Marks Hall Gardens and Arboretum
In 1163 the manor house and estate of Markshall were granted to the Markshall family after being confiscated from Hugh de Essex. They descended in the Markshall family until the estate was sold to John Cole, who renovated parts of the house. It was then sold to Edward Deraugh in 1581. In 1605 Robert Honywood purchased Marks Hall from Deraugh's grandson, William, pulled down part of the old timber framed house and built a new brick building in 1609. The estate then descended in the Honywood family to John Lamotte Honywood who, dying childless in 1694, left it to his cousin Robert. Robert, the MP for Essex, modernised the house and died in 1735. Several generations later it passed to Philip Honywood and then via his cousin, Filmer Honywood, the MP for Kent to Frances Emma, who died unmarried at Marks Hall in 1895. Thomas Phillips Price (1844-1932), a Welsh landowner, mine owner, and Liberal politician, purchased Marks Hall, then a mansion and deer park, at auction in 1898. H