Rye House Gatehouse

It’s all in the name:

● Rye House Gatehouse sits on an island between the River Stort

and the River Lee and would have been surrounded by marshland until

modern engineering allowed the water table to be altered. The word

Rye comes from two Anglo Saxon words “atter eye” which translated

means “on an island”. When said together quickly, these words sound

like the word Rye - this is how the Gatehouse got its name.

● The first mention of Rye is in the Domesday Book in the 12th

Century showing that there was a Saxon settlement on the island.

● The Gatehouse itself was constructed in 1443 after Andrew Ogard,

a Danish Lord, asked for the King’s permission to fortify his estate.

He did this by building the Gatehouse, a moat and strong walls around

the edge of the island. The Gatehouse is all that remains of the original

estate having stood now for over 550 years. It is one of the earliest

examples of an English brick built fortification and as such is protected

as a “Scheduled Ancient Monument” by English Heritage. It is

managed by Lee Valley Regional Park Authority.

The Rye House Plot

● From the 17th Century, Rye House became famous after a plot was

hatched here to kill King Charles II and his brother the Duke of York.

● The King and his brother loved horse racing, and regularly passed

Rye House on their way to and from Newmarket Racecourse.

● The conspirators plan was to block the road (which follows the

existing road-line) outside the Gatehouse with an over-turned farm cart

as the King and his brother returned from the races. The road was very

narrow with high hedges on both sides making it perfect for an ambush.

Once the Kings carriage had been brought to a halt, men would rush

out of the Gatehouse, come up behind the King’s party and kill them.

● However, the plot failed as the King returned home a week early

due to a fire at his estate in Newmarket. The plot was revealed a short

time later by one of the conspirators who hoped for mercy, and many

of those involved were executed. The man who owned Rye House at

the time, Richard Rumbold, was one of the key conspirators who fled

to Holland when the plot was revealed. He then returned a few years

later and joined the Scottish rebellion. Although mortally wounded in

battle, he was executed in Edinburgh as a traitor. A quarter of his body

is said to have been impaled on a spike at the top of Rye House

Gatehouse as a warning to others who wished to harm the monarchy.

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● After that Rye House rose to fame again in the 18th Century when

it was turned into a Victorian pleasure park, becoming one of the

biggest attractions of its time. A railway station was built nearby purely

to bring people from London to it. The platform had to be extended

twice due to the large number of visitors. One record claims that

120,000 people visited the park on one Sunday alone!

● As travelling became easier and as seaside resorts such as Brighton

and Southend became more popular, fewer people visited Rye House.

The park was eventually closed and fell into disrepair, it was used for a

while as a workhouse, a construction yard and even a roller-skating

rink up to the early 1950’s when it was gutted by fire. The Lee Valley

Regional Park Authority bought the site in 1971 and opened it to the

public in 1992 after extensive restoration.

The Newel StairsVisitors to Rye House Gatehouse reach the first floor and the turret by

a single spiral staircase.

● This staircase is extremely rare as it is made completely out of

brick. Almost all other brick fortifications in the UK have stairways

made from stone slabs. In Rye House everything, including the treads

(the area you actually step on) through to the vaulting which supports

the entire stair-way is brick. This is an incredibly difficult and

sophisticated construction which shows that only master craftsmen

could have been responsible for the design and construction of Rye

House Gatehouse. No such craftsman existed in England at the time

so they had to be brought over from Belgium.

● Another unusual feature of the stair-case is the hand rail. Built

into the wall and made from specially moulded bricks, only one other

example of this exists in the country which is at Nether Hall in

Hertfordshire.

● Take a look at the direction the stair-case spirals. Notice anything

different about them? The steps leading down turn in an anti-clockwise

direction, spiral staircases usually turn the other way, these stairs have

been deliberately constructed this way.

● At the time of the Gatehouse’s construction swords were still very

much the weapon of the common foot soldier. The vast majority of

people are right handed so if you were a right handed person trying

to fight your way up with your sword then the very design of the spiral

stairs, with the main brick support column in the position it is, means

you would have little space to manoeuvre and use your sword.

● However, if you are a defender trying to stop these attackers

coming up then your right arm, and your sword, are on the widest side

of the spiral stairs giving you plenty of space to use your weapon.

The First FloorThe main room of the Gatehouse houses a model of a brick maker.

● The brick work of Rye House Gatehouse is one of its most

important features and is the reason it is protected as a scheduled

ancient monument. The model shows that the 15th Century

Gatehouse was built from bricks made individually by hand using

different sizes and shapes of wooden mould. The bricks were then

heated up in a “Kiln” to bake them hard.

● When the Gatehouse was constructed, only a few brick-makers

were working in England. Brick-makers had to be brought over from

Belgium because of their unique construction skills.

● At the time brick work was very rare and was only used for royal

buildings and people of the highest nobility. The Gatehouse therefore

indicates the stature of the Ogard family who had it built.

● There are numerous brick built features throughout the building,

one of the most noticeable being the blue “Diaper” work on the

outside walls. The “Diaper” refers to the patterning which is some-

times built into walls, even today, with different coloured bricks.

● The Diapering on the Gatehouse is done with blue bricks. These

blue bricks were made by baking the clay at a different temperature

in the kiln to the red bricks. This is a highly skilled craft as the

temperature was incredibly hard to control in early kilns.

● There is still a considerable amount of the original plasterwork

on the walls of the Gatehouse. Plaster was a great luxury in the 15th

Century and this plaster has survived for over 500 years and is now

protected by clear Perspex.

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The Estate Model

● This model shows how the Rye House Estate would probably have

looked in the 17th Century, around the time of the Rye House Plot.

● This model is based on historical plans and documents of the

time. Since the model was made however new research has shown

that all the walls had battlements running along them, as the roof

of the Gatehouse does, and there would have been a turret in each

corner of the perimeter wall rather than just the one corner shown

in the model. Other than these two details the model is believed to

be historically accurate.

● As you can see from the model, the Gatehouse was once part of

a much larger estate. People coming to the estate would pass through

the outer courtyard where the Maltsters and Stable block were and

approached the drawbridge. The drawbridge would be lowered and the

visitors would have passed through the Gatehouse into an inner

courtyard and from there into the rest of the house.

● Today brick paving has been laid outside on the grass to the rear

of the Gatehouse showing a floor plan of what the entire complex

would have looked like. When you go outside please take a look and

you will get a better idea of the scale of this fortified manor.

● The model also shows the road which passed the Gatehouse,

which at the time was the main route from London to Newmarket.

This was the route King Charles II and his brother would have taken

at the time of the assassination attempt.

The Turret

● After looking around the first floor we continue up the spiral

staircase to the top of the turret which is the highest point of the

Gatehouse and gives a commanding view of the surrounding area.

● Today you can see the RSPB Rye Meads Nature Reserve which is

renowned for it’s large number of kingfishers.

● You can also see the River Lee Navigation which used to be as

important a transport route 200 years ago as the M25 is today!

● The town you can see is Hoddesdon including some of it’s

residential and industrial areas.

● Across the road is the Showman’s Guild caravan park. This was

the site of the original fair ground and maze when Rye House was a

Victorian pleasure park.

● Now try to imagine what this would have looked like 500 years ago

when the Gatehouse was first built. You may have seen glimpses of the

small village of Hoddesdon as it would have been at the time. But apart

from that you would have had a commanding view of the countryside

for miles around and would have easily seen anything travelling by

road or river.

● It’s amazing to think how much things have changed and how

much this building has witnessed in the 550 years of its existence.

The Barley Sugar Chimney

● Whilst looking at the wonderful panoramic view from the turret you

may notice the rather large and very ornate Barley Sugar Chimney. This

style of chimney became a popular feature of later Tudor buildings, but

it is extremely rare to see one dating back to the one at Rye House

Gatehouse.

● Although the chimney was built using conventional bricks, it

was carved by hand into the design you see before you. There were

originally five of these chimneys situated around the manor. Two others

still survive, and now form the gateway onto the island from the

south west corner.

● They are in excellent condition and were preserved by the people

who constructed the pleasure park when they pulled the rest of the

old manor down.

This brings us to the end of the tour of Rye House Gatehouse.

We hope very much that you enjoyed your visit. If you have any further

questions about the things you have seen please ask the member of

staff on duty who will be delighted to help.