The Bull Inn at Blackmore, converted from former Henrician stableblock. (Photo: author)
Acquired: 1519
Henry’s illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy, was born in 1519 at a house called “Jericho” at Blackmore in Essex. The house had been acquired by the king from the nearby Augustinian priory of St. Laurence. It was a moated house screened by high brick walls and the moat was connected to the River Can (known locally as the “River Jordan”, hence the house’s name). Henry apparently used the house for trysts with the boy’s mother, Elizabeth (“Bessie”) Blount. In 1527 the king granted the priory to Cardinal Wolsey, but this reverted back to royal hands on Wolsey’s fall.
A Georgian brick mansion has been built over the former foundations of the house, but traces of the moat still remain. A local inn, a long low Tudor-era building, is reputed to be the remains of Henry VIII’s stable block.