Layer Marney Tower: A Tudor Triumph and Timeless Family Home

Overview

England's tallest Tudor gatehouse, began construction under Henry Marney in the early 1500s but remained unfinished after his and his son's deaths; despite its incomplete state, it has served as a family residence for centuries, undergoing various modernizations and still housing the Charrington family today.

History

This incomplete Tudor tower is the best example in Britain, and rather beautiful in its own inimitable way, built of brick and terracotta. Layer Marney was built by Henry Marney, 1st Baron Marney who died in 1523, and so the project was taken on by his son John. When he too died two years later, the project was never finished. Nevertheless, Layer Marney has long been a comfortable family residence, having housed 11 families in it 500-year history. With John Marney dead, his daughters became wards of the powerful Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk who sold Layer Marney to Sir Brian Tuke, treasurer to the Royal Household. In 1667, the tobacco merchant Nicholas Corsellis bought the estate for £7,200, and his family stayed for six generations before in 1835 the estate was sold to Quintin Dick, MP for Maldon. By 1884, during the Great Earthquake, the Peache family owned Layer Marney, which was damaged to such an extent that, as a contemporary report described, ‘the outlay needed to restore the tower to anything like a sound and habitable condition would be so large that the chance of the work ever being done appears remote indeed’. Nevertheless, repair work commenced at the hands of Alfred Peache who reroofed the gatehouse and built up a handsome garden. Later, James Peache added bathrooms, electricity, and central heating. In 1901, the stockbroker Walter de Zoete bought the house and continued its modernisation, employing 13 domestic staff there and living it up through the Edwardian period. De Zoete extended the gardens and built a folly, converting the stables into a gallery to house his furniture and art collections. When he lost money out in the Japanese stock market crash, Layer Marney was sold to the Campbell family. In 1959 the house was put up for sale again and on a romantic whim Gerald and Susan Charrington, who had been married in the church at Layer Marney, bought the house. Their family have lived there ever since.

Don’t go home without seeing

The view from the top of the tower – all 99 steps up!

Drop by…

The dog-friendly Layer Fox, a quick drive from the tower, for local ales and good honest pub food

Need another local heritage fix?

About 40 minutes away is glorious and romantic Hedingham Castle, well worth the drive

Our favourite line

‘In terms of modern skyscrapers – or even of medieval cathedrals – Layer Marney Tower is not particularly high, being little over 80 feet. But its total unexpectedness in the flat Essex countryside, and the fact that it is flanked by relatively low domestic buildings gives it a presence out of all proportion to its actual size’ – Russell Chamberlin, 1983