofty, stood as when it was first built. It is a pity that care is not taken to preserve some few of our ancient fabrics.'

In 1839 John Wodderspoon, in Historic Sites and Other Remarkable and Interesting Places in the County of Suffolk  noted that:

'The Hall of Westhorpe was of large dimensions and had attached a chapel with cloisters in which existed a fine window of stained glass.  The gardens of large extent were kept in the style of the continental pleasure grounds, the princess having imbibed a taste for the quaint conceits of the French mode of gardening by her brief sojourn in France. The  whole building is however removed.  

In 1988 trial excavations were undertaken to establish the accuracy of the earlier descriptions and measurements, principally by examining the gatehouse. Part of the cobbled floor of the gatehouse was exposed, as well as part of the inner courtyard.

Exploratory trenches were excavated on the inner edge of the moat adjacent to the bridge. These revealed the walls of the southern half of the gatehouse, which appeared to be 22ft square. The walls varied from 60 to 90cm in width and were built up on three courses of brick footings. This building was bonded into the moat wall.

Another trench was dug next to the southern arm of the moat, with the intention of finding the wall of the outer court. The moat wall was located and at its eastern end it was built over by several later walls. At its west end the moat wall formed a straight join with a wall made of re-used Tudor building materials of terracotta, glazed floor-tile and brick.

The pottery recovered was mostly early to mid 18th century, coinciding with the final phase of occupation, although several Tudor sherds were found. Quantities of roof tiles and two sizes of brick were also found. Amongst these were fragments of moulded bricks, including a moulded mullion. Green-glazed floor-tile was found in the gatehouse and red-glazed ones were re-built into a later wall.

Much terracotta was discovered, confirming the extensive use of terracotta decorations as described in the demolition account. Several pieces, including a panel and a capital, were found in the gatehouse area. A large fragment of a window mullion was recovered and many small fragments of roll mouldings and panel were found.

Sample of Italian Terracotta from Westhorpe Manor with Tudor Rose

Sample of Italian Terracotta from Westhorpe Manor showing Brandon's Lion

In 1990 the Suffolk County Council archaeological service undertook more investigation of the site following de-silting of the eastern arm of the moat. This included excavation of the base of the north-eastern tower, which consisted of flint and mortar with stone quoining, on a foundation of crushed building material over a raft of elm planks on timber piles. It was estimated that the tower measured 10 metres (32.8ft) by 8.5 metres (27.9ft).

In 1991 a grant was obtained as part of an English heritage project to pump the moat dry and recover and study the terracotta fragments. These proved to be press-moulded, which might explain the reversal of the crosses on Brandon's coat of arms over the doorway of the present building: 

Westhorpe Hall moated site and associated fishponds were scheduled in July 1999 under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 and deemed to be of national importance. The listing states that the moated site of Westhorpe Hall is of particular historical importance because of its association with Charles Brandon and his wife, and the surviving descriptions of the great house which he built here show that it was an outstanding example of early 16th century domestic architecture. 

The listing adds that evidence recorded in limited excavations on the site and in the desilting of part of the moat, in addition to the remains visible around the central platform have demonstrated that the monument retains much archaeological information concerning this house, including a large quantity of architectural and decorative terracotta.

After living with every detail of Mary and Charles Brandon's lives for the past four years it was amazing to to walk in their footsteps over the Tudor bridge which they crossed so often. The village of Westhorpe is a beautiful place and although it is a shame the Tudor manor house was demolished, I am grateful to Patrick Barker for his time and allowing me full access to such a fascinating site.

Tony Riches

Sources:

Note among the papers of Thomas Martin (d. 1771). quoted in Edward Wedlake Brayley and John Britton (1813). The Beauties of England and Wales (Suffolk, p 203), and in John Wodderspoon (1839). Historic Sites and Other Remarkable and Interesting Places in the County of Suffolk.

Archaeology in Suffolk 1987 compiled by Edward Martin, Judith Plouviez and Hilary Feldman

Gunn, SJ, Lindley, PG Archaeological Journal Volume:145 January 1988

Suffolk Institute Report and notes on some findings, 2002

Architectural Terracotta from Westhorpe Hall, Suffolk,  Anderson, S, The Archaeological Journal 2003.

See also:

Visiting the Tomb of Mary Tudor, Queen of France
Visiting St Margaret's Westhorpe - Parish Church of Mary Tudor, Queen of France and Sir Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk
Researching and Writing Mary – Tudor Princess

Historical Fiction Spotlight: The House of Shadows (De Witt Family 3) by Kate Williams

Available on Amazon UK and Amazon US

The final compelling historical saga concluding a trilogy that began with Storms of War and The Edge of the Fall, from popular TV historian and critically-acclaimed author Kate Williams.

Celia De Witt is half-German, half-English and heir to her family's vast fortune. But it is 1929, the world is changing and her life seems less secure than ever. A shocking revelation from her father sends her far from England and the life she knew and headlong into New York, a city brimming with money and promise.

Celia sets about saving the family firm by creating an innovative new range of convenience foods for the new generation of independent young women. But she also has other plans. The son she thought was dead is in America and the man she once thought she loved is nearby - but if she opens the Pandora's Box of the past, she may find other secrets will escape...

As the shadow of war once again threatens to fall across Europe, Celia is determined to save those she loves, even if it comes at the highest price...

'A beautifully conjured family saga. Fans of Downton Abbey will love it.' - Alison Weir 

'This terrific saga comes with a fascinating twist ... Williams has a gift for showing how great movements in history affect the lives of people caught up in them.' The Times

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About the Author

Kate Williams studied her BA at Somerville College, Oxford where she was a College Scholar and received the Violet Vaughan Morgan University Scholarship. She then took her MA at Queen Mary, University of London and her DPhil at Oxford, where she received a graduate prize. She also took an MA in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway. She now teaches at Royal Holloway. Follow Kate on Twitter @KateWilliamsme and visit her website.

Visiting Framlingham Castle in Suffolk

While in Suffolk doing research for my latest book I was inspired by Sarah Morris' post on the Tudor Travel Guide to visit Framlington Castle.  Once owned by Charles Brandon's nemesis Sir Thomas Howard, Third Duke of Norfolk, this was also where Mary Tudor (daughter of Henry VIII) assembled her troops in the summer of 1553 as she prepared to become Queen of England. (See Sarah's post for a full history of the castle.)

I recommend a cream tea in the English Heritage cafe, then a climb up the steps to the walkway high on the castle walls. It's quite a height but made safe with good guardrails (unlike Harlech Castle!) and from this vantage point you can really begin to understand how the castle works in the landscape.

You can also take a close look at the impressive Tudor chimneys - some of which, we are told, were ornamental as they were never used.

Inside the castle walls is an interesting ‘Poor House', which was built in 1729 and includes stones salvaged from the medieval hall. This is a rare surviving example of the provision made for the destitute poor, prior to the passing of the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834.

Finally, the castle museum includes one of English Heritage's treasured relics, an Apple II desktop PC,  launched in 1977, which went on to become one of the longest running mass-produced home computers, in production for some 17 years and the forerunner of the MacBook Pro I'm using to write all my books on now.

Tony Riches

Book Review ~ A Divided Inheritance, by Deborah Swift

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

A Divided Inheritance is a breathtaking adventure set in London just after the Gunpowder Plot and in the bustling courtyards of 

Golden Age Seville. 

I spotted this book while on holiday in the Greek islands and was intrigued. Elspet Leviston’s journey takes her from the predictable future of her father's lace importing business to the dangerous world of sword fighting in Seville.

I also liked the development of the flawed anti-hero Zachary Deane, and the contrast between the divided worlds of London and Spain. I was only vaguely aware of the expulsion of the Moriscos (descendants of the Muslim population that had converted to Christianity) by the Spanish government in the 1600's, and have been inspired to find out more.

As I'd hoped, Deborah Swift's fast paced narrative and historical detail proved the perfect holiday reading. Highly recommended.

Tony Riches

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About the Author

Deborah Swift lives in North Lancashire on the edge of the Lake District and worked as a set and costume designer for theatre and TV. After gaining an MA in Creative Writing in 2007 Deborah now teach classes and courses in writing and provides editorial advice to writers and authors. Find out more at Deborah's website www.deborahswift.com and follow her on Facebook and Twitter @swiftstory.

Special Guest Post ~ The Jewel Garden, by Marilyn Pemberton

Available on Amazon UK and Amazon US

It was a time when women were starting to rebel against Victorian conventions and to strive for their independence. This is a story of Hannah Russell’s physical, emotional and artistic journey from the back streets of the East End of London to the noisy souks and sandy wastes of Egypt; from the labyrinthine canals of Venice to the lonely corridors of Russell Hall in Kent. Hannah thinks she has found love with Mary De Morgan, a writer of fairy tales and one of William Morris’s circle of friends. But where there is devotion there can also be deceit and where there is hope there also dwells despair.

I became somewhat obsessed with Mary De Morgan (1850 - 1907), having “discovered” her whilst working on my PhD. I went on to write her biography, Out of the Shadows: The Life and Works of Mary De Morgan, but despite significant research there were still huge gaps in my knowledge that really bothered me. I decided to write a novel and fill in the gaps with my imagination, the result being The Jewel Garden.

The story is told in the first person by a fictional character, Hannah Russell, who has a lonely childhood with an uncaring father, who has never got over the death of his wife during child birth. When her father dies Hannah moves to London and meets Mary, and so begins a relationship that lasts for decades.

I have included real family members in the book, such as Mary’s father Augustus, who was an eminent mathematician, Mary’s mother Sophia, who was a renowned spiritualist and social reformer and Mary’s brother William, who  made beautiful tiles, which are still collectible today.

Mary wrote the most wonderful fairy tales (I encourage everyone to read them) and each chapter in The Jewel Garden starts with an extract. However, she was far more than a writer, and my novel has Hannah sharing the experiences that Mary actually had: being invited to a Jewish wedding; visiting poor families in the East End of London; attending a meeting of the Fabian Society and listening to Annie Besant; holidaying in Lynton in North Devon and being entertained by William Morris.

At over fifty years old Mary travelled to Egypt, for reasons unknown, and in a very short time became the directress of a girls’ reformatory. How on earth did this happen? I have never been able to find out the sequence of events, all I know is that she held this position for a couple of years and then died of phthisis (tuberculosis) and is buried in Cairo. This part of the story is where I let my imagination run absolute riot because I know nothing, so imagine everything.

Another fact that is important to the story is that Mary’s mother was an ardent spiritualist and Mary herself was considered to be a “seer.” The jewel garden in the title of the book refers to a notebook Mary’s mother kept in which she recorded the dreams of her six-year-old daughter. One of the jottings is entitled “Mary’s walk in the jewel garden,” and it tells of Mary playing with her sister Alice, who had died three years earlier. The novel starts and ends in the jewel garden.

Although there is much truth in the book, it is a novel and Hannah’s relationship with Mary is pure fiction. Although Mary was the trigger to writing this book and her life provides many of the events, it is actually Hannah’s story. It tells of a young, naive woman, who falls in love with an older woman, who suffers terrible grief when her love dies, and even more grief when she discovers a dreadful truth.

Marilyn Pemberton

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About the author

Marilyn Pemberton has always worked in IT and is still a full-time project manager. However, at the age of forty (over two decades ago!) she decided she wanted to exercise the right side of her brain and so commenced a part-time BA in English literature at Warwick University. This progressed to an MA and then to a PhD on the utopian & dystopian aspects of Victorian fairy tales. Her debut novel, The Jewel Garden, was published in February 2018 by Williams & Whiting. Marilyn is a member of the Society of Women Writers & Journalists, the Historical Novel Society and The Society of Authors. Marilyn is currently working on a new historical novel, set in 18th century Italy that tells of two young boys who are bought from their families by a wealthy count, castrated and then trained to be singers. This was something that was actually done at the time, though this story is purely fictional. It follows the boys as one becomes a successful singer and the other who does not.

Find out more at Marilyn's website https://marilynpemberton.wixsite.com/author
and blog writingtokeepsane.wordpress.com and follow her on Facebook and Twitter @mapemberton54

Visiting the Tomb of Mary Tudor, Queen of France

Mary Tudor, Dowager Queen of France, was the youngest surviving daughter of King Henry VII and the younger sister of King Henry VIII.  Mary was also grandmother to Lady Jane Grey. I spent four years researching her life for my books, as she is born in my book Henry - Book Three of the Tudor Trilogy, and is the subject of my latest book, Mary - Tudor Princess. Mary is also a central character in my next book, about the life of her husband, Charles Brandon.

Mary Tudor died at Westhorpe in Suffolk after a long illness, a little before eight in the morning on the twenty-fifth of June 1533. She was thirty-seven years old. She was laid to rest in the abbey church of Bury St Edmunds. Her alabaster monument was destroyed in the dissolution of the monasteries and her tomb moved to the nearby St Mary’s Church, where it is to this day.

In 1784, Mary’s lead coffin was moved to the chancel of St Mary’s and placed under a plain slab of Petworth marble inscribed ‘Mary Queen of France 1533.’ Although Mary was only Queen of France for some ninety days, it seems she never used her husband's surname or her title Duchess of Suffolk, always preferring to be referred to as Queen of France, so I believe she would have been happy with the simple inscription.

I visited on a bright summer morning and was impressed by the scale of the church, which is one of the largest parish churches in England, with the largest West Window of any parish church in the country.

In the Lady Chapel, there are stained glass windows, provided by Queen Victoria which show events from Mary’ life. In the lower centre window, Mary is shown being 'forgiven' by her brother Henry VIII for marrying his best friend, Charles Brandon, without his permission.

The later inscription and insignia on the wall above Mary's grave and the marble curb were provided on the orders of King Edward VII, who visited in 1904:

When Mary's coffin was moved it was opened and it is reported that her hair was some two feet long, a ‘reddish-gold’ colour and her teeth were even and complete. Locks of her hair were acquired by historian Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford, and Lady Margaret Bentinck, Duchess of Portland. Several specimens claiming to be Mary’s red-gold hair survive, including this one in the Bury St Edmunds Moyse's Hall museum:

I was pleased to see how the town of Bury St Edmunds celebrates the connection with Mary Tudor.  There is even this large poster in the Corn Exchange Wetherspoons:

My book  Mary - Tudor Princess is available from Amazon in paperback, ebook and audiobook editions, and although it is historical fiction, it is based on years of research to ensure her story is as factually accurate as possible.

Tony Riches
See also:

Exploring Westhorpe Hall, Home of Mary Tudor (Queen of France) and Charles Brandon
Visiting the Tomb of Mary Tudor, Queen of France
Visiting St Margaret's Westhorpe - Parish Church of Mary Tudor, Queen of France and Sir Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk
Researching and Writing Mary – Tudor Princess

Book Launch Guest Post by Sarah Dahl ~ Tower: Unchained by Love (A Tales of Freya Short Story Book 6)

New on Amazon UK, Amazon US and Amazon DE

In a world of crackling fires and rough landscapes, long winters and bloody raids, the immediacy of life and death ignites undeniable passions. Warriors and monks, healers and housewives – all follow the call of their hearts and bodies to indulge in pleasures that may forever change their lives. Young Viking Myskia lands on Irish shores to rescue his lover Adisa from the clutches of his family's enemy Raven. After a fierce duel, Myskia finds himself in the confined walls of a strange tower, facing Adisa. Their reunion turns out to be very different than what he imagined. Can the passion they once shared break down the walls that have grown between them after months of slavery? Or has she changed in ways he’s unprepared for? 

Set in the Viking era, this is a stand-alone, adult read with a HEA.

A tower as protagonist – An intimate Viking chamber play

The short story Tower – Unchained by Love is on the one hand the most gritty and bloody of my Tales of Freya. We see our protagonist Myskia attack a village to duel his arch enemy. His reunion with his enslaved lover Adisa turns out very different from what he had hoped for. It’s not like he can just snatch back the lady and run to the boats. Myskia has to break down the walls of the strange tower, and also those that have grown between him and his beloved woman. Until passion can unfold

Inside the tower, I wanted to oppose them like in an intimate chamber play: with nowhere else to go. Forced together. They aren’t the same people as before Adisa’s ordeal, but their bond is strong, and their wills and hearts are too. In this intimate setting, they go through a whole array of emotions; and with the traumatic experiences of especially Adisa, her encounter with Myskia is explosive – in many ways. 

So what I needed as a setting was a space that could intimately contain and intensify this wild exchange between them. So the former lovers end up in the very narrow space of a strange round tower, making both of them uncomfortable but also vulnerable and therefore open up. I specifically chose the slender, quite ancient round towers of Ireland, as seen in Glendalough, as a setting for this Tale. These towers’ history is vague. It is unclear who built them, why, and what they contained. They’re often near religious sites, but not quite on them. This uncertainty is ideal for a writer, as it gave me room to set up my chamber play as I needed it to be.

Our young and passionate hero is challenged not only by his enemy and then Adisa, but also this stone structure. He follows its exotic pull, then has to break into this imposing building, which in itself feels suicidal. Once inside, the narrow confines intimidate and confuse him. There is only one way to go: higher and higher into this dark space.

The round, narrow wall literally forces the lovers back together (be that a good or a bad thing). But it also protects them from the bloody mayhem down in what feels like the real world. The tower has a very surreal and removed-from-it-all intimacy to it. Cramped together, our couple is free from interruptions and distractions and can process their traumas and sudden reunion, to then celebrate the latter (in every sense that comes to mind ;-)).

So as often, there is some inciting “prop” for a story to develop. I had this idea of the tower as an intimate setting long before I wrote the Tale “Tower” – about 15 years ago, when I first saw the round towers “in person” in Ireland, steeped in mystery. Only much later did I plot this story “into” this exact space, and made it part of the story, almost like a protagonist in itself. Another challenger, an opponent to overcome. But also a protector for a while, as if the tower’s huge stony hand was folded around our couple for the time they need to reunite in minds, hearts, and bodies.

Sarah Dahl

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About the Author

Sarah Dahl lives on the edge of the rural German Eifel and writes historical fiction primarily set in the Viking age. She also works as an editor, translates, and coaches new writers in German and English. She is interested in everyday life in bygone centuries and the human stories that may have occurred behind the hard, historical facts. Find out more at her website sarah-dahl.com and find her on Facebook and Twitter @sarahdahl13