Marks Hall was a Jacobean country house some north of

Coggeshall Coggeshall ( or ) is a town and civil parish in the Braintree district, in Essex, England, between Braintree and Colchester on the Roman road Stane Street and the River Blackwater. In 2001 it had a population of 3,919. It has almost 300 li ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

, England. Previously a timber manor house, the 17th-century brick building was demolished in 1950.

History

In 1163 the manor house and estate of Markshall were granted to the Markshall family after being confiscated from Hugh de Essex. They descended in the Markshall family until the estate was sold to John Cole, who renovated parts of the house. It was then sold to Edward Deraugh in 1581. In 1605 Robert Honywood purchased Marks Hall from Deraugh's grandson, William, pulled down part of the old timber-framed house and built a new brick building in 1609. The estate then descended in the Honywood family to

John Lamotte Honywood John Lamotte Honywood (1647–1694) of Marks Hall, Essex was an English Member of Parliament and High Sheriff of Essex. He was born the 2nd surviving son of Sir Thomas Honywood (Essex MP), Thomas Honywood of Marks Hall, who had been a leading Par ...

who, dying childless by suicide in 1694, left it to his cousin

Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, prais ...

. Robert, the MP for

, modernised the house and died in 1735. It was inherited by Robert's second son, grandson, and then his fifth son,

Philip Philip, also Phillip, is a male name derived from the Macedonian Old Koine language, Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominen ...

. After Philip's death in 1785, and his wife, Elizabeth, sometime later, the estate passed to Philip's distant cousin , Filmer Honywood, the MP for

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

. When Filmer died childless, it passed to his half-nephew, William Honywood and then through his descendants, through to his grandson, William Philip, eldest son of

William Philip Honywood William Philip Honywood (15 April 1790 – 22 April 1831) was an English Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1818 to 1830. Early life and education Honywood was the eldest son of William Honywood and his wife Mary Brockman. ...

. The younger William Philip's widow, Frances Emma, remained at Marks Hall until she died in 1895; after which, the estate passed to Philip Courtenay Honywood, who was the son of Sir Courtenay Honywood, 7th baronet, and the godson of William Philip.

Thomas Phillips Price Thomas Phillips Price (14 June 1844 – 28 June 1932) was a Welsh landowner, mine owner and Liberal politician. Price was the son of the Reverend Canon William Price, vicar of Llanarth. He was educated at Highgate School from 1854 until Decemb ...

(1844-1932), a

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, of or about Wales * Welsh language, spoken in Wales * Welsh people, an ethnic group native to Wales Places * Welsh, Arkansas, U.S. * Welsh, Louisiana, U.S. * Welsh, Ohio, U.S. * Welsh Basin, during t ...

landowner, mine owner, and Liberal politician, purchased Marks Hall, then a mansion and deer park, at auction in 1898. He made provision in his Will to leave the Marks Hall estate to the nation in the interest of agriculture, arboriculture and forestry. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Earls Colne Earls Colne is a village in Essex, England named after the River Colne, Essex, River Colne, on which it stands, and the Earls of Oxford who held the manor of Earls Colne from before 1086 to 1703. History Manor of Earls Colne In the time of ...

Airfield was built on the edge of the deer park and much of the property requisitioned for used as the headquarters for a number of local airfields. The 97th Bombardment Wing headquarters was initially located at the manor. By 1949, the mansion was neglected and said to be in a dangerous state, and was demolished in 1950. The Marks Hall Estate is now the site of

garden A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate bot ...

s and an

arboretum An arboretum (: arboreta) is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees and shrubs of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, many modern arbor ...

References

Country houses in Essex Demolished buildings and structures in Essex Jacobean architecture in the United Kingdom 1950 disestablishments in England Gardens in Essex Arboreta in England Buildings and structures demolished in 1950 {{Essex-geo-stub