A Journey Through The Centuries At Rye House

Hop on a Greater Anglia train from Liverpool Street for forty minutes and you will see the density of central London gradually start to dissipate away. The train takes you up the valley of Lea River and eventually over the border into Hertfordshire. You will arrive at a stop called Rye House, on the outskirts of the town of Hoddesdon. 

Cross over the Lea River and you will find this red brick medieval gatehouse.

It is the only surviving remnant of what was once the manor of Rye House. Despite it not looking particularly significant today it is one of England’s oldest brick buildings, it was the home of one of the wives of Henry VIII and was the centre of a plot to assassinate a king…

The Origins of Rye House

Rye House once sat on an island amongst the sprawling marshes of the Lea River. The island is thought to have been inhabited since before the Norman Conquest, but was acquired in 1433 by a Danish soldier called Andres Pederson, who later became Sir Andrew Ogard when he settled in England. 

He received permission from King Henry VI in 1443 to fortify his estate. He used Flemish brickmakers to construct his manor and it became one of the earliest post-Roman brick buildings in England.

The manor house was given this rather impressive gatehouse.

It would have had a drawbridge, spanning the protective moat and the entire estate was 156 acres in size. 

The exterior was decorated with characteristic ‘diaper’ work. This diamond pattern would become popular on 16th century brickwork, for example at Hampton Court Palace. 

It also has a wonderful ‘barley sugar’ chimney, as well as gargoyles and carved faces.

Today they have marked out the old outline of the house, as well as locations of specific rooms.

The Tudor Queen

Rye House passed through a number of different hands over the centuries. In 1517 Sir Thomas Parr, leased it from his cousin Sir Andrew Ogard.

Thomas died of the sweating sickness at their Blackfriars home in London in November of that year, but his three young children: five year old Katherine Parr and her two younger siblings Thomas and Anne were raised here by their mother, Lady Maud. Maud had to divide her time between Rye House and court in London, as a lady-in-waiting for Catherine of Aragon.

Rye House was where the Parr children were educated. Katherine Parr enjoyed riding, hunting, playing chess as well as music and dancing. 

At 17 she was married to Edward Borough, the heir of Sir Thomas Borough, in Lincolnshire and left Rye House. This would be one of four marriages in her life, most notably of course to King Henry VIII in 1543, his sixth and final wife before he died in 1547. Fun fact, she is the Queen in English history that had the most marriages.

Katherine died the following year in 1548.

The Rye House Plot 

The notorious Rye House Plot was an attempt to assassinate King Charles II and his brother James (future King James II) in 1683. 

There were concerns at the time among certain Whig politicians, Protestant citizens and republicans that the Stuart monarchy, which had been restored to the throne in 1660, was too close to Catholic Europe and had Catholic sympathies.

Various plots were apparently considered by an Extremist group to stage an uprising of some description. In 1683 Rye House was leased by a man called Richard Rumbold, an ex-Parliamentarian soldier in the civil war and staunch Republican. He was actually one of the guards at the execution of King Charles I in 1649. 

The plan was for an armed gang to lay in wait inside the fortified Rye House, which lay just by the road on which the King and his brother were expected to travel on their way back from the Newmarket races on the 1st April 1683. 

The Plot Fails

There was however, fortuitously it turns out for Charles and his brother, a huge fire in Newmarket on the 22nd March, that burnt down half the town and the races were cancelled. The King and his brother returned early to London and the plot abandoned. 

News of the plot was eventually leaked later that year and many of the plotters were arrested and executed.

The head of Sir Thomas Armstrong, one of the plotters, was the first head to be displayed to the public on the newly designed Temple Bar Gate coming into the city. Some were apparently so eager to get a closer look at the severed head that people started hiring out little telescopes to passing pedestrians. 

Richard Rumbold fled to the Dutch Republic, but took part in the 1685 Argyll’s Rising, an attempt to eject James II from the throne. This plot also failed and Rumbold was executed in Edinburgh.

Rye House in the Victorian Period

In 1834 it became a workhouse and in around 1844 it was bought by the Victorian entrepreneur Henry Teale. You can see a photo of him here on the National Portrait Gallery website.

He set up an amusement park and pleasure garden at the manor house. It included gardens, a maze, a bowling green and a banquet hall and attracted thousands of visitors.

It was due to his efforts and the increase in footfall that a train station was eventually opened at Rye House. 

He managed to acquire and subsequently display the famous ‘Great Bed of Ware’. This unique piece of furniture is a huge 10ft by 11ft bed created in 1590.

It can accommodate up to four couples and many of the owners of the bed have carved their names into it over the centuries. It was so famous it is mentioned in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night when Sir Toby Belch mentions a bed sheet “big enough for the bed of Ware” and in Lord Byron’s Don Juan. 

Teale died in 1876, but the descendants continued to run the estate and the nearby Rye House tavern until the early 20th century when the estate lost popularity. 

The house was demolished, except the gatehouse. The Great Bed of Ware was sold to the V and A and it is one of their best curiosities and treasures today. 

The Gatehouse Today

The gatehouse can be visited on certain Saturdays throughout the year. Unfortunately I went on a Friday so it was not open. 

It is free to visit but donations are of course very welcome. I saw the gatehouse whilst going on a visit to the nearby RSBP reserve called Rye Meads. 

Find out more about the gatehouse here.

Thank you for reading, more of London (and beyond!) history below.