In a vast Kentish park, Cobham Hall raises its wings of red brick crowned with turrets: it is one of the great Elizabethan houses of the South East, built by the Brooke family, the Lords Cobham, close to power under Elizabeth I.
A house of courtiers
From the 1580s, William Brooke, tenth Lord Cobham, set out to rebuild the old family house in the new taste: two long wings of brick, adorned with gables and mullioned windows, framing a court. The Cobhams were at the heart of the Elizabethan court — Wardens of the Cinque Ports, allied to the great families — and their house had to reflect that rank. Cobham Hall illustrates the very type of the high Tudor nobility's house: less colossal than the Cecils' prodigy houses, but elegant, comfortable and made for receiving.
Grandeur and fall
The Cobhams knew the uncertain fate of courtiers: implicated, at the start of James I's reign, in a plot (the 'Main Plot' of 1603, linked to Walter Raleigh), they lost titles and goods, and Cobham Hall changed hands. The house was enlarged and embellished over the following centuries, notably its sumptuous 'Gilt Hall', but its heart remains the Elizabethan brick house. It recalls how far, under the Tudors and the early Stuarts, the fortune of a great family hung by a thread — the prince's favour.
What to see
- The two wings of red brick, Elizabethan, with gables and turrets.
- The court and the original mullioned windows.
- The sumptuous Gilt Hall (fitted out later).
- The landscaped park surrounding the house.
Did you know?
The fall of the Cobhams was tied to one of the great affairs of the start of James I's reign: the 'Main Plot' of 1603, a conspiracy to set the king aside, in which Henry Brooke, Lord Cobham, and his friend Sir Walter Raleigh were implicated. Both men were condemned to death; Raleigh, reprieved at the last moment, still ended on the scaffold fifteen years later. A great Kentish house thus carries the memory of one of the most resounding plots of the age.
Practical information
Cobham Hall lies near Gravesend, in Kent, south-east of London. The house is today home to an institution (a school) and opens to the public only on specific days or tours; the park is partly accessible. It is best to check the dates and arrangements of opening against the official sources.
Quiz
- Which family built Cobham Hall in the Elizabethan age?
- The Brookes (Lords Cobham)
- The Boleyns
- The Sackvilles
- In what material is the Elizabethan house built?
- Red brick
- White marble
- Granite
- To which plot is the Cobham name linked in 1603?
- The 'Main Plot'
- The Gunpowder Plot
- The Pilgrimage of Grace