(This is a wonderful guest post by an author I really enjoy reading, Tony Riches, whose latest book, Brandon – Tudor Knight, was recently released. I can’t wait to read it over the Christmas break! )
As part of the research for my new historical novel about Charles Brandon, best friend of King Henry VIII and husband of the king’s sister Mary, I visited Brandon’s manor house at Westhorpe in Suffolk. The manor house features prominently in my book, so I needed to have a sense of the scale and layout, as well as its location in the Suffolk landscape.
Westhorpe became the main residence for the Brandon family up to the time of Mary Tudor’s death in 1533. 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 and his Suffolk manor and house were taken over by royal trustees in 1535.
I found an inventory of the property in 1538 which records a moated house of brick decorated with terracotta panels, built round an open courtyard a hundred and twenty six 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. The 1538 inventory also 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. 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 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. 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.
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 walk in their footsteps over the Tudor bridge which they would have crossed so often. The village of Westhorpe is a beautiful place and although it is a great shame the Tudor manor house was demolished, it was a privilege and inspiration to visit such a fascinating site.
About the Author
Tony Riches is a full-time writer and lives with his wife in Pembrokeshire, West Wales. A specialist in the history of the early Tudors, he is best known for his Tudor Trilogy. For more information please visit Tony’s website www.tonyriches.com and his blog The Writing Desk at www.tonyriches.co.uk. He can also be found at Tony Riches Author on Facebook and Twitter @tonyriches.