The Marmion Tower

The Marmion Tower is a gatehouse and castle dating to the 14th century, with alterations in the 16th century. It is constructed of ashlar. The building is three stories high and one bay wide, with a square plan. The east front features a large, chamfered four-centred archway with a hoodmould on the right side. To the left of the archway is a smaller chamfered rectangular opening. The first floor has a central oriel canted window; this window has two lights with cusped openings and Perpendicular tracery, each with a hipped roof above. The second floor has a central moulded mullion and transom window with a hoodmould. A moulded eaves band runs along the top of the building, followed by an embattled parapet.

The south front has a small square opening on the left side of the first floor, and a pointed-arched, cusped one-light window to its right. The second floor has a two-light cusped Y-tracery pointed-arched window with a hoodmould to the left, and a corbelled garderobe to the right. An eaves band incorporates two rainwater spouts. The west front is similar to the east, with a large chamfered four-centred archway, a moulded mullion and transom window on the first floor with a hoodmould, and a central two-light cusped Y-tracery pointed-arched window with a hoodmould on the second floor.

A four-stage stair tower, which rises above the embattled parapet and has its own eaves band and embattled parapet, is situated on the northwest corner. The north front is largely blind, except for a chamfered single-light window on the second floor. This front also features rainwater spouts along the eaves. An octagonal flue stack rises above the parapets.

The interior ground floor contains a tunnel-vaulted passage between the archways, and moulded doorways leading to Porters Lodge, which is also tunnel-vaulted, and a stone spiral stair. The first floor was used as a great hall and includes a large, moulded four-centred arched fireplace. The second floor has smaller, similar fireplaces.

The Tower may have originally been a gatehouse castle with an enclosure to the rear. John Marmion received permission to crenellate his house in 1314. After his death, it passed to his niece, the wife of Sir Henry FitzHugh, and then to the Parr family. William Parr, brother of Henry VIII’s sixth wife, owned the manor until his death in 1570. It then passed to the Crown and was granted to Lord Burghley. Through the Cecil family, it was owned by the Earls of Ailesbury in the 18th century, until 1886 when it was bought by the Arton family.