The Darnley Mausoleum...

The Darnley Mausoleum, as seen looking west...

Just outside Cuxton’s northern parish boundary, over the border in Cobham, lies the Darnley mausoleum. This striking local landmark is an isolated, imposing and eerie structure, built of brick and faced with white Portland stone, and has a long and somewhat chequered history. 

The Darnley coat of arms: "Finem Respice" - Consider The End (i.e. how would you like to be remembered?)

The Earls of Darnley, with connections to Cobham Hall dating back to the 13^th century, were usually buried in Westminster Abbey. By the late 18th century however, their vaults were full. In his will, the 3rd Earl, John Bligh, left instructions for a mausoleum to be built in Cobham Park, Kent, where he and his descendants could be laid to rest in a grand manner.  (His unfortunate grandson Edward, the fifth Earl, has his own modest and sadly unrestored memorial just down the hill from where the mausoleum is now). 

Of the detailed instructions he left in his will, it clearly stated that he wanted a square stone building with a 'prominent pyramid' surrounded by a dry moat.

View looking east, showing the vaulted staircase to the circular chapel on the first floor...

 After the Earl's death, the family commissioned architect James Wyatt to design a mausoleum following the instructions set out in his will. Wyatt exhibited his design at the Royal Academy in 1783, but due to a heavy workload, the mausoleum was built under the supervision of another famous architect, George Dance the Younger. 

The mausoleum was completed in 1786, at a cost of £9000 (over £1.7 million in today's prices) but for reasons that remain unclear (possibly involving a dispute with the Bishop of Rochester) the Darnley Mausoleum was never consecrated and could not be used for burial. 

View looking north-west, with entrance to the ground floor crypt.  Note the representations of sarcophagi on the corners of the roof...

However, shortly after it was completed, Humphrey Repton started to redesign the landscapes around Cobham Hall for the 4th Earl in the 1790s and subsequently over nearly 30 years. As a result, the mausoleum became an important landscape feature, sitting at the highest point of the Darnley estate. 

During the 20th-century the Earls of Darnley struggled to maintain the Cobham estate, with the mausoleum’s declining state highlighted in Country Life magazine 1939.

Moving out of Cobham Hall in the 1950s, the family sold off most of the estate, although the Darnley Mausoleum and surrounding woodland remained in the family’s hands. 

Without a gamekeeper to maintain security around the mausoleum, it became the main attraction for vandals, with graffiti and over 90 wrecked cars littering the site.

Burnt-out cars, early eighties...

After an arson attack in the crypt on 5 November 1980, the floor of the chapel collapsed, and the elegant outer staircase was destroyed. With much of the interior blackened, damaged and destroyed, the future looked bleak for the mausoleum. 

It continued to decline, and schemes proposed included moving it to Shorne Wood Country Park or even to the United States. These came to nothing. In the same period vandalism and joy-riding of stolen cars became endemic in the woods, making it effectively out-of-bounds to mainstream users. 

The 11th Earl of Darnley renewed attempts to find a long-term solution. After a public inquiry, developers were granted permission to convert the mausoleum into a palatial residence, but they went bankrupt before the scheme could be realised. 

In 2001, the Cobham Ashenbank Management Scheme, known as CAMS, was formed as a consortium comprising the National Trust, English Heritage, Cobham Hall, Natural England, Kent County Council and Gravesham Council. 

The plight of the mausoleum was highlighted in the first series of BBC televisions ‘Restoration’ in 2003, which publicised severely neglected buildings of heritage importance. Although not being chosen by the nation as the ‘winner’, CAMS were eventually able to provide the funding for Gravesham Borough Council to buy the mausoleum and the surrounding woodland for £150,000.  

Aftermath of the arson attack, collapsed floor...

CAMS also secured £5m from the Heritage Lottery Fund and later £746,000 from the Office of The Deputy Prime Minister and Union Railways (which built the High Speed One railway) to fund the restoration.  

Fortunately, some original drawings existed and in 1946, James Wraight RIBA had also photographed and made full, measured drawings of the building, which greatly facilitated restoration to its previous state before any vandalism. 

The restored first floor ("piano nobile") with plinth and rose marble columns

In 2010, the Darnley Mausoleum won the ‘Conservation and Craftsmanship’ category in the Kent Design Awards, as well as their ‘Project of the Year’.

 

The restored domed ceiling, as seen from the upper floor...

A condition of the Heritage Lottery Fund was that ownership and maintenance of the property would transfer to the National Trust. In April 2014, the Mausoleum opened its doors to visitors and, staffed by knowledgeable and friendly volunteers, it continues to welcome visitors (usually on the first Sunday of every month during the summer).

Restored chapel window...

Rose marble columns in the chapel...

Spaces for coffins in the ground floor crypt...

Domed ceiling of the crypt...

The crypt, with the central bay that would have housed the remains of the third earl, had the mausoleum been consecrated...

I was able to take advantage of their hospitality today, and if, like me, you are fascinated by local history, then I’d strongly advise you to take a look around when you can. 

References:

1)    The National Trust, Cobham Mausoleum

2)    BritainExpress.com, entry for Cobham mausoleum...

3)     Darnley Mausoleum, Wikipedia

The Toe Memorial...

The Toe Memorial - as it is now, and as it was 100 years ago...

The remains of the "Toe Memorial" today...

At the top of the path that runs to the west of Birch Wood, just to the south of the parish boundary between Cuxton and Cobham, lie the remains of a rather curious monument, locally known as the “Toe Memorial.”

Edward Bligh, 5th Earl of Darnley...

Hidden amongst a stand of yew trees, it marks the spot where (so the story goes) Edward Bligh, the 5th Earl of Darnley, FRS, (b.1795) received a self-inflicted wound that led to his untimely death at the age of 39. As local historian Derek Church tells us:

“On 4^th. February 1835, Lord Darnley was walking in the [Cobham] Park with his cousin, Charles Bligh, when they came across some woodcutters. Possibly thinking that he could do better, Lord Darnley borrowed an axe and said ‘Now I’ll show you how to cut a root in halves’. He struck a mighty blow that glanced off the root and nearly severed his little toe..." 

He started and said: “I have harmed myself, I fear! But it might have been worse and I ought to consider myself fortunate…”  He staggered to a nearby cottage just above the scene of the accident, where his foot was dressed.

The Earl clearly didn't take the accident seriously: only the next day he wrote: “We are all well here, barring that I almost cut off a little toe with an axe yesterday: providentially it is a matter of no consequence, but might have been a serious accident...

But in the days before tetanus injections, such an injury was a serious matter. This illness, (also known as lockjaw) set in and a week after the accident, the Earl died.

Edward Bligh, 5th Earl of Darnley...

His grieving widow, the Countess of Darnley, Emma Jane Bligh (nee Parnell), mother of Lord Darnley’s five children, subsequently had the memorial built to commemorate the incident.

Some have written that the Countess Darnley’s shrine to her late husband is a “monument to arrogance and stupidity”, but a little research soon shows that the arrogance and stupidity lies only with those who would suggest such a thing. Indeed, this slur has been thoroughly debunked by local historian Geoff Ettridge in his excellent blog post on the subject (a link to which is given below).

As Geoff tells us, the 5th Earl of Darnley was, by any standards, a forward-thinking, honest, liberal man who was well respected by all who knew him, and his sad loss was keenly felt by both his peers and his estate workers at the time. To imply that he was perennially arrogant or stupid is a grievous sleight, both upon the man’s character and to his memory.

The memorial, alas, has not withstood the tests of time. Rather like the adjacent Darnley mausoleum (built in 1876 by the third Earl of Darnley, Edward’s grandfather) it suffered extensive vandalism in the seventies and eighties, but unlike the mausoleum, it has not been subject to restoration.

A photograph of the memorial from around 1920 shows the Toe Memorial as it was in its original state (see below).

The Toe Memorial, c. 1920...

I suspect that the scrap value of its intricate metal railings may have been a big factor behind its subsequent destruction. There is certainly no trace of them in the area now, whilst the carved stonework still lies sadly scattered around the remaining plinth.

Debretts Peerage tells us that the Arms of Bligh (the heraldic symbols of the Earls of Darnley) comprises of “Azure, a Griffin segreant Or, armes and langued Gules, between three Crescents Argent. Crest: A Griffin’s Head erased Or. Supporters: On either side a Griffin wings expanded Or, ducally collared and chained Azure.”

I don’t have a clue as to what any of that means, but the gryphon motif can be seen on one of the fallen stones, and features prominently above the entrance to the nearby Darnley Mausoleum, as shown below…

Headstone from memorial bearing the Darnley heraldic gryphon...

Heraldic Darnley gryphons above the Mausoleum entrance (N.B. Finem Respice: Consider The End)...

Perhaps one day the Toe Memorial will be restored to its former condition but for the moment, it remains one of Cuxton’s many hidden and intriguing gems.

References:

1)   Cuxton: A Kentish Village by Derek Church (published by Arthur J Cassell Ltd, 1976, ISBN 0 903253 12 7), p 18.

2)    "Memorial to Lord Darnley's Toe", Geoff Rambler's Weird and Wonderful Kent, blog post by Geoff Ettridge (link here).

3)   Lost Landscapes - Cuxton Heritage Trail (link here).