A much-modified manor house close to Burnham-on-Crouch is the subject of rich legends concerning the Tudors.

Creeksea Place was built in 1569 by Sir Arthur Harris, who lived ca 1530-1597. He was High Sheriff of Essex in 1589, a Justice of the Peace, and a commissioner appointed in 1577 to investigate piracy along the Essex coast.

As built, Creeksea Place consisted of three (or possibly four) wings surrounding a courtyard. 1740 saw significant changes, with the South Wing demolished and a new range built on the foundations of the East Wing. London businessman William Rome owned the house in the 1900s and oversaw the building of a magnificent new South Wing.

In spite (perhaps because) of these changes, legends persist.

One is that the ghost of Anne Boleyn can be seen nearby, walking from an old cottage near the old Creeksea ferry. This is based on Creeksea having been her home – but as she died 33 years before it was built, it seems unlikely!

Another legend is that Queen Elizabeth met her troops here (presumably during the Armada crisis of August 1588). Allegedly, they marched under the Crouch through a ten-mile long tunnel connecting Creeksea with Rochford. Apart from the fact that no underground structures have been found apart from Tudor drains filled with oyster shells, this would seem an unlikely encounter when much stronger sources have Elizabeth addressing the troops at Tilbury, much further to the south-west.

Moving to the Jacobeans, there is the story of the Great Sword of Creeksea Place, which allegedly rested on a platform at the head of an oak spiral staircase, and would have allowed its owner to hold off attackers for hours. However, a modern owner of the house admitted to buying it in the 1960s as part of a job lot near Marble Arch.

We do know that Sir Henry Mildmay, keeper of the Crown Jewels for Charles I, owned the house having married into the Harris family. He was MP for Maldon several times, and supported Parliament in the Civil War. He was one of the Commissioners appointed to conduct the trial of Charles I, and it is claimed that he signed the death warrant, though more reliable sources show that he attended for at least one day but did not sign, which exempted him from the full fury of Charles II when he took the throne and pursued the "regicides". Nevertheless he was stripped of his knighthood and exiled.

Mildmay's tenure of the house is the subject of another ghost story: his bride was supposedly unhappy with the union and killed herself. Her ghost is supposed to have been seen wandering across the lawn down to the lakes.

Like many such houses, Creeksea had a chequered history in more recent times, having a spell as a boarding school (Lindisfarne College) and being requisitioned by the military in World War 2, when it was renamed "HMS Saint Matthew" and used for the training of marines and commandoes.

It is now in the hands of the Bertorelli family, and is a popular wedding venue, thankfully reopened after the Covid crisis. The family have spent much time and money restoring the estate to its original glory, interestingly with the help of modern-day American descendants of the Harris family.